This is a crisply written overview of how our impatient culture and top-down learning paradigms suppress our natural ability to ask imaginative questions. Michael Quinlan’s narration will strike many listeners as calming. Buoyed by his near flawless diction and phrasing, his performance has the confidence of someone in total control of his craft and his connection with his listeners. To support his thesis, the author offers the comments and stories of an assortment of artists, business innovators, and social activists. He shows how good questioning, instead of becoming too comfortable with conventional wisdom, can lead us to novel solutions and rekindle our creative initiative. With its nuanced critique of how public and private institutions discourage curiosity, this audio should be required listening for anyone responsible for igniting change and promoting personal engagement. T.W. 2015 Audies Winner © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2014
Duration: 7 hrs, 15 mins
Publisher: Audible, Inc.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Listeners will find much worth discovering in the lives of these vanguards of American intellectual life.
Kevin R. Free’s voice is the perfect vehicle for this fascinating portrait of a remarkable group of artists, philosophers, abolitionists, and social reformers who all happened to live in Concord, Massachusetts in the 19th century. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott and her father, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, and many others called themselves transcendentalists and became the first truly American philosophical movement. With his genial delivery, Free is up to the task of narrating this complicated account of many intersecting lives; his inflections add character to the correspondence and inject life into the often formal writings the Circle left behind.
Listeners will find much worth discovering in the lives of these vanguards of American intellectual life.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
Duration: 9 hrs, 53 mins
DD ISBN: 9781668132777
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
Petkoff’s lively performance will enhance listeners’ interest in and enjoyment of this thought-provoking book.
While he’s no longer a Christian, religious studies professor Erhman argues that the adoption, spread, and social application of altruism in the West was due to the teachings and example of Jesus. He bases his argument on an examination of history, classical philosophy, Judaism, and the Christian canon. An audiobook that might occasionally become dry is kept engaging by Robert Petkoff’s energy and expressiveness. He delivers the text as if it’s his own; one might forget that it’s not the author narrating. Petkoff’s tone and phrasing are appropriate, and he’s especially adept at providing just the right level of emphasis where it’s called for.
Petkoff’s lively performance will enhance listeners’ interest in and enjoyment of this thought-provoking book.Pub Date: March 24, 2026
Duration: 10 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781668102978
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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