Hello, literary friends.

Welcome to a new episode of the Playing Books Podcast, where you listen to bestselling books and learn on the go.

Have you been curious about the universe? You would enjoy this episode.

In this episode, we discuss Stephen Hawking’s The Universe in a Nutshell — a book that somehow makes the strangest, most mind‑bending ideas in physics feel surprisingly human, visual, and even fun. Hawking doesn’t just explain the universe; he invites you to experience it, to stretch your imagination, and to see your everyday world through a wider, more curious lens.

We explore the big themes: the nature of time, the shape of space, the possibility of multiple dimensions, and the wild theories that push the boundaries of what we think reality is. But we also talk about what all of this means for you — how understanding even a sliver of the cosmos can shift your perspective, spark creativity, and remind you that you’re part of something vast and extraordinary.

This episode is all about making the complex feel accessible, the scientific feel personal, and the cosmic feel relatable. If you’ve ever looked up at the night sky and wondered what’s really going on out there, this conversation will feel like a fresh breath of curiosity.

If you want to become familiar with the terminology and understand the concepts of the universe, consider picking up Stephen Hawking’s "The Universe in a Nutshell" on Amazon or at your favorite bookstore. It’s one of those books that rewards you every time you open it.

Before you head out, join the conversation. Drop a comment, share this episode with someone who loves big ideas, follow the show, subscribe on your favorite platform, and recommend Playing Books to anyone who enjoys learning in a way that feels alive and inspiring.

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Thank you for your time and for listening — and for playing your key roles in making the world a better place for everyone.

Welcome back to the Playing Books Podcast, where stories aren’t just read — they’re experienced, questioned, and applied to real life. 

Do you lie? Do you successfully spot lies and liars? This episode is about lies. Hope it challenges you to NEVER LIE again.

Today’s episode discusses the twist‑packed psychological thriller, Freida McFadden’s Never Lie, a book that grips you from page one and refuses to let go.

This episode will convince you even more that everyone lies. It unpacks the tension, the secrets, the unreliable truths, and the psychological traps that make McFadden’s work so addictive. Learn why no one is who they appear to be and be cautious with people, not to suspect everyone, but to avoid being too surprised.

More importantly, we talk about what this story reveals about trust, intuition, and the lies people tell — including the ones they tell themselves.

As you listen, consider how the book’s themes manifest in your own world. What does it mean to trust your instincts? How do you navigate situations where something feels “off,” even when everything looks normal on the surface? McFadden’s storytelling isn’t just entertainment — it’s an invitation to sharpen your awareness and reflect on the psychology of truth and deception.

If you haven’t read Never Lie yet, this is the perfect moment to pick up a copy. You can find it on Amazon, at your favorite local bookstore, or anywhere great thrillers are sold. Experiencing the full story for yourself will make this episode even more powerful and applicable.

Before you go, join the conversation. Drop a comment, share your thoughts, and tell us what shocked you most. Follow the podcast, subscribe on your favorite platform, and recommend Playing Books to someone who loves a good twist. Your support helps this community grow and keeps these deep, story‑driven conversations alive.

Thank you for your time and for listening. Until next time, keep reading boldly, change your life, and commit to making the world a better place for everyone.

Hello, friends, and happy New Year.

Welcome to the Playing Books Podcast. We thank you for your goodwill, attention, follow, comments, and feedback. We will continue to create engaging, thought-provoking episodes based on best-selling books that are both interesting and eye-opening.

This new episode is about work. Securing a job is challenging in this era of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and massive layoffs worldwide.

This means that both maintaining a job and enjoying it are extra challenging and nearly impossible, as well as being promoted and earning more on the job. This episode addresses various aspects of work, career, colleagues, bosses, communication, and more. We discuss Richard Templar’s The Rules of Work in this first episode of the year 2026.

You are about to join those who enjoy their job, are adept at dealing with people at work, get promoted, respect boundaries, and accomplish a lot personally and professionally.

The Rules of Work is a top bestseller. Richard Templar is a specialist career, life, and psychological coach; his objective knowledge, keen observation, and expertise continue to provide the professional edge needed in the competitive world of careers.

There are many insights and secrets that successful workers know, which many career men, women, and millennials don’t even think of, let alone apply. To succeed in these times of AI and unemployment, you need to learn, understand, think, and apply the Rules of Work. Working should be a breeze and enjoyable.

