Episodes

Novice writers have doubts when starting a novel: where to begin? Experienced writers might wonder why their finished novels aren’t selling? The book Techniques of the Selling Writer summarizes the experience of professional writers, systematically introduces steps to make stories more appealing to readers and provides practical methods for writers who want to create a best-selling novel. This book is a guide to turn rejection letters into checks.

This amazing book, serving as a core to John Truby's 30-year experience in teaching story creation and writing, has continuously been on sale for more than a decade. It contains a collection of secrets in story writing that help storytellers in their pursuit to finding accurate ways to create fascinating stories. Simultaneously, it also dissects multiple story writing techniques that have been portrayed in classical movies and novels in an easily understandable manner for the consumption of all ...

In this book, Josh Waitzkin, a famous former chess prodigy and later Tai Chi world champion, uses life stories to share his unique insights into the art of learning. He offers a series of principles for improving performance in any field, including “making small circles,” “repeating the moments,” and “creating chunks.” If you are looking for highly efficient learning methods or are eager to improve your learning skills, this is the book for you.

Because you often see and hear about violent occurrences in the news, are you anxious? Do you think we live in a violent era? In this book, Steven Pinker points out that continuous historical development has led to reductions in slavery, torture, and use of the death penalty. Wars have become sporadic; rape, domestic violence, and hate crimes have also declined. The likelihood of violent incidents has declined. In fact, we are living through the most peaceful era in human history. Bill Gates sai...

If you've never found a time management tool or method that works for you, try Bullet Journaling, an amazing note-taking technique that is used and shared by more than 10 million people around the world. All you need to restart your productive life is a pen and a notebook. Bullet Journals will allow you to track the past, order the present, and design the future all at once with the simplest symbols and methods possible.

What is the conscious way of parenting? When raising children, parents should accept their child’s essential self with an open and respectful mind, allowing them to enjoy the right to be themselves. At the same time, parents need to have enough courage to face their true selves, maintaining good physical and mental health. Only then can parents achieve awakening and transformation while building a meaningful, spiritual partnership with their children. Thus helping them grow into well-rounded hum...

Thanks to today's rapid development of gene sequencing, cloning, and other genetic technologies, the Human Genome Project has completed the sequencing of all human genes. The quest to decipher the human genetic code seems to have been achieved. However, for many people, the term “gene” is still a mysterious concept. This popular science book about genes not only digs into the past, present, and future of genetic research, but also reveals how genes work and sheds light on the mysteries of life.

What is Ebola? Where did it come from? How can humans fight it? This nonfiction book is full of real stories, as the author truthfully tells the tale of Ebola virus. After publication, the book has been at the top of the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list for 61 weeks. As one of the most influential nonfiction classics about Ebola, it’s been translated into more than 30 languages and sold all over the world.

This book is a selection of pieces from a column written by talk show queen, Oprah Winfrey, in The Oprah Magazine. In the book, Winfrey looks back on her decades of struggling and searching. While doing this, she honestly asks and answers herself, “After all the ups, downs, and achievements, what do I truly believe? What will I always stick to?” She confronts her inner sensitivities and vulnerabilities, recalls tumultuous past events, and remembers the details of her happiness and growth, hoping...

When you think of cities, what comes to mind? Is it the high cost of living, traffic congestion, or air pollution? This book navigates through human history to dispel the misconceptions about urban life. Using specific cities as examples, it demonstrates the strengths of growing cities and analyzes the problems they face in their pursuit for development.

Natasha's Dance is a study of Russian culture and the origins of the national character. The book explores the difference between European civilization and folk elements in Russian culture, the confrontation between "civilized" and "native" Russia, and the divide between the aristocratic elite and the rural underclass. It reveals the formation and development of Russian culture, presenting a brilliant and dazzling scroll of culture.

Unlike earlier approaches, in this major work Freud considers sociology through the lens of psychoanalysis. He identifies a connection between the foundation of civilization and human’s most basic instincts. Civilization brings misfortune to human beings because its effect is to suppress our primary drives, the sex drive and death drive. In a comprehensive programme he interweaves other important theoretical perspectives, such as the theories of the unconscious, libido, and the super-ego.

