
The Other Olympians
Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $20.24
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Jennifer Pickens
-
By:
-
Michael Waters
About this listen
Long-listed, NPR Best Book of the Year, 2024
Long-listed, BookPage Best Books of the Year, 2024
"Michael Waters performs an Olympian act of storytelling, using the stories of these extraordinary athletes to explore in brilliant detail the struggle for understanding and equality."—Jonathan Eig, author of King: A Life
“This riveting audiobook brings all the facts and showcases why we need to acknowledge true history in today’s social climate.”—Book Riot
"Narrator Jennifer Pickens brings the stories in this superbly researched audiobook to life."—AudioFile
The story of the early trans athletes and Olympic bureaucrats who lit the flame for today’s culture wars.
In December 1935, Zdeněk Koubek, one of the most famous sprinters in European women’s sports, declared he was now living as a man. Around the same time, the celebrated British field athlete Mark Weston, also assigned female at birth, announced that he, too, was a man. Periodicals and radio programs across the world carried the news; both became global celebrities. A few decades later, they were all but forgotten. And in the wake of their transitions, what could have been a push toward equality became instead, through a confluence of bureaucracy, war, and sheer happenstance, the exact opposite: the now all-too-familiar panic around trans, intersex, and gender nonconforming athletes.
In The Other Olympians, Michael Waters uncovers, for the first time, the gripping true stories of Koubek, Weston, and other pioneering trans and intersex athletes from their era. With dogged research and cinematic flair, Waters also tracks how International Olympic Committee members ignored Nazi Germany’s atrocities in order to pull off the Berlin Games, a partnership that ultimately influenced the IOC’s nearly century-long obsession with surveilling and cataloging gender.
Immersive and revelatory, The Other Olympians is a groundbreaking, hidden-in-the-archives marvel, an inspiring call for equality, and an essential contribution toward understanding the contemporary culture wars over gender in sports.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
©2024 Michael Waters (P)2024 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
How Sondheim Can Change Your Life
- By: Richard Schoch
- Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stephen Sondheim died on November 26, 2021, but for countless fans around the world, he is “still here,” to quote one of his lyrics. With acclaimed revivals of his landmark shows occurring around the world and introducing new generations to the man who transformed American musical theater, Sondheim’s legacy has only grown. What is it about such classic songs as “Rose’s Turn” from Gypsy, “Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music, and “Children Will Listen” from Into the Woods that speaks to us so intimately and profoundly?
-
-
Putting It Together
- By 0 Stars on 12-06-24
By: Richard Schoch
-
American Teenager
- How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era
- By: Nico Lang
- Narrated by: Nico Lang
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Media coverage tends to sensationalize the fight over how trans kids should be allowed to live, but what is incredibly rare are the voices of the people at the heart of this debate: transgender and gender nonconforming kids themselves. For their groundbreaking new book, journalist Nico Lang spent a year traveling the country to document the lives of transgender, nonbinary, and genderfluid teens and their families.
-
-
Absolutely incredible and engaging
- By Charles on 03-04-25
By: Nico Lang
-
When Haru Was Here
- By: Dustin Thao
- Narrated by: David Lee Huynh
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the death of his best friend, Eric Ly creates imaginary scenarios in his head to deal with his grief. Until one of them becomes real when a boy he met last summer in Japan finds his way back into his life. When he least expects it, Haru Tanaka walks into the coffee shop and sits down next to him. The only thing is, nobody else can see him. In a magical turn of events, Eric suddenly has someone to connect with, making him feel less alone in the world. But as they spend more and more time together, he begins to question what is real.
-
-
I am not a crier but …
- By Alayna Larscheid on 03-03-25
By: Dustin Thao
-
Hitler's People
- The Faces of the Third Reich
- By: Richard J. Evans
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 21 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Evans, author of the acclaimed The Third Reich Trilogy and over two dozen other volumes on modern Europe, is our preeminent scholar of Nazi Germany. Having spent half a century searching for the truths behind one of the most horrifying episodes in human history, in Hitler’s People, he brings us back to the original site of the Nazi movement: namely, the lives of its most important members. Working in concentric circles out from Hitler and his closest allies, Evans forms a typological framework of Germany society under Nazi rule from the top down.
