This is my umpteenth episode while under Quarantine. Today I tell you about a ray of sunshine. My dear friend, mentor, and former boss Rana el Kaliouby's book entitled "Girl Decoded" is out. It will be available to purchase on April 21, 2020 on audible.com or other bookseller. The bonus of the audio book to me is that Rana herself reads it. Listen to the Podcast for stories about Rana and why I believe you NEED to read this book. When I think about the idea for this podcast series High Risk/High Reward: Stories from my Life in Technology, Rana and my experience at Affectiva as the 7th employee stand out among the most unique examples of my approach to finding the very best place for me to work at a given time. I share my strategy for being considered for a job I was dramatically overqualified for, how I connected with the founders and became passionate about their vision. I knew I could help them navigate the murky waters of having a great technology looking for a business use case. So quick tales of some of the crazy things we tried. There are no words that would suffice to explain how special of a person Rana is, and therefore, why you must read this book. Give this podcast a listen and I'll explain it best I can. It took a little over 30 minutes to do so. And I still can't fully express who this woman is and why her book may change your life. She certainly had a profound impact on mine.

The photo for this episode are the Affectiva cofounders: On the left is Roz (Rosalind Picard, PhD, Director of MIT Media Lab Affective Computing Group), on the right is Rana (Rana el Kaliouby PhD, CEO Affectiva and co-founder). Rana is presenting the roses to Roz for her longtime support and belief in Rana.