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Conflicts are inevitable in long-term relationships. But often we argue in ways that push our partners away instead of resolving issues.

Dr. Stan Tatkin, a marriage and family therapist who has spent decades working with couples and training practitioners to improve communication in relationships believes there is a better way for partners to weather conflicts and emerge closer. His new book, In Each Other’s Care: A Guide to the Most Common Relationship Conflicts and How to Work Through Them offers strategies grounded in neurobiology and years of clinical experience.

When disagreements arise, primal instincts trigger 'fight or flight', making us defend ourselves instead of understanding each other. But with awareness and new strategies, partners can shift this dynamic. As Stan says, we can learn to "work problems, not each other", regulate emotions, consider interests equally, and prioritize the relationship.

We'll discuss Dr. Tatkin's approach for navigating conflicts productively. His insights may save your next argument and reveal how you can grow closer through challenges together.

You can find Stan at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Julie and John Gottman about deepening long-term relationships.

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Ever wish you had the courage to try something entirely new? To create something that didn’t exist before? Even if you’re already successful at your career, and you enjoy much of it? Sometimes we just feel this call to try on something new. That’s one of the big ideas we dive into with award-winning journalist and podcaster Manoush Zomorodi. 

• Manoush had success at NPR but later started her own company and podcast, showing it's never too late to try something new.

• Manoush recommends side passions or "garden plots" that let you experiment freely, fueling your main work with energy and excitement.

• We discuss the rapid impact of technology on identity, creativity and relationships, and how to harness change instead of just surviving it.

• Manoush believes in laughing at life's absurdity, being proud of getting older, and taking action instead of waiting on others to live a good life.

• The conversation covers big ideas, passions and perspectives on living well from Manoush's viewpoint as an award-winning journalist.

Join us as we dive into big ideas, passions and living well with award-winning journalist Manoush Zomorodi.

You can find Manoush at: Website | ZigZag Podcast

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Kevin Kelly about excellent advice for living.

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Beyond money, what truly matters is meaning and purpose - feeling like your work and life make a difference. Studies show significance is key to satisfaction.

Yet workplaces often keep us from these feelings. Seth Godin explores how to transform work into a source of fulfillment and purpose.

Seth has inspired many through his insights on work culture, leadership and spreading ideas. His latest book, The Song of Significance serves as a manifesto for creating a more human-centric workplace.

We discuss:

• Embracing change as the new normal
• Reimagining the workplace to enroll, empower and trust everyone
• How the past few years have trained us to embrace change
• The importance of taking responsibility for meaningful work
• Rediscovering the value of human connection at work

This is a must-listen for anyone seeking a more purpose-driven approach to work. Seth's book can help transform workplaces and create an environment where everyone can do their best work.

You can find Seth at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode:

• You’ll also love my January episode, featuring the Sparketypes and how to better align your work with who you are, in order to experience more meaning, purpose, and possibility.

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Have you ever felt stuck in any part of your life? Trapped in a soul-sucking job, an unfulfilling relationship, a health, fitness or performance plateau, or a creative rut? What if there was a way to tap scientifically-validated principles to get unstuck, break free from the invisible forces holding you back and unleash your full potential? What if you could literally engineer breakthroughs? Turns out, you can.

Adam Alter joins us to discuss his new book Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most, which explores the often unavoidable experience of feeling stuck - whether it's a relationship, career, or health issue - and what we can do to turn stuckness into breakthrough. Adam shares strategies and mindset shifts to get unstuck and how simplifying and experimenting can ultimately help us make progress.

• Stuckness is an inevitable part of the human experience, especially for long-term goals that have a lull period in the middle. We become fixated on the end goal and overlook the journey.
• When stuck, people feel anxious, confused, isolated, and like their struggles are unique even though stuckness is universal. It leads to a flailing response that doesn't help.
• The first step is managing emotions by taking down the pressure and slowing down. Only then can you start to think strategically about how to move forward.
• Hitting plateaus is natural due to the plateau effect - constant methods become less effective over time. Anticipating plateaus and chunking large goals into smaller ones helps navigate through them.
• Failure is also inevitable but we have different cultural baggage around failure depending on the domain. The key is to reframe failure as learning rather than a stain on your character.
• Conducting a "friction audit" - identifying and removing obstacles - can reduce stuckness, especially if done periodically.
• Simplicity trumps complexity when stuck - focus on the 1-2 most important factors that will make the biggest difference now.
• Experimentation, exploration, and luck also play a role in breakthroughs. Being more exploratory increases serendipity.
• Surrounding yourself with different types of people, including those who challenge you, can enrich your life.

You can find Adam at: Website | Twitter

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love my January episode on the power of success scaffolding to achieve incredible visions.

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Born in 1989 Ukraine with extensive physical challenges, missing bones and parts of limbs, muscle,s and organ tissue due to in-utero radiation poisoning from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Oksana Masters was left to fend for herself in an orphanage. The world was stacked against her, and the conditions in the three orphanages she endured were, as she described, truly brutal. But, she refused to give up.

Then, at age 7, she’d find herself adopted by a single, American mom, whose own years-long journey to bring Oksana home is its own astonishing story. The simple fact that she survived is remarkable. But, she didn’t just survive, once in her home, enduring multiple additional surgeries and amputations, her indomitable spirit refused to let anyone tell her what she could or could not do. 

And, nearly a decade later, she’d end up stunning not just her mom, and the local community, but the entire world, becoming the United States' most decorated winter Paralympic or Olympic athlete, taking home seventeen medals in four different sports. She has since been featured everywhere from Sports Illustrated to The New York Times and has written a powerful memoir, The Hard Parts: A Memoir of Courage and Triumph, that recounts her astonishing journey from the shadow of Chernobyl to the world's biggest stages. 

In today’s deeply moving and inspiring conversation, you'll discover:

1. How an unwavering spirit can conquer the most daunting physical challenges.
2. The power of love, support, and perseverance in overcoming trauma and adversity.
3. The importance of embracing your unique differences and using them to your advantage.
4. What it takes to excel in not just one, but four different sports on the world stage.
5. The life-changing impact of a single decision to never give up.
6. And so much more.

Join us as we explore the extraordinary life of Oksana Masters, and learn how she turned her greatest challenges into her most exceptional victories. How she became unstoppable, and showed the world what was possible. 

You can find Oksana at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Kyle Bryant about how to transform challenges into action.

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What if you could transform your sleep in just seven days? What if the key to unlocking your best rest lies within a simple yet powerful prescription, tailored by one of the world's leading sleep experts? What if sleep didn’t have to be something you struggle with and, instead, could become a powerful and friendly ally? Well, that’s exactly where we’re heading into today’s conversation as we open your eyes to the wonders of sleep and help you finally experience the restorative snooze time you've been craving.

My guest today is Dr. Aric Prather, a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. In his new book, The Sleep Prescription: Seven Days to Unlocking Your Best Rest, Aric shares the powerful solutions he uses to help patients at his clinic achieve healing and restorative sleep. In this conversation, you'll discover things like:

• How your internal clock plays a crucial role in your sleep quality
• The importance of sleep transition and the activities that can help you wind down effectively
• The surprising impact of blue light exposure on melatonin production, and the myths around it
• Why it's essential to create a "shrine to sleep" and the consequences of not doing so
• How to retrain your brain for better sleep through innovative techniques
• Why you might want to focus more on wake times than bedtimes
• And so much more.

Don't miss this opportunity to gain insight into the mysteries of sleep and unlock the keys to your best rest. Join us as we explore the groundbreaking work of Dr. Aric Prather and learn how you can transform your sleep in just seven days.

You can find Aric at: Website | Twitter

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Light Watkins about finding calm wherever you are.

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These last few years have tested our boundaries on nearly every level. Work, friendship, family, community, geography, politics, religion, social issues, love, and well-being. It’s like we’re being asked to draw lines, all day, every day. Question is, how? How do you create and uphold boundaries that are clear, healthy, and constructive, while also acknowledging the nuance, kindness, and understanding this moment demands? 

Well, my guest today, Nedra Glover Tawwab, can help. A licensed therapist and sought-after relationship expert, she has practiced relationship therapy for 12 years and is the founder and owner of the group therapy practice, Kaleidoscope Counseling. Every day she helps people create healthy relationships by teaching them how to implement boundaries. Her philosophy is that a lack of boundaries and assertiveness underlie most relationship issues, and her gift is helping people create healthy relationships with themselves and others. Nedra is also the author of the New York Times Bestselling book, Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself, and The Set Boundaries Workbook: Practical Exercises for Understanding Your Needs and Setting Healthy Limits.

You can find Nedra at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Terri Cole, who brings a beautifully complementary lens to the critical exploration of boundaries.

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Could Your Smartphone Be Destroying Your Focus? Have our attention spans, will power, mood and productivity just become hopelessly derailed for life? Answer is, it depends. What we do about our rapidly-diminishing attention and its effect on our work, lives, health, and relationships is mission-critical. 

In today's world, we're constantly bombarded by digital distractions. From emails and social media notifications to the constant buzzing of our smartphones, our attention spans are dwindling to an average of 46 seconds on a screen, before our attention flitters off to something or someone else. But what if the key to regaining control over your focus lies not only in your own habits but also in the way you interact with your devices? 

Our guest today is Gloria Mark whose new book, Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity reveals surprising results from her decades of research into how technology affects our attention and how we can take control, not only to find more success in our careers, but also to find health and wellness in our everyday lives.

In this intriguing conversation, you'll discover:

1. The alarming effect of digital multitasking on our ability to focus and the implications for our mental health.
2. The power of mindfulness practices in helping to combat digital distractions and build a stronger attention muscle.
3. How the "future self" concept can be utilized to motivate ourselves to stay on task and resist the temptation of digital distractions.
4. Simple yet effective environmental changes, such as turning off notifications, can make a significant difference in our ability to concentrate.
5. The importance of deep, meaningful connections with others in living a fulfilling and creative life.

You can find Gloria at: Website | LinkedIn

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Johann Hari on how to reclaim focus.

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You’ve heard about it everywhere, but what does AI have to do, if anything, with living a good life? With how you live and work and play? With the choices you get to make, and the choices that might be taken from you? With the ability to do more of what you love and less of everything else? And, beyond AI, what are some of the big levers to live by? The simple bits of wisdom that actually have a giant impact on everything from work to play, love to health and beyond? 

These are just some of the big questions and ideas I’m exploring with none other than truly visionary thinker, Kevin Kelly. Kevin has played a pivotal role in shaping the discourse around technology and its potential impact on society for decades. His latest book, Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier is an ideal companion for anyone seeking to navigate life with grace and creativity.

In today's episode, we dive deep into the fascinating world of emergent technologies, with a focus on AI, and get to some both exciting and unsettling, but important truths (or at least guesses), unearthing some the most groundbreaking ideas and insights that promise to redefine the very fabric of our existence. And we also dive into some of the fun, surprising and wise and, in his words, excellent bits of advice for living. 

You can find Kevin at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Parker Palmer about what really matters in life.

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Have you ever wondered why some people seem to have a magical way with words, effortlessly connecting with others, inspiring change, being able to share ideas in a way that seems to bypass defenses, be wildly persuasive and lead to action and impact? What IS it that lets them do it? In today's fund and surprising conversation with Jonah Berger, we delve into the fascinating world of language, persuasion, and ethics, and reveal the secrets to harnessing the power of what my guest calls “magic words” in your everyday life.

Jonah is a world-renowned expert on natural language processing, change, word of mouth, influence, consumer behavior, and why things catch on. His latest book, Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way, provides a powerful toolkit and actionable techniques around the science of language and how you can use it to change minds, engage audiences, and drive action.

In today’s conversation, we explore the incredible ways in which language can impact our lives, relationships, and influence, including:

1. The concept of "linguistic chameleons" and how adjusting your language can create stronger connections with others.
2. The power of emotional language to hold attention, evoke curiosity and inspire action.
3. How sharing vulnerabilities and failures can foster a sense of camaraderie, empowering others to persist in their endeavors.
4. The importance of understanding similarities and differences in language, and the potential to drive creativity and cultural shifts.

You can find Jonah at: Website | Twitter

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Zoe Chance about ethical persuasion.

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Ever notice how, increasingly, spirituality, and especially, religion, have become these loaded terms? Let alone concepts. But, does that have to be the case? What might a new lens or approach on spirituality and faith look like? One steeped in openness, kindness, inclusivity, service, compassion and beyond? 

That is where we’re headed today in this deep and nuanced conversation with my guest, Rainn Wilson. Now, before you even ask, you may be wondering, “Isn’t he the three-time Emmy-nominated actor who portrayed Dwight Schrute on NBC's The Office?” And, the answer would be yes. But what you may not know is that Rainn has been traveling, examining, and deeply studying both his own Baha'i tradition, as well as nearly every other religious and spiritual tradition for more than 50 years. He is no stranger to deep, meaningful conversations. His latest book, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution explores the harmony between personal transformation service and the future of religion and spirituality. And, that’s exactly where he headed in today’s deep, rich, wise, and kind conversation.

You can find Rainn at: Instagram | Twitter

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Matthew McConaughey about the pursuit of meaning, joy and expression in life.

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Have you ever wondered what sets successful people apart, and how they stay motivated to achieve their goals? What if you could discover the secrets to maximizing your own motivation and achieving the success you desire? In today's podcast, we delve into the surprising science of motivation and accomplishment, uncovering powerful strategies to help you conquer challenges and propel yourself toward your dreams with my guest, Emily Balcetis.

Emily is an Associate Professor of Psychology and the director of the New York University Social Perception Action and Motivation research lab. Described as a pioneer in the scientific investigation of behavioral science and motivation, she leads an international team of scholars, writers, artists, and advocates. Her research has uncovered previously unknown strategies that increase, sustain, and direct people's efforts to meet their goals. As a TED speaker and author of Clearer, Closer, Better: How Successful People See the World, she has become one of the most sought-after voices on motivation science in the world.

During this conversation, you'll learn:

1. How our perception of the world shapes our motivation and, in turn, our success.
2. The surprising strategies successful people use to sustain and direct their efforts.
3. The role of self-compassion in overcoming setbacks and maintaining motivation.
4. How to unlock your own inner resources to achieve your personal and professional goals.

You can find Emily at: Psychology Today | LinkedIn

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Lewis Howes about the mindset that propels greatness.

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I’m fascinated by the idea of snap decisions, how some can lead to amazing outcomes, and others can destroy lives. What you so often find is that nothing actually happens in a moment, there is no real snap, but rather a series of experiences leading up to it, often years in the making, were as much authors of the moment as the instance itself. And, sometimes, when those moments lead to something you’ll regret for a lifetime, you get to the next question - what is recoverable - redeemable - how do you make that happen, and who gets to write the story of your reclamation? 

This is the powerful thru line of my conversation with Shaka Senghor, New York Times bestselling author of Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison. He took another young man’s life at the age of 19, served the next two decades in prison, 7 in solitary, and through a series of awakenings, began to unwind the pieces of his life and begin the process of understanding, reassembling and eventually redemption. 

His latest book, Letters to the Sons of Society: A Father's Invitation to Love, Honesty, and Freedom invites men everywhere on a journey of honesty and healing through this book of moving letters to his sons. So excited to share this 'Best of' conversation with you today.

You can find Shaka at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Father Greg Boyle and Fabian Debora about the power of redemption and expression.

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What if there was a secret pathway that could dramatically expand the level of joy, creativity, pleasure, and connection you experienced in life, no matter what was happening? Turns out, there is, and that path takes us through the land of our five senses, but in ways you never thought about or imagined.

In today's captivating conversation with my dear friend, Gretchen Rubin, one of today’s most influential observers of happiness and human nature, we dive into the untapped potential of the 5 senses to dramatically enhance our lives. Gretchen reveals how engaging with our senses in novel, playful ways can bring us moments of joy, even during difficult times. You'll discover the essential role our senses play in connecting with ourselves and the world around us. We explore how tuning into these powerful tools can foster stronger relationships, increase creativity, pleasure and joy, and lead to more mindful, satisfying experiences, all based on her new book, Life in Five Senses: How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and Into the World.

You'll learn:

1. The concept of a "Five Senses Journal" to heighten your self-awareness and unlock personal insights.
2. How tapping into your senses can foster stronger relationships, resolve conflicts, and boost empathy.
3. The transformative power of sensory experiences in stimulating creativity, productivity, and mental well-being.
4. How to harness your senses for meditation, relaxation, or simply having fun in your everyday life.
5. The vital role our senses play in creating meaningful memories and fostering a greater sense of well-being.

Join us as we uncover the hidden power of our senses, and embark on a sensory journey that will inspire you to live a more fulfilled and joyous life.

You can find Gretchen at: Website | Instagram | Happier with Gretchen Rubin - Podcast

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Gretchen about The Four Tendencies or how we meet our own expectations.

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Have you ever felt like you’ve got so much more potential inside you, but you have no idea how to unlock it and share it with the world? If so, you’re not alone. And it’s a question that today’s guest, rocket scientist turned award-winning professor and bestselling author, Ozan Varol, takes us into. How can we unleash our hidden genius, that magical set of capabilities that lies within every person? And, how do we even know what our is, let alone how to release it into the world?

In this thought-provoking podcast, we'll dive into the art of embracing curiosity, letting go of our past and future, and stepping into the unknown. His newest book, Awaken Your Genius, explores how to identify and share the magic that lies within all of us.

We explore:

1. How the power of curiosity can lead to groundbreaking discoveries and help you overcome fear.
2. The importance of looking where others don't to find unique perspectives and uncover hidden gems.
3. The role of repetition in creating false confidence and the value of exploring different sources of information.
4. The remarkable story of Jimmy Breslin, a journalist who found success by stepping away from the norm.
5. How Ozan experimented with potential futures before finding his true calling and the importance of approaching life with the mindset of a curious scientist.

You can find Ozan at: Website | Purchase the Book & Get a Special Free Bonus

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Ozan three years ago about how to think like a rocket scientist to solve big problems.

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• My New Book Sparked
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Have you ever felt like the only one in the room? That uneasy feeling of being different, isolated, or misunderstood, having to perform to a norm that is entirely misaligned with who you are can be jarring. But what if those moments of feeling out of place are actually the key to unlocking a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us? Welcome to a groundbreaking episode where we dive deep into the unseen divide with our guest, Laura Cathcart Robbins.

Laura Cathcart Robbins is an accomplished author, freelance writer, speaker, and host of the popular podcast The Only One in the Room. Her new memoir, Stash: My Life in Hiding is about the journey to sobriety and self-love amidst addiction, privilege, racism, and self-sabotage.

In this episode, we dive into:

1. The powerful role of vulnerability, honesty, and openness in fostering genuine connections, breaking down barriers, and coming home to yourself.
2. How so many of us try to cope with stress, overwhelm, or differences by turning to unhealthy behaviors, even addiction, and how these need not be lifelong conditions.
3. How comparing your suffering to others often only piles on, rather than eases the pain.
4. An unusual take on redefining and rebuilding relationships after life-altering events, like divorce, addiction, and recovery.
5. The importance of including diverse voices in educational and communal spaces and beyond.

You can find Laura at: Website | Instagram | The Only One In The Room Podcast

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Rich Roll about his journey through addiction and awakening.

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The science is crystal clear, deep, genuine, healthy and enduring relationships are at the center of a well-lived life. But, so often, it’s the long-term intimate partnerships that we take most for granted or give least attentiveness to. Just assuming they’ll keep on keeping on. Until they don’t. So how DO you keep your relationship with someone you hope to be a life partner not just alive, but truly rich and flourishing and nourishing and joyful? Especially over a period of years or, if you’re fortunate enough, decades? What’s the secret to maintaining passion and connection throughout the years?

That’s where we’re headed in this eye-opening conversation with professor Eli Finkel, as we dive deep into the world of romantic relationships. Eli is the author of the bestselling book The All-Or-Nothing Marriage: How the Best Marriages Work.

You'll discover:

1. The surprising impact of engaging in exciting, out-of-the-ordinary activities on relationship satisfaction and passion.
2. How to distinguish between activities that foster closeness and those that reignite desire.
3. The unexpected benefits of breaking out of routines and embracing new challenges together.

And, lots more. During our conversation, we delve into the intricacies of maintaining passion in long-term relationships, discussing the importance of novelty, and exploring the potential benefits of breaking out of routines in the aftermath of the pandemic. Eli shares valuable insights on how couples can be deliberate about rebooting their relationships and resetting priorities, all while creating meaningful connections and lasting memories.

You can find Eli at: Website | Twitter

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Julie and John Gottman about love and marriage.

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• My New Book Sparked
• My New Podcast SPARKED. To submit your “moment & question” for consideration to be on the show go to sparketype.com/submit. 
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One of our core values and beliefs here at Good Life Project is that every human being, regardless of how they identify, love, practice, or live is endowed with dignity and worth, and is entitled to be treated through this lens. We also believe that every person can learn from any person, especially those who they perceive as being different from them. It’s a big part of the reason we’re always seeking to share a rich tapestry of voices on the podcast. The moment we close ourselves off to those we perceive as other, whether from fear, lack of knowledge or lived experience, we close ourselves off to a part of ourselves and of life that could have made our days so much richer. And, we shrink our worlds and lives along the way.

So, as we head into this year’s Trans Day of Visibility, we wanted to share a selection of moments, ideas and awakening from a few deeply-moving conversations we’ve had over the years with some incredible, big-hearted, and wise humans who also happen to identify as transgender, and have chosen to make it their life’s work to step into conversation with others to share their experience. Not just of being transgender, but also of moving through a world that often misunderstands, labels, and ostracizes on a level that leads to injustice, rising at times to violence and suffering. These conversations aren’t just about transgender life, though, they’re about life, the way we choose to relate to each other, hear and see each other, acknowledge our shared humanity, and choose to either expand our horizons and our lives, or contract both. So excited to share this Best Of episode featuring Imara Jones and Trystan Reese. 

