Episode 1 is the Introduction and Preface for the book in which the author explains why he wrote the book and offers suggestions about getting the most out of listening to it. "If you want, you can think of me as a “scout” – like a scout on a wagon train in the Old West, whose job it was to ride ahead looking for a way over the Rocky Mountains to reach the Pacific Ocean, finding a path for others to follow with relative safety and security against the elements and the Indians. I’m not the only scout out there, and I don’t claim to have reached the ocean yet. But I’m the only one who has taken this particular route, which turned out to be a very effective way to go and safe enough for me to return to talk about it."