-
-
Outstanding
- By Peter Ryers on 09-13-24
By: Richard J. Evans
-
Blackouts
- A Novel
- By: Justin Torres
- Narrated by: Ozzie Rodriguez, Torian Brackett
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Out in the desert in a place called the Palace, a young man tends to a dying soul, someone he once knew briefly, but who has haunted the edges of his life. Juan Gay—playful raconteur, child lost and found and lost, guardian of the institutionalized—has a project to pass along. It is inspired by a true artifact of a book, Sex Variants: A Study in Homosexual Patterns, which contains stories collected in the early twentieth century from queer subjects by a queer researcher, Jan Gay, whose groundbreaking work was then co-opted by a committee, her name buried.
-
-
meh
- By Thomas E Flint on 10-28-24
By: Justin Torres
-
Who's Afraid of Gender?
- By: Judith Butler
- Narrated by: Judith Butler
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Judith Butler, the groundbreaking thinker whose iconic book Gender Trouble redefined how we think about gender and sexuality, confronts the attacks on “gender” that have become central to right-wing movements today. Global networks have formed “anti-gender ideology movements” that are dedicated to circulating a fantasy that gender is a dangerous, perhaps diabolical, threat to families, local cultures, civilization—and even “man” himself. In this book, Butler illuminates the concrete ways that this phantasm of “gender” collects and displaces anxieties and fears of destruction.
-
-
Butler’s reading of Butler was stunning
- By Joseph Schneider on 07-19-24
By: Judith Butler
-
How Sondheim Can Change Your Life
- By: Richard Schoch
- Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stephen Sondheim died on November 26, 2021, but for countless fans around the world, he is “still here,” to quote one of his lyrics. With acclaimed revivals of his landmark shows occurring around the world and introducing new generations to the man who transformed American musical theater, Sondheim’s legacy has only grown. What is it about such classic songs as “Rose’s Turn” from Gypsy, “Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music, and “Children Will Listen” from Into the Woods that speaks to us so intimately and profoundly?
-
-
Putting It Together
- By 0 Stars on 12-06-24
By: Richard Schoch
-
American Teenager
- How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era
- By: Nico Lang
- Narrated by: Nico Lang
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Media coverage tends to sensationalize the fight over how trans kids should be allowed to live, but what is incredibly rare are the voices of the people at the heart of this debate: transgender and gender nonconforming kids themselves. For their groundbreaking new book, journalist Nico Lang spent a year traveling the country to document the lives of transgender, nonbinary, and genderfluid teens and their families.
-
-
Absolutely incredible and engaging
- By Charles on 03-04-25
By: Nico Lang
-
When Haru Was Here
- By: Dustin Thao
- Narrated by: David Lee Huynh
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the death of his best friend, Eric Ly creates imaginary scenarios in his head to deal with his grief. Until one of them becomes real when a boy he met last summer in Japan finds his way back into his life. When he least expects it, Haru Tanaka walks into the coffee shop and sits down next to him. The only thing is, nobody else can see him. In a magical turn of events, Eric suddenly has someone to connect with, making him feel less alone in the world. But as they spend more and more time together, he begins to question what is real.
-
-
I am not a crier but …
- By Alayna Larscheid on 03-03-25
By: Dustin Thao
-
Hitler's People
- The Faces of the Third Reich
- By: Richard J. Evans
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 21 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Evans, author of the acclaimed The Third Reich Trilogy and over two dozen other volumes on modern Europe, is our preeminent scholar of Nazi Germany. Having spent half a century searching for the truths behind one of the most horrifying episodes in human history, in Hitler’s People, he brings us back to the original site of the Nazi movement: namely, the lives of its most important members. Working in concentric circles out from Hitler and his closest allies, Evans forms a typological framework of Germany society under Nazi rule from the top down.