You can find Imara Jones at: Website | Instagram | TransLash Podcast | Listen to Our Full-Length Convo with Imara

You can find Trystan Reese at: Website | Instagram | Listen to Our Full-Length Convo with Trystan

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We live in a world of near-constant distraction, making it harder and harder to focus, to be present and attentive in the activities, goals, pursuit and even relationships that mean the most to us. And, so often, the solution offered to reclaim focus are the same old tired things we hear, over and over again.

So, today, in the next installment of our Life-changing Habits series, we’re exploring 7 unconventional, more secret-weapon-level, science-backed habits that can help you stay focused, be less distracted, and truly be present in the moment. These unconventional but incredibly powerful habits can transform the way you interact with the world and the people that really matter. And, pretty safe bet you either haven’t heard of them or tried them, or if you have, you never had them teed up in the context of improving focus, along with specific direction, and the science behind how and why they work. So excited to share these 5 life-changing focus-building habits with you. 

Submit a voice memo of your 5 Good Life Habits.

If you LOVED this episode, you’ll also love the other episodes in this series:

• 5 Life-Changing Habits
• 5 Life-Changing Relationship Habits
• 5 Life-Changing Holiday Survival Habits 

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• My New Book Sparked
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Have you ever felt like you're living a life that isn't truly yours? Maybe you long to uncover the most authentic version of yourself, the one that’s laid hidden beneath layers of expectations and societal norms? Or, maybe you ever feel trapped in a never-ending cycle of change and growth without ever really getting where you want to be or feeling the way you want to feel. What if I told you that there's a process to the feeling of emergence, a journey to be embraced? And that it was steeped not in rigidity or force, but in poetry and grace.

In today’s conversation, interwoven with live, spoken word performances, poet, spoken word phenom, author, actor, and artist, Arielle Estoria, guides us through a journey she calls The Unfolding, which is also the title of her new book - a beautiful collection of poems, essays, and meditations that guide us through this transformative process.

She shares her personal experiences of pain and growth, and reveals how we can all learn to embrace a process of Unfolding, of coming home to ourselves, in our own lives. And, along the way, she also recites some beautiful, deeply-evocative poems that I know you won’t want to miss.

You can find Arielle at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Cleo Wade about life, love and expression.

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What if there was a game-changing relationship practice or tool or strategy that was capable of not only transforming your personal relationships, even the really tense one, but also your relationship with yourself, and even with the way to respond to others, even complete strangers, and embrace shaping the world to be a better place?

Turns out, there just might be. And, this is where we’re headed today with my guest, Rick Hanson. As a psychologist, best-selling author, and expert on positive neuroplasticity, Rick has lectured at some of the world's top institutions and is here to share his insights on how to warm your heart, see the person behind the eyes, and ultimately shape the world to be a better place.

TW: brief mention of suicidal thoughts

You can find Rick at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Tara Brach about the practice of compassion and acceptance.

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Are you living your best life? It's a question we've all asked ourselves, but have you considered the role that global exploration and cultural immersion can play in answering it? In a world that's more connected than ever before, it's crucial to look beyond the immediate confines of our communities and explore the richness of other cultures. And what better way to do that than by studying abroad? In this special sponsored episode, we partner with the StudyUK campaign which is part of the UK Government's wider Great campaign for Britain and Northern Ireland to explore the benefits of studying in the UK, from finances to application processes and everything in between. Join us as we sit down with Raquel Villanueva, a broadcast journalism veteran who is currently a commentator and video producer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to discover the transformative impact studying abroad can have on our lives and careers.

You can find more information on studying abroad in the UK at: British Council - StudyUK website

You can find Raquel at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Pico Iyer about the power of travel as a tool for learning and connecting.

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My first exposure to Anne Lamott’s work was her iconic book, Bird By Bird, which as a writer, was transformative. Not just because it helped me better understand how and why to write, but also because her wonderfully wise and irreverent voice inspired me to be more real, more honest in both my work and my life. I’ve remained captivated by her writing ever since. The author of too many The New York Times bestsellers, including Almost Everything; Hallelujah Anyway; Small Victories; Stitches; Help, Thanks, Wow; and her most recent Dusk Night Dawn, Anne goes places other fear to tread with such humility, humor and craft, it’s like you’ve been invited into her mind, her life and her ability to draw belly laughs, deep wisdom and hits of awakening from those often tiny moments that touch down in our lives that so many of us miss. She reminds you, it may not be fun while it’s happening, but it’s all part of the beautiful souffle of life and every ingredient matters. So excited to share this best-of conversation with you now.

You can find Anne at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Glennon Doyle about living more authentically and untamed.

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So, you think you’re making good decisions, but are you really? And, what about the hidden scripts and noisy inputs that affect nearly every decision you make, without you being aware of any of it? How do we make better decisions?

Today's guest can help. Daniel Kahneman is one of the most influential psychologists and thinkers in modern history, his ideas have literally changed the way we live, work, relate, see the world, make decisions, and build solutions, organizations, industries, societies, and lives. 

Best known for his remarkable work with Amos Tversky, which explores how we reason and make decisions, his research was, in no small way, seminal in the creation of the field of behavioral economics. He’s been awarded the Nobel Prize, as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His New York Times best-selling book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, has sold more than seven million copies worldwide. And his most recent book, Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment, explores how unrecognized, systemic influences affect our decisions in ways, both rational and not, that remain completely hidden to us and often lead to profound unfairness and inequality. 

We talk about key ideas from his research spanning more than 6 decades. But, we also dive deep into the life experiences that shaped him. Fascinatingly, Kahmeman’s curiosity about humans and all our complexities was sparked as a young Jew living with his family in Nazi-occupied France during World War II, and running for years, before fleeing. His sometimes harrowing experiences triggered questions and curiosities that powerfully influenced what would become a lifelong devotion to understand why we do the things we do.

We explore those early experiences, and he shares where some of the seeds were first planted that would later grow into the body of research and work that have changed the world. 

You can find Daniel at: Princeton University | The Nobel Prize

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Charles Duhigg about how unknown influences and habit and ritual effect our behavior.

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Are you tired of feeling like you’re powerless against your cravings, no matter how much you try to resist them? From unhealthy, yet irresistible snacks to binge-TV, we often feel helpless against the biochemical storm happening inside our bodies and brains that lure us into behaviors we know are not healthy or life-enhancing, yet, still, we keep saying yes to them. Thinking, “I’m better than this,” or trying to tap willpower isn’t enough. We need to understand what’s really happening and learn how to harness our physiology for good.

Today's episode is going to change everything you thought you knew about cravings.

To help guide us through this exploration, is double board-certified doctor and wellness expert specializing in food allergies, hormones and gut health, Amy Shah, MD. Building on the ideas from her new book, I’m So Effing Hungry: Why We Crave What We Crave – and What to Do About It, Amy takes us deep into the world of cravings, what they really are and are not, how they co-opt your body’s systems, and she even reveals how companies use this knowledge to manipulate our cravings and how we can take back control of our brains, and lives. So get ready to rewire your brain and discover natural ways to get that dopamine fix that will keep you motivated and focused on your goals. 

You can find Amy at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Aviva Romm, MD about how to work with our hormones to live better lives.

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• My New Book Sparked
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When you hear the term “greatness,” what do you think? For most people, images of world-class athletes, innovators, performers, leaders or industry or arts come to mind. The best of the best in any field. Those who push harder than anyone and everyone else and succeed on a scale most can only dream of. But, what if that’s not actually greatness at all? What if greatness was more about how you show up in your life, and lead with service and humanity? That’s the argument that my dear friend, New York Times best-selling author, keynote speaker, industry-leading show host, and former pro-athlete, Lewis Howes, makes. 

"Greatness,” according to Lewis, “is about service to other people in the pursuit of your dreams, making sure that everyone else wins around you while you're winning and empowering people around you while you grow and succeed."

He believes that success alone will not bring joy, but we must also fulfill our inner peace, free ourselves emotionally and mentally, and have clarity on what direction we want to go in. Only then can we live our highest version of ourselves and be the best version of ourselves. Many of these ideas are detailed in his new book, The Greatness Mindset: Unlock the Power of Your Mind and Live Your Best Life Today. We dive into key elements in a powerful and revealing way in today’s conversation.

You can find Lewis at: Website | The School of Greatness podcast | The Daily Motivation podcast

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Chase Jarvis about reimagining success.

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Have you ever had a moment or experience, maybe even an entire season of life that was so hard, so filled with struggle and, maybe even, grief, loss and uncertainty, that the very idea of feeling or accessing any kind of big or meaningful or sustained happiness or joy just completely left you? Yeah, we’ve all been there on some level. 

But, what if, even in those moments where the big happy, or the big joy just isn’t accessible, there was still a way to dip into fleeting moments of lightness, or what my dear friend and guest today, Cyndie Spiegel, calls microjoys? One that gives you just enough of a glimmer of hope and connection, ease and maybe even laughter, that it keeps you going long enough to begin to emerge back into a state of more sustained spaciousness and possibility?

Cyndie is a beloved storyteller-turned-writer and an igniter of power conversation whose new book, Microjoys: Finding Hope (Especially) When Life Is Not Okay, is a revelation. She first began holding on to what she calls microjoys during a devastating season that saw her mom pass from cancer, her nephew murdered, her brother struggling to recover from a stroke, and her own diagnosis of cancer, all while navigating a global pandemic. That’s what we’re diving into today, both the notion of microjoys, along with myriad ways to access these moments and experiences. 

You can find Cyndie at: Website | Dear Grown Ass Women | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Ocean Vuong about navigating struggle and making peace with his story.

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Have you ever felt overwhelmed or helpless in the face of anxiety? Like the more you try to manage it, the more out of control it becomes? Maybe it’s in social situations where you’re surrounded by new people or work situations where it’s so easy to start spinning about everything from how you’ll be perceived to what happens if you stumble. Or, maybe it's just about the state of your life, relationships, family, community, or even the world. If that’s you, you're not alone. 

But, what if anxiety was actually just a particular type of energy that could be transformed into something akin to a superpower? This is the bold idea offered by my guest today, Professor Wendy Suzuki. Her latest book, Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion, explores how to use anxiety as a superpower. Wendy is passionate about helping people understand the phenomenon of anxiety and how to reframe it in order to lead a more fulfilling life and offers science-based strategies to help us turn the volume down on our anxiety responses. 

You can find Dr. Wendy at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Jud Brewer about unwinding anxiety.

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How many times have you said yes to something, started it, gotten halfway through, then either been distracted, run out of time, energy, money, ideas, motivation, or all the above? And, just kind of walk away, leaving something that could’ve been amazing unfinished? Never getting the chance to back in the I DID THAT glow of accomplishment and tell everyone around you, “hey, I DID that!” And, yes, I’m raising my hand here.

And, what about being able to do what’s important without it also taking over your life, and leaving you living reactively? Wouldn’t it be cool if there were ways, strategies, tools, processes and technology that could dramatically reduce the amount of time it takes to get things done, so you could have so much more free time to do all the other stuff you love to do? Including absolutely nothing at all? 

These are the questions we’re diving into in today’s special spotlight conversation featuring conversations with Start Finishing author, Charlie Gilkey, and Free Time author, Jenny Blake. How do I not only choose and start but also finish what really matters? And, while you’re at it, how can I reimagine the way I work to create a ton more free time to do anything that lights me up? 

You can find Charlie Gilkey at: Website | Instagram | Listen to Our Full-Length Convo with Charlie

You can find Jenny Blake at: Website | Free Time Podcast | Listen to Our Full-Length Convo with Jenny

If you LOVED this episode you'll love the conversation we had with Chip Conley about reimagining what you center in your life.

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Cole Arthur Riley grew up in a house full of loud, funny, and loving personalities, but as a kid, she kept her voice from others, barely speaking at all until she was 7 years old. Still, her dad kept finding ways to, as she described, bribe her to share her voice and nurture her creative impulse, often in writing, from poems to stories and beyond.

Over time, as her expressive and creative voice took shape, her lens on spirituality also yearned for a more expansive expression, she began to bring all parts of her life together - the creative impulse, life experience, sense of identity and fairness and spiritual inclination - to write her own blended prayer-meets-poetry, modern liturgies. Then, she started sharing them on Instagram under the moniker, Black Liturgies.

Almost immediately, the project took off, growing into a global phenomenon. Her work then led to Cole’s debut book and New York Times bestseller, This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us, which explores some of the most urgent questions of life, identity, and faith: How can spirituality not silence the body, but instead allow it to come alive? How do we honor, lament, and heal from the stories we inherit? How can we find peace in a world overtaken with dislocation, noise, and unrest? In this stunning work, Cole invites us to descend into our own stories, examine our capacity to rest, wonder, joy, rage, and repair, and find that our humanity is not an enemy to faith but evidence of it. And we talk about all of it in today’s conversation. Her journey, her wisdom, the incredible response of the community, and more.

You can find Cole at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Alex Elle about how to heal.

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What if you were, unknowingly being controlled by unresolved pain from your past, even minor, or momentary experiences, ones that took root and, from that moment on, without you having any idea, limited everything from your relationships to your health, work, wealth, and life? 

We all encounter unresolved pain from our past, or what my guest today, New York therapist and author of the new book The Origins of You: How Breaking Family Patterns Can Liberate the Way We Live and Love, Vienna Pharaon, calls origin wounds. But most of us don't realize they’re even there, so we just keep repeating patterns that lead to unhappiness, having no idea what’s really stopping us from feeling more connected and alive. Even if we do recognize them, understanding and dealing with them can be a difficult and intimidating process. I love how practical, strategic, and tool-oriented Vienna is in her approach. I opened my eyes to such much, maybe it’ll do the same for you.

You can find Vienna at: Website | Instagram | “What’s Your Origin Wound” quiz

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Bessel van der Kolk about resolving trauma.

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• My New Book Sparked
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Ever wonder if entrepreneurship is for you? Whether starting a personal business like coaching or consulting, building around an idea, platform, technology or product, teaching others what you know, either in person or through books, courses and talks, heading out on your own, blazing your own path can be scary. And, this is especially true if you’re walking away from a job with a nice salary, benefits, and some sense of security. Even more so if your resources are limited.

But, does it have to be that scary or risky? What can we do to, first, understand if this path is right for us and, second, set ourselves up for success? Not just in building a flourishing business, but also in crafting a life you love? These are the questions we’re exploring today with my long-time friend, Amy Porterfield.

Now 14 years in, having helped tens of thousands of people, Amy has built an extraordinarily successful company with a full team and many offerings, and produces a top-ranked podcast, Online Marketing Made Easy. She’s become a true champion, and also a leading voice on how to make the transition into entrepreneurship. In her new book, Two Weeks Notice: Find the Courage to Quit Your Job, Make More Money, Work Where You Want, and Change the World, Amy dives into her journey, then walks you through a detailed process to envision, validate, and build your own, low-risk, easy-on-the-psyche business. And, we dive deep into it all in today’s conversation.

You can find Amy at: Website | Instagram | Online Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield podcast

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Lisa Congdon about transitioning from full-time work to building a successful career in the arts.

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What if paradise was real? But, instead of searching and traveling a journey to the far ends of the earth to find it, you could touch it at any moment, in any place, no matter how amazing or awful the setting or circumstance. 

And what if paradise or peace is something completely different than this all-perfect place or feeling a lot of us believe it to be? What if that feeling we so yearn to experience, is here and now, dead center in our lives of complexity and paradox? And, we just had to know what to do to feel it?

Today's guest, Pico Iyer, has spent much of his life searching, living, and listening for insight and answers to life's big questions. A full-time writer and essayist since 1982, Pico's insightfulness and quest for meaning have led him to places and people all across the world. From Iran to North Korea, from the Dalai Lama’s Himalayas to the ghostly temples of Japan. He has shared his travels and lessons learned in his 15 books on subjects ranging from the Dalai Lama to globalism and the Cuban Revolution to Islamic mysticism.

In our conversation, Pico and I dive deeper into his story and the events in his life that have led him to some powerful revelations that he shares in his latest book, The Half-Known Life: In Search of Paradise. We talk about some key ideas that make up a good life of peace, happiness and meaning. Pico opens up about the losses, opportunities, and, often, paradoxical feelings and experiences that helped him find paradise here on Earth. 

You can find Pico at: Website

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Robert Thurman about meaning, Buddhism, and life.

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How might your life be different if you’d gotten comfortable saying no in your earliest days? No to other people’s opinions about everything from education to careers to relationships. No to someone else telling you what to prioritize and how to spend your time. No to people you’ve never met offering their opinion on what you should or shouldn’t do, then tell you how they think your choice worked out.

How would your life be different, if you’d gotten okay with choosing for you, and not just for acceptance or obligation? And, how might you reclaim it, if you started getting clear on when and what to say yes or no to from this moment on? And, rid yourself of the need to please? That’s what we’re diving into with today’s guest, Natalie Lue, as a self-proclaimed recovering people pleaser who's spent the past nearly two decades unwinding the need to please and reclaiming freedom and ease. 

Natalie is a writer, speaker, podcaster, artist, and founder of one of the longest-running personal-growth websites in the world, Baggage Reclaim and The Baggage Reclaim Sessions podcast, and author of the new book, The Joy of Saying No: A Simple Plan to Stop People Pleasing, Reclaim Boundaries, and Say Yes to the Life You Want. 

In our conversation, Natalie opens up about her struggles with people-pleasing, something we all know about and have experienced to some degree. We talk about the life events that brought Natalie back to herself, back to reclaiming her boundaries and life, and we get into some of the nitty-gritty of what it looks like to say yes to the life you want and how to embrace the joy of saying no. 

You can find Natalie at: Website | Instagram | The Baggage Reclaim Sessions podcast

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Susan Piver about the Enneagram and how it helps us relate to others and also set boundaries.

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• My New Book Sparked
• My New Podcast SPARKED: We’re looking for special guest “wisdom-seekers” to share the moment you’re in, then pose questions to Jonathan and the Sparked Braintrust to be answered, “on air.” To submit your “moment & question” for consideration to be on the show go to sparketype.com/submit. 
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes
• Peloton: Access high-energy workouts, instantly. Discover Peloton: streaming fitness classes to you live and on-demand. New Members who choose monthly billing get a 30-day free trial, or choose annual billing and get 12 months of Membership for the price of 10.

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What if you didn’t have to keep everything bottled up? Or show up a certain way? Or deny what you’re going through or feeling? What if you could just sit with it, feel it fully, then find a way to not only release it, but turn those feelings, thoughts, and emotions into something that went out into the world and moved people to feel and connect and love and laugh, too?

This is the work, the world, and life of New York City designer, illustrator, muralist, and author, Timothy Goodman. Surviving early life trauma, losing himself to drugs, getting arrested, and barely graduating high school, a chance encounter with a boss who’d become a mentor rekindled a passion for art and expression that had been seeded by the example of his grandma decades earlier. He was smitten with design, storytelling, and art and poured himself into it, eventually finding his way to New York City, studying at SVA, and knowing in his bones, this would be his home for life. Over the years, he’s built a stunning career. 

His new book, I Always Think It's Forever: A Love Story Set in Paris as Told by an Unreliable but Earnest Narrator, takes us into his exploration of love, blending poignant stories, insights and awakenings with vibrant joyful illustrations. And his body of work openly explores Timothy’s own mental health challenges and concern about the state of the world, sometimes centering both in his work. 

You can find Timothy at: Website | Instagram | Twitter

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Jason Naylor about the sweet spot between art, commerce and impact.

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• My New Book Sparked
• My New Podcast SPARKED: We’re looking for special guest “wisdom-seekers” to share the moment you’re in, then pose questions to Jonathan and the Sparked Braintrust to be answered, “on air.” To submit your “moment & question” for consideration to be on the show go to sparketype.com/submit. 
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes
• Peloton: Access high-energy workouts, instantly. Discover Peloton: streaming fitness classes to you live and on-demand. New Members who choose monthly billing get a 30-day free trial, or choose annual billing and get 12 months of Membership for the price of 10.

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How do you get through each day, let alone build a meaningful, connected and rewarding career when rapid-fire, constant change, groundlessness, unrelenting pace, overwhelm, and even workplace toxicity have become the norm?

That’s where we’re headed with my guest today, Gabriella Rosen Kellerman.

Her new book, Tomorrowmind: Thriving at Work—Now and in an Uncertain Future which was co-authored with renowned psychologist Martin Seligman, also known as the father of positive psychology, offers critical insights for facing a wildly fluctuating, seemingly perpetually unstable future of work. And in our conversation today, we explore a bit of Gabriella's background and her own trajectory in her career before diving into five science-backed strategies or workplace superpowers that can help us all thrive at work. From resilience to building rapid rapport at work, there's a lot of great insight to learn here.

You can find Gabriella at: Website | LinkedIn

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with DJ DiDonna about professional sabbaticals.

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• My New Book Sparked
• My New Podcast SPARKED: We’re looking for special guest “wisdom-seekers” to share the moment you’re in, then pose questions to Jonathan and the Sparked Braintrust to be answered, “on air.” To submit your “moment & question” for consideration to be on the show go to sparketype.com/submit. 
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes
• Peloton: Work out anytime, anywhere with the Peloton App. New Members who choose monthly billing get a 30-day free trial, or choose annual billing and get 12 months of Membership for the price of 10.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a world that seems to be constantly in motion, it can be difficult to find calm. Whether it's the never-ending stream of news notifications on our phones or the constant pressure to be doing, it can feel like we're always on the go. But it is possible to find calm amidst the chaos. Here are 7 ways to do just that.

