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  • Conspiracy

  • A True Story of Power, Sex, and a Billionaire's Secret Plot to Destroy a Media Empire
  • Written by: Ryan Holiday
  • Narrated by: Ryan Holiday
  • Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (110 ratings)

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Conspiracy

Written by: Ryan Holiday
Narrated by: Ryan Holiday
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Publisher's Summary

An NPR Book Concierge best book of 2018!

A stunning story about how power works in the modern age - the book the New York Times called "one helluva page-turner" and The Sunday Times of London celebrated as "riveting...an astonishing modern media conspiracy that is a fantastic read." Pick up the book everyone is talking about.

In 2007, a short blogpost on Valleywag, the Silicon Valley vertical of Gawker Media, outed PayPal founder and billionaire investor Peter Thiel as gay. Thiel's sexuality had been known to close friends and family, but he didn't consider himself a public figure, and believed the information was private.

This post would be the casus belli for a meticulously plotted conspiracy that would end nearly a decade later with a $140 million dollar judgment against Gawker, its bankruptcy and with Nick Denton, Gawker's CEO and founder, out of a job. Only later would the world learn that Gawker's demise was not incidental - it had been masterminded by Thiel.

For years, Thiel had searched endlessly for a solution to what he'd come to call the "Gawker Problem". When an unmarked envelope delivered an illegally recorded sex tape of Hogan with his best friend's wife, Gawker had seen the chance for millions of page views and to say the things that others were afraid to say. Thiel saw their publication of the tape as the opportunity he was looking for. He would come to pit Hogan against Gawker in a multi-year proxy war through the Florida legal system, while Gawker remained confidently convinced they would prevail as they had over so many other lawsuit - until it was too late.

The verdict would stun the world and so would Peter's ultimate unmasking as the man who had set it all in motion. Why had he done this? How had no one discovered it? What would this mean - for the First Amendment? For privacy? For culture?

In Holiday's masterful telling of this nearly unbelievable conspiracy, informed by interviews with all the key players, this case transcends the narrative of how one billionaire took down a media empire or the current state of the free press. It's a study in power, strategy, and one of the most wildly ambitious - and successful - secret plots in recent memory.

Some will cheer Gawker's destruction and others will lament it, but after listening to this audiobook - and seeing the access the author was given - no one will deny that there is something ruthless and brilliant about Peter Thiel's shocking attempt to shake up the world.

©2018 Ryan Holiday (P)2018 Penguin Audio

What listeners say about Conspiracy

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Narration was terrible.

Please consider a professional for future projects. Inflection after every second word made it a frustrating listening experience. Also recording with an obvious cold was torturous as well.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Ovi
  • 2021-06-22

Best book I’ve listened to in a long time

The plot kept me intrigued from the beginning until the very end. I love the deep analysis and philosophical commentary peppered throughout the story. I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Ryan. Talks. Like. This.

Very interesting book, really glad I bought it. I don’t usually make a comment on the narration but Ryan my man, keep it movin’ instead of halting each word. Other than that this book’s a banger. Thanks

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Why use 3 words when 30 will do

The story is padded as all hell, with the author constantly repeating the point he just made over and over again. He'll state a point, then reword it, then go for some allegory illustrating it's point drawn from a famous point, then again rethread the same points again 3 more times. Repeat for each plot point. It turns a good story into a bit of a drag. It feels sometimes like the author didn't have enough material so he had to stretch to meet a page count.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

amazing

whether you support Thiel or gawker, Ryan is a master Storyteller. four words: buy this goddamn book.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great story, should have had someone else read

Title says it best. The book is in depth about conspiracies in general. Interesting side stories and I liked the way the author wove them all into the book.

Down side: it sounded like the guy had a stuffy nose during 3/4ths of his reading. It went from decent to worse in the second half of the book. In addition, he’d pause for effect, or slow to underscore parts of a sentence for no reason that helped the story telling.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Buy the Book Instead

Very interesting, dude's cadence is annoying though. Perhaps it is a better read than listen.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Most engaging book I’ve listened to

This is one of those books that I long for. Easy to follow but leaves me looking at the world through new lenses. Very thought provoking.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Best read this year

Listening to this intriguing story on Bluetooth in my car, I was happy for traffic delays.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • Sam
  • 2018-04-21

Good writing but poor narration.

A great story with good writing presented poorly by the author himself. Nasally sounding, inconsistent narration with poor sound quality. Background noises and very weird rhythm to his reading. I wish he had hired a professional reader.

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2 people found this helpful