Showing results by narrator "Stephen McLaughlin" in All Categories

It may be America's game, but no one seems to know how or when baseball really started. Theories abound, myths proliferate, but reliable information has been in short supply - until now, when Baseball before We Knew It brings fresh new evidence of baseball's origins into play. David Block looks into the early history of the game and of the 150-year-old debate about its beginnings.

It was November 1806. The explorers had gone without food for one day, then two. Their leader, not yet thirty, drove on, determined to ascend the great mountain. Waist deep in snow, he reluctantly turned back. But Zebulon Pike had not been defeated. His name remained on the unclimbed peak-and new adventures lay ahead of him and his republic. In Citizen Explorer, historian Jared Orsi provides the first modern biography of this soldier and explorer, who rivaled contemporaries Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

Indian peoples made some 400 treaties with the United States between the American Revolution and 1871, when Congress prohibited them. They signed nine treaties with the Confederacy, as well as countless others over the centuries with Spain, France, Britain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, Canada, and even Russia, not to mention individual colonies and states. In retrospect, the treaties seem like well-ordered steps on the path of dispossession and empire. The reality was far more complicated.

Why does the giraffe have spotty skin? Why do melons taste just so? An insatiably curious young elephant can't stop asking questions, until one in particular gets him into worse trouble than he could have ever imagined.

Decorated artilleryman Edgar Mason was forced to find new work when the British Empire replaced its foot soldiers with monstrous machines. Agamemnon Frost, however, is far from the foppish man-about-town he appears to be. He's working to protect the Earth from an alien invasion being planned by a face-changing creature known as Pandarus. And on the night he plans to confront the aliens, he enlists Mason to assist him. For a man to love a man is a serious crime in Victorian England. But when Mason meets Frost, his heart thunders and his blood catches fire.

A world-renowned physician traces the rise of the medical-industrial complex that has made a disaster of our health care system and tells us incisively what we need to do to change it.

What makes an American legend? Find out in these fascinating stories of three of our national treasures, including Johnny Appleseed, whose apple trees bore the fruit that fed a nation of pioneers; Sacagawea, the Native American woman who bravely guided Lewis and Clark on their westward journey; and John Muir, a valiant protector of the West's natural wonders and founder of the Sierra Club.

During the 19th century, brothers Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm traveled across Germany to write down the folk tales that had been told at kitchen tables, hearths, and bedsides for centuries. In doing so, they preserved a rich heritage of storytelling that connects us to the past. These favorite Grimm fairy tales showcase the evils of greed and jealousy and the redeeming power of love.

From the author of The Wind in the Willows comes this story of a boy who befriends a lazy, but quite pleasant dragon that takes up residence nearby. When the townspeople call in St. George, the eminent dragon-slayer, to do battle, it's up to the boy to sort things out - and stick up for his newfound friend. It's a hilarious story that will have you cheering for the dragon and his pal.

A golden statue comes to life and, with the help of a reluctant swallow, gives away everything he has. A fierce giant forbids children to play in his garden -- then realizes that only through sharing will spring ever come again. In these rich fables by Oscar Wilde, author of The Importance of Being Earnest, characters learn that kindness and giving are the greatest powers of all.

To survive a bleak winter, Hazard the coyote must find food for his pack, even if it puts him in grave danger. Finally on his own, a young raccoon named Lotor needs to find a new home before a predator finds him. Osa the brown bear builds the perfect winter den - with less-than-perfect results. These stories about fictional animal friends are rich with detail about real animal behaviors, so children learn as they enjoy the fun.

Lazy Rip Van Winkle "would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound", much to the dismay of his wife. After an afternoon in the Catskill Mountains ends in an enchanted, 20-year sleep, Rip discovers that his children have grown up without him. He's even slept through the American Revolutionary War! But does he learn his lesson?

From 19th-century author Washington Irving comes two cautionary tales that will broaden your vocabulary and challenge you to think.

Imagine a time of fairies and giants, when good always triumphed over evil, and bravery and cunning saveed the day. That's the world inhabited by this collection of favorite fairy tales, retold in charming prose by Andrew Lang. Children will love hearing how Jack made his fortune; how a quick-thinking queen saved her baby from Rumpelstiltskin; how a clever cat turned his master into a marquis; and how even a spiteful fairy couldn't stop true love from waking a sleeping princess.

China’s meteoric rise to economic powerhouse might be charted with dams. Every river in the country has been tapped to power exploding cities and factories - every river but one. Running through one of the richest natural areas in the world, the Nujiang’s raging waters were on the verge of being dammed when a 2004 government moratorium halted construction. Might the Chinese dragon bow to the "Angry River"? Would Beijing put local people and their land ahead of power and profit? Could this remote region actually become a model for sustainable growth? Ed Grumbine traveled to the far corners of China’s Yunnan province to find out.

Edgar Mason is ready to embark upon his new life at Agamemnon Frost's side. But all is not perfect. His Martian overlord, Pandarus, has implanted a dark voice in his mind, a voice that urges betrayal. And though Mason can keep close to Frost, there's little room for romance under the watchful gaze of the engineers from Station X. That changes when Mason and Frost reopen their investigation into their old enemy's whereabouts.

Edgar Mason is losing Agamemnon Frost despite everything they've been through - the passion, the torture, the heat. Frost's fiance, Theodora, is back, and Mason can feel his lover gravitating toward her. Every day he sees them together, it tears at his heart. Frost feels raw himself. His brother and sister-in-law are missing, and his guilt about failing to save Theodora from Pandarus eats at him. His feelings for Mason, whom he has put through hell twice already, just twist the screws tighter.

Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, and Davy Crockett are some of the roughest, toughest characters to ever blaze the frontier. Clever as the crack of a whip and strong as a wildcat, these tall-tale heroes each left a legacy of larger-than-life deeds that has captured the American imagination for over a century. Three rib-tickling tracks tell the whole story -- believe it or not.

Famines are becoming smaller and rarer, but optimism about the possibility of a famine-free future must be tempered by the threat of global warming. That is just one of the arguments that Cormac Ó Gráda, one of the world's leading authorities on the history and economics of famine, develops in this wide-ranging audiobook, which provides crucial new perspectives on key questions raised by famines around the globe between the 17th and 21st centuries.