Health Wars

In April 2004 the world was shocked by the brutal pictures of beatings, dog attacks, sex acts, and the torture of prisoners held at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. As the story broke, and the world began to learn about the extent of the horrors that occurred there, the U.S. Army dispatched Colonel Larry James to Abu Ghraib with an overwhelming assignment: to dissect this catastrophe, fix it, and prevent it from being repeated. Fixing Hell shows us a perspective on Abu Ghraib that we've never seen before.

Why did France’s defenders lose to the Nazis, despite having more tanks, troops, and guns? How did Ukraine stand firm against Russia? How do you know if you can trust an ally? How can we make clearer decisions under pressure? In Warhead, Nicholas Wright takes us on a journey through the brain to show us how it shapes human behaviour in conflict and war. Drawing on his neuroscience expertise and over a decade’s work with the Pentagon, Wright also reveals that, whether we like it or not, the brain is not only built for everyday life, but is wired for conflict.

It’s been ten months since Nami narrowly escaped the Four Courts and Ophelia’s wrath. Ten months since she was betrayed by someone she once considered a friend. Someone she poured her heart out to. And now her family here in the afterlife are gone, captured, and Nami is utterly alone. On the run, only steps ahead of the AI forces pursuing her, and desperate to free her friends, Nami must take the allies she can find, even if she doesn’t fully trust them. And as she tests the limits of her own power, she must also reckon with the responsibility that entails.

A high-sodium diet is deadly; studies have linked it to high blood pressure, stroke, and heart attacks. It's been estimated that excess sodium in the American diet causes as many as 100,000 deaths per year. And yet salt is everywhere in our diets - in packaged food, fast food, and restaurant meals. Why hasn't salt received the sort of attention and regulatory action that sugar and fat have? In Salt Wars, Michael Jacobson explains how the American food industry has fought government efforts to reduce dangerous levels of sodium in our food.

Marine Sgt. John Peck survived an IED during the War on Terror that left him with a traumatic brain injury, amnesia, and cost him his marriage. He survived another three years later, one that left him with three and a half limbs missing. He’s one of only two living people to survive the flesh-eating fungus he contracted in recovery at Walter Reed, one that left him as a quadruple amputee. And that’s only the beginning of his story. What followed was a recovery nothing short of miraculous.

In June 1941, a pair of British scientists boarded a plane for America with World War II raging all around them. They carried a precious commodity - penicillin - and the knowledge that it would change history. Author Marc Landas uncovers the dark history behind the discovery, production, and distribution of penicillin and other antibiotics.

With 2018 marking the 100th anniversary of the worst disease outbreak in modern history, the story of the Spanish flu is more relevant today than ever. This dramatic narrative, told through the stories and voices of the people caught in the deadly maelstrom, explores how this vast, global epidemic was intertwined with the horrors of World War I - and how it could happen again. Complete with modern research and firsthand reports by medical professionals and survivors, this audiobook provides captivating insight into a catastrophe that transformed America in the early 20th century.

Making War at Fort Hood offers an illuminating look at war through the daily lives of the people whose job it is to produce it. Kenneth MacLeish conducted a year of intensive fieldwork among soldiers and their families at and around the US Army's Fort Hood in central Texas. He shows how war's reach extends far beyond the battlefield into military communities where violence is as routine, boring, and normal as it is shocking and traumatic.

Viet Nam may be the only war we ever fought, or perhaps that was ever fought, in which the heroism of the American soldier was accompanied by humanitarianism unmatched in the annals of warfare. And the humanitarianism took place during the heat of the battle. The GI fixed as he fought, he cured and educated and built in the middle of the battle. He truly cared for, and about, those people. What other Army has ever done that? Humanitarianism was America's great victory in Viet Nam.

