If I had to recommend just one audiobook this year, which one would it be? In What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies, Tim Urban tackles the perplexing question of why, despite technological advancements, society seems to lack wisdom. He introduces the concept of the 'Ladder of Thinking,' where high-rung thinking embraces truth and open-mindedness, contrasting with low-rung thinking's rigidity. The book challenges readers to examine their own thought processes and societal norms, offering insights into political extremism, social justice, and the power of individual and collective thinking in shaping our world.Connect with Audiobook Reviews in 5FacebookAudiobook Reviews in Five Minutes websiteGoodreadsCheck us out on Feedspot's Best Canada Non-Fiction Podcasts list!Audio production by The Podcast Distillery Co. Episode music: Caprese by Blue Dot Sessions

When was the last time you listened to an audiobook that combined history, memoir, and rock music?This audiobook represents storytelling at its finest, combined with exceptional editing and production quality and woven with intimate reinterpretations of some of U2’s most iconic and poignant songs, produced by Bono and The Edge..Connect with Audiobook Reviews in 5FacebookAudiobook Reviews in Five Minutes websiteGoodreadsCheck us out on Feedspot's Best Canada Non-Fiction Podcasts list!Audio production by The Podcast Distillery Co. Episode music: Caprese by Blue Dot Sessions

Do you need practical advice on identifying dysfunctional family patterns? Or choosing the best path to breaking the cycle and living your life your way?Nedra Glover Tawwab is a licensed therapist, writer, and speaker based in North Carolina. With over a decade of experience in mental health, she specializes in working with individuals and couples on relationships, boundaries, and healing from trauma.Connect with Audiobook Reviews in 5Twitter: @janna_caFacebookAudiobook Reviews in Five Minutes websiteGoodreadsCheck us out on Feedspot's Best Canada Non-Fiction Podcasts list!Audio production by The Podcast Distillery Co. Episode music: Caprese by Blue Dot Sessions

This episode is also available on the Access Ideas podcast.What makes for a happy life, a fulfilling life? A good life? The authors of The Good Life promise the answer may be closer than you realize! Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz are the director and associate director of The Grant Study, also known as the Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies ever done, beginning in 1938 and continuing up to the present. The study initially followed the lives of two groups of men: one group of socially disadvantaged men (inner-city Boston boys from working-class families), and another group of privileged men (graduates of Harvard College). The study aimed to understand the factors that contribute to a successful and fulfilling life, and eventually expanded to include the spouses and children of these men.My hope is that by amplifying the findings of this extraordinary study, we can reframe popular ideas about happiness, health, and success! And if you’re not quite ready to commit to listening to this 11 hour audiobook, consider listening to these two recent interviews:Ten Percent Happier #549. Lessons From the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness | Dr. Robert WaldingerMaking Sense with Sam Harris episode #308 The Long Game (with Robert Waldinger)Goodreads review of The Good LifeConnect with Audiobook Reviews in 5Twitter: @janna_caFacebookAudiobook Reviews in Five Minutes websiteGoodreadsCheck us out on Feedspot's Best Canada Non-Fiction Podcasts list!Audio production by The Podcast Distillery Co. Episode music: Caprese by Blue Dot Sessions

Subscribe to the Access Ideas podcast on all podcast streaming platforms. You can expect ad-free, entertaining and informative episodes on a variety of topics throughout 2022.**What drives our fascination with the fictional Roy family? HBO's Succession follows the dysfunctional owners of Waystar RoyCo, a global media and entertainment conglomerate, who are fighting for control of the company amid uncertainty about the health of the family's patriarch, Logan Roy (Brian Cox).Succession's ringtone-worthy musical theme, stellar writing, and acting make it an obvious winner. This episode of Access Ideas takes a closer look at some details that take it from good to great TV territory, including Shakespearean themes, observational cinematography, and oh-so-subtle costume design.Connect with Access Ideas:Rate and review us on Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/access-ideas-3675816Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AccessIdeasPodcastAudio production: The Podcast Distillery.coEpisode music: Kid Kodi by Skittle and These Times by The Pine Barrens from sessions.blueReference to Thomas Flight: The Succession Character You Never See (YouTube)