We always have a choice. They determine our survival. As an Auschwitz survivor, Edith Eva Eger, author of The Choice: Embrace the Possible, tells us that everyone still has a choice even when imprisoned in that horrendous death factory. When facing fear and hopelessness, you can choose to give up and live like a zombie, or to hope and persevere to give your life a different meaning.

When we usually think of philosophy as a problematic and impractical field of study. However, philosophy isn't only the way intellectuals play games with words in their ivory-towers. Philosophers are fully aware of life's practicalities, dilemmas, and problems. In this book, the author interprets the thought of six philosophers and present us with an enticingly simplified account of how philosophy can lead us to resolve six common spiritual ills.

How to build a well-lived, joyful life? You can find the answer in one of the most popular courses at Stanford University––the life design class. The life design class teaches you to make career plans using design thinking, and also to find a suitable job and live a happy life. The course also offers a lot of specific instructions, helping many students find the direction of their life and career. This book is a summary of the life design class.

This book emphasizes on describing effective learning rather than explaining it or giving a theory about it. Children have a unique way of learning that fits their condition. It blends in with each of their game and experiment, and also, with each of their learning processes. This includes learning to speak and read, the mastery of sports, art, math, and the acquisition of any other knowledge. This way of learning may be a little strange for adults but is actually the most effective way of learn...

In life, solitude is seemingly a negative state that many people criticize and fear. Solitary people are regarded as misfits. In fact, in many situations, solitude has a very positive aspect. It can help us be introspective and lead a fulfilled life. At critical moments in people’s lives, and for those gifted with creativity, solitude has an even greater value than intimate interpersonal relationships.

Nowadays, almost everyone's goal is to deal efficiently with all the many matters in a healthy work-life balance. We are all always working against the clock, absorbing different methods of time management, and hoping to squeeze more into fewer hours. Yet, this book tells us that managing energy, not time, is the key to optimum performance. Skillful energy management is the key to achieving efficiency, health, and happiness.

While traditional gyms make us physically fit, Brain Gym solves problems involving anxiety, stress, depression, concentration, memory, creativity, and other issues on a case-by-case basis. In this book, the author introduces us to the significant impact that scientifically proven physical exercises have on the brain and its mechanisms. Our stress extinguisher, happy pill, memory boost, inspiration engine, and anti-aging device can all be found at Brain Gym.

As human beings, we are social animals. And because of this, our opinions and behavior are always influenced by society and people. Such influences can be powerful enough to lead to actions that are beyond comprehension. But why do we yield to other people's points of view and follow what they do? How does what we see and hear subtly steer our minds? This book, The Social Animal, will usher you into the world of social psychology and reveal the factors that influence our opinions and behavior.

This book reveals the secret recipe of a master negotiator, Roger Dawson. It summarizes Dawson's 30 years' experience of negotiation, and it is recommended by top universities like Yale and Princeton. The techniques in this book allow you to not only dominate a negotiation but also to persuade your opponent, no matter you are talking with a client, your boss, an insurance agent, or a car dealer, etc.

Through writing, we can tell our stories, share our feelings, organize our thoughts, heal our wounds, perceive the present, and appreciate the meaning of life...... Considering the significance of writing, how can ordinary people learn to write? As a best-selling classic guide book to writing for over thirty years, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, combines writing with Zen practice and shares practical approaches in writing. Since its publication, this book has had a profound i...

If you frequently display symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia, depression, you may be suffering from trauma. People afflicted by trauma feel like being trapped in a confined darkroom and can see no way out. So what can we do to heal trauma? The book Waking the Tiger tells us that we can use the body's instincts to heal trauma and walk out of the darkness.

How do you tell a good story? Story is the must-read classic from the “Screen-writing godfather”, Robert McKee, which explains how to write a screenplay. It gets rid of preconceived ideas about the industry, and digs deeply into the true meaning of the art of writing for the silver screen, how to make a story that touches people’s hearts, how to share a unique value system, and how to express this with a style suitable for the silver screen. Films absolutely have to make the audience experience ...