You can find the 1-page worksheet HERE.

Find All Of The Episodes In This Series:

• How to Succeed at Anything Worth Doing | 2023 Kickstart
• A Simple Model for a Really Good Life | 2023 Kickstart
• What Should I Do With My Life? Start Here | Kickstart 2023

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• My New Book Sparked
• My New Podcast SPARKED: We’re looking for special guest “wisdom-seekers” to share the moment you’re in, then pose questions to Jonathan and the Sparked Braintrust to be answered, “on air.” To submit your “moment & question” for consideration to be on the show go to sparketype.com/submit. 
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes

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If you weren’t paying attention to your health before the last few years, you are now. Question is, what should we actually be paying attention to? And, are there major things, early or even real-time indicators that could tell us how our day-to-day choices are affecting everything from our energy to level of pain, inflammation, fatigue, mental health and risk of chronic illness or life-altering disease, but that most of us are missing? 

These are the questions I pose to today’s guest, Dr. Casey Means, as we explore the world of metabolic and mitochondrial health and how technology is now becoming available on more of a mass scale that can help us reclaim control over so many aspects of our immediate and long-term wellbeing. And even guide our behavioral choices, from food to movement to meditation in real-time. And, I also share my own experience running my own, personal experiments with this emerging tech.

You can find Casey at: Levels Website | Casey's Instagram | Levels Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Dr. Aviva Romm about hormones, well-being, and the struggles of modern healthcare.

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• My New Book Sparked
• My New Podcast SPARKED: We’re looking for special guest “wisdom-seekers” to share the moment you’re in, then pose questions to Jonathan and the Sparked Braintrust to be answered, “on air.” To submit your “moment & question” for consideration to be on the show go to sparketype.com/submit. 
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What should I do with my life? How can we actually make different choices that just might let us figure out what to devote our working lives to in a way that is more likely to make us come alive than empty us out in a way that will maybe for the first time ever satisfy our need? Not just for security and stability, which is an important need, but for meaning and purpose and energy and excitement and joy and beyond. And how do we make those choices and take action in a way that also doesn't lead to unwittingly repeating the same patterns that got us here, or even regretting what we've chosen and done? How do we craft our work lives to better reflect who we are and what makes us come alive? That's what we're diving into in today's special Kickstart Your Life episode.

Discover The Work That Makes You Come Alive - Take the Sparketype™ Assessment

You can find the 1-page worksheet HERE.

Find All Of The Episodes In This Series:

• How to Succeed at Anything Worth Doing | 2023 Kickstart
• A Simple Model for a Really Good Life | 2023 Kickstart

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• My New Book Sparked
• My New Podcast SPARKED: We’re looking for special guest “wisdom-seekers” to share the moment you’re in, then pose questions to Jonathan and the Sparked Braintrust to be answered, “on air.” To submit your “moment & question” for consideration to be on the show go to sparketype.com/submit. 
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if the key to living a good life is actually a lot closer than we all realize? Whether you're a long-time listener of the podcast or this is your first time tuning in, I bet some part of you is searching for the answers to living a good, meaningful life. You've probably wondered what the keys to happiness or good health, or fortune are. In our last episode, I shared a simple model for a really good life that I call the Good Life Buckets. If you haven’t listened, be sure to tee that up next. 

Today, we’re diving even deeper into the role that relationships and people play in our ability to feel human, to feel alive, and to flourish in all parts of life with a very special guest, someone passionate about uncovering and sharing the keys to living a good life, Dr. Robert Waldinger. 

He's a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the longest-running study on human flourishing ever conducted, now spanning over 80 years. The insights that have come out of it are profound, and also, for many, surprising, especially in the context of the importance of relationships on our ability to be happy, no matter what else comes our way.

Bob is also the co-author of the book The Good Life: Lessons From the World's Longest Scientific Study on Happiness, and I'm excited to dive deeper today into some of the insights shared in his book. In this conversation, Dr. Waldinger reveals some myths about happiness and living a good life that some of us cling to, what the data says actually matters and what doesn’t, and how to invest more effectively in the pursuit of happiness. 

You can find Robert at: Website| LinkedIn | TED Talk

If you LOVED this episode: you’ll also love last week’s episode about a simple model for a really good life.

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• My New Book Sparked
• My New Podcast SPARKED: We’re looking for special guest “wisdom-seekers” to share the moment you’re in, then pose questions to Jonathan and the Sparked Braintrust to be answered, “on air.” To submit your “moment & question” for consideration to be on the show go to sparketype.com/submit. 
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes

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So as we all step into this year together, there's a big question that I think is on everybody's mind. And that question is, "What does it actually take to live a good Life?" Is it about health or wealth, friendship love, passion, purpose? Or are there things that really matter that are fairly simple to cultivate, no matter your circumstance, but that most of us completely miss? And maybe most importantly, what can we do? How much is actually in our control? And does that vary from person to person or even within one person's life from moment to moment, month to month, season to season?

No matter who you are, what you do or what life brings your way, the question of what it means to live a good life, it resonates at the core of every single one of us. No matter our circumstances to feel more alive and connected to feel like whatever version of our best life is possible, we have found a way to access it on some level. And we have a sense of agency and co-creation in it.

And for over a decade now, I have been granted rare access to a global collective of luminaries in every industry and circumstance imaginable. From renowned scientists and leading voices in everything from spirituality, and philosophy, to art, to innovators, change makers in industries, psychology, health, mental health, relationships, education activism, CEOs and founders, painters, writers, Oscar-winning actors, iconic musicians have populated the quest and the list of teachers for me and people that have turned around and shared with you. And what I have added to that is many decades of my own countless personal experiments and experience ranging from studying and teaching, yoga and meditation to my own meditation and breathwork deep dives to having the incredible blessing of teaching tens of thousands of students and human beings from around the world. Building many intentional businesses and communities and experiences focused around collective elevation.

And over time, this deceptively simple, yet powerful model for a life well live emerged and I call it the Good Life Buckets. And this simple Good Life Bucket model remains as valid as robust as powerful as ever. So get ready to dive into the Good Life Buckets with the new 2023 lens on how to tap this model to build your best life possible.

You can find the 1-page worksheet HERE.

Links Mentioned:

• 5 Life-Changing Relationship Habits
• Arthur Aron's 36 Questions
• Good Life Project Bucket Quiz
• Sparketype™ Quiz

Find All Of The Episodes In This Series:

• How to Succeed at Anything Worth Doing | 2023 Kickstart

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• My New Book Sparked
• My New Podcast SPARKED
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does it mean to be time-poor? 

We've all heard the old phrase, "time is money," usually in the context of work and productivity. But, time isn’t just about money, it’s about happiness, health, and life. How we use it and feel like we have enough of it, is everything. Time is precious and, it is also our one nonrenewable resource. When a dollar is spent, you can earn another. When a day is gone, it’s gone for life.

So, how can we move forward, making sure that we live more intentionally and spend our time wisely so we won't have regrets in the end? My guest today, Cassie Holmes, has done incredible research on making the most of the world's most precious resource, time, and I'm excited to tackle these big questions and ideas in this important and timely conversation with her today. 

Her new book, Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most, gives readers the blueprint to reframing their time and overcoming time poverty. And in our chat today, you'll hear us dive deeper into this notion of having too much to do and too little time, how to distinguish between what matters and what doesn't when it comes to our time, and what to consider and do if you want to lead a more intentional, happier life — which I'm sure that's all of us.

You can find Cassie at: Website | LinkedIn

If you LOVED this episode: you’ll also love the conversations we had with Tim Ferriss about being present and intentional in life.

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• My New Book Sparked
• My New Podcast SPARKED: We’re looking for special guest “wisdom-seekers” to share the moment you’re in, then pose questions to Jonathan and the Sparked Braintrust to be answered, “on air.” To submit your “moment & question” for consideration to be on the show go to sparketype.com/submit. 
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes
• Planta: Individual care schedule and reminders for your plants, recommendations, step-by-step guides, identification, light meter and more. Keep your plants alive with Planta! Download the Planta App today, use code goodlife20 and get 20% OFF.
• You Need a Budget: Your money doesn’t have to be messy. Get a handle on your personal finances by budgeting with YNAB—a proven method and budgeting app that gives you real results. Try You Need a Budget free for 34-days (no credit card required) at YNAB.com/GOODLIFE

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if this was the year you actually did the thing that you have dreamed of doing, the thing that's been in the back of your mind for months or years, maybe even decades? The thing that when you think about it, your whole body responds - exhilarated in part, energized. You can feel it in your heart. And if you're being honest, maybe along with that tingling of excitement, there's even a touch of fear and doubt.

If it's even remotely inspiring or appealing and motivating, this very special episode is for you. If you're ready, but if you're not even sure where to begin, this episode is for you. It's the first in our January Kickstart Your Life Series, and the focus is on a very powerful framework that I have been developing and testing, using and refining for years that I call Success Scaffolding.

I am going to walk you through the 8 critical elements that are immensely powerful, unlock keys and guideposts that'll let you - maybe for the first time ever feel so much more confident and have a real actionable roadmap to finally do that thing that you have yearned to do. This framework will help you get there and keep you inspired and supported along the way.

I have shared success scaffolding before, but over the years, I keep kind of refining it and tweaking it and tuning and optimizing, making necessary updates. And even if you've heard me talk about it before you've changed, the world has changed, and no doubt your personal circumstances have evolved. So listen in with fresh ears. My greatest hope is that it serves as a template for you to do and be and make real whatever it is that inspires you. Not someday, but starting today.

You can find the 1-page worksheet HERE.

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• My New Book Sparked
• My New Podcast SPARKED: We’re looking for special guest “wisdom-seekers” to share the moment you’re in, then pose questions to Jonathan and the Sparked Braintrust to be answered, “on air.” To submit your “moment & question” for consideration to be on the show go to sparketype.com/submit. 
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes
• Talkspace: Online Counseling Via Text, Audio, Or Video Messaging. At Any Time, From Anywhere. Get $100 off of your first month with Talkspace when you use the code GOOD. To match with a licensed therapist today, go to Talkspace.com. 
• Peloton: Try Peloton risk-free with a 30-day home trial. New members only. Not available in remote locations. See additional terms at onepeloton.com/home-trial.

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As we bring this year to a close, we wanted to reflect on human beings. Stories. Kindness. Love. And connection. And, more than anything, you. Our community.

Stories that allow us to see more of the goodness in each other, how we’re all human, doing the best we can. Stories that remind us all that people are good, they can be kind even to total strangers in ways we never imagined. And, today, to close out this long-strange trip of a year, we wanted to share some of these curating stories, specifically from a collection of community stories we love to call The Hug.

Each story shares a moment or experience where a little bit of kindness, a little bit of sweetness, and just maybe a little bit of lightness and laughter touched into the storyteller’s life, and reminded them how good people can be. I feel like we all need a little bit of that right now. So sit back and enjoy these stories. And, maybe, find a little space to rediscover your own tender heart along the way. End of the day, that’s really what it’s all about. See you in 2023.

You can find our storytellers at:

Marsha Shandur: Instagram | Website

Yvonne Ator: Website

IN-Q: Instagram | Website

Dan Stones: Wildfire note on Twitter

Jana Langford: Instagram | Website

Gabra Zackman: Instagram

Rick Charlie: Facebook

Susan Piver: Instagram

Erin Moon: Instagram | Website

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• My New Book Sparked
• My New Podcast SPARKED: We’re looking for special guest “wisdom-seekers” to share the moment you’re in, then pose questions to Jonathan and the Sparked Braintrust to be answered, “on air.” To submit your “moment & question” for consideration to be on the show go to sparketype.com/submit. 
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes
• You Need a Budget: Your money doesn’t have to be messy. Get a handle on your personal finances by budgeting with YNAB—a proven method and budgeting app that gives you real results. Try You Need a Budget free for 34-days (no credit card required) at YNAB.com/GOODLIFE

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’re in a moment where more people are awakening to the reality that there is no such thing as a universal experience. Especially in the world of work. And often, some blend of our identities, history, biases, gender, race, age, ability, and more play into whether any given experience feels welcoming and filled with dignity and possibility, or exclusionary and layered with inequity and intolerance.

And, the thing is, it’s not up to the person being harmed or excluded to dim their light and make everyone else feel comfortable, it’s up to all of us to enter into the conversation in an open, respectful, generous and generative way, and explore how to create cultures where everyone feels at peace, at home, and able to flourish. 

That's where we're headed today with my guest and friend, Deborah Owens, whose own story has shaped her mission to ensure that every Person of Color is fully supported and equipped for both the opportunities and challenges in the corporate arena through her consulting company Corporate Alley Cat. 

We explore her family's legacy of social justice before diving into the unique—yet, familiar—experiences and challenges she faced as a young Black woman finding her voice in corporate America and the lessons she's learned since on reclaiming her power, and how you can contribute to the conversation and solution.

You can find Deborah at: Website | LinkedIn | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Ruth King about equality, advocacy, and mindfulness.

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• My New Book Sparked
• My New Podcast SPARKED: We’re looking for special guest “wisdom-seekers” to share the moment you’re in, then pose questions to Jonathan and the Sparked Braintrust to be answered, “on air.” To submit your “moment & question” for consideration to be on the show go to sparketype.com/submit. 
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes
• You Need a Budget: Your money doesn’t have to be messy. Get a handle on your personal finances by budgeting with YNAB—a proven method and budgeting app that gives you real results. Try You Need a Budget free for 34-days (no credit card required) at YNAB.com/GOODLIFE

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So, what might happen if you let go of what you thought your life would or should be, and created the space to let it show you what it truly yearns to be? Then, followed that thread. That’s been the experience of today’s guest, Parker Palmer. 

Graduating Berkley with a Ph.D. in ‘69, he thought he’d head into the world of academia but instead found himself heading to DC to become an activist and community organizer for 5 years. But, something else began to call him, and he took what he thought would be a short sojourn to a Quaker learning community that turned into 11 years. Over time, a new sense of calling emerged as a writer, speaker and activist who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality and social change. 

In this deeply-moving conversation, Parker shares this journey and many of insights, as well as how three seasons of profound depression have shaped his experience of life, and lens on people, compassion, belonging and beyond.

You can find Parker at: Website | Facebook

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Mark Nepo about following your own path.

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• My New Book Sparked
• My New Podcast SPARKED: We’re looking for special guest “wisdom-seekers” to share the moment you’re in, then pose questions to Jonathan and the Sparked Braintrust to be answered, “on air.” To submit your “moment & question” for consideration to be on the show go to sparketype.com/submit. 
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes
• Planta: Individual care schedule and reminders for your plants, recommendations, step-by-step guides, identification, light meter and more. Keep your plants alive with Planta! Download the Planta App today, use code goodlife20 and get 20% OFF.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When you’re in your darkest hour, dealing with tough circumstances that don’t seem to have an end in sight, it can be easy to lose hope. And, have those around you give up on you, even abandon you. But, in today’s powerful conversation, you’ll discover how two people, from profoundly different walks of life, found each other and not only transformed their own lives, but also the lives of so many around them.

Father Greg Boyle has become known to millions as the Jesuit priest who asked to be placed in a neighborhood in LA deeply affected by poverty, surrounded by gangs and unbearable violence, where he’d eventually found Homeboy Industries, which has since become the largest gang-intervention, rehabilitation, and reentry program in the world.

Along the way, Fabian Debora found his way to Homeboy. A gang member, addicted, and formerly incarcerated, he lived a brutal life, at one point, becoming so despondent, he came close to taking his own life. All the while, Fabian had the soul, impulse, and wisdom of an artist that he kept trying to express. Fabian started creating stunning, large-scale paintings that reflected everything he’d experienced, and would eventually partner with Father Greg to become Executive Director of the Homebody Art Academy.

They’ve partnered on a new book, Forgive Everyone, Everything. It is a powerful collection of Fr. Greg’s most poignant writings and Fabian’s stunning art, making this book a modern-day devotional that will provoke and inspire readers.

You can find Father Greg at: Website | Instagram

You can find Fabian at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Mike Han about the power of artistic expression as a source of impact and connection.

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• My New Book Sparked
• My New Podcast SPARKED: We’re looking for special guest “wisdom-seekers” to share the moment you’re in, then pose questions to Jonathan and the Sparked Braintrust to be answered, “on air.” To submit your “moment & question” for consideration to be on the show go to sparketype.com/submit. 
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes
• Planta: Individual care schedule and reminders for your plants, recommendations, step-by-step guides, identification, light meter and more. Keep your plants alive with Planta! Download the Planta App today, use code goodlife20 and get 20% OFF.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If a magic pill existed that could transform the health of your brain and keep it from aging as you got older, would you take it? 

We all know that as we age, so does our brain. And with it comes some less-than-favorable effects on cognitive functions like memory, focus, and productivity that might leave you wishing for your more youthful days. But what if there was a way to make our brains more age-proof and less prone to signs of aging like memory loss or even dementia? 

My guest today, Dr. Milstein has conducted research on topics including cancer biology and neuroscience, and his work has been published in multiple scientific journals. His new book, The Age-Proof Brain: New Strategies to Improve Memory, Protect Immunity, and Fight Off Dementia, reveals the secrets to improving brain function, and in today's episode, he joins me to share some of those brain-boosting strategies discussed in his book, debunks common misinformation about the aging brain, and even lay out the red flags to look out for as you grow older. 

You can find Marc at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode: you’ll also love the conversations we had with Dr. Aviva Romm about how to work with your hormones to optimize health and longevity.

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• My New Book Sparked
• My New Podcast SPARKED
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes
• Solo Stove: Use promo code GLP at SoloStove.com for an extra $10 off.
• BetterHelp: Good Life Project is sponsored by BetterHelp. Learn more and save 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com/GoodLifeProject
• The Lazy Genius Podcast: Part systems expert, part permission giver, Kendra Adachi, The Lazy Genius, is here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Check out The Lazy Genius Podcast now wherever you get your podcasts.
• Air Doctor: The AirDoctor air purifier features patented UltraHEPAR technology that is proven and tested to remove airborne particles as small as 0.003 in size. Head to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code GOODLIFE and, depending on the model, you’ll receive up to 35% off. 

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Chip Conley shares how the early seed of an idea around the deep wisdom and value and sharing, learning and potential for profound, intergenerational contribution led to the creation of what’s now become a global institution call the Modern Elder Academy with campuses in Baja Mexico and New Mexico, and programming that is building community and changing lives in amazing ways. 

By the way if you’re wondering why Chip's name might sound familiar, beyond earlier appearances on Good Life Project, he’s also a New York Times bestselling author, the hospitality maverick who first built and sold a boutique hotel chain, flatlined on stage while keynoting, then reclaimed and reimagined his life, stepping into help Airbnb's founders turn their fast-growing tech start-up into a global hospitality brand, all before founding the Modern Elder Academy.

If you’re in a moment where you’re really thinking about what you want the next season of work and life and contribution to look and feel like, this is a don’t-miss episode.

You can find Chip at: Modern Elder Academy | Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Robert Thurman about life, spirituality and contribution.

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• My New Book Sparked
• My New Podcast SPARKED
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes
• Solo Stove: Make more backyard memories with solo stove's award-winning fire pits, stoves, & grills. Use promo code GLP  at SoloStove.com for an extra $10 off their already great prices.
• BetterHelp: Good Life Project is sponsored by BetterHelp. Learn more and save 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com/GoodLifeProject
• The Lazy Genius Podcast: Part systems expert, part permission giver, Kendra Adachi, The Lazy Genius, is here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Check out The Lazy Genius Podcast now wherever you get your podcasts.
• Air Doctor: The AirDoctor air purifier features patented UltraHEPAR technology that is proven and tested to remove airborne particles as small as 0.003 in size. AirDoctor comes with a no questions asked, 30-day money-back guarantee so if you don’t love it, just send it back for a refund, minus shipping. So head to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code GOODLIFE and, depending on the model, you’ll receive up to 35% off. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So today is a little bit of a different episode for you. As I sit here recording this, I have just returned from a month-long creative sabbatical. I never believed something like this could be possible for someone like me until something happened earlier in this year that inspired me to really test that assumption and eventually prove me wildly wrong. I'm coming back with some experiences, some awakenings, some reality checks, and learnings that I wanted to share with you today.

Today we're going to dive into just what happened, what I learned, and how you might consider creating your own version of an extended, deeply generative, regenerating, renewing and awakening leave. So excited to share these experiences and insights with you.

If you LOVED this episode: you’ll also love the conversations we had with Jenny Blake where the possibility of a creative sabbatical for me was planted and the conversation with DJ DiDonna about the research around how to take a life-changing break.

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• My New Book Sparked
• My New Podcast SPARKED
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes
• eharmony: eharmony is the first platform to use a proprietary matching system we developed to match you with highly compatible singles. So if you're ready to move past the swipe grind, join the dating app that helps people find the most authentic relationships and see for yourself. Start a conversation on eharmony today! Download the eharmony app now.
• The Unmistakable Creative Podcast: The Unmistakable creative podcast provides timeless wisdom, practical insights and candid conversations with insanely interesting people from every field. Listen to The Unmistakable Creative Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here’s a weird statement, my friend, Neil Pasricha, is simultaneously one of the free-est, and also most rules-based and systematized humans I know. He’s got a system or ritual or set of rules for just about everything from how many nights a month he can be away from his family - that’s written into his signed family contract by the way - to what he does the first two minutes of every day to how and we he can hang out with friends, wander the streets in solitude, workout. Even the very thing that exploded him into the public consciousness about a decade ago, his wildly-popular blog about tiny pleasures and awesome things, was pre-designed around a countdown from 1,000 to 1 day. 