-
-
Outstanding
- By Peter Ryers on 09-13-24
By: Richard J. Evans
-
Blackouts
- A Novel
- By: Justin Torres
- Narrated by: Ozzie Rodriguez, Torian Brackett
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Out in the desert in a place called the Palace, a young man tends to a dying soul, someone he once knew briefly, but who has haunted the edges of his life. Juan Gay—playful raconteur, child lost and found and lost, guardian of the institutionalized—has a project to pass along. It is inspired by a true artifact of a book, Sex Variants: A Study in Homosexual Patterns, which contains stories collected in the early twentieth century from queer subjects by a queer researcher, Jan Gay, whose groundbreaking work was then co-opted by a committee, her name buried.
-
-
meh
- By Thomas E Flint on 10-28-24
By: Justin Torres
-
Who's Afraid of Gender?
- By: Judith Butler
- Narrated by: Judith Butler
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Judith Butler, the groundbreaking thinker whose iconic book Gender Trouble redefined how we think about gender and sexuality, confronts the attacks on “gender” that have become central to right-wing movements today. Global networks have formed “anti-gender ideology movements” that are dedicated to circulating a fantasy that gender is a dangerous, perhaps diabolical, threat to families, local cultures, civilization—and even “man” himself. In this book, Butler illuminates the concrete ways that this phantasm of “gender” collects and displaces anxieties and fears of destruction.
-
-
Butler’s reading of Butler was stunning
- By Joseph Schneider on 07-19-24
By: Judith Butler
-
In Tongues
- A Novel
- By: Thomas Grattan
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 2001, and twenty-four-year-old Gordon—handsome, sensitive, and eager for direction—takes a bus from Minnesota to New York City because it’s the only place for a young gay man to go. As he begins to settle into the city’s punishing rhythm, he gets a job walking rich Manhattanites’ dogs. But it isn’t until he stumbles into the West Village brownstone of two of his clients, the powerful gallery owners Phillip and Nicola, that Gordon learns how much the world has hidden from him—and what he’s capable of doing in order to get it for himself.
-
-
Engaging, smart and witty storytelling!
- By Bruce Cannella on 09-30-24
By: Thomas Grattan
-
Candy Darling
- Dreamer, Icon, Superstar
- By: Cynthia Carr
- Narrated by: Justin Vivian Bond
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Growing up on Long Island, lonely and quiet and queer, she was enchanted by Hollywood starlets like Kim Novak. She found her turn in New York’s early Off-Off-Broadway theater scene, in Warhol’s films Flesh and Women in Revolt, and at the famed nightclub Max's Kansas City. She inspired songs by Lou Reed and the Rolling Stones. She became friends with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, borrowed a dress from Lauren Hutton, posed for Richard Avedon, and performed alongside Tennessee Williams in his own play.
-
-
Thee candy darling’s bibile
- By Anile on 04-15-24
By: Cynthia Carr
-
The Murder of Mr. Wickham
- By: Claudia Gray
- Narrated by: Billie Fulford-Brown
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The happily married Mr. Knightley and Emma are throwing a party at their country estate, bringing together distant relatives and new acquaintances—characters beloved by Jane Austen fans. Definitely not invited is Mr. Wickham, whose latest financial scheme has netted him an even broader array of enemies. As tempers flare and secrets are revealed, it’s clear that everyone would be happier if Mr. Wickham got his comeuppance. Yet they’re all shocked when Wickham turns up murdered—except, of course, for the killer hidden in their midst.
-
-
Awesome!
- By Amazon Customer on 05-24-22
By: Claudia Gray
-
Bury Your Gays
- By: Chuck Tingle
- Narrated by: André Santana, Charlie Jane Anders, CJ Leede, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Misha knows that chasing success in Hollywood can be hell. But finally, after years of trying to make it, his big moment is here: an Oscar nomination. And the executives at the studio for his long-running streaming series know just the thing to kick his career to the next level: kill off the gay characters, "for the algorithm," in the upcoming season finale.
-
-
The hype is real.
