Episodes

It has happened to many of us: we were passionate, ready to devote ourselves to our dreams, but we gradually lost our way, forgetting what we wanted in the beginning as we become too busy tackling our lives’ everyday problems. Tommy Caldwell, a legendary climber, has gone all the way to transform himself for what he loves. Caldwell never gave up his climbing career even after several drastic events: becoming a hostage, choosing to kill when faced with a life or death situation, losing a finger,...

Before we begin, we need to distinguish between a depressive mood and clinical depression. Despair is a common emotion. For example, if we plan to go hiking with our friends, and they tell us before we set out that they have to cancel, we may feel upset. Or, we may have secretly worked out for a month, in an effort to impress our friends, but they say they don't see any change, and we feel depressed as a result.We can see that feeling “depressed” is often associated with specific things; that is...

When it comes to quality sleep, you may say, I know! Sleeping eight hours a night is enough. But you know what? The eight hours of sleep theory has not been scientifically proven, and if you are constantly obsessing over getting a full eight hours of sleep every night, you might end up more stressed about not sleeping enough on the days you are too busy. So why is eight-hour sleep time illogical? According to this book, sleep is different from one person to another, and it is not necessary to fo...

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a condition characterized by difficulties regulating emotion. If a relationship with a certain person has made you feel like you are constantly treading on thin ice and as a result, you’re left utterly exhausted, but, at the same time, you feel you cannot just let go and walk away, the other person is very likely to have a borderline personality disorder. However, your experience is by no means unique. There already exists a group of people who have shar...

Health has long been a topic of discussion for humanity, as it is one of the biggest issues that affects people’s lives. However, the situation is hardly optimistic, with chronic diseases showing a blowout trend, medical expenses becoming increasingly high, and drug-induced diseases remaining too frequent. One main reason for this state of affairs is that people rely more on drugs while ignoring that every medicine has its side effects. It’s important to keep in mind that sunlight, air, food, a...

If we were to compress Earth’s 4.6 billion years of history into one single, ordinary day, the first primitive signs of life would emerge at about four o’clock in the morning. Single-celled organisms appeared early but it was not until half past eight that large quantities of microbes started to grow. The first batch of sea plants would come into being soon after, and twenty minutes later, the first ever school of jellyfish would be born. At about 9:04 at night, the ancient trilobites and other ...

The novel tells the story of an aristocratic youth Dorian Gray, who is handsome in his appearance and pure at heart. But, under the seduction of a hedonist, Lord Henry Wotton, he makes a pact, trading his portrait image for his soul in exchange for eternal youth. Blessed with youth without consequence, Dorian Gray descends into an abyss of sin and evil.

Without having watched a single Major League Baseball game, you probably still know the New York Yankees since they often get mentioned in Hollywood movies. As the wealthiest team, they inject enough money into their team, attracting a lot of fans who want to experience their games and outstanding records. They also use numerous advertising opportunities that attract even more fans to their team. Unlike the New York Yankees, the Oakland Athletics are a much smaller team which had a comparativel...

The story of Tess relates the tragic life of a pure woman beset by hardships, suffering, and abuse. The book’s heroine, Tess, is born into a poor peasant family, victims of the economic recession that hit Europe in the 1870s, known as the Long Depression. Tess's father stumbles upon the knowledge that he may be a descendant of the noble d'Urberville family. He sends Tess to these wealthy relatives in order to stake a claim that they are of the same family thereby overcome their current economic ...

The first business leader to be labeled "paranoid" was Andrew Grove, the book's author. Grove was the most legendary CEO in Intel's history. In 1968, Grove participated in the founding of Intel Corporation.He single-handedly built Intel into one of the world's largest technology companies. The term "paranoid" in this book refers to the ability and determination of a leader to come forward during a life-or-death moment and save the day. In other words the ability to lead the team out of the valle...

The novel Crime and Punishmentis written by Fyodor Dostoevsky, who was a realist writer. Alongside Leo Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev, he was one of the three towering figures of nineteenth-century Russian literature. Crime and Punishment is one of his most celebrated works and is widely acknowledged as a masterpiece. The novel explores social psychology as well as telling the story of crime and detection. It takes place in Saint Petersburg around the middle of the nineteenth century. The narrative ...

This book aims to help us achieve success, but it’s doing so through a different perspective from other similar books. Some books focus on the duration and efficiency of practices, like the best-selling book Peak, while others focus on how to enter the best mental state during practices, including Flow and Stealing Fire. This book, unlike those, teaches us how to carry out mental training––namely, how warriors and champions perform steadily at critical moments, realize their full potential, and ...