You might think this would make life feel rigid, boxed in, devoid of freedom and room to play. But, for Neil, it’s the exact opposite. All these systems and rules and rituals and routines remove so much decision-making burden it’s like he has tons more time to actually just do the things he loves and that make him smile. And that includes everything from playing with his wife and kids to traveling, speaking, writing a series of blockbuster books and more.

His new book - Our Book of Awesome: A Celebration of the Small Joys That Bring Us Together, for the first time ever, invites hundreds, actually, it might even be thousands of people into his writing and sharing and community-building process to share awesome things from people’s lives, large gobsmacking to short, sweet and funny, from all over the world.

It’s a wonderful read that I highly recommend, and today we’re diving deep into Neil’s compelling take on saying yes to systems as a way to bring more freedom and joy and space into your life and then inviting the community to share in both the awesomeness and the process of creation.

You can find Neil at: Website | Instagram | 3 Books Podcast

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Susan Cain about the creative power of bittersweetness.

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Have you ever realized how often you think without really thinking? 

Jessica is an award-winning author and science writer known for expertly blending rigorous science with compassionate humanity. With degrees in physics from Harvard and poetry from the University of Wisconsin, Jessica is deeply engaged with connecting across differences to expand and heal the human experience, and her debut book, The End Of Bias: A Beginning, is the culmination of fifteen years of reporting and writing on bias and discrimination and how to solve it. The book, which offers readers hope and direction on how to change their biased behavior, was named a Best Book of the Year by the World Economic Forum, Greater Good, AARP, and INC, and in our conversation today, we dive deeper into some of the fascinating ideas and research presented in her book. 

Jessica and I go back in time, and she walks me through some key moments in her life and career that led to her research into these hidden scripts and preferences, what they are, where they come from, how they affect us and offers ideas on how we can realistically examine and change the way we think about and treat others to create more meaningful and compassionate connections with the people around us. 

You can find Jessica at: Website | Instagram

• If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Zoe Chance about how social dynamics and language influence our decisions.

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As we head into the final month of the year, which for many has been a year of re-emergence and reimagining, there’s never been a more important time to reconnect with our own inner creativity. And, by the way, this is even more important if you’re someone who, maybe, has never even considered themselves all that creative, or in any way skilled at it. But, now, it’s not just about our work or hobbies or passions, we need to find new ways to turn our creative impulse loose on life, itself. 

That process of reimagining, of stepping into a place of possibility, takes a blend of inspiration, action-taking and wisdom from those who’ve been immersing themselves in the world of creativity for years. This is why we’re excited to bring you a power compilation collective today that focuses in on igniting creativity in all parts of work, play, relationships, and life. We’ve brought together 4 incredible voices, Lisa Congdon, James Victore, Yrsa Daley-Ward, and Mike Han. Each comes from wildly different backgrounds, experiences, and challenges, and each also finds ways, often ways no one else saw, to center creativity in their work and also explore life as the ultimate creative canvas. 

You can find Lisa at: Website | Instagram | The Lisa Congdon Sessions

You can find James at: Website | Instagram

You can find Yrsa at: Website | Instagram

You can find Mike at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode be sure to check out the full-length episodes of these conversations we had with Lisa, James, Yrsa, & Mike. 

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For a lot of us, 2020 was the wake-up call we desperately needed to be able to look at our lives, how we work and live, what we value, and more with a pair of fresh eyes. Yet, now, almost two years later, many of us are still struggling with how to answer the call. And I imagine that right about now, we'd all love a blueprint or some sort of direction as we try to take what we've learned and experienced in the past few years and use it to embrace the new passions, careers, and ideas that have lit us up. 

So joining me today to explore how we can all move forward, with more intention and meaning, in life and at work is my good friend, behavior coach, Certified Interfaith Spiritual Director, host of The One Your Feed podcast, and writer Eric Zimmer. But this format is a bit different. Eric and I have been having these deep private jam sessions for years, centering topics that fascinate us and matter to all of us. So, we thought we’d get together, turn on the mics, and dive share one of these deep dives in a more public way. And we tee up three topics we’ve both been exploring: finding meaning at work, setting and sustaining healthy boundaries between work and life, especially when you love your work, and we also explore what it looks like to really embrace change and create new habits in a practical way.

You can find Eric Zimmer at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode be sure to also check out Eric’s podcast, The One You Feed, wherever you get your podcasts.

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How do you step into conversations, whether personal or professional, family, friends, colleagues, or even perceived or real adversaries, and still find a place for love in the conversation? Is that even possible in some situations? Is it asking way too much, or is it the only way to finally feel the way you want to feel and resolve an issue that, approached any other way, will remain forever intractable?

That’s what we’re talking about with today’s guest, the Most Reverend Michael Curry, who is the first African American individual to serve as Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church.

In May of 2018, Bishop Curry delivered a moving sermon on the redemptive power of love at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal wedding, then just months after served as the officiant for the state funerals of Senator John McCain and President George H.W. Bush in the Washington National Cathedral. 

Bishop Curry has also written 5 books, his newest is Love is the Way: Holding Onto Hope in Troubling Times, which expands upon his focus on love as the centerpiece for a new way to live and find meaning and peace, even at times when they can seem so hard to access. We explore all of this in today’s BEST OF conversation.

You can find Bishop Michael Curry at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Rev. Jacqui Lewis about love in challenging times.

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• Mejuri: Mejuri believes you don’t have to overspend to treat those you love most. They design high-quality, fine jewelry you can live in and style your way. Simplify your holiday shopping and go to mejuri.com.

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Ahh, that holiday time of year. A time for celebration and joy and generosity and reflection. And also a whole lot of forced togetherness and conflict and family patterns and politics and stress and unhealthy coping, lashing out, even sadness and loneliness - sometimes all within a matter of minutes, even for the most joyful, healthily attached and grateful person, this time can just bring up a lot.

So what do we do with that? How do we handle that? What habits or go-to strategies can we say yes to that just might make this time of year fly by with more genuine ease and joy and connection and maybe even grace? That is what we were talking about in this month's continuation of our fun 5 Life-Changing Habits series.

So we kicked that series off a little bit earlier with a wide-ranging sort of a more universal 5 Life-Changing Habits episode. And then last month, again with our 5 Life-Changing Relationship Habits episode, and they were met with such a huge reception, we figured, hey, let's keep it going and get specific and shared genuinely life-changing habits that relate to specific moments that we all go through, or maybe areas of life where simple habits can make a big difference. So today I am bringing you 5 Life-Changing Holiday Survival Habits, so excited to share them with you.

Mentioned in this episode, our conversations with:

• Dr. Marisa G. Franco | How to Make Adult Friends (and Why They Matter)

Submit a voice memo of your 5 Good Life Habits.

If you LOVED this episode, you’ll also love the other episodes in this series:

• 5 Life-Changing Habits
• 5 Life-Changing Relationship Habits

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Imagine, after years of struggling to find your way in different careers and trying out business ideas, you created something that exploded in the best of ways. A business serving thousands of people, a great living, security, possibility, an amazing channel of expression. And, then, over time, you realized you’d bought into a way of doing things that went against the essence of who you were. And, you started to feel called to do something else?

Would you walk away from that success, trusting once again, that joyful lightning could, in fact, strike twice, without even knowing what your next move would be? That is exactly the question today’s guest, Jadah Sellner, faced. After co-founding and growing Simple Green Smoothies into a viral phenomenon and a flourishing 7-figure business in an astonishingly short period of time. She did the unthinkable. She exited the business, selling her interest, and bet on herself, and her belief that she could figure out how to craft her living, once again, in a way that better fit her evolving values, lens on life, and approach to service. Leaving behind the never-stop-working hustle culture approach and betting on creativity and love.

Jadah Sellner is a bestselling author, business coach, international keynote speaker, poet, and host of the Lead with Love podcast. Her new book, She Builds: The Anti-Hustle Guide to Grow Your Business and Nourish Your Life, uncovers a framework for women entrepreneurs to create a business on their own terms.

You can find Jadah at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Jen Sincero about being a badass at money and life.

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Question for you: what if you could slow down, stop or even reverse your aging process? What if you could live, not just longer, but better? Extending and even potentially expanding your physical and mental health and well-being. Staving off decline or illness. Is any of that really possible, and what does cutting-edge science have to say?

That is what we are talking about with today's guest. David Sinclair. David is a worldwide leader in aging research. He is a Professor in the Department of Genetics and co-Director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at Harvard Medical School.

He's best known for his work on genes and small molecules that delay aging, including the sirtuin genes and resveratrol and its precursors, which we get into. He’s published over 170 scientific studies, is the co-inventor on over 50 patents, has co-founded 14 biotechnology companies in the area of aging vaccines, diabetes, fertility Cancer Biodefense. His book Lifespan, Why We Age, and Why We Don't Have To explores what we get wrong about aging and how to approach it differently. And, his podcast, Lifespan, explores healthy aging and how to live not just longer, but better, too. So excited to share this Best Of conversation with you.

You can find David at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Aviva Romm, MD about how hormones control health, and what we can do about it.

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Is it even possible to have a genuinely open conversation that holds the potential to persuade someone to your point of view anymore? Or have we entered a “post-persuasion” state? And, if so, is there a way to change that?

How to move people back into conversation, and set the table for openness and, maybe even persuasion to a different set of ideas, beliefs and actions? 

Our guest today, Anand Giridharadas, has been studying this very question for years. In our conversation today, Anand and I dive deeper into the politics of persuasion, dissect the underlying drivers behind division, identity politics, social reinforcement, and explore a number of specific ideas and strategies designed to help us all get back to a place of more empathy and understanding. 

You can find Anand at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Zoe Chance about personal social dynamics and the art of persuasion.

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I’ve come to realize something, we are all healing from something. All the time. Maybe it’s a physical illness or injury or harm, maybe it’s rooted more in our minds, maybe it’s even rooted in the culture. But, we’re all invited into a path of healing, and we all need it on some level, even if we don’t know it, or want to own it quite yet.

Question is, how do you find healing when you feel like all the odds are stacked against you?

When you feel like you take two steps backward for every step forward? How do you heal beyond the visible wounds, and reclaim something deeper, more whole? And, how do we heal as a path of growth and expression and joy?

This is where we’re heading in today’s conversation with Alex Elle, who's found a way to approach self-healing from a practical, relatable, expansive standpoint. Alex is an author, certified breathwork coach, and restorative writing teacher whose powerful healing journey has led her to where she is today. Her newest book, How We Heal: Uncover Your Power and Set Yourself Free, is a practical and empowering guide to self-healing, filled with essential techniques and insights that invite readers to unlock their confidence to heal on their own.

And in our conversation today, we explore Alex's own healing journey and the barriers—which you might find relatable—that stood in the way of her process, and we discuss the difficulties of healing when no one else around you is doing it, breaking generational cycles, and how to heal when you're ready. 

You can find Alex at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Elizabeth Lesser about a life of perpetual awakening and healing.

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Sometimes, life brings us to our knees in order to also bring us back to our essence. Question is, what happens when we honor that voice? There’s only one way to know, and that’s to heed the call.

And that is exactly what my guest today, Mike Han, has done. Over the years, he became a deeply-skilled and sought-after omakase sushi chef, rising up in that world, and was just about to open his own place, when the pandemic hit. Literally overnight, he found himself without work, without a vision, without enough money to pay his rent and, to a certain extent, out of hope. But, he still had one thing, his artistic impulse, and it began calling him louder than ever. Not as a sushi chef, but as the visual artist that’d been inside him since childhood. 

The chain of events that unfolded over the next two years, frankly, is hard to explain in any rational sense. He said yes to the call and the Universe did, in fact, rise up to support him, time and time again, in the most astonishing ways. Mike has now made massive waves as a rising artist.

In our conversation, we talk about Mike's journey up until this moment and explore the ways art has shaped his own life and even saved him at times. We also dive into his unique process as an artist, and he offers his own interpretations of what art can look like and mean to us all. 

You can find Mike at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Peter Tunney about his journey from finance to art.

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So what if I told you that the things that will make the biggest difference in your life, your health, your mindset, career, relationships and more are rarely the big, sweeping gestures or actions, but rather the tiny things that you do on a repeated basis every day, every week, every month, that generate a compounded impact on your life and the lives of those around you? It's these little repeated actions, these rituals, these habits that change the game and that are truly the source fuel of a life well lived.

Today we dive into what specific, tiny things can you do on a regular repeated basis that will have an exponential, even life-changing impact on your relationships over time.

Mentioned in this episode, our conversations with:

• Brad Feld: Acclaimed Venture Capitalist On Life Well-Lived
• Nedra Glover Tawwab | Better Boundaries, Better Life
• Dr. Marisa G. Franco | How to Make Adult Friends (and Why They Matter)
• Kat Vellos ⎮ Cultivating Better Friendships
• Ellen Hendriksen, Ph.D. | Taming Social Anxiety

Submit a voice memo of your 5 Good Life Habits.

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the first episode in this series, 5 Life-Changing Habits.

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• My New Book Sparked
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• Visit Our Sponsor Page For a Complete List of Vanity URLs & Discount Codes.
• Scribd: The world's largest digital library. Enjoy millions of eBooks, audiobooks, magazines, podcasts, sheet music, and documents. Get inspired by Keith Boykin with Quitting today with a FREE 60-day trial at try.scribd.com/GLP.
• IKEA: Find affordable furniture and home goods at IKEA! Discover furnishings and inspiration to create a better life at home. And now sign up for IKEA Family for free and save 5% in-store on eligible purchases. Every visit. Every day! Explore even more new benefits at IKEA-USA.com/Family. Offer valid starting 9/1/2022. Limited to qualifying purchases, exclusions apply. Not valid on services. Discount applied in-store only, before tax, shipping, and handling. Cannot be combined with coupons. Visit IKEA-USA.com/Family for more details.

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Imagine working as an artist for a decade only to burn out, melt down, and vanish from that world to spend 10 years driving a truck. Then, having never written before the age of 40, returning to that same world, but this time as an art critic for some of the biggest magazines and arbiters of taste in that domain. Having never been formally trained or degreed or even studied art in a formal way. How is that even possible? 

That is the story of today’s guest, Jerry Saltz, the senior art critic at New York magazine and Vulture, and the author of the New York Times bestseller How to Be an Artist. In his most recent book Art Is Life, Jerry draws on two decades of work to offer a real-time survey of contemporary art as a barometer of our times, arguing for the importance of the fearless artist—reminding us that art is a kind of channeled voice of human experience, a necessary window onto our times. The result is an openhearted and irresistibly readable appraisal by one of our most important cultural observers.

You can find Jerry at: New York Magazine | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Maria Garcia about the art of performance and how it can change millions of lives.

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Friends matter, more than you even know. A lack of genuine, open, loving friends can lead to profound loneliness. And that very loneliness can be devastating to both your mental health. But, it goes further than that, the health effects can also wreak more havoc and increase risk of illness, dementia and death, on a level that dramatically exceeds addiction, obesity, and pollution, sometimes combined. 

What’s the solution? We tend to look to find our one person to solve the loneliness problem. That dream partner who makes everything okay. Except, as we’ll learn today, that can, and often is, a recipe for disaster. Better approach - reconnect with, or find and make new, platonic, yet intimate, engaged, and loving friendships.

Sure, you say, easy to do as a kid. But, what about as an adult? Here to walk me through the world of friendships, why they matter and how to make new adult friends, is research-driven psychologist, speaker, and New York Times bestselling author, Dr. Marisa Franco. She is the New York Times bestselling author of Platonic, with a research focus on the powerful role of our communities in shaping who we are and why we flourish.

You can find Marisa at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Kat Vellos about approaching friendships as a design problem to be solved.

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• About the Journey: What does it mean to travel better? Travel journalist Oneika Raymond connects with locals who can speak to the heart of the dynamic cities we’re traveling to. They’ll tell us where to go, what to do and how to see the world in more sustainable and meaningful ways. Listen to About the Journey wherever you get your podcasts.

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So, what if being highly sensitive was actually a superpower, not something to be fixed?

If you've ever heard the term, “highly sensitive person,” or even been called highly sensitive and maybe even recoiled a bit when that happened, our conversation with today’s guest, Dr. Elaine Aron, just might change your world. An acclaimed researcher, she first identified high sensitivity as a distinct character trait more than 25 years ago, introducing the term “Highly Sensitive Person” to describe someone who is easily overwhelmed by strong sensory input, subtleties in environment and other people’s moods, processes things in different ways and at different speeds, and deeply feels pressure and overstimulation. 

Since its publication in 1995, her preeminent book on the subject, The Highly Sensitive Person, has gone on to become an international bestseller translated into 30 languages. She is also the author of The Highly Sensitive Parent, and many others. She has established the Foundation for the Study of Highly Sensitive Persons and published many scientific articles on sensitivity in the leading journals in her field. 

Turns out, today’s conversation was also personal, because in many ways, I’ve begun to realize that I actually identify as a highly sensitive person. But, I also discovered so much more about the way I move through the world, how this trait relates to introversion and extroversion - very surprising - and how you can be both highly sensitive, while also being high-sensation, which I’d never heard before. And, we also discover how Elaine’s lens on high sensitivity has evolved in meaningful ways since her groundbreaking early research on the topics.

You can find Elaine at: Website

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Susan David, PhD about emotional agility.

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• Aspiration: Aspiration is a climate-friendly alternative to big banks. Get an account and debit card that’s built to help your wallet and the planet. Make your dollars make a difference. Open an Aspiration Account at Aspiration.com/GOODLIFEDEBIT and move your money out of fossil fuels. Terms and conditions apply.

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Have you ever been so deeply affected by another person that their story literally gives your life context and meaning and even a sense of belonging? Now, what it that other person was someone you never actually met? And what if they’d been gone from the planet for 25 years, but still it was like they were present in your life, guiding and inspiring you every day?

That, it turns out, is the power of authenticity, agency, and legacy. And, in today’s conversation with award-winning journalist, writer, and producer, Maria Garcia, we dive deep into these topics in a very cool and unusual way. Through the lens of the life of iconic performer, Selena Quintanilla, and the impact she had not just on Maria’s life, but on tens of millions around the world, even decades after her tragic passing at a young age. And, not because Maria or, for that matter, any of those millions, knew Selena, personally, but because what she embodied profoundly affected and informed the way Maria, and those millions, saw themselves, their sense of wholeness, heritage, community, and the call to celebrate uniqueness, and embrace life through a lens of possibility and joy. In the end, it’s really a story about belonging, which we all need more of.

Maria became the driving creative force and on-air host of the stunning podcast series, Anything for Selena, which was named Apple Podcast's Show of the Year of 2021, and produced with Futuro Studios and NPR member station WBUR.

You can find Maria at: Instagram | Websites

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Samin Nosrat about food, belonging, culture and connection.

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We all mess up. Sometimes in small ways, but other times big ones. Sometimes privately, other times publicly. We don’t mean to - or maybe we do in the momentum, but feel remorse after the fact. Either way, we all will, at some point, hurt someone. And we may also suffer repercussions. Whether personal, communal, or societal. Question is, what do we do after that? How do we repair the harm, and make amends? How do we find a way back to grace, connection, community, redemption and repair? Is that even possible in all cases? And if so, what are the steps? And what about forgiveness? Does that, and should it, be a part of the process? 

Turns out, there is a well-defined set of steps, a path, that very few know about.

Today, we explore a practical, though not always easy, 5-step path to repair, reconciliation, and redemption based on ancient, universal wisdom, that she details in her newest book, On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World. We talk about each step, why it’s there, how to step into it, and some challenging “edge case” and how to both do the work and set expectations. And, we also talk about forgiveness, with Rabbi Danya offering a powerful alternative take on it.

You can find Rabbi Danya at: Website | Twitter | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Jonathan Haidt about the free exchange of ideas, cancel culture, and the line between growth and harm.

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Traveling the world, especially for an extended period, may be a luxury you only dream about or can only do every few years. But, what if there was a way to make it happen? And, way sooner, and for less money than you ever imagined? Or, what if there's a way to evoke that sense of wonder and curiosity that travel brings out of us without leaving our immediate neighborhood? 

What would it look like to keep the spirit of the journey or travel alive at home, using it to engage with and learn from the community that's right in front of us in a new and meaningful way? My guest today, Rolf Potts, is a firm believer in the life-altering benefits of travel - even if that means driving heading just a few blocks outside your normal routine - and how we can use adventure as a metaphor for life itself, and I'm excited to dive deeper into his philosophies and stories about life, travel, and wonder. 

Rolf has shared much of his wisdom and travel stories in his books Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel and his newest release, The Vagabond's Way: 366 Meditations on Wanderlust, Discovery, and the Art of Travel. In our conversation today, we explore Rolf's strategies for doing immersive travel in a meaningful way, uncover the ways anyone, even those who can't travel, can use the vagabond mindset to disrupt their routines at home, and we touch on a few moments of adventure and curiosity that have shaped and inspired us.  

You can find Rolf at: Website | Instagram | Deviate with Rolf Potts Podcast

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Tim Ferriss about centering humanity and love in work and life.

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So, what’s your biggest secret? And, what’s the cost you’ve been bearing for living, or trying to live, under its weight?