I believe in miracles because my sobriety is one. For years, I was an addict, a slave to pornography. Every time I tried to quit, it just got worse. I was tired of trying to slay a dragon that was impossible to kill. So I gave up fighting. I lost hope. After years of losing the war, I finally saw that all the things I believed about pornography addiction were not true. Porn addiction is strong and derives its power by trapping its victims in thirteen lies.

Tony had mastered the art of hiding the frightened child, behind the mask of a fearless criminal. Years later, exhausted from holding up that same weary disguise, he headed for Peru in pursuit of freedom and truth in sheer desperation.

You must be frightened by the high you experience interacting with porn. You’re alarmed that no matter how you try, you can't stop coming back for more. In your fight to get the upper hand, it hasn’t mattered that you're a Christian and that you really want to walk in spotless integrity. It hasn’t mattered that you have a faithful wife and children or a trusting girlfriend. You’re stuck in a crazy, endless, secret pattern of “sin/confess/repent/repeat”.

What does it feel like to have OCD? This is the question at the heart of Gregory Gene Conrad's memoir. This first-hand account offers a brief, but powerful, glimpse of one man's journey inside the world of OCD. More importantly, it contains his day-in and day-out struggles to battle this oppressive monster, regain his freedom, and take control of his life. It is a tale of victory and defeat. It is a tale of endurance and survival.

Thirty years after serving in World War II, middle-aged Rob’s holiday plans see an unforeseen change that leads him on a coach tour of Italy. Struggling with post-war PTSD and depression, he reluctantly agrees to the journey - and sparks a dream that plunges him into long-stifled memories. Set in Europe, Sue Parritt’s Feed Thy Enemy is an account of courage and compassion in the face of trauma.

Heroines of Mercy Street tells the true stories of the nurses at Mansion House, the Alexandria, Virginia, mansion turned wartime hospital and setting for the new PBS drama Mercy Street. Among the Union soldiers, doctors, wounded men from both sides, freed slaves, politicians, speculators, and spies who passed through the hospital in the crossroads of the Civil War were nurses who gave their time freely and willingly to save lives and aid the wounded.

Barbara Child put her heart and soul into a letter to her partner, Alan Morris, while he was at the cottage they shared in Florida, and she was away at school in California. He was a Vietnam War veteran, and she was taking a seminary course on war - in particular, the Vietnam War. She turned in her letter as a term paper for the course, calling it “An Open Letter to a Vietnam Veteran.” That letter led to one thing, then another. She began writing more and more about Alan. From those writings came this audiobook.

Formed at Camp Breckenridge, the 95th Evac arrived in Casablanca in April 1943, with 7,000 troops, 30 doctors, and 40 nurses. Hospital at War is the story of the 95th Evac Hospital as told by Zachary Friedenberg, a young surgeon at the time, fresh out of his internship. He tells the story of how the men and women of the 95th survived the war. He describes how they solved problems and learned to treat the war-wounded in the extreme heat of North Africa and during the frigid winters of the Rhineland.

Whether you have bipolar, know someone who does, or you're a mental health professional, this book will help you see that there is light, even when things feel hopeless, and give you the tools you need to win the war with bipolar.

On May 10, 1998, biologist Craig Venter, director of the Institute for Genomic Research, announced that he was forming a private company that within three years would unravel the complete genetic code of human life, seven years before the projected finish of the U.S. government's Human Genome Project. Venter hoped that by decoding the genome ahead of schedule, he would speed up the pace of biomedical research and save the lives of thousands of people. He also hoped to become very famous and very rich.

Science isn't exactly Maeve's favorite subject, but she’s still excited to be going to the Sally Ride Science Festival at MIT with her hunky tutor, Matt. Sure, the BSG and her annoyingly brilliant younger brother are going as well, but it’s still almost kind of a date, isn’t it? The festival gives the BSG a super idea - an environmental science fair at Abigail Adams Junior High. But plans for a bubble gum factory nearby put Avery and Katani on opposite sides of an environmental issue - and Avery finds herself in a bubble gum war with the Queens of Mean!