Are you an ideas enthusiast or collector? Our new podcast, Access Ideas, expands on a few familiar areas of interest and explores questions you didn’t know you had, such as can Jane Austen novels serve as escapist fantasy, why is sleep science so controversial, and what drives our obsession with HBO’s Succession? You can expect ad-free, entertaining and informative episodes on a variety of topics throughout 2022. Join me, your host Janna, for the first episodes of Access Ideas starting January 19, 2022 – you can access our episodes completely free on all major podcast streaming services.  Trailer music credit: Kid Kodi by Skittle from sessions.blue

My favourite audiobook of 2021! Oliver Burkeman is the author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking (2012) and Help! How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done (2011), a collection of columns for the Guardian newspaper.Four Thousand Weeks is about making the most of our radically finite lives in a world of impossible demands, relentless distraction and political insanity (and 'productivity techniques' that mainly just make everyone feel busier).“This is the most important book ever written about time management. Oliver Burkeman offers a searing indictment of productivity hacking and profound insights on how to make the best use of our scarcest, most precious resource. His writing will challenge you to rethink many of your beliefs about getting things done—and you’ll be wiser because of it” —ADAM GRANT, author of Think Again and host of WorkLifeGoodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55717229-four-thousand-weeksConnect with Audiobook Reviews in 5:Twitter: @janna_caFacebookAudiobook Reviews in Five Minutes websiteCheck us out on Feedspot's Best Canada Non-Fiction Podcasts list!Audio production by The Podcast Distillery Co.Episode music: Caprese by Blue Dot SessionsThis episode was previously published in August 2021

Looking for a gripping TRUE story that's impossible to put down? In his 15-hour audiobook published in April 2021, Keefe captures a family saga that spans the twentieth century and leads up to 2020. Members of the Sackler family founded Purdue Pharma, the infamous maker of OxyContin, a prescription drug that has fuelled an opioid epidemic across North America for the last twenty years. Patrick Radden Keefe’s investigative journalism about the Sackler family has a history, too; he first published his findings in a 2017 New Yorker article, The Family That Built an Empire of Pain. Connect with Audiobook Reviews in 5:· Twitter: @janna_ca· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AudiobookReviewsInFiveMinutes· Audiobook Reviews in Five Minutes website: https://podcast.jannastam.com/· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/jannastamAudio production by Graham StephensonEpisode music: Caprese by Blue Dot SessionsThis episode was first released in June 2021

“This is one of the most important books that will be published in 2021. The Covid vaccine will soon free humanity from a biological pandemic, and this book, if widely read, could free humanity from an equally deadly scourge—high conflict.” — Jonathan Haidt, Social psychologist, Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University Stern School of Business, and author CThe Coddling of the American MindAmanda Ripley is an investigative journalist and a New York Times bestselling author. She’s spent her career trying to make sense of complicated human mysteries, from what happens to our brains in a disaster to how some countries manage to educate virtually all their kids to think for themselves. Her first book, The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—and Why, was published in 15 countries and turned into a PBS documentary. Her next book,  The Smartest Kids in the World—and How They Got That Way, was a New York Times bestseller. Amanda’s most recent book is High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out, published by Simon & Schuster in April 2021.In her books and magazine writing, Amanda combines storytelling with data to help illuminate hard problems—and solutions. To do this, she usually follows people who have been through some kind of a transformation—including the survivors of hurricanes and plane crashes, American teenagers who have gone to high school in other countries and people who were bewitched by toxic conflicts and managed to break free. (from https://www.amandaripley.com/about-amanda)Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55713052-high-conflictConnect with Audiobook Reviews in 5:· Twitter: @janna_ca· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AudiobookReviewsInFiveMinutes· Audiobook Reviews in Five Minutes website: https://podcast.jannastam.com/· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/jannastamAudio production by Graham StephensonEpisode music: Caprese by Blue Dot SessionsThis episode was first released in May 2021