- By Dan Bugbee on 10-03-24
By: Chuck Tingle
-
Being Henry
- The Fonz . . . and Beyond
- By: Henry Winkler
- Narrated by: Henry Winkler
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Henry Winkler, launched into prominence as “The Fonz” in the beloved Happy Days, has transcended the role that made him who he is. Brilliant, funny, and widely regarded as the nicest man in Hollywood (though he would be the first to tell you that it’s simply not the case, he’s really just grateful to be here), Henry shares in this achingly vulnerable memoir the disheartening truth of his childhood, the difficulties of a life with severe dyslexia, the pressures of a role that takes on a life of its own, and the path forward once your wildest dream seems behind you.
-
-
Sweet human
- By Lisa Singer on 11-07-23
By: Henry Winkler
-
The Devil Finds Work
- An Essay
- By: James Baldwin
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 3 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Baldwin's personal reflections on movies gathered here in a book-length essay are also a probing appraisal of American racial politics. Offering an incisive look at racism in American movies and a vision of America's self-delusions and deceptions, Baldwin challenges the underlying assumptions in such films as In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and The Exorcist.
-
-
A Critical Masterpiece.
- By Ramon McGee on 05-10-18
By: James Baldwin
-
Camp Damascus
- By: Chuck Tingle
- Narrated by: Mara Wilson
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to Neverton, Montana: home to a God-fearing community with a heart of gold. Nestled high up in the mountains is Camp Damascus, the self-proclaimed “most effective” gay conversion camp in the country. Here, a life free from sin awaits. But the secret behind that success is anything but holy. And they’ll scare you straight to hell.
-
-
A Horror That Hits Home
- By P Parker on 11-09-23
By: Chuck Tingle
-
Dancer from the Dance
- A Novel
- By: Andrew Holleran
- Narrated by: David Pittu
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Now in audio for the first time! Award-winning actor and two-time Tony Award nominee David Pittu narrates one of the most influential books in gay literature. Andrew Holleran's Dancer from the Dance defined gay life in late 1970s New York. Published in 1978, the novel captures the time post-Stonewall and pre-AIDS where sexual freedom was celebrated and the future appeared limitless.
-
-
Excellent
- By Charles Lloyd on 12-25-22
By: Andrew Holleran
-
Arthur and Teddy Are Coming Out
- By: Ryan Love
- Narrated by: Bruce Alexander, Caius Nicholas
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When 79-year-old Arthur Edwards gathers his family together to share some important news, no one is prepared for the bombshell he drops: he's gay, and after a lifetime in the closet, he's finally ready to come out. Arthur's 21-year-old grandson, Teddy, has a secret of his own: he's also gay, and developing serious feelings for his colleague Ben. But Teddy doesn't feel ready to come out yet – especially when Arthur’s announcement causes shockwaves in the family.
-
-
Unique and Lovely Story
- By Kevin LS on 08-30-24
By: Ryan Love
-
Pageboy
- A Memoir
- By: Elliot Page
- Narrated by: Elliot Page
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“Can I kiss you?” It was two months before the world premiere of Juno, and Elliot Page was in his first ever queer bar. The hot summer air hung heavy around him as he looked at her. And then it happened. In front of everyone. A previously unfathomable experience. Here he was on the precipice of discovering himself as a queer person, as a trans person. Getting closer to his desires, his dreams, himself, without the repression he’d carried for so long. But for Elliot, two steps forward had always come with one step back.
-
-
Ah, I wish this were better. I'm disappointed.
- By Jackson Theofore Keys on 06-07-23
By: Elliot Page
-
How to Be a Dictator
- The Cult of Personality in the Twentieth Century
- By: Frank Dikötter
- Narrated by: Jack Bennett
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No dictator can rule through fear and violence alone. Naked power can be grabbed and held temporarily, but it never suffices in the long term. A tyrant who can compel his own people to acclaim him will last longer. The paradox of the modern dictator is that he must create the illusion of popular support. Throughout the 20th century, hundreds of millions of people were condemned to enthusiasm, obliged to hail their leaders even as they were herded down the road to serfdom.
