Given the realities of the current shelter in place, audiobooks offer an alternative way to access books. Several UC Press recent and noteworthy releases are available as audiobooks ranging from Dreamers and Schemers, which explores William May (Billy) Garland’s quest to host the Olympics in Los Angeles, to Fruit from the Sands, an exploration of how the foods we eat have shaped the course of human history and transformed cuisines all over the globe.
Dreamers and Schemers
How an Improbable Bid for the 1932 Olympics Transformed Los Angeles from Dusty Outpost to Global Metropolis
by Barry Siegel
Dreamers and Schemers chronicles how Los Angeles’s pursuit and staging of the 1932 Olympic Games during the depths of the Great Depression helped fuel the city’s transformation from a seedy frontier village to a world-famous metropolis. Barry Siegel shows how one man’s grit and imagination made California history.
Available at Libro.fm, Audible, and Scribd.
Meat Planet
Artificial Flesh and the Future of Food
by Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft
The idea of producing meat, not from live animals but from carefully cultured tissues, has spread like wildfire through the media. Meanwhile, cultured meat researchers race against population growth and climate change in an effort to make sustainable protein. Meat Planet explores the quest to generate meat in the lab—a substance sometimes called “cultured meat”—and asks what it means to imagine that this is the future of food.
Available at Libro.fm, Audible, and Scribd.
Blind Injustice
A Former Prosecutor Exposes the Psychology and Politics of Wrongful Convictions
by Mark Godsey
In this unprecedented view from the trenches, prosecutor turned champion for the innocent Mark Godsey takes us inside the frailties of the human mind as they unfold in real-world wrongful convictions. Drawing upon stories from his own career, Godsey shares how innate psychological flaws in judges, police, lawyers, and juries coupled with a “tough on crime” environment can cause investigations to go awry, leading to the convictions of innocent people.
Available at Libro.fm, Audible, and Scribd.
Fruit from the Sands
The Silk Road Origins of the Foods We Eat
by Robert N. Spengler III
From almonds and apples to tea and rice, many foods that we consume today have histories that can be traced out of prehistoric Central Asia along the tracks of the Silk Road. Balancing a broad array of archaeological, botanical, and historical evidence, Fruit from the Sands presents the fascinating story of the origins and spread of agriculture across Inner Asia and into Europe and East Asia.