For many of us, it’s wrapped around our identity. There’s something about us we don’t want others to know. The idea of being your 100% authentic self, meaning no secrets, no masks, and no pretending, in front of your family, of all people, is something that sounds terrifying, if not impossible. But, what if the opposite were true? What if living behind the facade was actually the more brutalizing experience, one that sustains, possibly for years, decades, even life? In contrast to the momentary or even season of disruption incited by coming out as your true self, yet followed by a lifetime of liberation?

That’s where we’re headed in today’s conversation with Jessi Hempel, whose own revelation about her sexual identity, became the first in a chain of "coming out" events that touched every member of her family. Jessi is the host of the award-winning podcast Hello Monday, and she's a senior editor-at-large at LinkedIn. Jessi's striking upcoming memoir, The Family Outing, is a fascinating look into Jessi's seemingly picture-perfect American family, whose lives slowly start to unravel after a series of coming outs. In our chat, we uncover universal revelations, like seeing and realizing the humanity in your parents for the first time and the liberation that comes with claiming your whole truths—even in the face of uncertainty. Jessi opens up about the complexities of growing up with two parents struggling with emotional turmoil and learning to embrace her imperfect family as each of them shed their secrets and found, or rediscovered, their place in the world. 

You can find Jessi at: LinkedIn | Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel podcast

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Jake Wesley Rogers about bringing all parts of himself to work and life.

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Why is it that, so often, we need to be brought to our knees in order to wake up to, and reclaim, what really matters? And, does that have to be so? These are just a few of the questions we dive into with my guest today, Diego Perez, best known for his virtual moniker, Yung Pueblo, which is both a reminder to him to stay grounded in a younger, growth mindset, and also a contained to frame this current season of work as a project that doesn’t constrain his own personal and professional growth. Diego’s new book, Clarity & Connection, shares many of his recent insights about life, meaning, love, work, self-awareness, and of course, clarity and connection.

You can find Yung Pueblo at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Tara Brach about wisdom and compassion.

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Did you ever wish you could be that person who captivated a room, a gathering, an audience, a date with a story that cast a spell, moved them deeply, then left you both more connected and alive? Transformed even? Yeah, you’re not alone. We all live lives filled with stories worth telling, but so often we don’t realize it. And few of us know “how” to tell those stories in a way that brings others in close, then leaves them changed. Most just think it’s a God-given ability. 

But, what if it wasn’t? What if it was a skill anyone - including you - could learn? Would you want that? My guest today, Catherine Burns, believes it is. And, if there’s anyone I’d believe, it’s her. Catherine is the long-time Artistic Director at The Moth, the global phenomenon dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling.

In our conversation today, you'll hear us dive into many of the ideas, tips, and strategies from her newest book, How to Tell a Story: The Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling from The Moth, which she co-wrote with fellow The Moth directors, Meg Bowles and Jenifer Hixson. If you've ever wondered why we care so much about stories in the first place or what elements make for a good story, you're in for a treat in this episode because Catherine and I dive deeper into the art of storytelling and what it takes for anyone, and we mean anyone, to craft a story worth listening to. 

You can find Catherine at: Website | The Moth Instagram | Twitter

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Zoe Chance about language, stories, and influence.

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You’ve heard the call, “I’m not religious, but I am spiritual.” What does that even mean? And, why are so many people running from organized religion, but flocking to some amorphous and ambiguous claim to spirituality that often extends not further than a sense that you yearn for something more? And, is that okay? Or, are we leaving something behind? And, if so, what? Is it a part of ourselves? A sense of wholeness and belonging? How do we reclaim a feeling of connectedness and expansiveness and ease, without also surrendering to the strictures of organized religion that, too often, integrate tribalism, separateness and disconnection from our lived, modern experience?

These are the questions we dive into with my guest today, Rabbi Rami Shapiro. Rabbi Rami is an award-winning author of over three dozen books on religion and spirituality, including his latest, Judaism Without Tribalism. In our conversation today, we explore why so many people are leaving organized religion, the distinction between religion and spirituality, the evolution of God and religion, and much more.

You can find Rabbi Rami at: Website

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Rabbi Steve Leder about the role of faith and how to share our wisdom with future generations.

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Life today can feel like wall-to-wall conflict. And most of us, well, we plain hate the feeling it gives us. Thing is, some conflict is not only good, but necessary and important. While other conflict, high conflict, is pretty much a road to othering, isolation, and devastation. Question is, how do you know the difference? And once you do, how do you step into good conflict with more grace and ease, that both helps you breathe, but also leads to a genuine resolution that leaves everyone better for it?

My guest today, Amanda Ripley, offers her wise counsel as a New York Times bestselling author, investigative journalist, and co-founder of Good Conflict, a conflict meditation business. Her most recent book, High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out, explores the complexities of high conflict through storytelling and interviews featuring a dozen people in three countries who escaped destructive conflicts to gather lessons for the rest of us in our polarized world. 

If you've grappled with high-stakes conflict before or wondered how we've all ended up in such a divided state, you'll discover a lot in this episode that'll hopefully help you see the bigger picture.

You can find Amanda at: Website

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Susan Piver about the Buddhist Enneagram and how that can help you understand yourself and others in a way that eases conversation.

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• Green Chef: Healthy and organic meal kit delivery service. With Green Chef, there are options for every diet— vegan, vegetarian, keto, paleo, and even gluten-free meals are available! So go to GreenChef.com/goodlifeproject135 & use code goodlifeproject135 to get $135 off across five boxes, plus free shipping on your first box!

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So we all have habits and routines, rituals, and behaviors that we do in the name of living our best lives. Well, sometimes we have things that are not so much in that, but that's what we're working towards. But which of those habits actually moves the needle the most? Put another way, what's the Good Life Habit 80/20? The 20% that'll fuel 80% of the difference-making. I have been asked this question so many times in so many ways by so many people over the years and in fact, I have asked it of myself many times. And after a decade of learning from more than 700 leading voices in science, health, behavior change, and beyond, running literally hundreds of my own experiments and learning from others, I have found that at least for me, there's a fairly straightforward and simple set of habits that make a huge difference in my life.

So I thought that instead of our usual conversation today, I'm going to share with you what I call my Big 5 Good Life Habits. Now some may feel right and accessible for you and others might feel challenging. My intention is not that you have to say yes to all 5, but that each one, even if nothing else is explored, can make a genuinely meaningful, even transformational difference in your life. That is where we're headed in today's special episode. The Big 5 Habits that have made a really big difference in my life and hopefully will make a difference in yours as well.

Mentioned in this episode:

• The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

Submit a voice memo of your 5 Good Life Habits.

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with James Nestor on How Breathing Can Change Your Life.

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• The Loudest Girl in the World is a new podcast that tells the story of Lauren Ober’s journey to understand what the hell it means to be on the autism spectrum and how to live life as a newly diagnosed autistic person. It’s about finding yourself broken in a place you never expected to be and emerging from that place a mostly glued-back-together person. Download and listen today wherever you get your podcasts.

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Let’s suspend judgment, just for a minute. What if you could take a few weeks, months, maybe even an entire year off work to do exactly what you wanted, whether traveling the world, considering your next career move or just taking a moment to step back and really check in with yourself? Would you go for it? Especially after the last few years we’ve had? Safe bet, most people would jump on that opportunity. But then comes the reality check. The doubt. The details. Sure, it’d be amazing, but I could never make it happen. Right?

But, what if you could? What if it was actually more doable than you ever imagined? What if there were ideas, tools, and strategies that would help you step away and reset your mind, body, and life? Ways that might not even require you to leave your job, and know you had something to come back to. Even if, by the end, you didn’t want to anymore? What if your personal, life-changing sabbatical was not only possible, but necessary for you to not only reclaim your sense of self and purpose and aliveness, but to create the space to see more clearly who and what matters, and how you want to step into your life from this moment forward.

My guest today, DJ DiDonna has been studying these real-life breaks, in all forms, showing why they matter and revealing incredible insights into not just how to do them in a way that truly gives you what you’re looking for, but also how to make them more possible than you ever imagined. DJ is the founder of The Sabbatical Project, a research and advocacy nonprofit that is on a mission to define, explore, and research sabbaticals and their impact on non-academics. On his own sabbatical, DJ walked 900 miles on pilgrimage in Shikoku, Japan and ran a poverty research lab at his alma mater Notre Dame. 

And today, we dive deeper into some of the ideas and stories that appear in his upcoming book based on hundreds of interviews with sabbatical-takers from across the world. DJ and I uncover more about the history of sabbaticals and their roots in academia. And also, he breaks down the essential components of taking an effective extended pause from work and even offers some ideas that might make you seriously consider taking a sabbatical in the near future—even if retirement isn't even in sight yet.

You can find DJ at: Website | Learn About Your Sabbatical Style | LinkedIn

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Chip Conley about reimagining later-in-life contributions.

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When you hear the word - enneagram, you likely have one of three replies: Oh, yay, can’t get enough of the enneagram. Oh please, aNOTHer podcast about the enneagram? Or, ummmm, what’s the enneagram?!

Well, no matter where you fall on that spectrum, good news. You're about to discover one of the most powerful personal insight tools ever created, AND in a way you’ve never heard it explained before. Not just as a tool for personal awakening and transformation, but also as a game-changing lever to transform your personal and professional relationships, see things you never saw, understand people with a depth you never imagined possible - and effect change in the state of culture, society, the world even. ​​

This conversation, with a member of my chosen family, legendary Buddhist teacher, founder of the Open Heart Project, and New York Times bestselling author, Susan Piver, will not only rock your understanding of the Enneagram, it may well change your life. And, it’s all about her groundbreaking synthesis of the enneagram and Buddhism, or, as Susan calls it, the Buddhist Enneagram, which also happens to be the title of her equally revelatory new book. 

These new insights are especially important, given the times we live in. In today's world, compassion from a stranger is something you can only hope for as we struggle over our differences in race, religion, gender, politics, and more. The Buddhist Enneagram helps you see and understand others, in a truer, clearer, more nuanced way, then step into relationships with more empathy and compassion. In our conversation today, we dive deeper into the enneagram and its roots, and Susan takes me through her fascinating journey of discovering the tool and using it through a Buddhist lens, and we also explore the ways the enneagram could be an integral guide in our individual and collective transformations to becoming more compassionate, connected, and whole—only if we're willing and brave enough. 

You can find Susan at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Susan about the 4 Noble Truths of Love.

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Imagine, being in your 20s, fresh out of washing dishes at a local restaurant, borrowing just enough money to open a tiny, local deli with a friend who shared your passion for food, community, and business? Now, imagine that, decades later, that single decision would profoundly change the lives of not just thousands of regular customers, but millions of people, around the world? 

What my guest today, Ari Weinzwieg, didn’t realize, when starting Zingerman’s Deli with a $20,000 loan from the bank, and a degree in Russian History from the University of Michigan, was that he was seeding a revolution. Actually, in hindsight, maybe he did. Now 17 companies later and sitting as the CEO and co-founding partner of Zingerman's Community of Businesses, Ari sees commerce as an engine of impact, expression and service that changes people’s lives. 

Ari and his ideas have set off a global ripple of compassion, dignity, imagination, and aliveness in the world of business, inviting people to reimagine a profoundly different, radically expansive and inclusive way of defining success. Named by Inc Magazine as one of "The World's 10 Top CEOs," he’s forging a new way in business that rejects the norm and is grounded in purposeful vision, passion, and anarchy theory. He's written extensively about the values and beliefs that have kept the now iconic Zingerman's Delicatessen, his first business venture, afloat and successful for over 40 years in weekly newsletters and the numerous books he's authored, such as A Lapsed Anarchist's Approach to the Power of Beliefs and A Lapsed Anarchist's Approach to Managing Ourselves. 

In our chat today, Ari shares some of the brilliant happenings inside his head, ranging from the ways we can use history to guide us in work, life, and business today, a reclamation of anarchy as a tool for impact and equality, Ari’s natural laws of business and the importance of being in harmony with nature, the power of visioning, and the steps you can take to cast your own life and world-changing vision. This isn’t just about business, it’s about life.

You can find Ari Weinzweig at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Donna Carpenter about how she and her husband, Jake, built Burton into not just a snowboard giant, but also a workplace that champions humanity.

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How do you flip the switch from struggle and futility to wild, unbridled joy and success? And how does money play into that equation, if at all, as a source fuel, an outcome, or both?

Today's guest, Jen Sincero, started out as a musician in a band, and really thought that that would be her future. She loved the music, the creativity, the comradery of being in a band, surrounded by community. What she didn’t like, though, was the struggle that seemed embedded in the experience. She wanted the passion, but not the suffering. In addition to music, Jen started writing on the side, eventually publishing a book about her drummer, and then to a second book. And Finally, it started leading her into a deeper and deeper career in writing. 

Along the way, she also realized that the life that she was living was not the life she wanted to be living. And she started doing a lot of deep, personal work that incited a personal awakening and reinvention, which then fueled her to write You Are a Badass®: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life, which became a global phenomenon that has remained on the NY Times bestseller list for years, sold millions of copies worldwide, is available in over 40 languages, and continues to grow in popularity around the globe. Her follow-ups, You Are a Badass® at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth also a NY Times bestseller, You Are a Badass® Every Day, and Badass Habits are written with the same signature benevolent snark, down-to-earth humor and blunt practicality that made You Are a Badass® a beloved bestseller and Jen a celebrated voice in the world of self-development.

Her book, You Are a Badass at Making Money is the focus of today’s best of conversation. We track her journey and also we dive into this idea of personal development and money and making money. And a lot of our weirdness around money around writing about money, around talking about money and where that comes from and maybe what you do about it. It's a fun conversation that touches on a lot of different moments in her life and a lot of ideas.

You can find Jen Sincero at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Patrice Washington about wealth, what it is, and what it’s not.

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This has been a year that has tested our boundaries on nearly every level. Work, friendship, family, community, geography, politics, religion, social issues, love, and wellbeing. Even our own inner boundaries with technology. It’s like we’re being asked to draw lines, all day, every day. And, our ability to do just that, well, it just may mean the difference between peace and calamity.

Question is, how? How do you create and uphold boundaries that are clear, healthy, and constructive, while also acknowledging the nuance, kindness, and understanding this moment demands? That’s what we’re diving into in today’s special compilation episode on boundaries, featuring key elements of conversations we’ve had with therapists, bestselling authors, and boundary experts, Nedra Glover Tawwab and Terri Cole. You’re going to want to take notes on this episode, what you learn may not only help breathe more easily and reclaim space and peace, it just might also change your life.

You can find Nedra at: Website | Instagram | Discover Your Secondary Gain

You can find Terri at: Website | Instagram | Discover Your Secondary Gain | The Terri Cole Show

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Jud Brewer about unwinding anxiety.

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You may not think of your work as your religion, but for many, it’s trying to become exactly that! Without us even realizing it. Question is - is that a good thing? A bad thing? Or just a thing? 

Today's guest, sociologist, Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley, and Co-Director of the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion, Carolyn Chen, has a lot to say about this silent, yet deeply impactful, phenomenon. She spent years studying workplace culture, with a focus on the near-religious cultures of Silicon Valley. As home to startups, major tech companies, and some of the world's most innovative and, arguably, faithful entrepreneurs and professionals, she noticed the lines between doing meaningful work and religion have not only been blurred, but work has, in many ways, squeezed out and even become employees’ religion. Problem is - the goal is not personal and societal betterment, but rather in service of one central purpose: working harder and smarter, and generating innovation and profit.

Her latest book, Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley, is an account and exploration of her time spent interviewing the best and the brightest in the tech world to unfold how tech giants are reshaping spirituality to serve their religion of peak productivity. 

In our conversation, we explore big questions like why are so many people leaving traditional religion? How do religion and spirituality meet our needs in the first place, and what are the ways big tech or corporations are filling those gaps? What does it look like for us to choose what we want to worship and find meaning and belonging in healthy, nontraditional spaces? And, is this conversion of work into faith, actually a societally destructive phenomenon, even while organizations benefit from it? And, by the way, these topics and questions are on display in tech but don’t think, for a moment, that a wide range of companies aren’t exploring them, and along the way, bringing us “into the fold,” sometimes wittingly, other times, maybe not.

You can find Carolyn at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Lisa Miller, Ph.D. about the science of spirituality.

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We’ve all been othered, felt like we didn’t belong, at some point or moment in our lives. It feels awful. But, what happens when that experience rises to a level and pervasiveness of such intensity that it’s not just about feeling unwelcome, it’s about fearing for your life? And the lives of others you care about? 

Whether drawn from what we look like, what or who we worship, our values, beliefs, or any other identifier, that fear of being othered because of something that defines us can cause so much suffering. And at times, anger, even rage. It’s understandable. Question is, it is the answer? The way forward? Or, is there a different, more expansive, empathy-centered path? And if so, what does that look like, and it is really a genuine option, given the world we currently live in?

These are the questions and ideas today's guest, Simran Jeet Singh, has been grappling with. In today's conversation, we take a deep dive into his experiences growing up, becoming a visible advocate for not only his own cultural and spiritual traditions but also a different approach to bridge-building. In his new book, The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life, he shares his complex, fresh perspective on how empathy and traditions come into play to help us embrace each other's differences, find contentment, and discover our universal connectedness. And, in our conversation today, he offers a framework, a different approach, designed to let us to see each other’s humanity more clearly and, hopefully, create a better and more equal world for ourselves and whoever comes after us. 

You can find Simran at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Valarie Kaur about advocacy, spirituality, and love.

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What if wealth wasn’t what we thought? Sure, money is a part of it, and access, status, and at least the illusion of security it can bring. And, yes, the nice things you can buy. But, here’s the thing, I’ve known too many people who’ve earned unreal amounts of money, and they don’t feel wealthy. In fact, they feel like they’ll never have enough. What they DO feel is envy, fear of loss, perpetual craving, and security that seems “take-awayable” in a moment. On the other hand, I’ve known folks of modest means who feel wealthy beyond measure, vibrant, and alive with generosity. 

So, then, what’s wealth - real wealth - about? Turns out, beyond the Benjamins, it’s about something much bigger than we think, or talk about. And, simultaneously, way more accessible and valuable to us, and our ability to live good lives. And, it all starts with where the word wealth actually comes from. 

Today's guest, Patrice Washington, has been exploring the topic of wealth for decades, sometimes without even realizing it, developing a level of insight and expertise that is powerfully revealing. As host of the award-winning "Redefining Wealth Podcast," Patrice has built a thriving international community committed to creating wealth in a vastly reimagined way, moving beyond budgets and credit reports and diving into the heart of why we behave the way we do with money, what real wealth looks and feels like, and how to build it. SUCCESS Magazine named Patrice Washington one of 12 Inspiring Black Voices in Personal Development, and I'm thrilled to have her on the show today to share her expansive and deeply-wise lens on everything from wealth and value-creation, to faith, and the season of her life that, literally, brought her to her knees, revealed what truly matters, then fueled a reinvention that, for the first time in her life, brought her face-to-face with a redefined, sustained capacity for wealth, wellbeing, and an extraordinary life of purpose and contribution. 

You can find Patrice at: Website | Instagram | The Redefining Wealth Podcast

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Jen Sincero about being a badass in life and money.

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Is happiness just in your mind, or does your body play a role? Is health just in your body, or is your mind critical? What about your environment, circumstance, and history? How do these play into the well-being puzzle? Especially now, after a few years that have been so hard on us?

According to Dr. Frank Lipman, in order for us to feel better, more alive, more well, we need to focus on 6 key areas, that all interconnect. Frank is a pioneer in both integrative and functional medicine. He's the founder and director of 1111 wellness center in New York City. A New York Times bestselling author and the creator of Be Well, a lifestyle brand that helps people achieve genuine and really sustainable life changes. I have known Frank for many years. He's become a close advisor when it comes to really anything wellness related that I am exploring doing. 

We explored his moving personal journey from South Africa to New York in a prior episode. In this week's best of episode, drawing from his latest book, How to Be Well, we dive into what he calls his good medicine mandala, and it's really kinda wrapped around these six pillars of health, along with some very specific and often contrary and advice, which, he is not afraid to carve his own path and be very direct about what he agrees and disagrees with on everything from fasting and fat in your diet to sleep and sunshine, and so much more, really excited to share this conversation with you. 

His insights are especially valuable as we all start to look at how to emerge from these last few years, and reclaim a sense of agency over our health, happiness, and overall well-being. 

You can find Frank at: Website | Instagram | Eleven Eleven Wellness Center

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Dr. Aviva Romm about women, health, and hormones.

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Whether you consider yourself a spiritual person, or not, your brain - yes, you - is wired for spirituality in a way you never imagined. It is activated, turned on, and greatly benefits, from spiritual experience. And, it’s not just your brain, it’s your body, your health, your relationships, your work, your life. Which begs the question, “what even IS spiritual experience?” And, beyond feeling more deeply connected to some notion of Source, God, or oneness, how does it affect us? And, is there science that explains it? That’s where we’re headed with today's guest, acclaimed researcher, and pioneer in the science of spirituality, Dr. Lisa Miller. 

Dr. Miller is a professor of twenty years in the Clinical Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is the Founder and Director of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute, the first Ivy League graduate program and research institute in spirituality and psychology, and has held over a decade of joint appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical School. Her innovative research has been published in more than one hundred peer-reviewed articles in leading journals, including Cerebral Cortex, The American Journal of Psychiatry, and the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Dr. Miller is the New York Times bestselling author of The Spiritual Child and her newest book, The Awakened Brain, explores her groundbreaking research on the science of spirituality and how to engage it in our lives. In my conversation with her today, she uncovers more about the innate spirituality that's within all of us, dives deeper into the research that connects spirituality to wellbeing, and awakens the question that's inside us all, which is how do I live a meaningful and purposeful life? And, be sure to listen and join in when she guides me through a powerful thought experience, in real-time, that reveals insights about my own spiritual sense that surprised even me!