-
-
Worth a listen
- By Amazon Customer on 12-06-19
By: Frank Dikötter
-
The Wildes
- A Novel in Five Acts
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers, Damian Lynch, P.J. Ochlan, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In September of 1892, Oscar Wilde and his family retreated to the idyllic Norfolk countryside for a holiday. His wife, Constance, has every reason to be happy: two beautiful sons, a stellar reputation as an advocate for progressive causes, and a delightfully charming and affectionate husband and father, who is perhaps the most famous man in England. But as an assortment of houseguests arrive, including an aristocratic young wannabe poet named Lord Alfred Douglas, Constance gradually—and then all at once—comes to see that her husband's heart is elsewhere.
-
-
Lost in the beautiful writing
- By Sharon Love on 01-22-25
By: Louis Bayard
Critic reviews
"A riveting and important work of history. Michael Waters performs an Olympian act of storytelling, using the stories of these extraordinary athletes to explore in brilliant detail the struggle for understanding and equality. The Other Olympians is a book of great originality, deeply researched and beautifully written."—Jonathan Eig, author of King: A Life
“Michael Waters masterfully puts into focus the long-overlooked, yet remarkable stories of a cadre of Olympians who battled for their right to compete on the world’s biggest stage as their true selves. A crucial read for anyone interested in the intersection of sports, identity, and social justice.”—Neal Bascomb, author of The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It
"A remarkable and compelling chronicle of a forgotten episode in both the history of sport and the history of gender that demonstrates their centrality in the Nazis' rise to power."—Drew Gilpin Faust, author of Necessary Trouble
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Burning Boy
- The Life and Work of Stephen Crane
- By: Paul Auster
- Narrated by: Paul Auster
- Length: 35 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With Burning Boy, celebrated novelist Paul Auster tells the extraordinary story of Stephen Crane, best known as the author of The Red Badge of Courage, who transformed American literature through an avalanche of original short stories, novellas, poems, journalism, and war reportage before his life was cut short by tuberculosis at age 28.
-
-
Brilliant and enjoyable
- By Alvin Marcetti on 01-08-23
By: Paul Auster
-
You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger
- By: Roger Hall
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With a sharp eye and wry wit, Roger Hall recounts his experiences as an American Army officer assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. In his droll storytelling style, Hall describes his first parachute jump in support of the French resistance as a comedy of errors that terminated prematurely. Called one of the funniest and most perceptive works ever written about life in the OSS, the book includes a wealth of unforgettable personalities that Hall encountered over the years.
-
-
Clipped every chapter
- By Ammon K. on 01-05-25
By: Roger Hall
-
The Real Hoosiers
- Crispus Attucks High School, Oscar Robertson, and the Hidden History of Hoops
- By: Jack McCallum
- Narrated by: Cary Hite
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For far too long the mythology of Indiana basketball has been dominated by Hoosiers. Framed as the ultimate underdog, feel-good story, there has also long been a cultural debate surrounding the film. The Real Hoosiers sets out to illuminate the narrative that the film omits, the story of the unheralded Crispus Attucks Tigers, playing the game at the highest level in the 1950s in a racially divided Indiana.
-
-
Thorough, Incisive, transcendent book
- By TeeSpell on 04-16-24
By: Jack McCallum
-
Why I Stayed
- The Choices I Made in My Darkest Hour
- By: Gayle Haggard, Angela Hunt - contributor
- Narrated by: Gayle Haggard
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On November 2, 2006, Gayle Haggard's life changed forever when her husband, Ted Haggard, founder of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs and president of the National Association of Evangelicals, was publicly exposed in a scandal. In the days and months ahead, everything in Gayle's life was at stake—her beliefs, her marriage, and her relationship with the church community she had been a part of for more than 20 years.
