What You Will Learn

You might think that you don’t need to buy a book about dating and relationships. Isn’t love something effortless, natural, and organic? You should be falling in love without thinking your way into it because love is a spontaneous chemical reaction, not a calculated decision. Even though people hold onto these beliefs, finding love doesn’t always work out perfectly. But here’s the truth: while love may be a natural instinct, dating isn’t. In How to Not Die Alone, dating coach and matchmaker Logan Ury touches on different factors that could be preventing us from finding love. Remember the happily ever after fallacy? It’s the mistaken belief that the hard work of love is about finding someone – but that’s only the first act of your love story. The next part is hard, too – making the relationship last for the long haul.Drawn from years of research, insights from behavioural science, and real life experiences, How to Not Die Alone offers guidance to finding, building, and sustaining a relationship that accom

This week, Ashto and Jonesy will delve into some of the major findings of Dr Greger’s decades of research on the 15 top causes of premature death. How Not to Die is filled with helpful advice to prevent chronic illnesses and get better health outcomes through consuming healthier foods. It has been repeatedly proven that healthier diets (such as whole-food or plant-based diets) aren’t just effective in preventing diseases, but often stopping them on their track. From this book, we all can learn how nutritional and lifestyle interventions can sometimes trump prescription pills or other pharmaceutical and surgical approaches. This week, we’ll learn how to apply Dr Greger’s practical and actionable advice to live healthier lives and not die from chronic diseases prematurely. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Written by the world-renowned spiritual guru Sadhguru, Death explains the concept of death from a spiritual standpoint, questioning the negative connotations that often surround mortality. Just like life, death is made up of three important components: biological, physical, and metaphysical. While our biological and psychological understandings of death have increased, science doesn’t acknowledge the possibility that something beyond our human sense perception could precede life or succeed death. In this book, Sadhguru draws upon his inner experience to pinpoint and explore the philosophical aspects of death. Death is an eye-opening guide to understanding how we perceive grief and hopefully preparing us to make a beautiful experience out of death. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As we wrap up the year of podcasting, Jonesy and Ashto review our favourite book we read and reviewed on the podcast this year. After going through a few honourable mentions, we share our respective "Top 10s", plus a special musical treat at the end based on a couple of the books high up on the list (apologies for the long time fans "the song" is not back yet... this is a different song) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Ashto and Jonesy learns the basic knowledge you need to have when you (or your partner) fall pregnant and a few basic do’s and don’ts about pregnancy that you may not have thought about before. A compilation of advice and guidelines backed by the latest research, What to Expect When You're Expecting is one of the best go-to manuals for new parents around the world. In this book, Heidi Murkoff explains the week-to-week overview of pregnancy and touches on important points such as diet, self-care, and possibilities of complications. This book also prepares expectant parents by addressing problems and issues regarding today’s rapidly changing society and how it affects the use of alternative medicine, assisted conception, and various options for labour and delivery. Revised and adapted to meet best Australian practice, any expectant parent should consider reading What to Expect When You're Expecting to understand the basics of pregnancy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more inform

David and Goliath is an investigation into what happens when the ‘underdog’ is forced to face an outsize challenge. In this book, Malcolm Gladwell asks us to reconsider how we perceive obstacles and disadvantages in our lives. He argues that the same qualities and traits that appear to give the ‘giants’ their strength are also their weakness points. Drawn from history and psychology, Gladwell uses a compelling narrative to reshape the way we see the world around us and practise what might otherwise have seemed unthinkable. We do need a better guide to face our giants, and there is no better place to start that journey than with the epic confrontation between David and Goliath 3,000 years ago in the Valley of Elah. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stolen Focus is a guide that can help us reclaim our focus, whether as individuals or as a society. If you’re getting interrupted while focusing on something, on average, it takes 23 minutes for you to get back into a state of focus. But there never seems to be enough stillness, or cool and clear space for you to stop and think. When you are unable to pay sustained attention you can't achieve the things you want to achieve. You want to read a book, but you are pulled away by the pings and paranoias of social media. You want to spend a few uninterrupted hours with your child, but you keep checking your email to see if your boss is messaging you. You want to set up a business, but your life dissolves into a blur of facebook posts that only make you feel more anxious. Johann Hari found twelve deep causes of this crisis. In this book he breaks down these issues based on his research findings and arguments, and teaches us how to improve our ability to pay attention and restore our productivity. Hosted on