It is 2026, a New Year, and it’s time to learn the principles that will improve what you do and how you do it. These rules will give you the unmistakable air of confidence that will win you admiration, respect, and help you towards your next promotion. Templar’s The Rules of Work should be one of the books you read regularly. Consider purchasing a copy on Amazon or from your favorite bookstore. In this new edition of the international bestseller, Richard Templar has added 10 new Rules to help professionals get heard, noticed, acknowledged, and followed at work, even in their respective industry.

This episode is highly recommended for sharing with your siblings, colleagues, friends, and other significant individuals in your life. We would appreciate your feedback, as well as your support by following, subscribing, and listening to the Playing Books podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon, iHeartRadio, and other platforms where you listen to podcasts.

Thank you so much, and have an interesting and literary 2026.

Hello, booklovers and lifelong readers.

You have searched for jobs and attempted to change career the wrong way enough.

In this episode, you are going to get some practical, tested, and valuable knowledge about getting a job. Layoffs affect every professional and industry, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is only becoming formidable and the next professional. This is why the proper know-how of getting hired is key.

Getting hired starts with persistent hope and a strong belief that you have the personality, skills, education, experience, and team spirit that are unique and valuable to many companies and industries. They need to take a chance on you.

Learn the core of landing your dream job in this episode. 2026 is less than three weeks away; this episode should enliven, challenge, teach, and guide you in your job search endeavor.

This episode is only for those who urgently need to change their job search approach. It is not junk; it is based on Richard Lathrop's Who's Hiring Who. Stop wasting time, effort, and frustration. This episode will help you escape the high levels of negative emotions that often follow job search disappointments.

It is available on Amazon and at your local bookstores.

Please share your feedback, follow, and subscribe to the Playing Books podcast. We are excited for your next job and this literary incentive for your career.

Thank you.

Hello, friends.

Welcome to the Playing Books Podcast. This episode is practical and applicable, yet enjoyable. You will learn, relearn, or reinforce a pivotal habit that many great people 

credit to their accomplishments. Lee Iacocca recalls the importance of this habit in living with integrity with oneself and others. Iacocca was an executive at Ford and later President and CEO of Chrysler. He writes about how Robert McNamara challenges him to always write down what he wants to accomplish or pursue. It should be specific and dated. This episode is about the underrated art of writing down goals, activities, expectations, commitments, achievements, and other important information. 

Do you write things down? Have you noticed any power from writing things down? Have you kept up this habit?

True joy follows the act of writing down goals, especially when the goals are accomplished. Besides this, writing things down is a needful exercise for the brain. Writing can be the first phase of cognitive exercise, which follows reading and remembering what was written down, which can nourish the brain more than anything else over time. It tricks or empowers the brain to augment the writer’s identity to that of an achiever.

Our episode aims to encourage listeners to read, think, recall, and apply the knowledge from great books, as a way to contribute to a better world through individual positive changes and success. This episode is based on Allison Fallon’s, ’The Power of Writing It Down: A Simple Habit to Unlock Your Brain and Reimagine Your Life.’ You shared that the art of writing it down has many useful applications and benefits. 

Identify your ruts and create new neurological grooves toward better habits

Find fresh motivation and take ownership of your life

Heal from past pain and trauma

Relieve anxiety and depression

Contextualize life's setbacks and minor frustrations

Live a more confident, balanced, and healthy life … and so much more.

Are you ready for this regular cognitive exercise? Consider purchasing a copy of Allison Fallon’s The Power of Writing It Down: A Simple Habit to Unlock Your Brain and Reimagine Your Life on Amazon or at your favorite bookstore.Please give feedback, tell us your favorite takeaway, and let us know how this episode challenges you. Please comment on any books you'd like us to discuss next.Follow, subscribe, and share the Playing Books Podcast — where you listen to bestselling books and learn on the go.

Thank you.

Hello, curious friends.

Thank you for your time and for tuning in to this revealing episode. It’s Kamala Harris’s 107 Days. It is now a historical fact. Kamala is the first female U.S. Vice President.

