The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Rose Marie and the Crystal of Desires: Book 2 in The Leunam Tales by Jose Oldenburg

Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom by Katherine Eban KatherineEban.com A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2019 New York Public Library Best Books of 2019 Kirkus Reviews Best Health and Science Books of 2019 Science Friday Best Books of 2019 New postscript by the author From an award-winning journalist, an explosive narrative investigation of the generic drug boom that reveals fraud and life-threatening dangers on a global scale—The Jungle for pharmaceuticals Many have hailed the widespread use of generic drugs as one of the most important public-health developments of the twenty-first century. Today, almost 90 percent of our pharmaceutical market is comprised of generics, the majority of which are manufactured overseas. We have been reassured by our doctors, our pharmacists and our regulators that generic drugs are identical to their brand-name counterparts, just less expensive. But is this really true? Katherine Eban’s Bottle of Lies exposes the deceit behind generic-drug manufacturing—and the attendant risks for global health. Drawing on exclusive accounts from whistleblowers and regulators, as well as thousands of pages of confidential FDA documents, Eban reveals an industry where fraud is rampant, companies routinely falsify data, and executives circumvent almost every principle of safe manufacturing to minimize cost and maximize profit, confident in their ability to fool inspectors. Meanwhile, patients unwittingly consume medicine with unpredictable and dangerous effects. The story of generic drugs is truly global. It connects middle America to China, India, sub-Saharan Africa and Brazil, and represents the ultimate litmus test of globalization: what are the risks of moving drug manufacturing offshore, and are they worth the savings? A decade-long investigation with international sweep, high-stakes brinkmanship and big money at its core, Bottle of Lies reveals how the world’s greatest public-health innovation has become one of its most astonishing swindles. About Katherine Eban Katherine Eban, an investigative journalist, is a Fortune magazine contributor and Andrew Carnegie fellow. Her narrative, deeply reported articles on pharmaceutical counterfeiting, gun trafficking, and coercive interrogations by the CIA, have won international attention and numerous awards. She lectures frequently on the topic of pharmaceutical integrity. Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom, which she worked on for five years and reported on four continents, is her second book. Educated at Brown University and Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband, two daughters and Newfoundland dog Romeo.

16 Sep 202043min

The Infinite Desire for Growth by Daniel Cohen Why society’s expectation of economic growth is no longer realistic Economic growth--and the hope of better things to come—is the religion of the modern world. Yet its prospects have become bleak, with crashes following booms in an endless cycle. In the United States, eighty percent of the population has seen no increase in purchasing power over the last thirty years and the situation is not much better elsewhere. The Infinite Desire for Growth spotlights the obsession with wanting more, and the global tensions that have arisen as a result. Amid finite resources, increasing populations, environmental degradation, and political unrest, the quest for new social and individual goals has never been so critical. Leading economist Daniel Cohen provides a whirlwind tour of the history of economic growth, from the early days of civilization to modern times, underscoring what is so unsettling today. The new digital economy is establishing a "zero-cost" production model, inexpensive software is taking over basic tasks, and years of exploiting the natural world have begun to backfire with deadly consequences. Working hard no longer guarantees social inclusion or income. Drawing on economics, anthropology, and psychology, and thinkers ranging from Rousseau to Keynes and Easterlin, Cohen examines how a future less dependent on material gain might be considered and, how, in a culture of competition, individual desires might be better attuned to the greater needs of society. At a time when wanting what we haven't got has become an obsession, The Infinite Desire for Growth explores the ways we might reinvent, for the twenty-first century, the old ideal of social progress.

