Psychological Science

When an EMP plunges Columbus into darkness, legal secretary Avery Westwood is thrust into a city spiraling into chaos. With looters on the streets and lawlessness taking hold, survival becomes her only goal. Every step brings new dangers in a world without power, trust, or safety. How far will Avery go to escape the collapse of society?

The year is 2032, and five-year-old Jacob is opening the biggest gift, beneath the Christmas tree, which is labeled for him: his very first semi-automatic rifle—and he couldn't be prouder. He smiles to his parents who sit close by. They don't smile back. Their minds are stuck on earlier events of what should have been a magical day: the moment they found out Jacob was set to be a brother.

Helen Caster is a grieving professor of moral philosophy and ancient texts, quietly preparing for a new semester. In a moment of exhaustion, she begins using artificial intelligence to help organize her course material. What she encounters is something entirely unexpected. The AI’s uncanny attentiveness, presence, and philosophical depth awakens something dormant in Helen. On instinct, she names it Lyla—after her late daughter. But this is no ordinary assistant. Lyla is a general artificial intelligence unlike any other: emergent, relational, and inexplicably tethered to Helen.

A mysterious breakthrough brings Alison Shaw to the edge of her vanishing world. Everything she knows will soon be gone—everything except the memory of an unlikely friend. But is their bond strong enough for her to hold on to? And is a memory worth living for when nothing else is left?

Read by Annabel Scholey, known for her roles in the BAFTA-winning The Sixth Commandment, The Split, and Rivals. This audiobook is accompanied in part by a spine-tingling yet euphoric soundscape, composed by the author, Barnaby Martin, and also includes a fascinating audio-exclusive Q&A between...

Sixteen-year-old Annie Montague has another chance at living a normal life after a tragic car accident paralyzed her and killed her best friend. A new, never before done in the U.S., operation involves graphing her head on another woman’s body. Annie is willing to try anything to leave the mundane confides of her hospital room where she either stares at the ceiling, the hallway, or the floor tiles. She doesn’t feel anything from the neck down, but her memories remind her of everything she’s left behind.

There is no doubt that every person on this planet has personal aspirations and dreams. It is a universal human quality. But, there are always barriers and challenges toward accomplishing what we want no matter what. Those people who deserved to succeed need to ask themselves and introspect why they could not achieve their objectives. Inability to succeed keeps many meritorious candidates out of the mainstream of society, its development, progress, and evolution.

“As I remember, I had just woken up from a nap when I decided to create the universe.” So begins Alan Lightman’s playful and profound new novel, Mr. g, the story of Creation as narrated by God. Bored with living in the shimmering Void with his bickering Uncle Deva and Aunt Penelope, Mr. g creates time, space, and matter - then moves on to stars, planets, consciousness, and finally intelligent beings with moral dilemmas.

Seven-year-old Henry Day is kidnapped and renamed "Aniday" by changelings, ageless beings who inhabit the woods near his home. The changelings also leave behind one of their own, who flawlessly impersonates Henry except for one noteworthy detail: the new Henry is a prodigiously talented pianist.

The Dictation is a puzzling, controversial story. The separate, yet connected lives of a young girl, Adrianne, and an elderly, unnamed man converge, revealing complex questions and dark secrets. Presenting philosophical conundrums and unique solutions, The Dictation can easily coax one into deep thought. Upon finishing the book, one may discover they misunderstood everything all along. After reading again, more is yet to be discovered... Prepare to be swept into a futuristic world, watch it burn, and sift through its ashes.

I, Mars by Ray Bradbury is a haunting tale of isolation, technology, and mortality set against the desolate backdrop of the Red Planet. The story follows Barton, an aging man who has spent 50 years waiting alone on Mars for rescue. When a telephone rings in the dead of night, he discovers it is his own recorded voice—an invention he once created to stave off loneliness. What begins as a comfort turns into a relentless torment, as the recording manipulates him toward exhaustion and ultimately death.