The U.S. is often seen as a shining example of democracy, but in reality, many challenges, contradictions, and unfair treatment of women and minorities coexist with this supposed fairness, openness, equality, and justice. Many people face immense difficulties in U.S. politics. Serving in the U.S. Congress isn’t bread and butter; it is tough, cutthroat, competitive, and dominating. And, writing about it comes with its own price, because the public shouldn’t have to know about the struggles, embarrassment, racism, caricatures, mockery, and hostility that come with representing the people at that level.

We’ll be discussing Kamala Harris and how she navigates this hostile political environment, including the events, expectations, debates, setbacks, media scrutiny, unexpected moments of humor, and spite she experienced while running to become the first female U.S. President. You will hear how she decided to select Tim Walz as her running mate, and other similar critical decisions.

Does this sound familiar to you, in your life, workplace, community, and everyday experiences? Are you dealing with this kind of hostility, or are you able to find ways to address it in a positive manner? Are you succeeding amid the hostility? You might be a woman facing unfair treatment, domination, and harassment. This episode is here to offer you encouragement. You’ll get to hear what Kamala went through, which should give you hope and understanding that these challenges are shared and universal. Then, you’ll learn how to anticipate and effectively handle such domination.

Did you think Kamala Harris was well-prepared for the responsibilities of being Vice President before stepping into the role of U.S. President? What impact did having or not having a supportive team have on her journey to becoming the first female U.S. President? Does her book, 107 Days, answer some of the big questions you were hoping to find answers to, and does she have a good chance of becoming the U.S. President and succeeding in the future?

Do you want to know Kamala Harris’s Secret Service Code Name? Read the book in full yourself to find out, and share your feedback, please. Kamala Harris’s 107 Days is available on Amazon and most standard bookstores worldwide. It is now a Number 1 New York Times Bestseller. 

Please share, follow, and subscribe to the Playing Books podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Thank you.

In today’s episode, we will discuss how to discover your strengths. You have likely felt unhappy, stuck, frustrated, unappreciated, and unfulfilled, and these feelings may persist until you find a functional way to find your strengths or live like you’re a big weakling.

Those tons of questions were not indicative that something was wrong with you. You just knew there was something more grand, impactful, and memorable about you and your talents. You are about to get rewarded for not giving up and settling for a mediocre life, but that burning desire was there to urge you to pursue a fulfilling life. You already possess the tenacity to find, develop, and grow your strengths. Learn not only how to leverage your strengths, but also how to maximize them, and even create a lasting legacy of your strengths.

This episode draws inspiration from Tom Rath’s StrengthsFinder 2.0, a bestselling book published by Gallup. StrengthsFinder has empowered individuals worldwide to discover and optimize their talents, especially in competitive environments.

We encourage you to leverage your strengths to fully develop your talents and lead the life you’ve always dreamed of and talked about to yourself and others. Consequently, join those making a difference in tackling global challenges, both locally, nationally, and internationally, using your newfound strengths.

Discovering and developing strengths requires continuous reading and learning. Consider purchasing Tom Rath’s StrengthsFinder 2.0 on Amazon, or at your preferred bookstore.

What a decisive journey you are about to begin. It is worthwhile to identify your strengths before someone else convinces you of your inadequacies and concludes you are a lifelong weakling.

Please leave us your feedback, and share, follow, and subscribe to the Playing Books podcast.

Thank you once again for tuning in.

Hello, lifelong learners and booklovers. 

Do you budget for hospitality? Is generosity that important to you? That sounds unreasonable, right?

We are absolutely thrilled to have you tune in to another game-changing episode of Worthscope’s Playing Books podcast.

Today, we explore a book that doesn’t just change how you do business; it changes how you treat people. We are discussing the transformative surprises of “Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect” by Will Guidara.

Will Guidara took Eleven Madison Park from a struggling, middling brasserie to the #1 Best Restaurant in the World. How? Not just by serving better food, but by serving people in a way that was so over-the-top, so thoughtful, and so "unreasonable," that it became legendary.

In this episode, you will learn:

The difference between Service and Hospitality: Service is getting the right plate to the right person (Black & White). Hospitality is how you make them feel while doing it (Color).

The Legend of the Hot Dog: The iconic story of how a cheap street hot dog served on fine china changed the trajectory of a business forever.

The Rule of 95/5: How to manage 95% of your budget down to the penny so you can spend the last 5% "foolishly" on creating hospitality.

Improvisational Hospitality: How to stop treating customers like transactions and start treating them like VIPs in your own home.

