2020 has been a disaster so far with the deadly virus, the lockdown making us stay in our homes, juggling between our broken sleep cycles, helping with house chores, and trying out new recipes. We are watching a huge amount of content online be it movies, documentaries, TV series or podcasts. They helped me discover some interesting stuff that made me feel more informed, productive and flabbergasted by the facts and conversations in their content.

Here, I’m listing a few things that you can go through this quarantine:

 

1. Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates. (Docu-series):

Bill Gates has been an inspiration to most of us at some point in our lives. We often imagine how it must feel to be one of the richest people in the world. But did you ever imagine what goes on in the mind of such a human being who has got everything in the world that a person could wish for? What keeps them motivated to contribute to society after achieving so much? How do they deal with the enormous resources they have?

This three-part documentary series answers these questions and takes us into the mind of Bill Gates. It explores the genius that built the most successful tech company in the world. It shows the other side of Bill who is a huge philanthropist trying to help fight the evil in our society.

Throughout the series, you will learn about how he has systematically built solutions for various problems like sanitization in the African countries, eradicating diseases like polio from Nigeria, and his plans to combat the growing problem of climate change. The series also explores Bill’s life as a brother and a husband. You can also see his friendship with Warren Buffet who is also one of the richest men in the world.

An interesting part of the series is the “think week” where Bill completely cuts off from the world for a week. He spends that time in an undisclosed location regressively reading and learning anything that he wants. These instances show us how this man is a human genius who is always analyzing and gathering knowledge which he uses to make the world a better place.

 Stream On Netflix.

 Click to watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCv29JKmHNY

 

2.Darknet Diaries (podcast):

This is an amazing cybercrime podcast hosted by Jack Rhysider. He interviews former cybercriminals and black hat hackers who were a part of major cybercrimes like exposing government data and messing up top official websites. Some of them are a part of the infamous hacktivist group called ‘Anonymous’. You can understand how these hackers become dangerous and how kids who are not shown the right path can become these cybercriminals purely due to their curiosity. To understand the lives of these hackers and learn some interesting ways they used technology to hack into systems, you can surely binge on this podcast.

Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.

 

3.Human Nature(Docu):

When it comes to science fiction, we usually see technologies capable of cloning humans, parents selecting desired features for their baby, genetically modifying your body parts, etc. What if I tell you that we are living in that science fiction world already? While most of the technologies like flying cars, hoverboards are a reality, the genetics sector has also come a long way with innovations and discoveries that are changing the very nature of mankind. This documentary is focused around the tremendous discovery of a DNA sequence called “CRISPR”,

This DNA sequence has become the answer to all the problems faced during the modification of any DNA. The discovery has opened a world of possibilities. Whether it is designing your baby, curing a hereditary disease, or developing a certain supernatural condition in a human. It also shows how CRISPR is easily accessible for anyone in the world right now which raises various moral conflicts among the scientists and the viewers about the good and bad usage of this technology. The film is filled with a lot of technical information and new terms. I would recommend this one to all the science geeks out there.

 Available on Netflix

Click to watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1UkCfDnn6c

 

4.The Great Hack (Docu).

Did you ever see an ad on your phone about something you just had in mind? If you did, then you are not alone. Millions of people are the victims of this privacy breach happening right now in our digital lives. 

This documentary covers the Facebook & Cambridge Analytical scandal which is said to be one of the first and major scandals in the data privacy matter. It is focused around Professor David Carroll of Parsons the New School, Brittany Kaiser, a former business development director for Cambridge Analytica and British investigative journalist, Carole Cadwalladr. They played a key role in exposing this scandal and truly questioned data rights.

You will never know how or when your personal data is being used to affect your behaviors in certain ways. The 2016 US presidential elections are classic examples of your data being used against you to make you like/dislike certain political figures/parties. Almost every app in your phone is bound to collect the user’s personal data in some way. The privacy policies of most apps mention this clearly but we don’t care enough to read them. Even if we do read it, we still use the app since it offers social connectivity, validation, etc by permitting the apps to “use our data for a better experience”. This is an age-old game of playing with your psyche for one’s benefit.

If you are curious about how your data is being used and how most of the major political parties in the world are using these highly data-driven campaigns to misguide the people, this documentary is for you.

An interesting question that this documentary asks is “Are data rights, human rights?”

Stream on Netflix.

Click to watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX8GxLP1FHo

 

Bonus:

Let’s Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast (podcast)

Adding this for all the thrill-seekers who wish to listen to the real-life horror incidents (not necessarily paranormal) from around the world beautifully narrated by Andrew Tate.

Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.

So put your headphones on, find a cozy spot in your room, hit that play button, and immerse yourself into these amazing and constructive conversations.

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