14 Sep 202051min

The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism by Katherine Stewart Katherinestewart.me For too long the Religious Right has masqueraded as a social movement preoccupied with a number of cultural issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage. In her deeply reported investigation, Katherine Stewart reveals a disturbing truth: this is a political movement that seeks to gain power and to impose its vision on all of society. America’s religious nationalists aren’t just fighting a culture war, they are waging a political war on the norms and institutions of American democracy. Stewart pulls back the curtain on the inner workings and leading personalities of a movement that has turned religion into a tool for domination. She exposes a dense network of think tanks, advocacy groups, and pastoral organizations embedded in a rapidly expanding community of international alliances and united not by any central command but by a shared, anti-democratic vision and a common will to power. She follows the money that fuels this movement, tracing much of it to a cadre of super-wealthy, ultraconservative donors and family foundations. She shows that today’s Christian nationalism is the fruit of a longstanding anti-democratic, reactionary strain of American thought that draws on some of the most troubling episodes in America’s past. It forms a common cause with a globe-spanning movement that seeks to destroy liberal democracy and replace it with nationalist, theocratic and autocratic forms of government around the world. Religious nationalism is far more organized and better funded than most people realize. It seeks to control all aspects of government and society. Its successes have been stunning, and its influence now extends to every aspect of American life, from the White House to state capitols, from our schools to our hospitals. The Power Worshippers is a brilliantly reported book of warning and a wake-up call. Stewart’s probing examination demands that Christian nationalism be taken seriously as a significant threat to the American republic and our democratic freedoms. Katherine Stewart is the author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, NBC, and the New Republic

13 Sep 20201h 12min

A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom by Brittany K. Barnett Brittanykbarnett.com Buriedaliveproject.org Girlsembracingmothers.org An urgent call to free those buried alive by America’s legal system, and an inspiring true story about unwavering belief in humanity—from a gifted young lawyer and important new voice in the movement to transform the system. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE SUMMER BY USA TODAY AND NEWSWEEK • “An essential book for our time . . . Brittany K. Barnett is a star.”—Van Jones, CEO of REFORM Alliance, CNN Host, and New York Times bestselling author Brittany K. Barnett was only a law student when she came across the case that would change her life forever—that of Sharanda Jones, single mother, business owner, and, like Brittany, Black daughter of the rural South. A victim of America’s devastating war on drugs, Sharanda had been torn away from her young daughter and was serving a life sentence without parole—for a first-time drug offense. In Sharanda, Brittany saw haunting echoes of her own life, both as the daughter of a formerly incarcerated mother and as the once-girlfriend of an abusive drug dealer. As she studied this case, a system came into focus: one where widespread racial injustice forms the core of America’s addiction to incarceration. Moved by Sharanda’s plight, Brittany set to work to gain her freedom. This had never been the plan. Bright and ambitious, Brittany was a successful accountant on her way to a high-powered future in corporate law. But Sharanda’s case opened the door to a harrowing journey through the criminal justice system. By day she moved billion-dollar deals, and by night she worked pro bono to free clients in near-hopeless legal battles. Ultimately, her path transformed her understanding of injustice in the courts, of genius languishing behind bars, and the very definition of freedom itself. Brittany’s riveting memoir is at once a coming-of-age story and a powerful evocation of what it takes to bring hope and justice to a system built to resist them both. Brittany K. Barnett is an award-winning attorney and entrepreneur focused on social impact investing. She is dedicated to transforming the criminal justice system and has won freedom for numerous people serving life sentences for federal drug offenses--including seven clients who received executive clemency from President Barack Obama. Brittany is founder of a series of social enterprises, including XVI Capital Partners, Milena Reign LLC, the Buried Alive Project, and Girls Embracing Mothers. She has earned many honors, including being named one of America's most Outstanding Young Lawyers by the American Bar Association.