Think about this question first: Do you look forward to living the good life after retirement? What is it like? Maybe you have planned on playing games all day, are keen to pack your bag and travel the world, or maybe write a memoir of your own. No matter what your answer is, you should think again about this kind of deferred-life plan, that is, the idea of spending most of your prime years working and saving money, then spending the money during your retirement. This type of thinking is very c...

As children develop and grow, they sure can cause a series of headaches to their parents. Tantrums, for example, are a common episode. Infants’ interpersonal relationships can also unfold many issues. Imagine that, a moment ago, your child and their friend were seen happily sharing their toys together. As soon as you turned your back, though, the kids started to squabble. Maybe your child struggles with focus and concentration, but you haven’t noticed that yet? When your kids are doing homework,...

This book talks about the difficulties and development restrictions women around the world are facing right now, but also is the stories of people working to improve conditions and remove the restrictions. This book is written by Melinda French Gates. The first thing her name usually brings to mind is her former husband, Bill Gates, who founded Microsoft. However, there’s more to her than him. French Gates is also a respected philanthropist who constantly works to empower women. She is devoted ...

Speaking of anger, how is your state of mind? Do you experience anxiety, irritability, pain or the inability to communicate? Anger tells us that because of forces we can’t control, we’re not in control of our lives, that we’ve screwed everything up. It tells us that because we feel powerless, violated, misunderstood, and oppressed, we are helpless. We are no longer in control of ourselves, and we cannot remain independent. Therefore, we become alarmed when we feel angry, and see anger as an unst...

Nowhere is organization more important than in warfare. However, the ever changing nature of a modern battlefield was causing major problems for today’s soldiers. This was the situation faced by the American troops in Iraq during the Gulf War. Al-Qaeda's operations against American forces were unpredictable, haphazard, and lethal. Moreover, Al Qaeda's extraordinarily flexible and resilient nature had allowed them to render useless the conventional strikes of the U.S. military. Facing this type ...

The author of this book is probably no stranger to you – James Collins is the renowned author of business bestsellers Built to Last and Good to Great, the first focused on how to build a superior company, the second on ‘phoenixes’, ordinary companies that become great. In How the Mighty Fall, he explores instead the stories of once superior companies that become mediocre or even fail altogether. How were such mighty beasts brought to their knees? Collins started to become interested in the topi...

The author of the book is a renowned master of modern horror, Stephen King. Even if you’re unfamiliar with the name, you have probably seen or heard of two most famous movie adaptations: The Shawshank Redemption and The Shining. King has written about 200 short stories and more than 60 novels. And Hollywood has scrambled to cash in on those great tales. They have turned more than 100 of King’s works into films and TV series setting a Guinness World Record. King is the author with the greatest nu...

In recent years, people’s pace of life is accelerating, and the pressure of competition is also increasing. This leads to frequent occurrences of depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders. According to the Global Emotions Report conducted by the analytics company Gallup, over the years, the social negative mood index of global respondents has increased year by year, and people around the world are more depressed, angry, and scared than ever. German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, believe...

In the year 793 CE, ships with dragons and snakes on their prows appeared on the north coast of England, sneaking up on the island where the famous Lindisfarne Priory was located. The invaders jumped onto the shore and broke down the monastery gates. They beheaded every monk, tore down the gorgeous tapestries, and razed the altars. The island was instantly littered with bodies and stained with rivers of blood. This massacre happened so suddenly that it took everyone by surprise. In the 8th cent...

The human body is a fascinating and beautiful machine. Whether it’s the brain, a wrinkled blob resembling overcooked Jell-O pudding that gives us our ability to think; our skin that protects us from heat, cold, and does its best to self-repair cuts and bruises; the heart with its never ceasing beating, transfusing blood to the other organs of our body which work in concert diligently keeping us alive. Still, or perhaps due to our fascinating intricacy, we encounter many biological challenges in ...

The author of this book, John Doerr, is a partner and chairman of the venture capital firm KPCB, he is also a director at Google. “OKR” stands for objectives and key results. Doerr puts a lot of emphasis on how OKR can be successfully implemented in an organization. OKR is about alignment, about aiming at the same goal, and it requires everyone to understand the spirit of collaboration behind the concept. Doerr spends a lot of time talking about how different companies have implemented the conce...

As a pioneer in the study of radioactivity, Madame Curie’s achievements are widely known. From an early age, she displayed a strong thirst for knowledge and an exceptional capacity for learning. She received her bachelor’s degree from Sorbonne University, and her master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Paris. She was proficient in several languages, including Polish, English, French, and German. In her scientific career, Madame Curie received numerous accolades. She won 10 prizes, 1...