Welcome back to Playing Books, the show where extraordinary stories reshape how you think, live, and participate in the world. Thank you for tuning in to the cyber episode of the podcast.

In this episode, we discuss Fred Kaplan’s Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War, an explosive account of cyber warfare from its classified origins to its terrifying present day.

Listening to this episode equips you with a sharp understanding of modern conflict. Instead of bogging you down in dense technical jargon, we focus on the gripping human drama that shaped our digital reality.

By tuning in, you will gain exclusive insights into:

The Surprising Origins of Digital Warfare: Discover how cyber war actually began with profound confusion rather than a genius hack, as generals misunderstood code and programmers ignored military language.

The Key Players and Hidden Decisions: Meet the innovators who anticipated the threat, the skeptics who dismissed it, and the silent operators who defend the systems you rely on every day.

Real-World Vulnerabilities: Learn about the historic breaches that forced governments to act and the terrifying gap that still exists between public knowledge and classified threats.

This discussion carries immense weight today in 2026, an era where cyberattacks actively shape elections, disrupt critical infrastructure, and force every major institution to scramble for defense. Kaplan wrote this book as both a warning and a history lesson. You will leave this episode understanding that cyber warfare is no longer a future threat because it is already here and accelerating.

Fred Kaplan’s Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War exposes how warfare works and the dark sides of our digital age; consequently, you should be more proactive. We recommend you consider purchasing it on Amazon, at your regular bookstore, or get it through your local library.

We believe you care about the cyber welfare of your family members, friends, colleagues, and others. This episode and Fred Kaplan’s Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War can help them navigate the digital landscape knowledgeably. So, share this episode around, please.

Could you also subscribe, follow, and like the Playing Books podcast, and leave your comments and questions?

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Thank you for your time and for listening to the episode.

Welcome to the Playing Books podcast. Thank you for tuning in to the intelligence episode of the podcast. The episode asks a question as old as humanity and as urgent as the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI): What is intelligence, really?

Today, we’re sitting with Blaise Agüera y Arcas’s What Is Intelligence?: Lessons from AI About Evolution, Computing, and Minds, an inspiring and revealing book that refuses to give you the same old answers. Instead, it invites you into a living conversation about how minds form, how systems learn, how evolution computes, and how intelligence might be far more fluid, emergent, and interconnected than we’ve ever allowed ourselves to imagine.

This episode is for anyone who has ever wondered why AI feels both familiar and alien, why human creativity can’t be reduced to code, and why the future of thinking, human and machine, depends on humility, curiosity, and a willingness to rethink everything we assume about cognition. We talk about pattern‑making, meaning‑building, the strange parallels between neural networks and natural selection, and the uncomfortable truth that intelligence may not be a ladder but a landscape.

If you’re building, designing, parenting, leading, or simply trying to understand the world you’re living in, this conversation will give you frameworks you can actually use. Blaise Agüera y Arcas’s What Is Intelligence?: Lessons from AI About Evolution, Computing, and Minds challenges many assumptions and reveals new insights that lead to better questions and answers. We recommend the book. Consider purchasing it on Amazon, from your favorite bookstore, or requesting it from a local library. It’s worth having on your shelf and in your mind.

Intelligence lives in many minds and lips in schools, workplaces, newsstands, libraries, and other such places as AI continues to dominate. Please share your thoughts. Comment, share, follow, subscribe, and recommend the Playing Books Podcast to someone who loves big ideas and brave conversations. We leave you with a parting question: Do you consider yourself intelligent?

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Thank you for listening, for thinking with us, and for being part of the Playing Books family.

Welcome to the Playing Books podcast. We thank you for tuning in to the sex episode of the podcast. We're exploring one of the most misunderstood aspects of human experience: sex. This episode focuses on Meg-John Barker’s The Psychology of Sex (The Psychology of Everything).

What can psychology teach us about sex? How do different bodies and brains respond sexually? How can we prevent people from being stigmatized for their sexuality? Many such questions are explored in this episode and in Meg-John Barker’s The Psychology of Sex.

On the side, we love to hear your take on this: how is Artificial Intelligence (AI) influencing sex today? What will the future of sex be like?

Barker takes us on a remarkable tour of how psychologists have created and sustained certain understandings of sex and sexuality. Since so much of our sexual relationship happens in the mind, understanding where our ideas about sex come from becomes essential. We discuss cultural concerns around sexualization, pornography, and sex addiction while drawing on cutting-edge research from sexual communities and the applied field of sex therapy.

In this episode, we reveal how psychology reshapes your understanding of desire, attraction, and intimacy. You should discover the surprising ways your brain influences your sexuality, challenge the narratives you've absorbed, and gain permission to question what you've always been told. This practical episode helps you navigate your own sexual identity, build healthier relationships, or simply be curious about human sexuality. This episode should shift how you think about this subject.

Meg-John Barker’s The Psychology of Sex (The Psychology of Everything) deserves close reading and thoughtful engagement with Barker’s expository approach to this subject. We recommend it from Amazon, your favorite local bookstore, or request it at your public library. The author would greatly appreciate your support, and the publishers who wager on such matters.

How was sex regarded in your childhood? Do you take the Scriptural or liberal view on sex and gender, male and female? What is your stance on sex before marriage? Is protection during sex enough to prevent sexually transmitted diseases? Which gender and race loves sex the most?

Please, we love to hear your thoughts. Comment, share this episode, follow, and subscribe to the Playing Books podcast for more racy conversations like this.

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Thank you again so much for your time and for listening to our sex episode of the podcast.