11 Sep 202051min

Expand the Power of Your Subconscious Mind by C. James Jensen, Dr. Joseph Murphy cjamesjensen.com Harness the wisdom of your subconscious with this modern interpretation of the timeless teachings featured in Dr. Joseph Murphy’s definitive classic The Power of Your Subconscious Mind—now with expanded commentary and updated practices, providing a practical toolkit to help you manifest your deepest desires. Since its publication in 1963, Dr. Joseph Murphy’s The Power of Your Subconscious Mind has sold millions of copies worldwide and continues to draw new generations of fans every year. Now, life coach and consultant C. James Jensen supplements Dr. Murphy’s authoritative book with fresh lessons and a modern toolkit of practices—such as affirmation, visualization, meditation, and leadership skills—to help you harness your subconscious to live your best life. About C. James Jensen C. James "Jim" Jensen began his career as a salesman with Encyclopedia Britannica in his senior year of college. Within seven years he had become International Sales Manager in charge of worldwide sales. At the age of 28, he became Senior Vice President and CEO of Great Books of the Western World, a division of Encyclopaedia Britannica. In this same year (1969) Jim and his wife, Jeri, attended a 4-day seminar that would have an incredible impact on their lives forever. As is written in the Introduction, Jim became both a voracious student and, ultimately, teacher of many of the principles written in his book, Expand the Power of Your Subconscious Mind. Jim also became President and CEO of two additional companies that each became the leading company within its respective industry. Jim attributes much of the success of those companies to the management and employees embracing many of the principles taught in his book.

10 Sep 202044min

Blood and Oil: Mohammed bin Salman's Ruthless Quest for Global Power by Bradley Hope, Justin Scheck **Longlisted for the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award** From award-winning Wall Street Journal reporters Justin Scheck and Bradley Hope (coauthor of Billion Dollar Whale), this revelatory look at the world's most powerful ruling family reveals how a rift within Saudi Arabian royalty produced Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a charismatic leader with a ruthless streak. Thirty-five-year-old Mohammed bin Salman's sudden rise stunned the world. Political and business leaders such as former UK prime minister Tony Blair and WME chairman Ari Emanuel flew out to meet with the crown prince and came away convinced that his desire to reform the kingdom was sincere. He spoke passionately about bringing women into the workforce and toning down Saudi Arabia's restrictive Islamic law. He lifted the ban on women driving and explored investments in Silicon Valley. But MBS began to betray an erratic interior beneath the polish laid on by scores of consultants and public relations experts like McKinsey & Company. The allegations of his extreme brutality and excess began to slip out, including that he ordered the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. While stamping out dissent by holding three hundred people, including prominent members of the Saudi royal family, in the Ritz-Carlton hotel and elsewhere for months, he continued to exhibit his extreme wealth, including buying a $70 million chateau in Europe and one of the world's most expensive yachts. It seemed that he did not understand nor care about how the outside world would react to his displays of autocratic muscle-what mattered was the flex. Blood and Oil is a gripping work of investigative journalism about one of the world's most decisive and dangerous new leaders. Hope and Scheck show how MBS's precipitous rise coincided with the fraying of the simple bargain that had been at the head of U.S.-Saudi relations for more than eighty years: oil in exchange for military protection. Caught in his net are well-known US bankers, Hollywood figures, and politicians, all eager to help the charming and crafty crown prince. The Middle East is already a volatile region. Add to the mix an ambitious prince with extraordinary powers, hunger for lucre, a tight relationship with the White House through President Trump's son in law Jared Kushner, and an apparent willingness to break anything -- and anyone -- that gets in the way of his vision, and the stakes of his rise are bracing. If his bid fails, Saudi Arabia has the potential to become an unstable failed state and a magnet for Islamic extremists. And if his bid to transform his country succeeds, even in part, it will have reverberations around the world.

