Richard Poplak's Books

Braking Bad

Chasing Lance Armstrong and the Cancer of Corruption

By: Richard Poplak

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Braking Bad

Chasing Lance Armstrong and the Cancer of Corruption

By: Richard Poplak

The story of disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong isn’t just about the greatest doping conspiracy in sports history—it's about the nature of corruption, whether in athletics, business, politics or society at large. Blending memoir that recounts his own family’s struggles with cancer and reportage from Europe's elite racing circuit (including access to riders such as Carlos Sastre and Ryder Hesjedel), journalist Richard Poplak draws out the parallels between the elaborate, cult-like regime constructed around Armstrong and the sort of corruption he's witnessed first-hand in the developing world. This book is not a definitive account of the Lance Armstrong era. It does not divulge any new information on his many years as a doper and cyclist. Rather, Braking Bad is an incisive, eloquent, and thought-provoking meditation on the most human of foibles, corruption, and how it preys so auspiciously on the most human of virtues, idealism and hope.

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Doubleday Canada

Published Date

ISBN 10

0385680821

ISBN 13

9780385680820

Sheikhs Batmobile

In Pursuit Of American Pop Culture In The Muslim World

By: Richard Poplak

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Sheikhs Batmobile

In Pursuit Of American Pop Culture In The Muslim World

By: Richard Poplak

What happens to our pop culture when it meets another culture head-on—especially one that according to some is completely at odds with our own? In The Sheikh's Batmobile, pop-cultural commentator Richard Poplak sets out on an unusual two-year odyssey. His mission is to see what becomes of his, and North America's, obsessions—pop songs and sitcoms, Hollywood movies and shoot-em-up video games, muscle cars and punk music—when they make their way into the Muslim world. Over the course of his journey, Poplak is body slammed by WWE fans in Afghanistan, hangs out with hip-hop artists in Palestine, head bangs to heavy metal in Cairo, discovers a world of extreme makeovers in Beirut, bowls with the chief of police in small-town Kazakhstan, and encounters a mysterious Texan building rocket-propelled batmobiles for a clientele of sheikhs. With uproarious humour and keen cultural insight, Poplak asks some vital questions: How is American pop culture consumed and reinterpreted in the Islamic world? What does that say about how we are viewed by young Muslims? And can Homer Simpson bridge the differences that are tearing our world apart?

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Page Count

493

Publisher

Penguin Canada

Published Date

ISBN 10

0143172891

ISBN 13

9780143172895

The Sheikh's Batmobile

In Pursuit of American Pop Culture in the Muslim World

By: Richard Poplak

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The Sheikh's Batmobile

In Pursuit of American Pop Culture in the Muslim World

By: Richard Poplak

What happens to our pop culture when it meets another culture head-on—especially one that, according to some, is completely at odds with our own? In The Sheikh’s Batmobile, pop culture commentator Richard Poplak sets out on an unusual two-year odyssey. His mission is to see what becomes of his and America’s obsessions—pop songs and sitcoms, Hollywood movies and shoot-'em-up video games, muscle cars and punk music—when they make their way into the Muslim world. Over the course of his journey, Poplak gets body-slammed by WWE fans in Afghanistan, hangs out with hip-hop artists in Palestine, headbangs to heavy metal in Cairo, discovers a world of extreme makeovers in Beirut, bowls with the chief of police in small-town Kazakhstan, and encounters a mysterious Texan who builds rocket-propelled Batmobiles for a clientele of sheikhs. With uproarious humor and keen cultural insight, Poplak asks some vital questions: How is American pop culture consumed and reinterpreted in the Islamic world? What does that say about how we are viewed by young Muslims? And can Homer Simpson bridge the divisions that are tearing our world apart?

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Page Count

369

Publisher

Catapult

Published Date

ISBN 10

1593762925

ISBN 13

9781593762926

Rise and Decline and Rise of China

Searching for an Organising Philosophy

By: Ross Anthony,Kevin Bloom,Daouda Cissé,Martyn Davies,Maxime Lauzon-Lacroix,Garth le Pere,Thaddeus Metz,Richard Poplak,Gauhar Raza,Yongjun Zhao,Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA)

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Rise and Decline and Rise of China

Searching for an Organising Philosophy

Running like a red thread through this book are the manifestations of Sino-African relations dating back many centuries. In this way, The Rise and Decline and Rise of China: Searching for an Organising Philosophy takes forward the work MISTRA conducted on the Mapungubwe society, one of the advanced states that existed in southern Africa some 800 years ago. What makes this research report unique, though, is that the treatment of these issues has been undertaken primarily from an African perspective.