This week, Jonesy and Ashto learn an unconventional approach to making the best use of their time from Four Thousand Weeks. In contrast to other time management or productivity books, this book debunks the idea of time management as we know it. Productivity is a trap. Nobody in the history of humanity has ever achieved the ideal work-life balance. You certainly won’t get there by simply joining the ‘5 am club’ or copying ‘The 6 Things Successful People Do Before 7 am’ that you see on Instagram. In this book, Oliver Burkeman draws on the insights of ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists and spiritual teachers to offer a profound guide to time management. Four Thousand Weeks teaches us the tools for building a meaningful life by embracing finitude. So let’s start by admitting defeat: you’ll never have everything under control. But you know what? That’s excellent news! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Ashto and Jonesy delve into Swipe to Unlock: an introduction to technology and business strategy concepts, and a compulsory read for anyone pursuing a career in the tech industry. Understanding technology is becoming essential no matter what you do for a living. Doctors are now using artificial intelligence to diagnose patients. Farmers are using drones to grow better crops. If the world’s biggest companies used to be oil and electric firms, they have now been replaced by the likes of Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft.In this book, Aditya Agashe, Neel Mehta and Parth Detroja use real-life examples to break down software, hardware and business strategies, and show you the tools to understand them better. You don’t need to be a master coder to learn these technological concepts. Whether it’s the ins and outs of the internet or the business strategies of tech giants, the authors of Swipe to Unlock believe that everything is understandable in plain, simple English. Hosted on Acast. See aca

This week, Jonesy and Ashto explore the concept of human nature and history from the perspective of moral psychology. The Righteous Mind examines why it’s difficult for us to get along and understands why society is so easily divided into hostile groups (each so certain of its righteousness). This book draws on the latest research in neuroscience, genetics, social psychology and evolutionary modelling. But the main message of the book is ancient – it is the realisation that we are all self-righteous hypocrites. Drawing on his 25 years of research on moral psychology, the author Jonathan Haidt explains that moral judgements shouldn’t arise from reason, but rather from gut feelings. Haidt’s investigation also shows why liberals, conservatives, and libertarians have disparate intuitions about right and wrong, and why each party is right about many of its primary concerns. The Righteous Mind provides the key to understanding the miracle of human cooperation, as well as the disadvantages of our eternal divisi

How does a penniless Russian tennis club with one indoor court create more top-twenty women players than the entire United States? How does a humble storefront music school in Dallas, Texas produce Jessica Simpson, Demi Lovato and a succession of pop music phenomena? How does a poor, scantily educated British family in a remote village turn out three world-class writers, the Bronte sisters?The Talent Code is all about understanding talent hotbeds – mysterious talents that seem to bloom without warning. Media coverage tends to treat hotbeds as a phenomenon, but truthfully, they are part of a larger pattern. Consider the composers of 19th Century Vienna, the writers of Shakespearean England or the artists of the Italian Renaissance. The same questions echo in each of these examples: Where does this extraordinary talent come from? How does it grow?Drawing on cutting-edge neurology and firsthand research from the journeys of nine talent hotbeds, Daniel Coyle identifies three key elements that will allow you to de

This week, Ashto and Jonesy identify the key barriers to making changes and mitigating them. Everyone has something they want to change – marketers who wish to change their customers’ minds, leaders to transform organisations, start-ups to change industries or nonprofits to change the world. However, change is hard, especially when nothing moves after countless efforts. The Catalyst takes a different approach to successfully executing change, focusing on removing significant roadblocks and reducing the barriers to change. Because sometimes, by focusing too much on ourselves, we forget the essential part of initiating a change: our audience. Instead of asking, ‘How could I change someone’s mind?’ Perhaps you can ask, ‘Why haven’t they changed already? What’s stopping them?’ This book offers a range of powerful techniques for anyone who wants to catalyse change. Whether you're trying to change one person, transform an organisation or shift the way an entire industry operates a business, this book

The Cold Start Problem addresses how tech’s most successful products solved the dreaded ‘cold start problem’ by leveraging network effects to engage billions of users. In today’s climate, it’s easier to build tech software. However, launching and scaling new products and services remains challenging. Utilised by tech giants like Apple, Google and Microsoft, the network effects are a solution that allows emerging products to break through by attracting new users through viral growth and word of mouth.But what exactly are network effects? How do teams create and build them into their products? How do products compete in a market if every player utilises the same approach? In this book, Andrew Chen draws on his experience and interviews with the CEOs and founding teams of LinkedIn, Twitch, Zoom, Dropbox, Tinder, Uber, Airbnb, and Pinterest to offer valuable insights that answer these questions. The Cold Start Problem reveals what makes winning networks thrive, why some startups fail to scale successfully, a

