10 Best Biography Audiobooks & Memoirs That Will Change You Forever

How well do you know your heroes? Here are the best biography audiobooks that unlock the private lives of the world's most intriguing and iconic figures.

There’s something special about biographies.

Something that makes them so different from any other type of literature or narrative.

In fact, Benjamin Disraeli, former Prime Minister of the UK once said:

“Read no history; nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.”

How true.

Biographies often paint a rare, remarkable, and raw portrait of a person’s life, with brushstrokes that are unique to the author.

Below, I’ve put together a list of the best biography audiobooks to listen to in your spare time.

They’re all crafted with an incredible amount of research and presented in an engaging way; and most are read by the authors themselves.

These biography audiobooks will hopefully expand your world and give you a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the lives of various well-known figures - both past and present.

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What are the Best Biography Audiobooks?

Here are 10 of the best biography audiobooks, including autobiographies, memoirs, and eye-opening third-party accounts:

1. Greenlights

Greenlights is the life-changing memoir that has inspired millions of listeners already.

It's a collection of Academy Award-winning Matthew McConaughey's unflinching honesty, unconventional wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction.

McConaughey took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of his life so far. He calls it his love letter to life.

According to McConaughey, if you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges—how to get relative with the inevitable—you can enjoy a state of success he calls “catching greenlights.”

This biography audiobook is a guide to catching more greenlights—and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.

=> Listen to Greenlights: get the free audiobook here.

2. I'm Glad My Mom Died

I'm Glad My Mom Died is a heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy.

It shares her struggles as a former child actor—including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother—and how she retook control of her life.

Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy.

So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,” eating little and weighing herself five times a day.

She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.

Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly, she is thrust into fame.

Though Mom is ecstatic, Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships.

These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer.

Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.

Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.

=> Listen to I'm Glad My Mom Died: get the free audiobook here.

3. 107 Days

In 107 Days, former Vice President Kamala Harris tells the story of one of the wildest and most consequential presidential campaigns in American history:

Your Secret Service code name is Pioneer.
You are the first woman in history to be elected vice president of the United States.
On July 21, 2024, your running mate, Joe Biden, announces that he will not be seeking reelection.
The presidential election will occur on November 5, 2024.
You have 107 days.

From the chaos of campaign strategy sessions to the intensity of debate prep under relentless scrutiny and the private moments that rarely make headlines, Kamala Harris offers an unfiltered look at the pressures, triumphs, and heartbreaks of a history-defining race.

Written with candor, a unique perspective, and the pace of a page-turning novel, 107 Days takes you inside the race for the presidency as no one has ever done before.

=> Listen to 107 Days: get the free audiobook here.

4. Tuesdays with Morrie

Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague.

Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it.

For Mitch Albom, that person was his college professor Morrie Schwartz.

Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder.

Wouldn’t you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you, an receive wisdom for your busy life today the way you once did when you were younger?

Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man’s life.

Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college.

Their rekindled relationship turned into one final “class”: lessons in how to live.

“The truth is, Mitch,” he said, “once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.”

Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie’s lasting gift with the world.

=> Listen to Tuesdays with Morrie: get the free audiobook here.

5. Elon Musk

Written by Walter Isaacson, this popular biography portrays an astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era, Elon Musk.

For two years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries.

At the beginning of 2022—after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and him becoming the richest man on earth—Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas.

“I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life,” he said.

Even as he said it, he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter, the world’s ultimate playground.

Revealing the tales of triumphs and turmoil of the man who helped lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence, this audiobook is worth a listen!

=> Listen to the Elon Musk: get the free audiobook here.

6. Becoming

This #1 New York Times bestseller is an intimate and inspiring memoir by former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama.

This autobiography is narrated by Mrs. Obama herself and invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her.

We follow her journey, from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago, to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address.

With honesty and lively wit, she describes the triumphs and disappointments, both public and private, that ultimately lead to her establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world.

=> Listen to Becoming: get the free audiobook here.

7. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition

Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank’s remarkable diary has since become an irreplaceable masterpiece and an eloquent testament to human bravery.

For two years during the Nazi occupation of Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home and went into hiding in the “Secret Annex” of an old office building.

Cut off from the outside world, Anne’s family faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death by the Gestapo.

This narration of Anne Frank's diary provides a powerful commentary on human courage and frailty, through the vivid experiences of a spirited young woman whose time in the world was tragically cut short.

=> Listen to Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl: get the free audiobook here.

8. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

Wild Swans is a family autobiography of three generations in twentieth-century China that blends the intimacy of memoir and the breadth of eyewitness history.

In this engrossing record of Mao’s impact on China, author Jung Chang opens up an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world.

We gain insights into the life of her grandmother, a warlord’s concubine; her mother’s struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents’ experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution.

As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang exposes listeners to the cycles of struggle and drama experienced by her family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.

=> Listen to Wild Swans: get the free audiobook here.

9. When Breath Becomes Air

When Breath Becomes Air is the gripping story of an idealistic young neurosurgeon who attempts to answer the question: What makes a life worth living?

At age 36, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer.

One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated.

This memoir chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student on a quest for the meaning of life, into a neurosurgeon at Stanford, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

=> Listen to When Breath Becomes Air: get the free audiobook here.

10. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

This autobiography audiobook is the debut memoir of American poet and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou.

Here we find a narrative that is all at once joyous and painful, mysterious and memorable - a story that has touched the hearts of listeners worldwide.

Abandoned by their parents, Maya and her older brother Bailey are sent to live with their grandmother and uncle in the small Southern town of Stamps in Arkansas.

There they endure the prejudice of the local community and suffer several racist incidents. Moreover, at eight years old, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age - and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime.

After struggling with guilt and shame for many years, Maya meets a warmhearted mentor who helps her discover that love for herself, the kindness of others, and the ideas of great authors will allow her to set herself free, at last.

=> Listen to I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: get the free audiobook.

Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed exploring this list of the best biography audiobooks as much as I enjoyed compiling it.

As you can see, there is so much variety in regards to the kinds of experiences we can tune into and benefit from as part of our personal development journey.

You can listen to the experiences of inventors, artists, businesspeople, and discover useful insights that you can apply in your own creative and entrepreneurial ventures.

On the other hand, you can listen to memoir audiobooks that share the poignant experiences of individuals who have conquered major challenges in their life and charted out their own path to success.

There's always something to learn, even when it comes to avoiding the mistakes that others have made.

Which life story will you tap into first?

=> Get a free biography audiobook of your choice here.

Happy listening!

P.S. If you'd like to write a memoir of your own, check out the best memoir writing courses here.

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