One of my top audiobook listens for 2021. Dr Judson Brewer is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist at Brown University. As an addiction psychiatrist and internationally known expert in mindfulness training for treating addictions, Dr. Jud has developed and tested novel mindfulness programs for habit change, including both in-person and app-based treatments for smoking, emotional eating, and anxiety (Eat Right Now, Unwinding Anxiety and Craving to Quit).Based on the success of these programs in the lab, he co-founded MindSciences, Inc. to create app-based digital therapeutic versions of these programs for a wider audience, working with individuals, corporations, and hospital systems to put effective, evidence-based behavior change guidance in the hands of people struggling with unwanted behaviors and “everyday addictions.”Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55628986-unwinding-anxietyConnect with Audiobook Reviews in 5:· Twitter: @janna_ca· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AudiobookReviewsInFiveMinutes· Audiobook Reviews in Five Minutes website: https://podcast.jannastam.com/· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/jannastamAudio production by Graham StephensonEpisode music: Caprese by Blue Dot SessionsThis episode was first released in April 2021

One of my top audiobook listens for 2021. Gates identifies the Five Grand Challenges of climate change as manufacturing (31%), electricity (27%), agriculture (19%), transportation (16%), and buildings (7%). Since there’s no single solution for any of these sectors, Gates proposes we speed up the cycle of innovation and attract a mix of private and public investment that is more risk tolerant than we’re used to seeing in order to reach net zero emissions by 2050.What you can do to fight climate change: https://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/What-you-can-do-to-fight-climate-changeGoodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52275335-how-to-avoid-a-climate-disaster?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=09awNLoppj&rank=1Connect with Audiobook Reviews in 5:· Twitter: @janna_ca· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AudiobookReviewsInFiveMinutes· Audiobook Reviews in Five Minutes website: https://podcast.jannastam.com/· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/jannastamAudio production by Graham StephensonEpisode music: Caprese by Blue Dot SessionsThis episode was first released in March 2021

“Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever…”Ultimately, stories have emotional power over us, and great stories stay with us for a lifetime. Haig’s charming style made this listen impossible to put down. And, although it covers some heavy subject matter, The Midnight Library is an easy listen beautifully narrated by British actress Carey Mulligan, who brings Nora’s character to life in so many different contexts.Matt Haig is an author for children and adults. His memoir, Reasons to Stay Alive, was a number one bestseller, staying in the British top ten for 46 weeks. His children’s book, A Boy Called Christmas, was a runaway hit and is translated in over 40 languages. It is being made into a film starring Maggie Smith, Sally Hawkins and Jim Broadbent and The Guardian called it an ‘instant classic’. His novels for adults include the award-winning How To Stop Time, The Radleys, The Humans and the number one bestseller The Midnight Library, which also won the 2021 Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction.Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54744876-the-midnight-libraryConnect with Audiobook Reviews in 5Twitter: @janna_caFacebook Audiobook Reviews in Five Minutes website Goodreads Check us out on Feedspot's Best Canada Non-Fiction Podcasts list!Audio production by The Podcast Distillery Co. Episode music: Caprese by Blue Dot SessionsThis episode was first released in February 2021

One of my top audiobook listens for 2021! One Goodreads reviewer gave this book three stars out of five, criticizing it as a “Love Letter to Listening” (but lacking tips of how to listen better). This same rationale is exactly why I’m giving this title five out of five stars. The fact is, most of us know perfectly well what listening skills are, but we’re not practicing good listening habits because we don’t value listening enough, author Kate Murphy is passionately determined to change that.Picked by the Observer, Stylist, and Waterstones as a best non-fiction book for 2020 and nominated for a 2020 Goodreads Choice Award for nonfiction.Kate Murphy is a Houston, Texas–based journalist who has written for the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Agence France-Presse, and Texas Monthly. Her eclectic and widely shared pieces have explored an extraordinary range of topics including health, technology, science, design, art, aviation, business, finance, fashion, dining, travel, and real estate.Connect with Audiobook Reviews in 5:· Twitter: @janna_ca· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AudiobookReviewsInFiveMinutes· Audiobook Reviews in Five Minutes website: https://podcast.jannastam.com/· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/jannastamAudio production by Graham StephensonEpisode music: Caprese by Blue Dot SessionsThis episode was first released in January 2021