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Page Count

430

Publisher

Real African Publishers Pty Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

192065593X

ISBN 13

9781920655938

Braking Bad

Chasing Lance Armstrong and the Cancer of Corruption

By: Richard Poplak

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Braking Bad

Chasing Lance Armstrong and the Cancer of Corruption

By: Richard Poplak

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Doubleday Canada

Published Date

ISBN 10

0385680821

ISBN 13

9780385680820

Ja, No Man

A memoir of pop culture, girls...and apartheid

By: Richard Poplak

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Ja, No Man

A memoir of pop culture, girls...and apartheid

By: Richard Poplak

Ja, No, Man is an eerily familiar portrayal of the life of an ordinary white South African growing up during Apartheid-era South Africa. Told with extraordinary humour and self-awareness, Poplak's story brings his gradual understanding of the difference between his country and the rest of the world vividly to life. A startlingly original memoir that veers sharply from the quotidian to the bizarre and back again, Ja, No, Man is an enlightening, darkly hilarious, and, at times, disturbing read.

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Page Count

325

Publisher

Penguin Random House South Africa

Published Date

ISBN 10

0143527002

ISBN 13

9780143527008

Ja, No Man

A memoir of pop culture, girls...and apartheid

By: Richard Poplak

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Ja, No Man

A memoir of pop culture, girls...and apartheid

By: Richard Poplak

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Page Count

325

Publisher

Penguin Random House South Africa

Published Date

ISBN 10

0143527002

ISBN 13

9780143527008

Continental Shift

A Journey Into Africa’s Changing Fortunes

By: Kevin Bloom,Richard Poplak

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Continental Shift

A Journey Into Africa’s Changing Fortunes

By: Kevin Bloom,Richard Poplak

AFRICA IS FAILING. AFRICA IS SUCCEEDING. Africa is betraying its citizens. Africa is a place of starvation, corruption, disease. African economies are soaring faster than any on earth. Africa is squandering its bountiful resources. Africa is a roadmap for global development. Africa is turbulent. Africa is stabilising. Africa is doomed. Africa is the future. All of these pronouncements prove equally true and false, as South African journalists Richard Poplak and Kevin Bloom discover on their 9-year roadtrip through the paradoxical continent they call home. From pillaged mines in Zimbabwe to the creation of an economic marketplace in Ethiopia; from Namibia's middle class to the technological challenges facing Nollywood in the 21st Century; from China's investment in Botswana to the rush for resources in the Congo; and from the birth of Africa's newest country, South Sudan, to the worsening conflict in CAR, here are eight adventures on the trail of a new Africa. Part detective story, part report from this economic frontier, Continental Shift follows the money as it flows through Chinese coffers to international conglomerates, to heads of state, to ordinary African citizens, all of whom are intent on defining a metamorphosing continent.

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Page Count

340

Publisher

Portobello Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1846274966

ISBN 13

9781846274961

Until Julius Comes

Adventures in the Political Jungle

By: Richard Poplak

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Until Julius Comes

Adventures in the Political Jungle

By: Richard Poplak

Until Julius Comes is a rollicking, unprecedented journey through the wilds of South African politics in an election year. With his sharp wit and perceptive observations, Richard Poplak exposes the tricks of the political trade and the skullduggery that comes with it. Writing under the byline Hannibal Elector, he spares no one: Julius Malema looks like a 'Telebubbie in his EFF onesie'; Jacob Zuma is a tasteless home renovator with 'no access to a Woolworths lifestyle magazine' and Helen Zille sends out 'Braveheart vibes' as she guides her troops into battle. In vignettes that switch between the hilarious, the tragic and the terrifying, Poplak rips back the curtain and exposes the country for what it is: a bustling, contested and divided circus trying to find its way to wholeness." -- Back cover.

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Page Count

204

Published Date

ISBN 10

0624070115

ISBN 13

9780624070115

Rise and Decline and Rise of China

Searching for an Organising Philosophy

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Rise and Decline and Rise of China

Searching for an Organising Philosophy

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

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Page Count

430

Publisher

Real African Publishers Pty Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

192065593X

ISBN 13

9781920655938

Book's by Richard Poplak

Braking Bad

Braking Bad

Sheikhs Batmobile

Sheikhs Batmobile

The Sheikh's Batmobile

The Sheikh's Batmobile

Rise and Decline and Rise of China

Rise and Decline and Rise of China

Braking Bad

Braking Bad

Ja, No Man

Ja, No Man

Ja, No Man

Ja, No Man

Continental Shift

Continental Shift

Until Julius Comes

Until Julius Comes

Rise and Decline and Rise of China

Rise and Decline and Rise of China

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