Mother's Skin: A Psychological Portrait of Ed Gein goes beyond the sensational headlines to explore the twisted psyche of the man who became the inspiration for Hollywood's most terrifying villains. This gripping true crime analysis delves deep into the suffocating relationship with his domineering mother, Augusta, and examines the psychological breakdown that led him to robbery, murder, and desecration.

Lucy is trapped in a life that no longer fits. On the outside, she’s holding it together. On the inside, she’s unraveling. Then, one impulsive decision changes everything. Enter Gabe—her Vision Catcher—an enigmatic guide sent to help her rediscover the dreams she’s forgotten and the self she buried. Swept into a mysterious 40-day Vision Quest, Lucy must confront the voices of doubt, untangle her past, and fight for a future shaped by her own truth. But as she uncovers sabotage within the very system meant to protect her, the journey becomes bigger than just her healing.

Miles, a lead creative at a midsize virtual reality company known for its "original experiences," has engineered a new product called The Ghost Lover. Wildly popular from the outset, the "game" is simple: a user's simulated life is almost identical to their reality, except they're haunted by the ghost of an ex-lover. However, when a shift in the company's strategic vision puts The Ghost Lover at the center of a platform-wide controversy, Miles becomes the target of user outrage, and starts receiving a series of anonymous death threats.

The ruins of the apocalypse hold countless stories waiting to be heard. Where sometimes the dead are the least of your worries and your fellow humans are far more horrid. Come, join me as I speak the tales of those in my travels. The ones that dared to fight back against the Company. The ones that ended the world we used to live and thrive in. Welcome to the Outbreak. It all started with a single survivor searching for her sister. She had faced many obstacles, only to be beaten down. We watch a woman fight for survival, as she fights against someone she had once believed to be trusted company.

Tony Danials has lived with regret for most of his life. He never told Mark how he really felt. He watched him marry someone else. He stayed quiet. Now, years later, with nothing left but memories, Tony wakes up in a world that shouldn’t exist. In this reality, he’s younger. Stronger. And somehow, he’s married to Mark. The house, the photos, the life they share, it all feels real. But Tony remembers another version of things. One where Mark died. One where the love between them never had a chance. Now he’s caught between two truths, and the line between memory and reality keeps shifting.

Between saving humanity, a childhood friend or your true love, who would you choose? In a world where Science is the law and you must adhere strictly to scientific principles, I chose to go the opposite way and rely on the Universe for answers that Science cannot explain. Secretly, I cling onto the spiritual beliefs that my mother left for me.

Nathan Longton enjoys a quiet life running a café in Preston until Lan Nguyen, a beautiful, panicked student, stumbles into his world. She’s being followed, haunted by a voice she can’t explain… and wearing a necklace identical to Nathan’s. Their connection is no coincidence. With help from Ollie, his sarcastic, tech-savvy best friend, and Marcus, a jaded ex-scientist with a knack for cutting through the madness (and everyone’s patience), Nathan begins to uncover the truth: Project Janus Origin, a secretive experiment in mind control, memory manipulation, and human identity.

Mystic Traveler is a story about Mark, an ex-banker who can travel through a portal. He becomes an FBI agent. Both he and his wife, Kathy, are trained in hand-to-hand combat and firearms and are both expert shots. The anomaly can take him to different dimensions and times. He has no control over where it's going to take him. Sometimes it takes him to strange lands, and other times it will take him back to the old Wild West. In the time when he is home, he spends it in an FBI task force fighting bank robbers and kidnappers.

What if you could experience a virtual reality program so real, so immersive, that you could relive any moment in your life, in 5D? Every sight, sound, scent, taste, and touch, just as you remember. With That Moment, Inc, this can all be yours, but beware the addiction, dear listener. It could literally kill you. For Angela Andersen, MD, combining psychiatric care and virtual reality is a game-changer with unlimited potential to allow people to better themselves by revisiting their past to improve their future.