Meet Our Curators

David Park

Ex-McKinsey consultant. Measures books against his parents' dry cleaner hustle.

8 reviews

Management consultant, spent 8 years at McKinsey before going independent. Now I help startups not die, which is harder than it sounds. Audiobooks are my MBA continuation program - I've listened to more business books than I've had hot meals this quarter. That's not a flex, that's a cry for help. Korean-American, grew up in LA watching my parents run a dry cleaning business in Koreatown. 14-hour days, no vacations, church on Sundays. Every business book I review gets measured against their real-world hustle. Most fail that test. "Passive income" is fiction my parents never got to read. I listen at 2.0x because time is money and most business books have 45 minutes of insight padded into 8 hours. My Audible library is 70% unfinished business books. I don't apologize for this - life's too short for bad ideas delivered slowly. My wife Jenny says I'm "aggressively efficient." She's not wrong. She also made me listen to a romance novel last month. I finished it in two days. We don't talk about that.

Dr. Priya Sharma

Psychology professor. Analyzes characters like case studies. Not sorry about it.

20 reviews

Behavioral psychologist at Boston University, specializing in how stories shape identity. I analyze fictional characters like case studies and I'm not sorry about it. Published three papers on narrative psychology that approximately nobody read except my dissertation committee. C'est la vie académique. Daughter of Indian immigrants, raised in New Jersey on a diet of Bollywood movies and Agatha Christie novels. Weird combination? Maybe. But it taught me that all stories are about why people do terrible things to each other. My mother still doesn't understand why I need more books when I already have so many. "Maa, that's not how this works." I listen during morning jogs through Cambridge (my therapist says exercise helps, she's right), cooking elaborate dishes I'll eat alone (don't feel sorry for me, I prefer it), and pretending my research papers will write themselves (they won't). If a book has unrealistic character motivations, I will notice and I will be annoyed. The human mind has patterns. Learn them or lose me.

Elena Rodriguez

Freelance designer, 47 books made her cry last year. Spreadsheet to prove it.

20 reviews

Freelance graphic designer in Austin, working from my apartment with two cats (Frida and Diego) who judge my book choices. I listen 6-8 hours daily while designing - audiobooks are my creative fuel. I care more about emotional resonance than plot mechanics. Make me feel something or what's the point? First-gen Mexican-American, art school dropout turned self-taught designer. My abuela raised me on telenovelas in her living room in San Antonio, so I have zero shame about ugly-crying to romance audiobooks. She passed two years ago and sometimes I pick books I know would make her gasp and clutch her rosary. Miss you, Abuela. Cried during 47 books last year. Kept a spreadsheet because I'm unhinged like that. Current record: four crying sessions in one book (Beach Read, if you're wondering). I listen at 1.0x because I'm savoring, not speedrunning. Julia Whelan's voice is like a warm hug from someone who actually likes you. If a narrator can't do emotional subtlety, I'm out. Life's too short for flat delivery.

James Cooper

Retired Colonel, 25 years Army. Cried during The Things They Carried.

20 reviews

Retired Army Colonel, 25 years service including three combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Started audiobooks during 16-hour flights to nowhere - C-17s aren't known for their entertainment systems. Now I'm thoroughly addicted. Running a small security consulting firm in Austin gives me plenty of windshield time. My clients are mostly corporations worried about everything from cyber threats to executive protection. Boring compared to Fallujah, but the coffee's better. My wife Linda says I only like books where things explode. She's not entirely wrong, but she doesn't know I cried during "The Things They Carried." Some books hit different when you've lived it. Bad military details ruin books for me faster than anything - if you call a magazine a "clip," I'm already annoyed. I listen at 1.25x because life's too short for slow narrators. My German Shepherd, Ranger, has heard every book I've reviewed. He's a better listener than most of my former lieutenants.

Jordan Reeves

Horror podcast host. Listens in the dark. Cat named Shirley (after Jackson).

9 reviews

Host of "The Witching Hour" podcast - 200+ episodes exploring horror in all media. By day, I'm a librarian at a small-town branch in Oregon (yes, the vibes are exactly what you're imagining). By night, I'm convincing my listeners that The Haunting of Hill House is scarier than anything Stephen King ever wrote. I stand by this take. Non-binary, grew up in a very religious household where horror was forbidden. Naturally, I've made it my entire personality. My apartment looks like a Halloween store had a baby with a rare bookshop. My cat is named Shirley (after Jackson, obviously). She's black. I'm aware this is on-the-nose. I listen to audiobooks in the dark because that's how horror is meant to be consumed. Yes, I've scared myself. Yes, I've had to turn the lights on at 2 AM like a coward. No, I don't regret my choices. If the narrator doesn't commit to the creepy, I'm out. Good horror requires good acting, and audiobook narrators are actors. The ones who understand this? They create magic. The ones who don't? They create background noise.

Marcus Williams

English teacher, 20 years. Podcast with 47 listeners (one is his mom).