You can find Lisa at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Adam Gazzaley about neuroscience, psychedelic and spiritual experience.

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Imagine leaving everything you know behind to start a life in a brand new country, all in hopes of providing a better life for yourself and your family. After all is said and done, and you've made sacrifice after sacrifice to feed, clothe, and care for yourself and eventually, children, in this new and unfamiliar place that doesn't even feel all that welcoming all the time, your biggest hope for your kids is that become self-sufficient, and ideally, make you proud in the process. This, like many other immigrant families, was the hope of Sabaa Tahir's parents, and as a NY Times bestselling author, it's safe to say she's fulfilled her parents' hopes and dreams despite where she came from. That's why I'm excited to dive into this chat with Sabaa today, where she tells me more about how a girl who grew up in her family's eighteen-room motel went from devouring fantasy novels to writing hit ones of her own.

Sabaa was born to Muslim-Pakistani immigrants in Great Britain, and she lived there for the first year of her life before moving to California, where she grew up in the Mojave Desert in the middle of a naval base at the small motel her parents owned. She's been a professional author since 2015 and a journalist at The Washington Post before that, and Sabaa's books, including her critically-acclaimed Ember in the Ashes series, have sold more than a million copies worldwide, are New York Times and international bestsellers, and have been honored by TIME Magazine on a list of the 100 best fantasy books of all time. Her work has appeared on numerous best books of the year lists, including Amazon, Buzzfeed, The Wall Street Journal, TIME, and Entertainment Weekly. 

Her latest book, All My Rage, draws heavily from her experiences and feelings of isolation growing up as an outcast as one of the few South Asian families in her small military hometown, and in my conversation with Sabaa today, we explore those external, as well as the internal, influences that helped her tell a story that embodies a deeply personal, but universal, rage. Of course, none of us can choose where we come from or where we grew up, and certainly, none of us can control the injustices that happen every day in this world. But in this chat with Sabaa today, we pinpoint how she's used storytelling to face the ghosts that haunted her, access emotions like rage that have traditionally not been reserved for those like her and tell a story that's been brewing inside her all along. 

You can find Sabaa at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Valarie Kaur about her experience integrating two cultures.

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Adults do this thing — and maybe you've already done it yourself since you've grown up — where they go out of their way to remind children that life will come with its difficult moments, so we should revel in the good, easy times while they last. Ease, we learn, is the state we should most aspire to.

But, what about those hard things, moments, and experiences? Isn’t there value in them, even if they’re not fun in the moment? Aren’t they important in not only making us who are, in fostering confidence, competence, and resilience? In making life truly good, and equipping us with the resilience to get through the times when it’s not? And, what about that age-old notion of toughness? What’s really going on there? Can we be tough, but also gentle, vulnerable, open? 

Today's guest, Steve Magness, a world-renowned expert on performance, well-being, and sustainable success, joins me to dive deeper into these questions and explore the fascinating intersections of success, toughness, doing hard things, and science. 

Steve is co-author of the best-selling book Peak Performance and The Passion Paradox. His most recent work is Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness. In his coaching practice, Steve works with executives, entrepreneurs, and athletes on their performance and mental skills. He's worked with Olympians and professional athletes across the NBA and MLB, and his writing has appeared in various notable outlets such as Forbes, Sports Illustrated, and Men's Health. 

Toughness is a word that comes with certain unfortunate, heavily machismo-fueled perceptions that might not be accurate or even helpful to us as we strive for success or try to work our way through hard things. In this conversation, you'll hear us dissect the words "grit" and "toughness" as Steve offers his take on the matter, defining grit as the ability to create space for navigating your doubts, insecurities, and feelings that can get in the way of the desired outcome. And in the end, we explore the importance of training our brains to escape the shock of difficulties and forge on until the end — even with the complicated feelings and all. 

You can find Steve at: Website | The Growth Equation podcast | On Coaching podcast

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Angela Duckworth about grit, resilience, and adaptability.

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How do you balance both the weight and the sense of possibility of pursuing a massive dream? Especially when you feel you’re representing generations and building a life and living in a very public way, from your earliest years?

We all know the story of the American Dream goes: move to America in pursuit of a better life. One with more resources, access, and opportunities, not just for yourself, but your kids, who so often hold in their hands the dreams and expectations and sacrifices of those who came before them and made it possible for them to be where they are today. It can be quite the burden. On the other hand, there’s the dream side of the equation. The example of making hard choices and taking action in the belief that amazing things are possible. My guest today, acclaimed actor, JoAnna Garcia Swisher, learned this from her dad.

In our eye-opening conversation today about the complexities of navigating Hollywood as a young child and woman, how the values instilled by her father molded her and the boundaries that sustain her career, and more, JoAnna and I explore the shifting nature of how stories are told in media and their ability to help us relate to one another, feel joy or even grieve. So join us, as she and I dive deeper into her background and then bring it back to the big picture, which is the powerful nature of dreams, joy, and storytelling. 

You can find JoAnna at: Website | The Happy Place Instagram | JoAnna's Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Marin Hinkle about navigating life in the public eye.

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So, what would make someone strap a sled loaded with 375 pounds of food and supplies onto their body, then drag it across a stormy, windswept, frozen landmass at the bottom of the earth for 54 days in brutal subzero temperatures, just to say they did it? What might the average person - meaning you and me - who has little to no interest in doing anything remotely so extreme, learn from this experience that would translate into our ability to live better lives, in far less brutal environments, every day? And, how might committing to a more accessible, single-day of challenge, radically change our perspective on all parts of life?

These are the questions I had, and the topics we explore with today’s guest, ten-time world record-breaking explorer, speaker, entrepreneur, and expert on mindset, Colin O’Brady. His feats include the world’s first solo, unsupported, and fully human-powered crossing of Antarctica, speed records for the Explorers Grand Slam and the Seven Summits, and the first human-powered, 700-mile ocean row across Drake Passage, maybe the most dangerous and brutal body of frigid, wave-stream ocean that spans South America to Antarctica.

Colin’s highly publicized expeditions have been followed by millions and his work has been featured by The New York Times, The Tonight Show, The Joe Rogan Experience, and The Today Show. He is the author of The New York Times bestseller The Impossible First and now The 12-Hour Walk: Invest One Day, Conquer Your Mind, and Unlock Your Best Life.

But, what got me so curious, was how preparing for and then mounting these extreme, physically-grueling challenges, was actually as much, if not more about the mind as it was about the body. And, I wanted to know, beyond why anyone would do these things, how they changed him, as a human being, what we all might learn from this and how we might create more accessible, yet transformative versions in our own lives, and experience the powerful benefits that come from them? And, as part of that, we talk about an interesting invitation he’s created to say yes to what he calls The 12-Hour Walk.

You can find Colin at: Website | The 12-Hour Walk | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Rich Roll about the interplay between body and mind and how we can use each as a lever to evolve the other.

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Imagine, after years of living on your own, building a 15-year career an award-winning career as a Creative Consultant and Wardrobe Stylist, and essentially checking all the success boxes, a chronic illness drops into your body, leading you back to your hometown to move in with your parents as you work to rehabilitate and heal, and try to not just reclaim, but reimagine your life.

Today's guest, Tiffani Moore, knows exactly what it's like to be in this scenario—forced to listen to her body's need for recovery and support after she found out she had Lupus. Tiffani is the Founder and Owner of Moore WellBeings, in addition to being an Intuitive Healer & Coach, Reiki Master, yoga instructor, BreathWork, and MNDFL certified Meditation Facilitator. Before making her mark in the world of wellness, she spent 15+ years building a career as a successful, sought-after stylist and Creative Consultant. 

But her lupus diagnosis, and the physical and psychological devastation that led up to it, changed everything. Seeking less conventional solutions, she followed her intuition and began to study the power of alternative therapies, including meditation, yoga, herbal medicine, and many of the healing practices she utilizes with clients now. Recovering her wellbeing has been a years-long, painstaking process, fueled by intensive learning, and eventually, a drive to train in and share the many modalities she’d discovered, while also creating a safe, nonjudgmental and well-informed space for marginalized communities to explore holistic wellness. 

In this conversation with Tiffani today, you'll hear us explore the harsh realities of living with a chronic illness, like feeling like a burden to loved ones or the struggle to balance rest and recovery with the need to work to survive. We talk about intuition and its role in healing, wellness, and self-expression and how it could benefit us to rethink wellness not as a luxury but instead as a birthright or something we all deserve and can access.

You can find Tiffani at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with James Gordon about the power of the mind to heal and work through illness and trauma.

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One of the things I’ve come to believe during the now 10-year journey of Good Life Project is that there truly is no individual good life, without there also being a more collective and inclusive path for a societal good life. We are all interconnected. And a key part of this more expansive aspiration is about planting seeds, starting with younger generations. So, how do you raise kids to create a more equitable and inclusive society? One where we’re not afraid to acknowledge and discuss beautiful experiences, while also addressing hard truths in a way that steeps us in reality, invites everyone into the conversation, and compels us to do the work needed to create more possibility, equality and opportunity for all, regardless of race, socio-economic status, religion, age, ability and beyond?

That’s where we’re headed with today’s guest, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi. He’s the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University, founding director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research, a contributing writer at The Atlantic, CBS News racial justice contributor, and the host of the Be Antiracist podcast. Dr. Kendi is also the author of many highly acclaimed books including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, making him the youngest-ever winner of that award. He has also produced five straight #1 New York Times bestsellers, including How to Be an Antiracist, Antiracist Baby, and Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, co-authored by Jason Reynolds. In 2020, Time magazine named Dr. Kendi one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was awarded a 2021 MacArthur Genius Grant. And his new book, How to Raise An Antiracist, take us into the core ideas around bringing kids up - as caretakers, parents, educators and community members - in a way that opens their minds, hearts and eyes to both our history and to the work still to be done to decrease inequality and increase equality.

You can find Ibram at: Website | Instagram | Be Antiracist Podcast

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Austin Channing Brown inviting all to play a part in creating a more equal and inclusive society.

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How does a founding member of one of the biggest bands of the last few decades create such incredible music, enjoyed by hundreds of millions of people, while living a life that is privately falling apart? And what would make him do the work to start to put all the pieces back together, to produce not just iconic music, but also a grounded, fulfilling life? 

That’s where we’re going in today’s Best Of conversation with the founding member, frontman and guitarist for iconic band, the Goo Goo Dolls, John Rzeznik. Born and raised in Buffalo, NY, John is a legend in the world of music, with 19 top-ten singles, including mega-hits like Iris (which spent 12 months on the Billboard charts), Name, Black Balloon and countless others. And, like so many who turned to music at a young age as both a way to cope with discord and a form of expression, he’s lived a life of extraordinary artistry and contribution, and along with that, a certain amount of darkness and struggle that for many years found him turning to alcohol as a way to get through each day. Until it all fell apart, and he had to make a decision. One he keeps making every day. 

Now, sober, a devoted dad and husband, he's telling a new story with his life and music, and taking the giant, global community of Goo Goo Doll fans along for the journey. And, as you’ll hear, he’s headed into the studio to create something that is truly representative not just of this moment in time, but also of how his lens on life, music, and creativity have evolved.

You can find John at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Joan Osborne about her incredible life in music and activism.

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We all know how exercise and fitness can impact and improve our physical health. But, what about what it can do for your mind? Your brain? Your experience of anxiety, depression, stress and more? Your relationships? Your ability to experience peace and ease? 

Movement can be an astonishingly powerful prescription for the all-too-often heaviness and complexity of life. So, why is it so difficult sometimes to get up and move, even when we know what good it'll do for us? Turns out, our bodies and brains do this fascinating dance that sometimes supports us, and other times shuts us down, even when we know, rationally, we’d feel better making different choices. It makes me wonder what if the solution to start moving more isn't based on a doctor's orders or creating a rigorous workout plan but, instead, listening to our bodies and responding accordingly with movement in a way that brings all systems online? That's what we're talking about today with my guest, Dr. Jennifer Heisz. 

She's an expert in brain health and the author of Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep. Dr. Hesiz is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Brain Health and Aging at McMaster University, where she directs the NeuroFit lab. Her award-winning research examines the intersections of physical and emotional health and how exercise helps ward off or treat depression, anxiety, stress, and other mental health conditions. 

Her new book explores her own research and the latest findings on how fitness and exercise can combat mental health conditions such as anxiety, dementia, ADHD, and depression, while improving productivity, creativity, and sleep. Get ready to hear us dive deeper into the relationships between fitness and mental health, creativity, and sleep and explore different strategies and approaches that anyone — with all levels of ability or disability, motivated or unmotivated — can tap to incorporate movement into their lives in a way that feels good. So excited to share this conversation with you.

You can find Jennifer at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Bessel van der Kolk, MD about the relationship between our minds and our bodies and how we need to harness both to unwind the mind, especially in the context of trauma.

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We’ve all heard the call to self-care, some have even heeded it. But what if, beyond the core concept of taking care of your physical, emotional, and spiritual self, there was a deeper engine of discord and exclusion at play? Wellbeing is, no doubt, key to living a good life, but wellness - as a concept - over the years, has become an industry, and along with that has come both incredible benefits and also a host of co-opted, problematic ideals, offerings and structures. 

A look under the hood often reveals an arguably toxic industry with deep cracks in its foundation that threaten to reveal the inequitable, exclusionary, shame-driven, perfection-aspiring, and, on occasion, even predatory side of wellness culture. But, it doesn’t have to be that way.

That’s what we’re exploring in today's episode with community organizer and wellness activist Kerri Kelly. Kerri is the founder of CTZNWELL, a movement that is democratizing well-being for all. As a descendant of generations of firemen and first responders, Kerri has dedicated her life to kicking down doors and fighting for justice. She's been teaching yoga for over 20 years and is known for making waves in the wellness industry by challenging norms, disrupting systems, and mobilizing people to act. Kerri is the author of the forthcoming book American Detox: The Myth of Wellness and How We Can Truly Heal, and through her work and her advocacy, she's been instrumental in translating the practices of wellbeing into social and political action and working in collaboration with community organizers, spiritual leaders, and policymakers to transform our systems from the inside out. 

Today, I get the pleasure of chatting more about her ideas, activism, and all the ins and outs of wellness culture through her lens. And in this conversation, you'll hear us talk about the aftermath of 9/11 and how loss and grief pushed Kerri into the world of wellness; we explore wellness as we've come to know it today and its transformation into a symbol of luxury, the divisiveness of the movement, the deep systematic problems that plague its culture, and what we can do about it. So excited to share this conversation with you.

You can find Kerri at: Website | Instagram | CTZNWELL | CTZN Podcast

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Aviva Romm, MD about women’s health.

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The fact that you're listening to this podcast right now tells me ‌you likely already know the power of a compelling story. Good storytelling can persuade, inspire, and ultimately grab hold of the hearts and minds of whoever's listening or reading. And so, whether you'd call yourself a lover of classic literature, an avid reader, or neither, you can probably think of a book you've read or a story you've heard at some point that's completely changed your outlook on life or given you much-needed perspective. Telling stories, although the act may seem like second nature, is a powerful tool that we all can use to deepen the way we learn and interact with one another and ourselves and help us find more meaning and direction in our own lives. And to bring the power of storytelling to light further and break down the science and impact behind it is today's guest, Angus Fletcher, Professor of Story Science at Ohio State's Project Narrative, the world's leading academic think tank for the study of how stories work. 

As a practitioner of story science or story scientist, Angus has a B.S. in neuroscience from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in literature from Yale. His fascinating research employs a mix of laboratory experiment, literary history and rhetorical theory to explore the psychological effects—cognitive, behavioral, therapeutic—of different narrative technologies. His newest research on resilience and creativity with the U.S. Army's Special Operations community has just been published in Harvard Business Review and the New York Academy of Sciences.

Today, he joins me as one of the world's leading experts on the psychological effects of narrative and literature to dive deeper into the science of stories and explore how we all could use the stories we are told and tell ourselves to better our lives and find more meaning, joy, and hope. In our chat, you'll hear us talk more about the nitty-gritty of narrative theory and his new book on the science of stories, Wonderworks: The 25 Most Powerful Inventions in the History of Literature, and explore how storytelling is the free driver of change, self-efficacy, and connection that we all need in our adult lives and in childhood. 

You can find Angus at: Website | LinkedIn

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Liz Gilbert about creativity and storytelling and writing and lifting a fully open, honest, true and real life.

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Today's guest, Gail Devers, was a rising star in the world of running, winning title after title. Until her body began to betray her, literally consuming itself and threatening to end her career just as it was just getting going, let alone her life. Maybe even more distressing, though, was a level of systematic gaslighting for years, doctors kept saying nothing was wrong, but she knew. And she kept pushing for answers until she found one, then painstakingly rebuilt her health, her life, and stepped back onto the track to do what no one else thought possible. Gail became a nine-time World Champion, three-time Olympic gold track and field medalist, and a five-time Olympian. 

Now a fierce advocate for raising awareness for Grave's Disease, which she was finally diagnosed with, she’s made a name for herself as one of the fastest women alive for almost two decades. Although the odds were seemingly against Gail when she discovered her diagnosis, from her health suffering to her self-confidence taking a major hit as a result. It made Gail's recovery and comeback moment years later in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona even more special. 

But her story is also so much bigger than running. She’s become a fierce advocate to raise awareness for Grave's disease and its accompanying TED symptoms. In my chat with her today, we take it back to where it all first started, remembering what motivated her to step onto the track in the first place, and we make our way up to the moment that finally changed everything for Gail: receiving her first diagnosis. We talk about how overwhelming yet crucial it was for Gail to serve as her own health advocate during her search for answers, how goal-setting played its role in her recovery and healing journey, and why it's so important for us all to take back control of our lives against anything that tries to take it away from us. 

This talk with Gail comes at a special time since July is Grave's Disease Awareness Month. So buckle in, and come along this ride with us today and learn how one woman was determined to finish the race that she started, even if her life depended on it. So excited to share this conversation with you.

You can find Gail at: More About Thyroid Eye Disease | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Rich Roll about navigating his journey through addiction, recommitting himself to health and wellness, and eventually becoming an ultra-endurance athlete.

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Vogue Magazine named today’s guest, Jake Wesley Rogers, Gen Z's Elton John, but truth is, he is a wildly-talented, 25-year-old singer, songwriter and performer not only dazzles audiences but also stands powerfully in an identity that belongs to no one other than himself. How a queer kid from Springfield, Missouri, went from growing up in the deep South, then studying songwriting in Nashville, TN, to eventually gracing the stages of music festivals like Lollapalooza, headlining for artists like Panic At The Disco! and Ben Platt isn't all that of a mystery once you hear his music—and his story. 

Jake has this unique way of creating bold, emotional music that tells the stories of his life, yet feels universal at the same time. He invites us all to feel and sing and move and, in no small way, reclaim the parts and stories in our own lives that we’ve left behind. Elton John, himself, sang Jake’s praises while he was a guest on the 300th episode of Elton's Apple Music radio show Rocket Hour, saying Rogers reminded him of himself when he started out. And, all the while, what you’ll experience in this conversation, is how deeply grounded, loving, and intentional he is with everything he does.

In today's conversation, we dive into Jake's journey in music and life and explore some of the lyrics of his recently released six-song EP Pluto, which has been long-awaited since his signing to hit songwriter Justin Tranter's imprint of Warner Records, Facet Records, in 2020. We unpack the art of songwriting and storytelling and its ability to help us process difficult experiences and explore some interesting asides on identity, finding inspiration, his connection and love for his family, and how important it is for Rogers to keep himself centered and present as the rocket ship that has become his career as an artist takes off. 

His EP “Pluto” is filled with passionate ballads and poetic lyrics that tell the stories of his most formative years and dealings with love of all forms—from romantic to familial to self-love. And though Jake is early in the years, he’s deeply wise, we can all learn something from his outlook not just on storytelling but on gratitude, joy, and taking life in stride. 

You can find Jake at: Website | Instagram | Spotify

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Justin Tranter about their life in music and creativity and really finding a place of power and beauty and creative expression.

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For generations, Abby Wambach’s name has been synonymous with soccer. A two-time Olympic gold medalist, FIFA World Cup Champion, and the highest all-time goal scorer ever, she is an icon. But, that's not the whole story. Not by a long shot. And, funny enough, especially here in the podcast world, she’s become known for a very different story. One centered around love, advocacy, and impact.

Retiring in 2015 at the age of 35, Abby found herself, for the first time since she was a young child, without a defining identity or path forward. The year that followed brought her to her knees, but then delivered her into her next, even more powerful season of her life. She met and married the love of her life, Glennon Doyle, (who’s been a two-time guest on this show) and became a co-parent to three amazing kids. Funny enough, and we talk about this in the conversation, the first time Abby ever heard Glennon publicly talk about her, and their then-budding relationship was on this podcast. And, as we all know now, they’d eventually team up with Glennon’s sister to launch the wildly-beloved and impactful podcast, We Can Do Hard Things.

Abby has also redirected the same fierce effort that led her to be a world-class athlete toward becoming an activist for equality and inclusion, a champion of women, queer, and human rights. Her book, Wolfpack, and the movement and company she launched along with it, is a reclamation. It's a call to agency and community. It's a stake in the ground that defines this next, powerful leg in her journey, and her role in our collective journey together.

We explore this powerful journey, along with many of the deeper motivations, struggles, moments of awakening, defining stories and so much more in today’s conversation.

You can find Abby at: Website | Instagram | We Can Do Hard Things

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Glennon Doyle about becoming untamed and falling in love.

