"It soon becomes clear that this book isn't just about an athletic race. It's also about the human race" ( Bloomberg Businessweek).Having run in more than six hundred races over the span of fifty-five years, Ed Ayres is a legendary distance runner—and this book is his urgent exploration of the connection between individual endurance and a sustainable society.The Longest Race begins in 2001 at the starting line of the JFK 50 Mile—the nation...

Life Lessons through MusicShortlisted for The Age Non-fiction Book of the Year; People's Choice, Queensland Books of the Year; Booksellers' Choice Non-fiction Book of the Year.How can we pause long enough to repair ourselves? How can we make space and time in our lives to know ourselves?One way is through music - learning music, listening to music, being open to music. Because music consoles and restores us. Through music, whether w...

To most, the collapse of modern civilization is the stuff of fiction. Yet, science confirms that misuse of technology and environmental abuse places our world in grave danger of ruin. The World Scientists' Warning to Humanity places our civilization on a collision course. Defying Dystopia analyses how we have come to this, and what options remain for far-seeing people to take control of their own destiny and survive the future.Ed Ayres, who has worked with some ic...

First and foremost a book about running, The Longest Race takes listeners alongside ultramarathoner Ed Ayres as he prepares for, runs, and finishes the JFK fifty-mile race at a then record-breaking time for his age division—sixty and older. But for Ayres, this race was about more than just running, and the book also encompasses his musings and epiphanies along the way about possibilities for human achievement and the creation of a sustainable civilization.Looking back over...

How can we pause long enough to repair ourselves? How can we make space and time in our lives to know ourselves? One way is through music – learning music, listening to music, being open to music. Because music consoles and restores us. Through music, whether we are listening or playing, we know ourselves more intimately, more honestly, and more clearly with every note. And with every note, music offers us a hand to the beyond. Through music, we can say what we didn't even know we felt. Th...

Living with a powerfully ambitious writer who is consumed by his work, and trying to find a place for her own spirit to thrive, Helen Garner rails against the confines. At the same time she is desperate to find the truth in their relationship – and the truth of her own self. This is a harrowing story, a portrait of the messy, painful, dark side of love lost, of betrayal and sadness and the sheer force of a woman’s anger. But it is also a story of resilience and strength, strewn with sharp ...

After her younger sister died suddenly, broadcaster Indira Naidoo's world was shattered. Turning to her urban landscape for solace, Naidoo found herself drawn to a fig tree overlooking Sydney harbour. A connection began to build between the two – one with a fractured heart, the other a centurion offering quiet companionship while asking nothing in return. As Naidoo grappled with her heartbreak, an unnoticed universe of infinite beauty revealed itself: pale vanilla clouds pirouetting across...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Deena Kastor is one of the greatest bodies in distance running, but this book captures what is so groundbreaking about her mind.”—Alexi Pappas, Olympian, writer, and filmmaker“Inspiring, fascinating, and insightful. Practical for anyone trying to overcome the biggest impediments to climbing that next hill of growth.”—Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage and Big PotentialDeena...

The story behind Banjo Paterson's iconic Australian song.'Once a jolly swagman camped by a BillabongUnder the shade of a Coolibah treeAnd he sang as he watched and waited till his Billy boiledYou'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me...'In 1894, twelve-year-old Matilda flees the city slums to find her unknown father and his farm. But drought grips the land, and the shearers are on strike. Her father has turned swaggie and he's wan...

The New York Times bestselling “manifesto for the future that is grounded in practical solutions addressing the world’s most pressing concerns: overpopulation, food, water, energy, education, health care and freedom” (The Wall Street Journal).Since the dawn of humanity, a privileged few have lived in stark contrast to the hardscrabble majority. Conventional wisdom says this gap cannot be closed. But it is closing—and fast.In Abundance

People spent the twentieth century obsessed with the future. We created technologies that would help connect us faster, gather news, map the planet, and compile knowledge. We strove for an instantaneous network where time and space could be compressed. Well, the future's arrived. We live in a continuous now enabled by Twitter, email, and a so-called real-time technological shift. Yet this "now" is an elusive goal that we can never quite reach. And the dissonance between our digital selves ...

Drawing from the horizons of science, today's leading thinkers reveal the hidden threats nobody is talking about—and expose the false fears everyone else is distracted by.What should we be worried about? That is the question John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org ("The world's smartest website"—The Guardian), posed to the planet's most influential minds. He asked them to disclose something that, for scientific reasons, worries them—particularly scenarios that aren't on the popular ra...