As a CEO, a freelancer, parent, athlete, entrepreneur, delivery driver, teacher, or just someone who wants to build better relationships, this episode is your masterclass in the power of human connection.

We know life moves fast. You want the knowledge, but you don’t always have the time to sit down with a book. The Playing Books Podcast bridges that gap. We curate and deliver audio versions of the world’s most impactful and best-selling books for demanding professionals, students, young people, leaders, lifelong learners, and anyone looking to learn on the go.

However, nothing beats reading the actual book. We encourage you to purchase a copy of this practical book for your library. It is available on Amazon and at your local independent bookstores.

Please, share your feedback. What was your favorite "unreasonable" takeaway? Follow and subscribe, please.

Thank you.

Hello, curious bookworms. Welcome to another eye-opening episode of Worthscope’s Playing Books Podcast🎙️. 

History! History! History! This is a fascinating piece on history. Formative, interesting history at that. You are about to discover the origins of civilization, core creativity, language, culture, prescience, science, art, and music in one of the world’s oldest places, Ethiopia, East Africa. Whatever assumptions you hold dear about the past, this episode will challenge and even shake them off with accurate knowledge and first-hand accounts.

Ethiopia is one of the places on Earth with numerous traces and evidence of a complex and enduring civilization. We explore Steven Kaplan’s The Ethiopians: Lost Civilizations in this episode. Biased historians often portray Ethiopia as the ultimate geographical and cultural conundrum as far as history is concerned. However, substantial historical evidence suggests that it is far from the reality. Mentioned forty-five times in the Hebrew Bibe, Ethiopia, and Ethiopians pioneered many positive inventions, including mechanical agriculture, writing, and knowing the time. Did you know what Ethiopia means? Burnt face. You don’t want to miss this interesting podcast episode. It is complex, revealing, suspenseful, fun, and palpable. We don’t yet know how Ethiopia came to be such a key hub of a rich and intriguing past. Do you know? Do you know any studies, books, or research that unveil this? Ethiopians and Ethiopia will continue to puzzle many, such as how they successfully withstood European colonialism, and the beginning of Christianity.

Take your curiosity beyond this episode. Consider purchasing a copy of The Ethiopians: Lost Civilizations by Steven Kaplan on Amazon or at your favorite bookstore.
Please share your feedback, tell us your favorite takeaway, and let us know how this episode resonates with you.
Follow, subscribe, and share the Playing Books podcast, where every story becomes an audiobook for the on-the-go learner.

Thank you.

Hello bookworms and history buffs. Welcome to another practical episode of Worthscope’s Playing Books Podcast🎙️. 

We discuss living long and enjoying it right now based on “Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity” by Peter Attia, MD, and Bill Gifford. Longevity with hearing difficulty, arthritis, long or short-sightedness, loneliness, loss of memory, and being on medication is the norm in many societies. Why is that? We attempt to answer it in this episode as well. Since nothing happens suddenly, leading a sickly life later is largely because of the failure to decide and choose the type of old age that is fun, energetic, meaningful, and healthy in advance.

We didn’t proactively choose a healthy lifestyle. We only go for a checkup when the condition has become a part of our lives. We discard exercises until the doctor recommends them, and we actively eat healthy until a particular sickness or disease forces us to adjust our diets. 

Listen and learn from this applicable episode. We can’t change our chronological age, but we can absolutely change our biological age. This is a comprehensive and strategic blueprint for leading a better, healthier life from now till the lifespan you desire. First, you need to make an immediate shift in your mindset, backed by serious action and adjustments to your habits. Begin to think about your healthspan, or the quality of your life in everything you do. Pursue a personalized, proactive strategy for longevity, with formidable action now. Waiting till you have become weak is largely what paralyzes your health and life later.

Start your “biohacking,” the science of taking a calculated and preventive strategic and tactical approach to extending your lifespan while also improving your physical, cognitive, and emotional health. You can do it, and it will impact more than just yourself - your family, friends, colleagues, and others in your life.

If you want more than this episode, you can purchase your copy of “Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity" by Peter Attia, MD, and Bill Gifford from Amazon or at your favorite bookstore.
Please share your feedback, tell us your favorite takeaway, and let us know how this episode resonates with you.Follow, subscribe, and share Playing Books, where every story becomes an audiobook for the on-the-go learner.

Thank you.