-
-
Speechless & Overwhelmed
- By Rosa Lydick on 08-30-19
By: Gayle Haggard, and others
-
The Cloudbuster Nine
- The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II
- By: Anne R. Keene, Claudia Williams - foreword
- Narrated by: Anne R. Keene
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1943, while the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals were winning pennants and meeting in that year's World Series, one of the nation's strongest baseball teams practiced on a skinned-out college field in the heart of North Carolina. Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, and Johnny Sain were among a cadre of fighter-pilot cadets who wore the Cloudbuster Nine baseball jersey at an elite Navy training school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
-
-
Great story but kind of disjointed.
- By Tom Beeson on 01-06-25
By: Anne R. Keene, and others
-
Hold Still
- A Memoir with Photographs
- By: Sally Mann
- Narrated by: Sally Mann
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this groundbreaking audiobook, a unique interplay of narrative and image, Mann's preoccupation with family, race, mortality, and the storied landscape of the American South are revealed as almost genetically predetermined, written into her DNA by the family history that precedes her.
-
-
Brilliant. But what's up with the PDF?
- By ARK on 06-27-15
By: Sally Mann
-
Burning Boy
- The Life and Work of Stephen Crane
- By: Paul Auster
- Narrated by: Paul Auster
- Length: 35 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With Burning Boy, celebrated novelist Paul Auster tells the extraordinary story of Stephen Crane, best known as the author of The Red Badge of Courage, who transformed American literature through an avalanche of original short stories, novellas, poems, journalism, and war reportage before his life was cut short by tuberculosis at age 28.
-
-
Brilliant and enjoyable
- By Alvin Marcetti on 01-08-23
By: Paul Auster
-
You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger
- By: Roger Hall
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With a sharp eye and wry wit, Roger Hall recounts his experiences as an American Army officer assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. In his droll storytelling style, Hall describes his first parachute jump in support of the French resistance as a comedy of errors that terminated prematurely. Called one of the funniest and most perceptive works ever written about life in the OSS, the book includes a wealth of unforgettable personalities that Hall encountered over the years.
-
-
Clipped every chapter
- By Ammon K. on 01-05-25
By: Roger Hall
-
The Real Hoosiers
- Crispus Attucks High School, Oscar Robertson, and the Hidden History of Hoops
- By: Jack McCallum
- Narrated by: Cary Hite
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For far too long the mythology of Indiana basketball has been dominated by Hoosiers. Framed as the ultimate underdog, feel-good story, there has also long been a cultural debate surrounding the film. The Real Hoosiers sets out to illuminate the narrative that the film omits, the story of the unheralded Crispus Attucks Tigers, playing the game at the highest level in the 1950s in a racially divided Indiana.
-
-
Thorough, Incisive, transcendent book
- By TeeSpell on 04-16-24
By: Jack McCallum
-
Why I Stayed
- The Choices I Made in My Darkest Hour
- By: Gayle Haggard, Angela Hunt - contributor
- Narrated by: Gayle Haggard
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On November 2, 2006, Gayle Haggard's life changed forever when her husband, Ted Haggard, founder of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs and president of the National Association of Evangelicals, was publicly exposed in a scandal. In the days and months ahead, everything in Gayle's life was at stake—her beliefs, her marriage, and her relationship with the church community she had been a part of for more than 20 years.
-
-
Speechless & Overwhelmed
- By Rosa Lydick on 08-30-19
By: Gayle Haggard, and others
-
The Cloudbuster Nine
- The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II
- By: Anne R. Keene, Claudia Williams - foreword
- Narrated by: Anne R. Keene
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1943, while the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals were winning pennants and meeting in that year's World Series, one of the nation's strongest baseball teams practiced on a skinned-out college field in the heart of North Carolina. Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, and Johnny Sain were among a cadre of fighter-pilot cadets who wore the Cloudbuster Nine baseball jersey at an elite Navy training school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
-
-
Great story but kind of disjointed.
- By Tom Beeson on 01-06-25
By: Anne R. Keene, and others
-
Hold Still
- A Memoir with Photographs
- By: Sally Mann
- Narrated by: Sally Mann
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this groundbreaking audiobook, a unique interplay of narrative and image, Mann's preoccupation with family, race, mortality, and the storied landscape of the American South are revealed as almost genetically predetermined, written into her DNA by the family history that precedes her.
