Thank you for giving this project a chance. The goal is for it to supplement your reading of War & Peace with commentary and context. Each episode summarizes a chapter though there may be a few exceptions. 

The episode descriptions will also provides information on how each chapter plays out. Each episode is expected to remain under 10 minutes. A few may be a tad longer but 10 minutes is the goal.  

These are Cliffnotes on a podcast, hence Podnotes. This introduction provides some of the motivation for trying this, in that it is the one book that stands above all others in its profundity. It is like the top part of the pyramid on the back of a dollar bill, somehow rising above, and standing apart from, all other literary works of man.

This introduction also provides a quick background on Tolstoy and how his aristocratic background and military experience at the Battle of Crimea likely informed War & Peace.