Audible Inc., the world’s largest seller and producer of downloadable audiobooks and other spoken word entertainment, today announced the release of The Home Front: Life in America During World War II. In the program, Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor Martin Sheen transports listeners back to this formative period in American history through eyewitness accounts, memories, and archival radio recordings. To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the attacks on Pearl Harbor, the episode charts what it was like to live through that day in Hawaii and reactions in the following days on the mainland.

“On the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, nothing is more immediate than sharing the sound of the initial hours and following days of those terrible events in 1941,” said Sheen, whose television and film credits include The West Wing, Anger Management, The Departed, and The Amazing Spider-Man.

In addition to The Home Front, listeners can now access a wide variety of compelling original series in a multitude of genres via the Audible app and enjoy as part of the on-demand, ad-free Channels experience. Other programming includes:

  • Breasts Unbound, in which host and science journalist Florence Williams delves deeply into the mysteries of the human breast with funny and enlightening reporting. Individual episodes focus on implants, breast cancer, and breast milk, with the December 30th episode featuring comedian Chelsea Handler sharing her relationship with her well-publicized bosom. New episodes will be released weekly throughout the month of December.
  • More new episodes of Presidents are People Too!, the series that brings the presidents to life complete with flaws, quirks, triumphs, scandals, and bodily ailments, including features on Presidents Bush Sr. and Hayes.
  • The final episodes in the first season of Pen and Place, featuring authors and the locations that inspire their writing. New episodes released in December include Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen and the buzzing community of Little Saigon, just outside of Los Angeles.
  • An additional four episodes of Bedtime Stories for Cynics hosted by Nick Offerman
  • The complete first seasons of Damned Spot, a show that investigates what happens to places in the aftermath of tragedies that have occurred there, and Authorized, in which writer Ashley C. Ford interviews authors including Zadie Smith, Yaa Gyasi, and more.
  • Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol: An Audible Drama, in which a full cast brings Dickens’ masterpiece to sparkling new life in serialized audio installments, reminding us of the true spirit of the festive season.
  • The preview episode of Ponzi Supernova, a fascinating look at Bernard Madoff, the man behind the largest Ponzi scheme in history, featuring exclusive jailhouse interviews with Madoff himself. The full season will premiere in January 2017.

Additional new original series and shows will be announced and added to Channels regularly.

“We are proud to be continuously adding a wide array of original series to Audible Channels featuring recognizable talent, thoughtful subject matter, and entertaining and educational content,” said Audible Chief Content Officer Andy Gaies. “These rich listening experiences across genres guarantee that our listeners will always find something to delight and intrigue them within the Channels experience.”

Introduced earlier this year, Audible Channels features a consistently refreshed, thoughtfully organized selection of original programs, lectures, and audio editions of standout articles and news from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Foreign Affair, Charlie Rose, The Onion, and other leading periodicals. Audible Channels also showcases 20 hand-selected Audible Playlists, from essential stories of the day, meditation and commute-sized comedy to compilations on science, history, technology, and more. Audible Channels is free with an Audible membership and to Amazon Prime members, and also available to purchase as a standalone offering for $4.95 a month.

For more information about Audible Channels and the wide array of shows found therein, visit audible.com/Channels.

Audible invented and commercialized the first digital audio player in 1997, and has since been at the forefront of the explosively growing audiobook download segment. Audible members downloaded an average of more than 17 books over the course of the year. More than half of new Audible members are first-time audiobook buyers.

ABOUT AUDIBLE, INC.

Audible, Inc., an Amazon.com, Inc. subsidiary (NASDAQ:AMZN), is the leading provider of premium digital spoken audio information and entertainment, offering customers a new way to enhance and enrich their lives every day. Audible was created to unleash the emotive music in language and the habituating power and utility of verbal expression. Audible content includes more than 325,000 audio programs from leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and business information providers. Audible is also the preeminent provider of spoken-word audio products for Apple’s iTunes Store.