-
-
Brilliant. But what's up with the PDF?
- By ARK on 06-27-15
By: Sally Mann
-
The Last of His Kind
- Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness
- By: Andy McCullough
- Narrated by: LJ Ganser
- Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
More than any baseball player of his generation, Clayton Kershaw has embodied the burden of athletic greatness, the prizes and perils that await those who strive for it all. He is a three-time Cy Young award winner, the first pitcher to win National League MVP since Bob Gibson, and a surefire, first-ballot Hall of Famer. Many of his peers consider him the greatest pitcher to ever climb atop a big-league mound.
-
-
Last of his kind is one of a kind
- By Anonymous User on 01-28-25
By: Andy McCullough
-
The Devil Behind the Badge
- The Horrifying Twelve Days of the Border Patrol Serial Killer
- By: Rick Jervis
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Melissa Ramirez, Claudine Anne Luera, Guiselda Hernandez, and Janelle Ortiz were four marginalized women striving to make ends meet as sex workers. They looked out for one another. But they would soon share a connection that none of them could have imagined. When Melissa was found dead, the other three women were on edge but assumed they were safe. Twelve days later, they too were dead and police had detained an unlikely suspect—Juan David Ortiz, a ten-year veteran of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
-
-
Well researched
- By Tiffany on 10-07-24
By: Rick Jervis
-
Plentiful Country
- The Great Potato Famine and the Making of Irish New York
- By: Tyler Anbinder
- Narrated by: David McCusker
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1845, a fungus began to destroy Ireland’s potato crop, triggering a famine that would kill one million Irish men, women, and children—and drive over one million more to flee for America. Ten years later, the United States had been transformed by this stupendous migration, nowhere more than New York: by 1855, roughly a third of all adults living in Manhattan were immigrants who had escaped the hunger in Ireland.
-
-
Changing Perceptions on Immigrants
- By Janet V. Payne on 05-07-24
By: Tyler Anbinder
-
The Holocaust
- An Unfinished History
- By: Dan Stone
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Holocaust is much discussed, much memorialized, and much portrayed. But there are major aspects of its history that have been overlooked. Spanning the entirety of the Holocaust, this sweeping history deepens our understanding. Dan Stone—Director of the Holocaust Research Institute at Royal Holloway, University of London—reveals how the idea of “industrial murder” is incomplete: many were killed where they lived in the most brutal of ways.
-
-
One of the best NF books I've ever listened to
- By Aaron.Johnson on 02-23-24
By: Dan Stone
-
24
- Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid
- By: Willie Mays, John Shea, Bob Costas
- Narrated by: Bob Costas, Julian McWilliams, Larry Herron
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Widely regarded as the greatest all-around player in baseball history because of his unparalleled hitting, defense and baserunning, the beloved Willie Mays offers people of all ages his lifetime of experience meeting challenges with positivity, integrity and triumph in 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid. Presented in 24 chapters to correspond with his universally recognized uniform number, Willie’s memoir provides more than the story of his role in America’s pastime.
-
-
Loved It
- By Peter on 07-01-20
By: Willie Mays, and others
-
Yes: The Tormato Story
- By: Kevin Mulryne
- Narrated by: Kevin Mulryne
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The music of Yes indelibly shaped the original sound of progressive rock. But the true tale of this landmark band goes well beyond headline-making albums like Fragile and Close to the Edge. In this book, Kevin Mulryne tells the absorbing story of the final Yes album of the 1970s, Tormato, uncovering myriad fascinating twists and turns for the first time.
-
-
A fascinating read.
- By Preston M. Frazier on 10-20-23
By: Kevin Mulryne
-
At Any Cost
- A Father's Betrayal, a Wife's Murder, and a Ten-Year War for Justice
- By: Rebecca Rosenberg, Selim Algar
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wealthy, beautiful, and brilliant, Shele Danishefsky had fulfillment at her fingertips. Having conquered Wall Street, she was eager to build a family with her much younger husband, promising Ivy League graduate Rod Covlin. But when his hidden vices surfaced, marital harmony gave way to a merciless divorce. Rod had long depended on Shele's income to fund his tastes for high stakes backgammon and infidelity - and she finally vowed to sever him from her will. In late December 2009, Shele made an appointment with her lawyer. She would never make it to that meeting.