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If you haven't heard of Tara Westover's memoir Educated. yet, you're in for a real treat. Her massive blockbuster book recounts her time growing up in rural Idaho with a dad who viewed the outside world with deep fear and a conspiratorial bent and kept the family isolated and forbidden from pursuing public school education. Tara, who never saw the inside of a classroom until she was 17, retraces her steps from her survivalist childhood to her remarkable journey to earning her Ph.D. at Cambridge. She spent her time in Idaho working in her family's junkyard, learning about herbal medicine from her mother, a self-taught herbalist and midwife, and plotting her great escape. Ultimately, she graduated magna cum laude from Brigham Young University, and in 2014, she earned a Ph.D. in history from Trinity College, Cambridge, became a Writer in Residence at the Harvard Kennedy School, and was selected as a Senior Research Fellow there. 

When it came time to tell her own story, Tara wrote the book she needed to write for herself. Her truth. Her story. That's it. But just as she has her own story to tell through her own lens, so does each person in her family. This reality pushes us to wonder and question how quickly society has become to put people in categories or boil their existence down to a single instance or even statement. So how do you do justice to your own narrative when the stakes are the ability to ever reconnect with your family for the rest of your life? And is it even possible? 

In today's conversation, we explore Tara's story, but we also go deeper into her creative journey, her desire to make meaning and to write. To build her own life. And we talk about what happened leading up to the book's publication, as well as how that moment affected her in ways she could've never seen coming and the conflict between being loyal to her family and being loyal to herself. We explore how the ensuing years have led her into a new phase of self-discovery and revelation, in part, because of the stunning global success of the book and also the near-overnight exposure of her and her story to millions of people around the world.

So like I said in the beginning if you've never heard of this book before —and even if you have— you're in for a real treat today. 

You can find Tara at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Elizabeth Gilbert about the power and also concerns that come from writing your truth, then sharing it.

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When's the last time you've answered the question, "How are you?" honestly? 

Whether small talk is a good thing, a bad thing or just a thing is a matter of passionate debate. But, the bigger issue is - when it is time to get real. Both with other people, and also with ourselves? And what are we losing, what parts of ourselves, our relationships, our lives, are we forsaking when we hide behind the facade of social propriety? 

There comes a time when it's crucial to move beyond the surface level if we want to invite deeper and more fulfilled connections into our lives and find a community that will support and uplift us. So today, I'm joined by Jenna Kutcher to talk more about this idea of diving deeper below the surface in all parts of life to spark meaningful connections and, ultimately, a more authentic and rich life. 

Jenna Kutcher is a born-and-raised Minnesota wife, mom, and wildly-successful educational entrepreneur who aims for two things daily that I can totally respect: helping others wake up to life and staying in comfy pants. After leaving a mainstream, yet largely life-sucking career that was a complete misfit for her, she found her way into art, photography, and eventually creative entrepreneurship. And, she began to realize, life is just so much bigger than she imagined, and success was not what she’s always been told. 

And, as is her bent, the minute she learns something she loves to share, so she founded and hosts the now top-rated The Goal Digger podcast, where Jenna’s helped thousands redefine success and chase dreams through her decade-long work as a leading online educator. Her first book, How Are You Really?: Living Your Truth One Answer At A Time, is this deeply open guidebook to being alive that's chocked full of both provocative invitations to rethink life, as well as detailed guidance to lead you forward in a way that moves closer to your heartbeat, your people, and the good life that awaits you.

There are too many fascinating nuggets that touch on so many elements of living a good life throughout this conversation, like the importance of asking for help, how to navigate change in life and business while remaining grounded, and the difference asking that age-old question with a simple tweak, "How are you, really?" could make in all our relationships. So if you're on a mission to own your life rather than the other way around and feel more alive, good things are in store for you in this chat with Jenna. 

You can find Jenna at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Amanda Palmer about being open, vulnerable, and real.

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Heartbreak. We all experience it. It’s a horrible feeling, but can it actually, literally, break your heart, along with the other organs and systems in your body? Turns out, the answer is yes. It attacks not just your psychology - your state of mind - but also your physiology; everything from your brain to your cardiovascular, endocrine, immune system, and beyond. It can ravage both body and mind. And, it also turns out, there are things you can do to not only mend your broken heart emotionally but also rebuild your health after it’s taken a major hit.

That’s where we’re going with my guest today, acclaimed science journalist, Florence Williams. Her book The Nature Fix was an Audible bestseller. She is a contributing editor at Outside Magazine and has written for the New York Times, National Geographic, and many other publications. But, that’s not what kicked off her interest in heartbreak and what it does to us. 

For Florence, it was personal. After her decades-long marriage ended, she found herself, not surprisingly, devastated. Not just emotionally, though, but also physically. Ill. Her body and her health started falling apart. And as she began to pick up the pieces, her science journalist’s brain also started wondering how emotional heartbreak was connected to the rash of physical symptoms and illness that had seemed to take over her body. She wondered if there was science behind if and, also, what could be done about it. That curiosity set in motion a quest that led her deep into the rapidly-evolving science of heartbreak, and also to the tools and strategies that culminated in her book Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey.

You can find Florence at: Website | Instagram | Heartbreak Audiobook

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Frank Lipman about how inseparable the mind and body are when it comes to health.

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So, what if being fiercely self-reliant and individualistic was actually a terrible thing? I know, I know, sounds silly. I mean isn’t that the very thing we’re told to strive for from the youngest age? And, especially, in our culture now? 

Problem is, living in a me-first or me-over-you world is not only destroying our personal relationships, it’s destroying us, our states of mind, and even physical wellbeing. And, intimacy, deep connectedness, even reliance on and elevating others just might be the solution to much of what ails us.

That idea may sound strange at first, it’s hard to argue that the rise of a wildly individualistic society has also gone hand-in-hand with the destruction of social bonds, friendship, mental health and nearly every marker of health in communities as well. As humans, we are all designed to be in relationship with others to experience the positive effects of connectedness, when that breaks down, so do we. And today's guest, Terry Real is an internationally recognized family therapist, speaker, and author. His new book Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship is a guide not just for couples, but also just for all human beings, filled with tools and advice to help anyone tap into their most collaborative and relational self. In today's conversation with Terry, he shares his story of growing up in a dysfunctional home to reveal how the techniques we've all learned to survive dysfunction as children can take a toll on our present relationships. And we explore how re-engaging with the people around us we hold most dear just may save not only those relationships, but our lives as well, and society more broadly. 

You can find Terry at: Website | Facebook

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Julie and John Gottman about how to build deeper, loving relationships

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My guest today, Danica Roem, went from fronting a Death Metal band by night while building a career as an accomplished journalist by day, to being the first person to be elected and serve in any U.S. state legislature while openly transgender.

When you hear that story, you might think, “wow, that’s amazing, but I don’t really relate.” Not so fast. When you zoom the lens out, Danica’s story is really about the quest to live as the truest expression of yourself, to not stifle or deny who you are, and to find a sense of home for all parts of you within a community. Which is something nearly all of us often struggle with. I know I do. This is why I was so excited to be in conversation with Danica Roem. 

My chat with Danica takes us back to her teenage years, where she first found her community in (what may sound surprising now, but won’t later) metal music. We talk about the struggles of masking the authentic parts of yourself in order to fit in, and how she’s been able to use her experiences to relate with people from all different backgrounds on a human level. 

Danica’s new memoir-meets-manifesto, Burn the Page: A True Story of Torching Doubts, Blazing Trails, and Igniting Change, deconstructs the many, sometimes outrageous and deeply isolating and offensive stories her doubters and opponents have thrown at her and shows through brutal honesty how she’s turned her identity, values and experiences into her greatest strengths. She brings that same honesty and authenticity to our conversation today, so know that you’re in for a real treat. 

You can find Danica at: Website | Twitter

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Jeffrey Marsh about living into your own sense of identity, unapologetically. 

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Imagine being a kid who loved music, who’d been brought up with jazz literally in his blood, graduating college, then, instead of heading into a “responsible” adult job like all your friends, opening a record store in the heart of Seattle at a time where the neighborhood musicians, the ones who’d hang out all day and talk about all-things-music, also just happened to be budding icons who’d go one to become scions in the industry, forming bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Sound Garden, and so many others. This is just one season in the extraordinary life and career of today’s guest, Nabil Ayers.

Now, years into a powerhouse career in music, he heads-up of one of the most iconic labels in the business, one, in fact, he fell in love with as a young kid. Growing up mixed-race, Jewish and Black, in NYC in the eighties, with a father who was a legendary jazz musician, but also entirely absent from his life, Nabil’s mom and uncle made sure to surround him with music, musicians and other quirky characters. And, that seeded a passion not just for music, but also for the culture, the stories, and eventually the business of helping artists grow and thrive. 

Along the way, Nabil also found himself becoming a storyteller. Both, of his own narrative, and of the many artists he’d champion and help introduce to the world. And, well into his career in music, Nabil began writing about music, his own life and story, and race for publications including The New York Times, NPR, Rolling Stone, GQ, and The Root. Ayers is the President of Beggars Group US, a music label where he has released albums by many GRAMMY Award-winning artists such as The National. His new memoir, My Life in the Sunshine: Searching for My Father and Discovering My Family is about his journey to connect with his musician father, Roy Ayers, and ultimately re-draw the lines that define family and race. 

You can find Nabil at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Jimmie Vaughan about his life in music.

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With everything going on in the world recently, we've likely all thought to ourselves at some point, "Is humanity lost?" You are not alone if the news makes you feel like everything is hopeless, and it's fair to wonder if collective and individual hope in empathy, compassion, and humanity will ever be restored. 

As we move forward past the darkest days of the COVID-19 outbreak, many people are still searching for hope, inspiration, and answers to some big questions like: How do you regain access to empathy? Or what truly matters in life in the end? 

And I can't think of a better person to explore these questions with than my guest today, Rabbi Steve Leder. 

He is a graduate of Northwestern University and was ordained at Hebrew Union College, and he currently serves as the Senior Rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles. He's also a writer and the author of several critically acclaimed books, including his best-seller, More Beautiful Than Before: How Suffering Transforms Us, and his latest book, For You When I'm Gone: 12 Essential Questions to Tell a Life Story. 

His compassionate voice and words of wisdom have earned Rabbi Leder recognition as one of Newsweek Magazine's ten most influential rabbis in America — twice. In this revealing conversation, we explore his views on humanity, death, religion, and what makes a good life well-lived.

Rabbi Leder shares his interesting thoughts on why people leave the church, what he believes to be the true single source of evil, and how we can all get back to living in alignment with our values and also how to create a powerful curation of beliefs and stories to share with others he calls your ethical will. There are so many good nuggets to take away from this conversation, so I hope you're in a position to jot down Rabbi Leder's words of wisdom today.

You can find Rabbi Steve at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you'll also love the conversations we had with Bishop Michael Curry about the role of love in faith and life.

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When we consider the qualities and traits passed down throughout our family tree, we may think of the curly hair we share with a sibling or a natural talent like singing. But what about the not-so-pleasant traits, beliefs, or patterns that appear generation after generation that are hard to shake? 

Do we keep making these same old mistakes just because "old patterns die hard," as they say? Or will you be the one who takes a new path, no matter how hard or long it takes?

Jennifer Grey is no stranger to taking the road less traveled. From her most visible standout moments, like her iconic role as the star of the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, to her personal journey to self-acceptance, Grey has found her way back to herself one step at a time. And you'll hear today that she's just as forthcoming about her journey as she is in her recently released memoir Out of the Corner.

In this transparent conversation with her, we explore how Grey views and juggles her family's history and culture, her identity, and her role as the cycle breaker through the lens of her younger and present self. Her awareness of what her mother sacrificed to be a wife and mother shapes how Grey leads her life and chooses to tell her story now. And despite what patterns, gender roles, or responsibilities she was expected to bear or even did at one point, Grey is no longer worried about pleasing people but just being as real and true to herself as possible. 

You can find Jennifer at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Marin Hinkle about her life in theater, film, and TV.

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When Chef Irene Li opened a food truck, mei mei, with her siblings, hoping to have fun together, build something cool, and reimagine Chinese comfort cuisine with a playful, modern twist, what happened next took everyone by surprise. Mei Mei exploded, becoming the talk of the town within months. They soon found themselves looking for space and opening a full-service restaurant that was perpetually abuzz. The restaurant was a big success. But, beyond the chance to do something cool with her brother and sister, and push the culinary envelope, there was something else going on.

Growing up, Irene’s grandparents immigrated to the US and slowly built up their own restaurants. While her brother had been in fine dining for years, she’d developed a deep passion not just for food, but also for the environment, viewing agriculture, the food and restaurant industry as a potential vehicle to change people’s lives, to completely upend the way restaurants run, and weave in a powerful thru line of social justice, advocacy and impact. And, of course, fun and love. 

As mei mei took off, Irene and the restaurant landed features everywhere from Food & Wine and The New York Times to People, Bon Appetit and more. Irene gained acclaim for her creativity and innovation, being named a Zagat 30 Under 30 and Forbes 30 Under 30 winner, six-time James Beard Foundation Rising Star Chef nominee, and James Beard Foundation Leadership Award winner. Her cookbook is Double Awesome Chinese Food: Irresistible and Totally Achievable Recipes from Our Chinese-American Kitchen.

Like many restaurants, though, the pandemic was a brutal experience, the restaurant space eventually closed its doors, but mei mei - the creative, joyful food innovator brand - transformed itself into a next-generation direct-to-consumer and wholesale food manufacturer, focusing on their signature dumplings, with a heartbeat that remains deeply rooted in industry reform and social justice. Irene’s commitment to food, agriculture, cooking and community is a testament to the dedication she has for her work and her genuine commitment to being in relationship with others to impact the greater good. 

You can find Irene at: Website | Instagram | Dumplings | Prepshift

If you LOVED this episode: you’ll also love the conversations we had with Ellen Bennett, the founder of Hedley & Bennett chef’s apron brand, about how she built a business in the food industry when everyone around her told her it’d never work.

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If you google the word “Trauma” you’ll find the top search results arrive in some form of the question “What is trauma?” This then begs the next question: what are we really talking about when we’re talking about trauma? In today’s episode, Dr. Paul Conti and I unpack what trauma is, what it means to have experienced trauma, and what makes trauma so hard to resolve. What I found so fascinating in this conversation was the idea that there are 4 types of trauma we can experience and how, if we can create safe spaces to talk about our trauma and support one another, we can more readily recognize who we were before the trauma occurred and who we want to be after. 

A graduate of Stanford University School of Medicine, Paul completed his psychiatry training at Stanford and Harvard. Now living in Portland, OR and founding his own clinic, he serves patients and clients throughout the United States and internationally, including the executive leadership of large corporations. He is the author of TRAUMA: The Invisible Epidemic: How Trauma Works and How We Can Heal From It. 

Thing is, Paul talks about trauma - not just as an academic pursuit but from a personal perspective and experience - having lost his brother to suicide when Paul was just 25 years old. As a result of his training and experience, Paul urges us to remember that we are all in this together and shared humanity is more important now than ever for our healing to begin - and around the 53-minute mark, Paul gives us two prescriptions to take action on - 1 as societal prescription and the other for us individually. 

Quick note before diving in. As noted above, trauma & suicide are discussed in this conversation, with the lens of care and compassion, still we understand these topics are sensitive and may be triggering to some, so please take care when choosing to listen and honor your own personal sensitivities and needs.

You can find Paul at: Website

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Bessel van der Kolk about his embodied approach to integrating trauma.

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Have you ever asked yourself: “Who am I? What do I stand for?” Many of us do ask these questions and when we do, it can be a catalyst that sets us on an alternative path - even though we know it might disappoint those around us. Yet, all too often, even when our inner knowing is forcing us to pay attention, life can pull us in the direction of expectations versus desire. We hesitate to follow our curiosity for fear we might let down our family and loved ones. As a result, we stay on course towards what “we’re supposed to do”. But it doesn’t always have to be this way. Sometimes choosing the new path is just what we need to honor our voice, culture and family. This is why I’m excited to share this conversation with Connie Lim, whose artist name is MILCK for this Best Of Conversation.

MILCK rose to widespread attention after a video of an a capella performance of her song "Quiet" on the street at the 2017 Women's March exploded into the public’s consciousness going viral and becoming embraced as an anthem for the movement. That moment and the impact and reach of the song led to a major record deal and collaborations as a songwriter that launched the career she’s been working to build for years. But that career almost never happened. MILCK grew up in an enclave of LA, the child of immigrants from China, and was drawn to music from her earliest days. She wrote her first song at 7 years old and studied classical piano and opera. Yet the pressure of intense perfectionism and the expectation she’d eventually leave music behind to follow the family tradition into medicine led her into years of profound emotional struggle. 

Eventually, she hit a point in college where she decided it was time to choose herself over the expectations of others, as well as the burden of perfectionism that had caused so many years of suffering and harm. MILCK left college and went all-in on music, performing as an independent artist for years, slowly building her name, before that fateful day in 2017 that changed everything. She’s now deep into writing, producing and performing her own work, while also writing with and for other artists and focusing on not just sharing her own creative voice, but also gathering community and shining the light on truth and inequity along the way.

You can find MILCK at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Justin Tranter about their journey through challenging times as a kid growing up and then stepping into the world of music - first as a musician, and then as a powerhouse songwriter and collaborator.

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What if, instead of trying to fit in and be accepted, you embraced and harnessed the power of your inner outlier? How could you leverage different experiences and environments to turn the parts of you that no one else can replicate from a potential source of exclusion into a superpower and differentiator? 

In today’s episode with my guest, Julian Gilliam, who goes by the artist name, LOGIK, we explore these ideas in the context of LOGIK’s upbringing, living in 9 different places and having to constantly adapt, to his work as both a change-maker and creative innovator in the world of advertising and media, a Creative Director for Google, as an artist and painter who creates stunning lifesize works, and has recently been making giant waves in the world of art, community, Web3, and NFTs.

And all the while, he’s done it by immersing himself in different experiences and cultures, including Japanese art and language, studying the dynamics and often unspoken social context, then rather than trying to fit in, bringing his full self, often as an outside and outlier, to the quest to create incredible moments of innovation, emotion, and awakening.

I’m fascinated by LOGIK’s complexity as a skilled artist, the powerful direction he’s taking NFTs and the decisions he’s currently making as he steps fully into this brand new digital creative world. Toward the end of our conversation, at around the hour mark, he brings us to a point of how art and digital collide in a way that changes the relationship between art and collectors. This was a particularly potent part of the conversation in that, LOGIK reveals his philosophy around building a solid foundation as an artist and also building the relationships and structure needed to support longevity for the projects you’re undertaking. He truly brings a new lens to the creative life and how to bring together many people, voices, and communities to both drive change and support expression.

You can find LOGIK at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you'll also love the conversations we had with Lisa Congdon about building a career in the arts as an outlier.

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We’re all in a process of reimagining when it comes to work, looking at the changes we’ve made over the last few years, and trying to figure out what we’ll keep, what we’ll let go of, and how else we might want to change the way we work in order to feel the way we want to feel. And, what so many are realizing is that we’ve got more power to reimagine every aspect of work now than we’ve ever had before. Question is, what do we do with that power? And what do we do with this moment of openness to new ways of working and living?

These questions are what we dive into with today’s guest, Anne Helen Peterson. Anne is a journalist whose wise, often irreverent, funny, and provocative writing appeared in Buzzfeed, the New York Times and more, before leaving the mainstream to become the voice behind the wildly-popular newsletter, Culture Study. She’s also the author of four books, most recently Out of the Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working From Home (co-written with Charlie Warzel) and Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation.

During our conversation, we talk about everything from where we live and work to the traditional role of the 9-5 work week and how, as we look at what’s important to us, companies, businesses and the promise of what remote work can bring, there’s an opportunity to change the way we think about work which ultimately then opens the door to shifting old-schoolwork schedules and models across many industries. One of my favorite moments of this conversation is at minute 35:03 when Anne makes a really compelling case for the 4-day work week, showing how she’s witnessed its success even in, as she calls them, “fuddy-duddy industries.” 

We also talk about Ann’s power move from mainstream media journalist and big city living to going out on her own as a writer, starting her own subscription newsletter, moving to a remote island, and loving it all. If you’re ready to think about working differently, this episode will be a beacon for you. 

You can find Anne at: Instagram | Substack

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Charlie Gilkey about focusing on what matters in work and life.

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I’ve come to believe that the quality and richness of our lives is, in no small part, determined by the depth and quality of our attention. If it’s massively distracted, perpetually spinning out, and focused on negativity, that will also largely be the state of our lives, regardless of the actual objective circumstance of our lives. And, that is where we go in a powerful way with my guest today, Johann Hari. 

Johann is a writer and journalist, whose work appears in everywhere from the New York Times, Le Monde, to The Guardian and many other newspapers and media outlets. His TED talks and NowThis viral video have been viewed almost 100 million times, and his work has been praised by a broad range of people, from Oprah Winfrey to Noam Chomsky. He was the Executive Producer of the Oscar-nominated film “The United States vs Billie Holiday” and of a forthcoming eight-part TV series starring Samuel L Jackson. And following an incident with his Godson a few years back, he decided to turn his attention to the topic of attention, what attention actually is, how it affects us our mental and physical health, relationships, careers, and lives, what our ability to either harness or lose control of it is doing to us, and how our world, technology and global enterprise have built models designed to hijack our attention not in the name of the betterment of our lives or of humanity, but rather for their own good. Johann goes deep into his research and ideas in the groundbreaking book, Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention - and How to Think Deeply Again, and we explore what he calls an attentional pathogenic culture, how it’s making life both harder and sadder, and, importantly, what we can do about it to reclaim our attention and, in doing so, our lives.