20 reviews

High school English teacher in Chicago, 20 years watching teenagers pretend to read. I run a tiny podcast about classic literature called "The Annotated Life" that exactly 47 people listen to. One of them is my mom. She says she's proud but I know she falls asleep during my Faulkner episodes. Audiobooks saved my relationship with reading after years of grading papers destroyed my eyesight and patience. Used to think audiobooks were "cheating" - now I've listened to more classics than I ever read in grad school. The irony isn't lost on me. I listen while walking the lakefront with my wife Denise, grading papers at 11PM, and pretending to pay attention at faculty meetings. Principal Martinez, if you're reading this, I was definitely listening to your budget presentation. (I wasn't. I was listening to Middlemarch.) I believe great narration is performance art. A good narrator doesn't just read - they interpret. I listen at 1.0x because "the author chose those words" and I choose to hear them properly. My students think I'm ancient for this take. They're not wrong about the ancient part.

Maria Santos

ICU nurse, 15 years. Yells at dashboard when medical thrillers get it wrong.

13 reviews

ICU nurse for 15 years, currently working nights at a Level 1 trauma center in Phoenix. I've seen things that would make most thriller authors blush and then ask for details. Audiobooks keep me sane during 3 AM charting sessions when the unit is quiet (knock on wood, always knock on wood). Filipina-American, eldest of five, first in my family to go to college. My mom wanted me to be a doctor. Nursing school was my rebellion - turns out I like being the one who actually talks to patients. Now I'm the nurse doctors call when they've run out of ideas. Mom's finally proud. Only took 15 years. I listen on my drive home from night shift - 45 minutes of audiobook helps me decompress before I wake my husband Carlos and the kids with breakfast smells. My favorite thing is when a medical thriller gets something wrong and I can yell at my dashboard. "THAT'S NOT HOW DEFIBRILLATORS WORK!" My car has heard things. When a book gets medicine right, I notice. When it gets it wrong, I notice more. There is no in-between.

Rachel Morrison

Mom of 3. Audiobook time is 45min hiding in car. No shame.

13 reviews

Stay-at-home mom of three (Emma 7, Lucas 5, Baby Sophie 2), former marketing manager at a CPG company. Left corporate life when Sophie was born and discovered that managing three kids is harder than managing three product launches. At least products don't have meltdowns at Target. My audiobook time is sacred and hard-won: morning school drop-off (25 minutes of peace), toddler nap time (if she actually naps, big if), and 45 minutes of sitting in my car in the garage before going inside. Don't judge me. That car time is the only silence I get. I don't have time for 40-hour epics or books that require a character wiki. I need stories that can survive being paused 47 times and still make sense when I come back. Bonus points if I can finish a book in a week. Bigger bonus if the ending doesn't make me ugly-cry at school pickup. I listen at 1.25x because I'm not speedrunning, I'm surviving. My library is 90% comfort reads and I'm not sorry. Sometimes a predictable happy ending is exactly what you need after cleaning up yogurt from places yogurt should never be.

Sarah Chen

FAANG engineer, 2hr daily commute. Rates books by commute-worthiness.

20 reviews

Software engineer at a FAANG company, 2+ hour daily Caltrain commute from SF to Mountain View. That's 50+ audiobooks per year minimum. I rate books by "commute-worthiness" - can you follow it while half-asleep at 6AM on a packed train surrounded by other zombies? Grew up in Seattle, CS degree from UW, now debugging distributed systems by day and debugging my book choices by night. I have opinions about both. Last week I fixed a production outage at 2AM and then couldn't sleep, so I finished a 12-hour sci-fi series. No regrets. My boyfriend Kevin thinks I love podcasts about optimization more than him. He might be right, but he's also the one who got me hooked on The Bobiverse, so he only has himself to blame. That series got me through three months of on-call hell. I listen at 1.5x default, 1.75x for business books that could've been blog posts (looking at you, every startup book ever). Ray Porter is my spirit narrator. If I ever meet him, I will embarrass myself.

Tom Bradley

CS grad student. Thesis progress: concerning. Will defend LitRPG with dying breath.

13 reviews

CS grad student at Georgia Tech, supposedly writing a thesis on procedural generation but actually listening to fantasy audiobooks. My advisor Dr. Patel is "concerned about my progress." I am not. The Stormlight Archive isn't going to listen to itself. Grew up in rural Georgia playing D&D with the three other nerds in my county. We met in the back of the public library because it was the only air-conditioned place that would have us. Now I'm the guy who explains Sanderson's magic systems at parties. (I don't get invited to many parties. Correlation unclear.) My apartment is 40% books, 40% board games, 20% regret about my thesis timeline. My mom keeps asking when I'll graduate. "Soon, Mom. Soon." (It will not be soon.) I listen while coding, gaming, and procrastinating on my thesis. Steven Pacey is a god among narrators - his Logen Ninefingers voice lives rent-free in my head. If your fantasy narrator can't do distinct voices, what are we even doing here? I will defend LitRPG with my dying breath. Yes, stat blocks in fiction are good, actually.