Fiona Hill is director of the Center on the United States and Europe, and senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. Growing up in England’s coal-mining country, Fiona Hill knew that she was in a forgotten place. The last of the local mines had closed, businesses were shuttering, and despair was etched in the faces around her. Her father told her to get out—to go to London, or Europe, or America. “There is nothing for you here, pet,” he said.Hill managed to go further than her father ever could have dreamed. She studied in Moscow and at Harvard, became an American citizen, and served on the National Security Council. But in the heartlands of both Russia and the US, she saw grim reflections of her hometown and similar populist impulses. By the time she offered her brave testimony in the impeachment inquiry of President Trump, Hill knew that the desperation of forgotten people was driving American politics over the brink—and that we were running out of time to save ourselves from systemic collapse. In this powerful, deeply personal account, she shares what she has learned, and explains that only by expanding opportunity can we save our democracy.Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59246374-there-is-nothing-for-you-hereConnect with Audiobook Reviews in 5:· Twitter: @janna_ca· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AudiobookReviewsInFiveMinutes· Audiobook Reviews in Five Minutes website: https://podcast.jannastam.com/· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/jannastamAudio production by Graham StephensonEpisode music: Caprese by Blue Dot SessionsRate, review, and subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Anchor, Breaker, Google, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, and Spotify

Dr. Jane Goodall DBE is an ethologist and environmentalist. From infancy she was fascinated by animal behavior, and in 1957 at 23 years old, she met the famous paleoanthropologist Dr. Louis Leakey while she was visiting a friend in Kenya. Impressed by her passion for animals, heoffered her the chance to be the first person to study chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, in the wild. And so three years later Jane traveled from England to what is now Tanzania and, equipped with only a notebook, binoculars, and determination to succeed, ventured into the then unknown world of wild chimpanzees.Jane Goodall’s research at Gombe National Park has given us an in-depth understanding of chimpanzee behavior. The research continues, but in 1986, realizing the threat to chimpanzees throughout Africa, Jane traveled to six study sites. She learned first-hand not only about the problems facing chimpanzees, but also about those facing so many Africans living in poverty. She realized that only by helping local communities find ways of making a living without destroying the environment could chimpanzees be saved. Since then Jane has traveled the world raising awareness and learning about the threats we all face today, especially climate change and loss of biodiversity. The author of many books for adults and children and featured in countless documentaries and articles, Jane has reached millions around the world with her lectures, podcasts and writings. She was appointed as a UN Messenger of Peace, is a Dame of the British Empire, and has received countless honors from around the world.Douglas Abrams is the New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the first book in the Global Icons Series. Douglas is also the founder and president of Idea Architects, a literary agency and media development company helping visionaries to create a wiser, healthier, and more just world. He lives in Santa Cruz, California.Bios copied from The Book of Hope PDF supplement (Audible)The Jane Goodall Hopecast: https://janegoodall.ca/the-hopecast-jane-goodalls-podcast/Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58603636-the-book-of-hopeConnect with Audiobook Reviews in 5:· Twitter: @janna_ca· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AudiobookReviewsInFiveMinutes· Audiobook Reviews in Five Minutes website: https://podcast.jannastam.com/· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/jannastamAudio production by Graham StephensonEpisode music: Caprese by Blue Dot SessionsRate, review, and subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Anchor, Breaker, Google, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, and Spotify

One of my top audiobook listens for 2021! Think Again is a 21st Century reboot of Enlightenment ideas, celebrating skepticism and science. Adam Grant’s balance of storytelling and statistics is fascinating, but what makes this listen fun is how Grant challenges us to explore our own tendencies and guides us in how to practice rethinking our beliefs. How often do you think again? Take the quiz: https://www.adamgrant.net/quizzes/think-again-quiz/ ** Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist and TED speaker who helps people find meaning and motivation at work. Grant has been Wharton’s top-rated professor for 7 straight years. As an organizational psychologist, he is a leading expert on how we can find motivation and meaning, and live more generous and creative lives. He has been recognized as one of the world’s 10 most influential management thinkers and Fortune’s 40 under 40. ​He is the author of 4 New York Times bestselling books that have sold millions of copies and been translated into 35 languages: Give and Take, Originals, Option B, and Power Moves. His books have been named among the year’s best by Amazon, Apple, the Financial Times, and the Wall Street Journal and praised by J.J. Abrams, Richard Branson, Bill and Melinda Gates, Malcolm Gladwell, Daniel Kahneman, and Malala Yousafzai. (bio taken from https://www.adamgrant.net/about/biography/) ** Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56789923-think-again Audio production by Graham Stephenson Episode music: Caprese by Blue Dot Sessions Rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Anchor, Breaker, Google, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, and Spotify This episode was first released in February 2021