-
-
Tightly-written true crime; excellent narration.
- By Janean Laidlaw on 06-27-21
By: Rebecca Rosenberg, and others
-
Confessions
- A Life of Failed Promises
- By: A. N. Wilson
- Narrated by: A. N. Wilson
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Known for his journalism, biographies and novels, A. N. Wilson turns a merciless searchlight on his own early life, his experience of sexual abuse, his catastrophic mistakes in love (sacred and profane) and his life in Grub Street—as a prolific writer. The audiobook begins with his heart-torn present-day visits to Katherine, now for decades his ex-wife, who has slithered into the torments of dementia. At every turn of this reminiscence, Wilson is baffled by his earlier self—whether he is flirting with unsuitable lovers or with the idea of the priesthood.
-
-
Atomic bomb and other gems
- By Charles on 11-27-23
By: A. N. Wilson
-
Checkmate in Berlin
- The Cold War Showdown That Shaped the Modern World
- By: Giles Milton
- Narrated by: Giles Milton
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a master of popular history, the lively, immersive story of the race to seize Berlin in the aftermath of World War II as it’s never been told before.
-
-
Excellent history of the early days of the Cold War
- By Matt on 08-28-21
By: Giles Milton
-
The Patriarchs
- The Origins of Inequality
- By: Angela Saini
- Narrated by: Sohm Kapila
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For fans of Sapiens and The Dawn of Everything, a groundbreaking exploration of gendered oppression—its origins, its histories, our attempts to understand it, and our efforts to combat it.
-
-
Patriarchys over time and space
- By Lynda Dickson on 12-22-23
By: Angela Saini
-
The Foundling
- The True Story of a Kidnapping, a Family Secret, and My Search for the Real Me
- By: Paul Joseph Fronczak, Alex Tresniowski
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Foundling tells the incredible and inspiring true story of Paul Fronczak, a man who recently discovered via a DNA test that he was not who he thought he was - and set out to solve two 50-year-old mysteries at once. Along the way he upturned the genealogy industry, unearthed his family's deepest secrets, and broke open the second longest cold-case in US history, all in a desperate bid to find out who he really is.
-
-
Prepare yourself for a journey that will take you to shocking places!
- By OUChris on 04-04-17
By: Paul Joseph Fronczak, and others
-
The Wisdom of Sheep
- Observations from a Family Farm
- By: Rosamund Young
- Narrated by: Rosamund Young
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We talk a lot about sheep: following the herd, counting sheep to fall asleep and looking out for wolves in sheep’s clothing. But, just like people, animals don’t always follow the pack. Some are affectionate while others butt heads; some follow the leader while some guide the whole flock home. With startling beauty and tenderness, Rosamund Young reveals the remarkable emotional and intellectual complexity of the animals she lives with on her family farm, and the story of her life’s work, with the intimacy of a personal diary.
-
-
Excellent !!! I hated for it to end.
- By James Larson on 03-27-25
By: Rosamund Young
What listeners say about The Other Olympians
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jack W
- 06-29-24
Compelling narrative!
I don’t always reach for a history title, but this was a gorgeous and thoughtfully written narrative that has current relevance. Kudos to the narrator too. I’m glad I found this book!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- JAMES W GOODWIN
- 11-19-24
How women athletes have been treated by the world
Informative and very good book highly recommend Avery Brundage was a Nazi and needs to be scrutinized
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Travis Osland
- 07-07-24
Wonderful Story from History
Really interesting stories about sex testing and the Olympics, great book. Gives good context for the modern day
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 06-12-24
A great history.
Michael offers compelling stories that help us understand the subjective aspects of intrusive examinations that are designed to assign athletes to a simplistic and unnatural binary world.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!