Modern Comfort

Modern humans are the most overweight, depressed, medicated and addicted cohort of adults that has ever lived, yet life has never been so good! Our sedentary lifestyles and ultra-processed foods are making us overweight and sick. Our thermoneutral environments are making us soft. Our digital world is leaving us physically disconnected. Clearly, something is wrong with modern life. The solution? Embrace discomfort. This audiobook explores the science behind counting your steps, cold showers, intermittent fasting, ‘digital sunsets’, and much, much more.

Today, it is difficult to imagine a living room without a sofa. When the first sofas on record were delivered in 17th-century France, the result was a radical reinvention of interior space. Symptomatic of a new age of casualness and comfort, the sofa ushered in an era known as the golden age of conversation; as the first piece of furniture designed for two, it was also considered an invitation to seduction. With the sofa came many other changes in interior space we now take for granted: private bedrooms, bathrooms, and the original living rooms.

The idea that our homes can communicate professional as well as personal identities may seem as new as the work-from-home revolution. But it was second nature to the ancient Romans, for whom the home was in many ways the center of public and private life. Roman authors saw infinite practical and symbolic value in houses, and they have much to say about them. How to Make a Home presents some of the best Roman writings on houses—from buying and selling to designing and decorating.

One of Tinseltown's brightest stars has been murdered. The accused is her estranged husband, and the situation doesn't look good. A knock on the office door of Los Angeles private eye Ben Malone can only mean one thing, a new case. Local defense attorney Liz Harper from the Los Angeles law firm Ross & Logan pays Malone a visit with an interesting story to tell.