Can the audiobook format add something of value to classic literature? Leo Tolstoy's epic story of doomed love is one of the most admired novels in world literature and famously begins with the line “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31188265-anna-karenina Connect with Audiobook Reviews in 5: · Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/audiobook_reviews_podcast/ · Twitter: @janna_ca · Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AudiobookReviewsInFiveMinutes · Anchor: https://anchor.fm/audiobookreviews · Audiobook Reviews in Five Minutes website: https://podcast.jannastam.com/ · Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/jannastam Audio production by Graham Stephenson Episode music: Caprese by Blue Dot Sessions Rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Anchor, Breaker, Google, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, and Spotify

One of my top audiobook listens for 2021! All of us have experienced unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a breakup, or a job loss. These experiences can be deeply lonely and confusing. I’m reviewing this book because I’m thinking of all the people I know living through what may feel like one of the most difficult winters of our lifetimes. Katherine May is a New York Times bestselling author; she previously published The Electricity of Every Living Thing, her memoir of being autistic. Her fiction includes The Whitstable High Tide Swimming Club and Burning Out. She is also the editor of The Best, Most Awful Job, an anthology of essays about motherhood. Her journalism and essays have appeared in a range of publications including The New York Times, The Observer and Aeon. She lives in Whitstable, UK with her husband, son, three cats and a dog. Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56171009-wintering Audio production by Graham Stephenson Episode music: Caprese by Blue Dot Sessions Rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Anchor, Breaker, Google, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, and Spotify This episode was first released in January 2021

Professor David Nutt is a neuropsychopharmacologist and researcher at Imperial College London. In 2009, he was infamously dismissed from his role as Chair of the United Kingdom’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. The reason was his public stance that illicit drugs should be classified according to the actual evidence of the harm they cause. Most controversial of all was his claim that alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than LSD, ecstasy or cannabis. So you might expect him to be a prohibitionist, but that’s not so. In fact, he owns a wine bar. But for the last 30 years, he’s also campaigned for better public health policy when it comes to alcohol.Nutt is on a mission to explain the most significant alcohol-related research findings from the last 50 years. What I enjoyed most about his pragmatic approach is that he explains the impact of ANY amount of alcohol consumption. This is about making informed decisions, not moral judgements. He clarifies the differences that various levels of alcohol consumption have on our mental health, sleep, hormones, fertility, and propensity toward addiction.Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53023321-drinkConnect with Audiobook Reviews in 5:· Twitter: @janna_ca· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AudiobookReviewsInFiveMinutes· Audiobook Reviews in Five Minutes website: https://podcast.jannastam.com/· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/jannastamAudio production by Graham StephensonEpisode music: Caprese by Blue Dot SessionsRate, review, and subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Anchor, Breaker, Google, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, and Spotify

Karl Deisseroth has spent his life researching the human mind, both as a renowned clinical psychiatrist and as a researcher creating and developing the revolutionary field of optogenetics, which uses light to help decipher the brain’s workings. Projections is promoted as a work that combines his knowledge of the brain’s inner circuitry with a deep empathy for his patients in order to examine what mental illness reveals about the human mind and the origin of human feelings.Huberman Lab podcast: Dr. Karl Deisseroth: Understanding & Healing the Mind | Episode 26 https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/huberman-lab/id1545953110?i=1000527090209Mind & Matter podcast with Nick Jikomes: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/karl-deisseroth-psychiatry-autism-depression-anxiety/id1546557228?i=1000534177882Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57958898-projectionsConnect with Audiobook Reviews in 5:· Twitter: @janna_ca· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AudiobookReviewsInFiveMinutes· Audiobook Reviews in Five Minutes website: https://podcast.jannastam.com/· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/jannastamAudio production by Graham StephensonEpisode music: Caprese by Blue Dot SessionsRate, review, and subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Anchor, Breaker, Google, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, and Spotify