9 Sep 202050min

Proof of Corruption: Bribery, Impeachment, and Pandemic in the Age of Trump by Seth Abramson SethAbramson.net This stunning third entry in Seth Abramson's epic, New York Times bestselling Proof series reveals the harrowing scope of Trump bribery schemes involving COVID-19, the 2020 presidential election, and collusion with foreign officials in China, Ukraine, Turkey, Israel, Venezuela, Hungary, and Russia. Proof of Corruption traces in exacting detail the clandestine schemes of Trump and his cadre of agents and advisers from 2015 onward, with a special emphasis on Michael Cohen, Donald Trump Jr., Sean Hannity, Bill Barr, Roger Stone, Rudy Giuliani, Erik Prince, Michael Flynn, Lev Parnas, Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Mick Mulvaney, Devin Nunes, Rick Perry, Mike Pompeo, Gordon Sondland, John Solomon, and Joe diGenova, as well as the president's most powerful foreign allies, including Vladimir Putin, Recep Erdogan, Benjamin Netanyahu, Xi Jinping, Mohammed bin Salman, Mohammed bin Zayed, Dmitry Firtash, Oleg Deripaska, Konstantin Kilimnik, Viktor Shokin, Yuri Lutsenko, and many others. While the facts of each Trump bribery scandal are complex, the pattern of corruption remains the same, whether it involves Trump seeking to appease Vladimir Putin by returning Ukraine's energy industry to Kremlin control; Trump freezing aid to Ukraine to extort bogus "intelligence" on Joe Biden from corrupt Ukrainian prosecutors; Trump escalating a trade war with China while privately cutting election-dirt deals with Xi Jinping; Trump ignoring November 2019 intelligence warning of a dangerous virus outbreak in China due to his business interests in Beijing; or Trump promoting a dangerous and ineffective treatment for COVID-19 at the behest of his richest campaign donors. With Donald Trump, all roads lead (by design) to personal enrichment. Sometimes he's seeking to fill his 2020 reelection coffers, and sometimes his illicit self-dealing and epic corruption center on his personal business relationships; sometimes the crimes and their subsequent cover-ups are domestic, and sometimes they're international. But the audacity of Trump's offenses and the need for byzantine schemes to hide them remains the same. With thousands of citations from the world's most respected media outlets, Proof of Corruption tells the story of a bribery and election-tampering scheme that crosses years and stretches from China to Ukraine, Turkey to Venezuela, Hungary to Israel, Russia to Saudi Arabia. It is a plot that empowers America's adversaries to author U.S. foreign policy and tamper with our elections even as it frees Donald Trump to replace America's national interest with his own. Proof of Corruption reveals a harrowing pattern of international and domestic bribery that is shocking, criminal, and a clear and present danger to America. Seth Abramson is a former criminal defense attorney and criminal investigator who teaches digital journalism, legal advocacy, and cultural theory at the University of New Hampshire. A regular political and legal analyst on CNN and the BBC during the Trump presidency, he is the author of eight books and editor of five anthologies. Abramson is a graduate of Dartmouth College, Harvard Law School, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and the Ph.D. program in English at University of Wisconsin-Madison. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and two one-year-old rescue hounds, Quinn and Scout.

8 Sep 20201h 2min

Dynamic Reteaming: The Art and Wisdom of Changing Teams by Heidi Helfand Heidihelfand.com Your team will change whether you like it or not. People will come and go. Your company might double in size or even be acquired. In this practical book, author Heidi Helfand shares techniques for reteaming effectively. Engineering leaders will learn how to catalyze team change to reduce the risk of attrition, learning and career stagnation, and the development of knowledge silos. Based on research into well-known software companies, the patterns in this book help CTOs and team managers effectively integrate new hires into an existing team, manage a team that has lost members, or deal with unexpected change. You’ll learn how to isolate teams for focused innovation, rotate team members for knowledge sharing, breakthrough organizational apathy, and more. You’ll explore: Real-world examples that demonstrate why and how organizations reteam Five reteaming patterns: One by One, Grow and Split, Isolation, Merging, and Switching Tactics to help you master dynamic reteaming in your company Stories that demonstrate problems caused by reteaming anti-patterns About Heidi Heidi Helfand is author of the book Dynamic Reteaming. She coaches software development teams using practical, people-focused techniques, with the goal of building resilient organizations as they double and triple in size. Heidi is currently Director of R&D Excellence at Procore Technologies. She draws on her vast experience from coaching there, as well as at AppFolio and Citrix Online, where Heidi was on the original development team that invented GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar. Heidi is based in Southern California.

7 Sep 202051min