Big books, plain talk, useful lessons.
What You Will Learn follows two named speakers as they pull useful ideas from books on mindset, money, work, love, health, and courage. It is casual and quick, with banter up front and plain-language takeaways close behind.
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What You Will Learn is a book-summary show with a very plain promise: read widely, keep the best bits, and make them easier to use. The feel is informal and fast. Adam Ashton and Adam Jones move through books like two friends comparing notes after doing the homework, with jokes, corrections, tangents, and sudden sharp summaries along the way. It is not a hushed literary program. It is practical self-improvement talk with an Australian conversational snap, covering attitude, work, love, courage, money, health, education, leadership, and modern life. Episodes show the full spread. I Am Malala brings the show into grave territory, tracing Malala Yousafzai's fight for education amid threats, gender restriction, and violence. What To Do When It's Your Turn turns Seth Godin's creative urgency into a push against waiting for permission. Peak uses Maslow-style thinking to talk about money, loyalty, recognition, customers, investors, and meaning at work. Die With Zero asks whether a life spent only storing resources has missed the point. How Not To Die Alone treats dating as something that can be approached with intention, not just hope. A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide To The 21st Century gives the show a wider lens, using evolutionary mismatch to explain why modern change can feel so hard to process. The launch and farewell episodes add another layer: this is also a show aware of its own run, its books, its false starts, and its audience. The hosts celebrate milestones without becoming slick about them. They stay loose, self-deprecating, and direct. The result is a useful shortcut through nonfiction for listeners who like ideas with a bit of friction, personality, and everyday language attached.
Made for: For listeners who like nonfiction ideas but prefer them filtered through quick conversation, practical examples, and a bit of rough-edged humor. It especially suits self-improvement readers, career-minded listeners, and people testing better habits or bigger life choices.
What sets it apart: The show turns book lessons into back-and-forth thinking rather than polished audiobook-style summaries. Its edge comes from the contrast between serious source material and a loose, mate-to-mate delivery that keeps the ideas grounded.
We’re Adam and Adam, two Aussie blokes that love reading great books. Each week we share the best bits from the best books, and interview the world’s top authors. The books we cover can help you improve every area of your life, from your health to your wealth, from your relationships to your mindset. You’ll learn to pick up healthier habits, and drop the ones that are holding you back. We put the world’s best ideas within your reach, for a fraction of the time it would take to read the full book. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Adam Ashton and Adam Jones make demanding books approachable by testing their central ideas through examples, questions and candid conversation.
Adam Ashton and Adam Jones turn books into conversational lessons, moving between close summary and their own reactions until an argument becomes easier to hold onto.
Adam Ashton and Adam Jones turn empires, emissions and ambition into book talk you'll actually remember.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A farewell shaped by listener thanks, book history, and the long-running stories the show built its name on.
What You Will Learn closes at episode 428 with the familiar cans-on intro song, a recently crossed 7 million downloads, and a book story that moved through three iterations before settling into The Shit They Never Taught You.
A compact childhood story that makes girls' schooling feel both ordinary and hard-won.
PlayNext's Education feed frames Malala Yousafzai's childhood in Pakistan with clear, unadorned detail. It shows a world where girls were expected to stay home, cook, clean, and prepare food, while boys moved freely through town.
A grounded push to take the next step without waiting for ease, certainty, or a guarantee.
What To Do When It's Your Turn frames Seth Godin's argument with the comfort taken out: taking a turn may be hard, unpleasant, uncertain, and still fail.
A plain, workplace-minded take on Maslow, money, loyalty, and recognition.
What You Will Learn's Peak episode presents Maslow as a practical workplace ladder, with money at the base, then loyalty, followed by recognition and social status.
A practical climate episode that makes everyday emissions hard to ignore.
This episode threads Bill Gates' climate case through ordinary routines, from a toothbrush and breakfast to work clothes, cars, trains, and the electricity behind them.
Ray Dalio's empire-cycle thesis gets a chatty, history-first workout.
What You Will Learn takes Ray Dalio's The Changing World Order and turns it into a conversational, history-led tour of how empires and financial systems rise and wobble.
Héctor and Beto dissect Mexican grammar, slang, and news in native-speed Spanish conversations.
Asian Efficiency's Tan Pham and Brooks Duncan on time management, habits, and AI tools.
A call-in helpline where listener questions turn into reported science and history investigations.
This episode summarizes key concepts from 'The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking' to improve thinking skills for success.
Adam Ashton and Adam Jones summarize Ray Dalio's book 'The Changing World Order', which argues that nations follow predictable cycles of rise and decline.
Adam Ashton and Adam Jones summarize Bill Gates' book 'How to Avoid a Climate Disaster', focusing on the goal of reducing annual greenhouse gas emissions from 51 billion tons to zero.
The hosts summarize and discuss key ideas from the book 'Die With Zero' about balancing saving and enjoying life.
The hosts discuss the science of behavior change from Katie Milkman's book 'How to Change', emphasizing tailored strategies over generic advice.
This is the 428th and final episode of What You Will Learn, hosted by Adam Ashton and Adam Jones, who built the show from a three-student audience at Monash University to 7 million downloads and 12,000 self-published book sales over seven years.
This episode of What You Will Learn, hosted by Adam Ashton and Adam Jones, summarises 'I Am Malala' by Malala Yousafzai, covering her childhood in Pakistan's Swat Valley, her father's founding of a three-school network, and the Taliban's takeover of the region under militant leader Fazlullah.
Adam Ashton and Adam Jones recap Seth Godin's What to Do When It's Your Turn, built around the line that it is always your turn.
What You Will Learn's Peak episode follows Chippy Connolly, whose hotel business was hit when the dotcom bubble burst around New Year's.
What You Will Learn breaks down Robert Greene and 50 Cent’s The 50th Law through the principle that fear limits action and self-reliance expands control.
Adam Ashton and Adam Jones summarise The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, based on a CEB study launched during the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
Adam and Adam discuss the book 'Die With Zero' by Bill Perkins, challenging the ant-and-grasshopper fable and advocating for balancing saving with living fully.
The hosts discuss key takeaways from Logan Urie's book 'How to Not Die Alone' about intentional love and dating.
The hosts discuss the book 'The Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century', exploring the mismatch between human evolution and modern life.
The hosts summarize and discuss key insights from the book 'Tuesdays with Morrie' by Mitch Albom.
The hosts discuss key insights from Katie Milkman's book 'How to Change' about using specific strategies for personal change rather than generic advice.