
The Spinach King
The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty
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Narrated by:
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Dion Graham
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By:
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John Seabrook
About this listen
The riveting saga of the Seabrook Family, by one of the New Yorker's most acclaimed storytellers.
The patriarch, C. F. Seabrook, was hailed as the "Henry Ford of Agriculture." His son Jack, a keen businessman, was poised to take over what Life called "the biggest vegetable factory on earth." But the carefully cultivated facade—glamorous outings by horse-drawn carriage, hidden wine cellars, and movie star girlfriends—hid dark secrets that led to the implosion of the family business.
At the heart of the narrative is a multi-generational succession battle. It's a tale of family secrets and Swiss bank accounts, of half-truths, of hatred and passion―and lots and lots of liquor. The Seabrooks' colorful legal and moral failings took place amid the trappings of extraordinary privilege. But the story of where that money came from is not so pretty.
A compelling tale of class and privilege, betrayal and revenge―three decades in the making―The Spinach King explores the author's complicated family legacy and the dark corners of the American Dream.
©2025 John Seabrook (P)2025 Highbridge AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
Lisa Murkowski has repeatedly stood at the center of our nation’s most challenging issues, serving as a swing vote and a voice willing to challenge the president, regardless of who holds the office. In this candid memoir that offers hope for a functional Washington, she guides listeners through the defining events of her more than twenty-year career.
By: Lisa Murkowski, and others
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Make It Ours
- Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil Abloh
- By: Robin Givhan
- Narrated by: Robin Givhan
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Make It Ours is at once a remarkable biography of a singular creative force and a powerful meditation on fashion and race, taste and exclusivity, genius and luxury. With access to Abloh’s family, friends, collaborators, and contemporaries, and featuring a cast of fascinating characters ranging from visionary Black designers like Ozwald Boateng to Abloh’s mercurial but critical employer and mentor Kanye West, Givhan weaves a spellbinding tale of a young man’s rise amid a cultural moment that would upend a century’s worth of ideas about luxury and taste.
By: Robin Givhan
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Burning Down the House
- Talking Heads and the New York Scene That Transformed Rock
- By: Jonathan Gould
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 17 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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“Psycho Killer.” “Take Me to the River.” “Road to Nowhere.” Few artists have had the lasting impact and relevance of Talking Heads. One of the foundational bands of downtown New York’s 1970s music scene, Talking Heads have endured as a musical and cultural force for decades, their unique brand of transcendent, experimental rock a lingering influence on popular music—despite having disbanded over thirty years ago. Now on the 50th anniversary of the band’s formation, acclaimed music biographer and contributor to The New Yorker Jonathan Gould offers the definitive story of Talking Heads.
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Encyclopedic overview of the Heads
- By Greg Coogan on 06-28-25
By: Jonathan Gould
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The Haves and Have-Yachts
- By: Evan Osnos
- Narrated by: Evan Osnos
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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The ultrarich hold more of America’s wealth than they did in the heyday of the Carnegies and Rockefellers. Here, Evan Osnos’s incisive reportage yields an unforgettable portrait of the tactics and obsessions driving this new Gilded Age, in which superyachts, luxury bunkers, elite tax dodges, and a torrent of political donations bespeak staggering disparities of wealth and power. With deft storytelling and meticulous reporting, this is a book about the indulgences, incentives, and psychological distortions that define our economic age.
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Morals matter. Character counts. Ethics explain. .
- By Luau LeeLee's Husband on 06-27-25
By: Evan Osnos
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The Great Miscalculation
- The Race to Save New York City's Citicorp Tower
- By: Michael M. Greenburg
- Narrated by: Mitch Crawford
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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The Citicorp Center, a fifty-nine-story skyscraper built in 1977, immediately became one of the most recognizable features on the New York City skyline with its distinctive inclined roof and oddly placed support columns. Designed by one of the top structural engineers in the field, William LeMessurier, the tower would become the crown jewel of his professional career; In essence, he created a skyscraper on stilts. The building was a modern marvel—until it was revealed that it had a one in sixteen chance of collapse.
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The Genius Myth
- A Curious History of a Dangerous Idea
- By: Helen Lewis
- Narrated by: Helen Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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You can tell what a society values by who it labels as a genius. You can also tell who it excludes, who it enables, and what it is prepared to tolerate. In The Genius Myth, Helen Lewis unearths how this one word has shaped (and distorted) our ideas of success and achievement. Ultimately, argues Lewis, the modern idea of genius—a single preternaturally gifted individual, usually white and male, exempt from social niceties and sometimes even the law—has run its course.
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Author has many opinions, not hesitant to share them
- By Hawaiian 54 on 06-28-25
By: Helen Lewis
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Buckley
- The Life and the Revolution That Changed America
- By: Sam Tanenhaus
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 31 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Majestic in its sweep, rich in ideas and argument, and packed with news and revelations, Buckley vividly captures its subject in all his facets and phases—founding editor of National Review, the 20th century’s most influential political journal; syndicated columnist and TV debater; ally of Joseph McCarthy and Barry Goldwater; mentor to Ronald Reagan; wisecracking candidate for mayor of New York; and bestselling novelist and memoirist.
By: Sam Tanenhaus
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The Catch
- A Novel
- By: Yrsa Daley-Ward
- Narrated by: Yrsa Daley-Ward
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Twin sisters Clara and Dempsey have always struggled to relate, their familial bond severed after their mother vanished into the Thames. In adulthood, they are content to be all but estranged, until Clara sees a woman who looks exactly like their mother on the streets of London. The catch: this version of Serene, aged not a day, has enjoyed a childless life.
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Too obscure
- By marty reinhardt on 06-27-25
By: Yrsa Daley-Ward
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A Lesser Light
- A Novel
- By: Peter Geye
- Narrated by: A.W. Miller
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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It's 1910, and Theodulf Sauer has finally achieved a position befitting his ego: master lighthouse keeper at a newly commissioned station towering above Lake Superior. When his new wife, Willa, arrives on the first spring ferry, it's clear her life has taken the opposite turn: after being summoned home from college to Duluth when her father dies, she and her scheming mother find themselves destitute, and Willa is rushed into this ill-suited arranged marriage. As the lighthouse station establishes, the new relationship teeters between tense and hostile.
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Best read of the year.
- By emcibi on 04-29-25
By: Peter Geye