This week, Ashto and Jonesy discover the art and science of perfect timing and learn how they guide you towards more successful outcomes. Drawn from Daniel H. Pink’s research on psychology, biology and economics, When reveals useful guidance on working smarter and living better by relying on the right timing to build the ideal schedule. How do certain breaks improve student test scores dramatically? Why should we avoid going to the hospital in the afternoon? What is the ideal time to change jobs or get married? We know that timing is everything, but in this book, Pink shows us that everything is timing. We aim to improve our lives by seeking guidance from self-help books, which teach us how to acquire new skills and knowledge. So why not consider When as the guide to knowing when to apply what you’ve learned in your life? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Ashto and Jonesy redefine the reasoning and motivation behind innovation through How Innovation Works by Matt Ridley. In this book, Ridley argues that innovation is a process that turns existing inventions into practical and affordable solutions for other people. But do we understand the true core of innovation and the best way to encourage it? Do we set targets, rules, and standards along with direct research? Or do we deregulate from these expectations and set people free? The pivotal factor that usually kickstarts an innovation remains mysterious until today. No economist or social scientist can fully explain why and when innovation happens. To explain the process of innovation, Ridley refers to a wide range of innovation examples, including jet engines, potatoes, coffee, vaccines, toilets, vacuum cleaners, social media, artificial intelligence, and more. Through these fascinating case studies, Ridley dissects how each innovation started and why it succeeded or failed. Hosted on Acast

This week, Ashto and Jonesy learn about Google Ventures’ unique five-day process of product prototyping and testing ideas with customers. A bestseller that touches on business strategy, innovation, behavioural science, design, and more, Sprint includes a step-by-step process that any startup team can utilise for their project. This book presents a preview of the future through a finished product and customer reactions, giving startups an opportunity to assess the potential of a product before making any expensive commitments. Identifying critical flaws in your projects in just five days of work is the height of efficiency. Sprint is a practical guide that helps minimise the failure rate and save companies weeks or months of money, effort, and heartache. Sprint is about learning “the hard way” without actually experiencing the hard way. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Ashto and Jonesy learn practical strategies to ease the process of completing essential tasks from the instant NYT bestseller Effortless. As implied by the title, this book is a guide that offers alternative solutions to lighten the struggle of completing your tasks. Proposed by Greg Mckeown, these strategies include: removing unnecessary steps, prioritising progress over perfection, and identifying the finish line of your project. Hard work can produce better results, but there’s a limit to how much time and effort we can invest in a project. Effortless offers you preventative measures that help you avoid burnout and, instead, be more productive with your time and energy to achieve excellent results. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Ashto and Jonesy venture on a journey through psychology, philosophy, and meditation practices and learn how Buddhism encourages moral clarity and enduring happiness. Written by Robert Wright, Why Buddhism Is True uses the concept of evolutionary psychology and progressive neuroscience to explain the relevance of Buddhist philosophy in improving our lives. According to Wright, Buddhism presents an opportunity to liberate ourselves from the delusions in our minds. How do we stay consistent with our mindfulness practice? Like Neo in The Matrix, You can start by imagining your meditation as a rebellion against an oppressive overlord – the natural selection that perpetrates the delusion to compel you as a slave to its agenda. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you realise that you and all the people you know play games with each other – all the time? It can be sexual games with a love interest, competitive games with our friends, power games with our boss, or marital games with our spouse. Regardless of the subject matter or the setting, these games are deeply integrated into our daily lives that we become oblivious to them. Developed by Eric Berne, Games People Play is an original, wise, and witty analysis of the psychology behind human relationships through these phenomena. This week, Ashto and Jonesy delve into Berne’s investigation and learn how we actively or unconsciously participate in such a competitive form of social interaction. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Ashto and Jonesy investigate the tension between our evolutionary history and modern problems and how we can resolve this issue. Although we live through the most flourishing age in human history, we are lifeless and divided. In A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to Modern History, evolutionary biologists Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein pinpoint the accelerating rate of change in the modern world as the leading cause that overtakes our brain capacity and body's ability to adapt. In this book, Heying and Weinstein refer to their decades of work exploring earth’s most biodiverse ecosystems to challenge today’s social concerns. This book reveals a science-based perspective you can follow to improve your quality of life. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.