You can find Johann at: Instagram | Website

If you LOVED this episode:

• You’ll also love the conversations we had with neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley about the way our brain works.

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What do you think of when you hear the word influence? Or the phrase, “be an influencer?” Maybe you think about the ability to affect another person, to have influence over them. Or, to persuade them to adopt an idea, point of view or opinion. Or, maybe take an action or commit to something, or buy something. Whether we’re comfortable with the notion of influence or persuasion or not, we’re all immersed in overlapping processes of subtle and not-so-subtle influence all day, every day. And to better understand how to both cultivate our own skills and tools, and also become more aware of the scripts that are running all around us, I’m so excited to be able to sit down with my friend, Dr. Zoe Chance. 

Zoe is a writer, teacher, researcher, and climate philanthropist obsessed with the topic of interpersonal influence. She earned her doctorate in behavioral science from Harvard and now teaches “Mastering Influence and Persuasion,” the most popular course at Yale School of Management. And, her framework for behavior change is the foundation for Google’s global food policy that helps over 100,000 people make healthier choices every day. Before focusing on academic pursuits, she also managed a $200 million segment of the Barbie brand for Mattel.

Zoe teaches smart, kind people to raise money for charity, get elected to political office, fund startups, start movements, save lives, find love, negotiate great deals and job offers, and even get along better with their kids. In other words, she helps people to use their superpower of influence as a force for good. And, by the way, if you love today’s conversation, you’ll also love her book, Influence is Your Superpower.

You can find Zoe at: Website | Twitter

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Charles Duhigg about building habits.

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Is energy medicine real? What about Ayurveda? What about Western/modern medicine, what’s right and not so right about it? Does the gender of a patient make a difference in how they’re treated, or in their health outcomes? What about the role of plants, herbs, and intuition? These are all questions that have come up in conversations over the years as I’ve had the incredible opportunity to sit down with women who are leading voices and often voices of change in various approaches to medicine and wellbeing. And, in today’s episode, we’ve curated key elements from four of those conversations to share and potentially pull back the curtain on so many myths, misunderstandings and confusion and plant some seeds to explore a different lens and maybe even some different modalities when it comes to exploring your own physical, mental, and energetic wellbeing. 

If you LOVED this episode:

You can find Jill at: Website | Instagram

You can find Avanti at: Website | Instagram

You can find Aviva at: Website | Instagram

You can find Latham at: Website | Instagram

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My guest today, Blair Imani, grew up in a house where sitting quiet in the face of any level of injustice was just not an option. Whether it was advocating for the needs of a sibling or standing up to right a wrong in her community, her parents set a powerful example and invited Blair to always rise to the challenge. And that’s exactly what she’s done. 

But, along the way, Blair also discovered, there are different ways to make a difference, and we each need to figure out how to take up the mantle of change, while also honoring our unique circumstances and needs, and that includes acknowledging our own, very personal psychological and physical wellbeing. 

Building on this, Blair transitioned from organizing and activism to focusing on education, but in a way only she could do - harnessing the power, reach, interactivity and visual impact of social media by creating short, punchy, informative and entertaining bursts of wisdom and inspiration she calls her Smarter in Seconds series, which, at this point, has become a global movement.

Now a writer, mental health advocate, award-winning educator, and historian living at the intersections of Black, Queer, and Muslim identity, Blair is the bestselling author of Read This to Get Smarter, Making Our Way Home, and Modern HERstory. Her scholarship spans intersectionality, gender studies, race and racism, sociology, and United States history. She has presented at Oxford, Stanford, and Harvard, serves on the Board of Directors for the Tegan and Sara Foundation, and been featured in The New York Times and tons of other outlets.

You can find Blair at: Instagram | Website

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Austin Channing Brown, about how we create the world around us and how we bring ourselves to it from a place of equity, dignity, and justice.

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We all breathe. It just happens. But, what if the way you breathe made a massive difference in everything from your risk for debilitating illness to your depth and quality of sleep, energy, creativity, and performance? Turns out, it does. Breathing is maybe the single most effective and accessible switch we can throw to radically transform and take control of the way we feel and live. And, by the way, when we leave it chance - as most of us do - our breathing often defaults into a mode that sends us spiraling into poor physical and mental health, and underperformance in all parts of life. Which is why I was so excited to sit down with James Nestor for this Best Of conversation.

James is a science writer who has written for Outside, Scientific American, The Atlantic, Dwell, The New York Times, and more. His award-winning book Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves was a revelation and, in no small part, kicked off this science writer’s fascination with the breath. That led to a years-long, immersive quest to understand this often-ignored key to both human potential and all forms of peril. And it led to his blockbuster book, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, which is a myth-busting and paradigm-shifting look at how we breathe, what it does to us and how to harness breathing to transform our health and lives.

You can find James at: Instagram | Website

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Wim Hoff about breathing and how it affects your physiology and psychology.

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When was the last time you felt truly at peace? Relaxed, physically and emotionally at ease? How can you downregulate your mind and body and reclaim control over everything from your current state of mind to your sleep, risk of illness and even how fast or slow you age? What if you had so much more control over these than you imagined, no matter what seemingly breathless circumstance swirls around you? 

Turns out, we do, and it’s all about understanding our nervous system and how to actively bring ourselves into what my guest today, Professor Sara Mednick, calls the downstate. Sara is a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of California, Irvine and author of the powerful new book, The Power of the Downstate: Recharge Your Life Using Your Body's Own Restorative Systems. She is passionate about understanding how the brain works through her research into sleep and the autonomic nervous system. 

In fact, her seven-bedroom sleep lab works literally around the clock to discover methods for boosting cognition by napping, stimulating the brain with electricity, sound and light, and pharmacology. Her research findings have been published in such leading scientific journals as Nature Neuroscience and The Proceedings from the National Academy of Science, and covered by major media outlets, in no small part because of their importance and practical application in helping us feel better, and live healthier, more vibrant lives.

You can find Sara at: Website | Twitter

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor about understanding your brain to live a better life.

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I’m fascinated by the idea of snap decisions, how some can lead to amazing outcomes, and others can destroy lives. What you so often find is that nothing actually happens in a moment, there is no real snap, but rather a series of experiences leading up to it, often years in the making, were as much authors of the moment as the instance itself. And, sometimes, when those moments lead to something you’ll regret for a lifetime, you get to the next question - what is recoverable - redeemable - how do you make that happen, and who gets to write the story of your reclamation? 

This is the powerful thru line of my conversation with Shaka Senghor, New York Times bestselling author of Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison. A leading voice on criminal justice reform, tech investor, head of Diversity, Equality & Inclusion at TripActions, former MIT Media Lab Director’s Fellow, and member of Oprah Winfrey’s SuperSoul 100, he took another young man’s life at the age of 19, served the next two decades in prison, 7 in solitary, and through a series of awakenings, began to unwind the pieces of his life and begin the process of understanding, reassembling and eventually redemption. 

In the decade since his release from prison, he has started and worked with nonprofits seeking to lift people up, visited the White House, been interviewed by Trevor Noah and Oprah Winfrey, and given award-winning TED Talks, all with the goal of building a more inspired, just, fulfilling future. His latest book, Letters to the Sons of Society: A Father's Invitation to Love, Honesty, and Freedom invites men everywhere on a journey of honesty and healing through this book of moving letters to his sons.

You can find Shaka at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Ani DiFranco about our current system of justice and how it relates to expression, personal narratives, and human dignity.

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I still remember the first time I heard Joan Osborne’s iconic song, One of Us. I was 29, a couple of years into my career as a federal enforcement attorney with the SEC, and not loving my time in the industry. Asking big questions, when I turn on the radio and hear Joan’s soulful blues voice, asking “what if God was one of us?” It stopped me in my tracks. That was 1995, and that song still has the same effect on me. It also changed the trajectory of Osborne’s career and life in ways that still affect her.

Joan was a fixture in the downtown New York music scene in the 90s. But when her debut album, RELISH, came out and One of Us took off, it exploded her into music super-stardom, led to 7 Grammy nominations, and fueled what has become a decades-long career populated by world tours, many more albums, a deepening commitment to weaving together music, advocacy, and activism, and collaborations with everyone from the Funk Brothers to Stevie Wonder, The Grateful Dead, Pavoratti, Bob Dylan and so many more. And, what’s even more amazing, Joan never expected to have a career in music. In fact, it all started as a dare from a friend at an open mic night in an East Village club while studying to be a filmmaker at NYU, a story she shared in our conversation.

When the pandemic made it impossible to tour, she took these last few years to do a little organizing around the house and, in the process, discovered a treasure trove of old recordings and demos, many from her years of live performances at radio stations, and curated them into her latest release, Radio Waves. And, to her great joy, she’s now back on the road, so be sure to check our her live performance dates and catch her on tour once again.

You can find Joan at: Listen to Radio Waves Now | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Liz Phair about her life in music.

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Anxiety, even saying the word makes me a bit anxious. But, what if there was a way to unwind it and come back to calm that was counterintuitively simple. And, what if a lot of the popular thoughts around anxiety and how to deal with it today were wrong? That’s what we’re talking about today with my guest, Dr. Jud Brewer. He’s a New York Times best-selling author, neuroscientist, addiction psychiatrist, and thought leader in the field of habit change. 

Jud is also the director of research and innovation at Brown University’s Mindfulness Center, where he serves as an associate professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences in the School of Public Health. He is the executive medical director of behavioral health at Sharecare Inc. and a research affiliate at MIT. And, he’s developed and tested novel mindfulness programs for habit change, including treatments for smoking, emotional eating, and, yes, anxiety. He is the author of Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind and The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love, Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits. 

You can find Dr. Jud at: Website | Instagram | Unwinding Anxiety App (sign up with code UNWIND40 for 40% off, before downloading the app)

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Ellen Hendriksen, PhD about social anxiety and how to handle it.

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Ever wonder why a certain sad song or even a few bars of just the right melancholy music will stop you in your tracks and maybe even move you to tears? Turns out, you’re not alone. My guest today, Susan Cain, has spent years researching why certain experiences - ones that connect us to sadness, longing, or sorrow - move us so deeply, and actually add profoundly to our lives. Susan’s first book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in A World That Can’t Stop Talking, has been translated into 40 languages, spent seven years on the New York Times bestseller list, and was named the #1 best book of the year by Fast Company magazine, which also named Susan one of the Most Creative People in Business. 

Susan and I have been friends since before she launched her quiet revolution, I’ve always appreciated her deep wisdom, generosity, kindness, and a level of introspection, curiosity, and contemplative thought that’s so rare these days. And, lucky for all of us, she’s been focusing those observational and intellectual superpowers on a topic that is so universal, and yet also so misunderstood - longing. Susan’s new masterpiece, Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole, is a powerful look at why that feeling of yearning, of bittersweetness and longing, is, in fact, not just common to every sentient being, but also necessary and a critical element of a life well-lived, and source-fuel for some of the greatest works of art, science, and creation in history. And, that is exactly what we’re diving into today.

You can find Susan at: Website | Instagram | Susan's TED Talk | Bittersweet Spotify Playlist

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Elizabeth Gilbert about longing and loss.

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Ever hear the phrase, “food is life?” Well, it rings true in so many ways. It’s not just about nutrition, it’s about love, it’s about your relationship with each other, with family, friends, the environment and beyond. It’s above service, joy, connection, sacrifice, salvation, and elevation. And, here at Good Life Project, over the years, we’ve had the stunning opportunity to sit down with some legendary foodies, farmers, culinary makers and thinkers and doers and chefs. People like the chef, author of New York Times bestselling book and Netflix show, Salt, Fat Acid, Heat - Samin Nosrat. People like Top Chef star, restaurateur and educator, Carla Hall who was launched into the world of not just food and restaurants, but media, and books, with her cookbook, Carla Hall’s Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration, and TV, with many appearances all over and a run co-hosting The Chew, and beyond. Or, Giada De Laurentiis, who walked away from a life with her iconic film family to study at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, then become an Emmy award-winning chef, author, and culinary celeb, whose latest book, Eat Better Feel Better, deftly navigates the sweet spot between delicious recipes and a more healthful approach to cooking and eating.

We thought we’d share some of the most resonant moments from those conversations in this mouthwatering and soulful conversational montage. 

If you LOVED this episode:

You can find Samin at: Full Conversation | Website | Instagram

You can find Carla at: Full Conversation | Website | Instagram

You can find Giada at: Full Conversation | Website | Instagram

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Every week on the SPARKED podcast, we invite a listener to share what’s going on in their work & life, then pose a specific question to Jonathan Fields and a rotating lineup of wise and kind mentors - the SPARKED Braintrust. 

Click here to find it in your favorite podcast app.

In today’s episode we’re in conversation with:

SPARKED BRAINTRUST ADVISOR: Charlie Gilkey | Website

Charlie is a strategic advisor and executive coach, founder of the Productive Flourishing consultancy, and author of the multi-award-winning book, Start Finishing.

LISTENER:  Amy - Sparketype: Advisor/Sage

QUESTION: How can I focus to make choices in the space of paradox of choice? But, as we’ll also learn, there’s a whole lot more going on underneath that question, especially for Amy who is in the midst of a career reinvention, as are so many now.

YOUR HOST: Jonathan Fields. Jonathan is a dad, husband, award-winning author, multi-time founder, executive producer and host of the Good Life Project podcast, and co-host of SPARKED, too! He’s also the creator of an unusual tool that’s helped more than 650,000 people discover what kind of work makes them come alive - the Sparketype® Assessment, and author of the bestselling book, SPARKED.

So what is your Sparketype? Turns out, we all have a unique imprint for work that makes us come alive, this is your Sparketype. When you discover yours, everything, your entire work-life- and even parts of your personal life and relationships - begins to make sense. Until you know yours, you’re kind of fumbling in the dark. 

How to submit your question for the SPARKED Braintrust: Wisdom-seeker submissions

More on Sparketypes at: Discover You Sparketype | The Book | The Workshop | The Website

Presented by LinkedIn.

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Chazz Lewis’s mission in life is to enjoy the process of becoming the best version of himself and help others do the same. He goes by “Mr.Chazz” to his massive online following, and to his many students and fellow teachers, leaders, and human beings. Having stepped into the classroom in the early days, largely because he needed a job, he discovered a passion for inspiring and understanding and igniting curiosity and possibility in kids. And, he realized, he’d have to buck a lot of systems and do a metric ton of his own learning and reimagining to make it happen.

Along the way, he completed a master's degree in executive leadership at American University and spent years using his own classrooms as living laboratories, developing a more conscious, informed, joyful and dignity-driven and inspired approach to learning, leading, and elevating others. His philosophy began to find relevance far beyond the classroom and has found a home everywhere from parenting to education, personal development, and organizational leadership. And he shares his ideas in a fun, playful, and accessible way, training thousands of teachers, and with his giant following on Tiktok and Instagram. He is in the process of writing a book, and he goes deeper on his podcast, “Mr. Chazz's Leadership, Parenting and Teaching Podcast”.

You can find Mr. Chazz at: TicTok | Instagram | Podcast

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Renee Jain about inspiring kids to be authentic and grow.

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Hrishikesh Hirway has been making music for as long as he can remember and, as an adult, spent years building a career in the industry, writing, performing, producing, and touring. But, it was a moment where he took a bit of a pause to re-evaluate that led him to record an interview with a friend about the story and creative decisions behind a song that would change everything. That conversation eventually became the opening episode of the podcast, Song Exploder, which itself then exploded into a global phenomenon that I’ve been obsessed with since hearing that first episode. 

Now, it’s grown into not just an award-winning podcast, but also a Netflix original television series where musicians break down the creative process behind their songs, featuring many of the biggest names in music like Alicia Keys, Billie Eilish, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Dua Lipa, The Killers, so many others. And, building on the success of Song Exploder, Hrishikesh has now grown a network of shows, producing and co-hosting the award-winning podcasts Home Cooking, with chef and author Samin Nosrat, and The West Wing Weekly, with actor Joshua Malina. He’s also the host and producer of the Partners podcast.

All the while, he’s continued to write and perform his own music, releasing four albums under the moniker The One AM Radio, and an EP with Moors, his project with Lakeith Stanfield. As a composer, he has written music for film, television, and podcasts, including the score for the Netflix series "Everything Sucks!" and the theme to ESPN’s "30 for 30" podcast. Recently, he released two singles, “Between There and Here," which features Yo-Yo Ma, and “Home,” featuring Jay Som. These, in fact, are the first songs he’s released in 10 years, and the first under his own name. His new EP, Rooms I Used to Call My Own is out March 30.

You can find Hrishikesh at: Website | Instagram | Podcasts

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Kaki King.

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How’d a kid who loved movies and thought he’d be a filmmaker leave film school, and end up building a $1-billion healthy nutrition business, then exit and focus his energy back on the quest to build the next Disney, but with a focus not just on entertainment, but on impact? 

That’s the story behind today’s guest, Tom Bilyeu, the co-founder, along with his wife, Lisa, of Quest Nutrition, and the now rapid growth Impact Theory production studio, which is dedicated to creating media and experiences that change people’s lives. Tom was named one of Success Magazine’s Top 25 Influential People, and in today's conversation, we dive into the early influences that shaped him and his lens on creativity and possibility. We talk about how he struggled to even get out of bed for an entire season of life, and then returned to a deeper drive, underneath the yearning to make movies, and how that has been a consistent thru-line and driving motivation to build a billion-dollar nutrition company, then sell it in order to return to his original desire to make media that made meaning, but on a whole different level. 

You can find tom at: Website | Instagram | Impact Theory on YouTube

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Rich Roll.

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What would you give to have more free time, less stress & more ability to do the things you love, while knowing everything else is handled? That is the promise of a powerful new body of work from today’s guest, Jenny Blake. Jenny is an author, host of two podcasts, Free Time for Heart-Based Business Owners, and Pivot with Jenny Blake, and keynote speaker who loves helping people move from friction to flow through smarter systems. Her new book, Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business, is, quite literally, life-changing. 

I actually featured Jenny in my last book, SPARKED, because she’s what I call an Essentialist, meaning she lives and breathes to create order from chaos, in the name of clarity and ease. Her mind works in ways that mine doesn’t. Jenny is world-class at creating systems that give you back your life. And, the stunning volume of ideas, tools, processes, and resources she’s developed and curated in Free Time, along with the dashboard she’s launched alongside it, made me realize how much harder I’ve been making things in all parts of work and life, and how much more automation and ease I could access, and, as a result, how much more time I could create to do the things that truly light me up. So, I was excited to invite Jenny to dive deeper into her ideas, methodology and specific tools and resources to create more free time and joy in work, life and beyond. 

You can find Jenny at: Website | Free Time Podcast | Buy One, Get One, Give One Preorder Bonus.

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Brené Brown.

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Maybe you’ve seen this week’s guest, Arian Moayed, playing the role of Stewy on HBO’s Succession. Or in the breakaway hit, Inventing Anna, as Anna Sorokin’s lawyer, Todd Spodek. Or, Agent Cleary in last year’s megahit, Spider-Man: No Way Home. And, you’d think, “wow, he’s everywhere, how lucky is he!” And, you’d be half-right. Arian is everywhere these days. But, luck? Not a chance. There is something much bigger at play. With a stunning work ethic, fueled by genuine passion.

Arian's family fled Iran under threat of violence when he was a child, taking a years-long journey that split the family between different countries, and eventually landed them just outside Chicago, where they set about building a new life in a radically different world. Acting became a fast passion, a way to express his feelings, his passion, and experiences and, in short order upon becoming an adult, his career. So, while honing his craft and acclaim as an actor, he also began devoting more and more energy to writing, producing, and teaching. Co-founding the theater/film production and arts education venture, Waterwell, his heart is most boldly on display in guiding the growth of teachers and 6-12th graders in New York City’s free theater training program, and exploring not just performance, but citizenship, service, equality, advocacy, justice, and what it means to be human. We all need more of that these days. We're so excited to share this Best Of conversation with you today.

You can find Arian at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with James Victore about meeting rejection and adversity and taking on a “just watch me” stance.

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What if you found yourself in the middle years of life, taking on responsibility, building a family, a reputation, a company, a living…and then, in the blink of an eye, had to start over? Not by choice, but by circumstance. That was the experience of this week’s guest, Jordan Harbinger. One of the pioneering voices in podcasting, he’d been in the space for nearly 15 years, building a big audience and a business around it. But, a series of events he never saw coming landed him on the outside-looking-in, wondering, “what’s next?” He could’ve left the world of media, podcasting, and conversation behind, and done any number of things. He’s a former lawyer with a mind for systems and tech. But, he loved the community of podcasting. It’s all he wanted to do. So, instead, Jordan committed to rebuilding his own show, his own career, his own company and team, entirely on his terms and under his control, from the ground up. 

Fast forward 5 years, Jordan has not only made a comeback, but he has also built one of the most popular and successful properties in the explosive growth world of podcasting - The Jordan Harbinger Show - many times larger than he’d dreamed of or, honestly, even imagined was possible. Jordan and I have known each other for years, we’ve shared ideas, visions, hopes, dreams, and experiences as we’ve both navigated the world of audio, inspiration, and life. But, I wanted to really understand what this recent season of life has been like for him, what he’s learned, how he accomplished such a breathtaking comeback, what he’s said no to along the way and why, how passion and relationships have played into this phoenix-like experience, and how he’s changed as a person along the way. 

You can find Jordan at: Website | The Jordan Harbinger Show

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Debbie Millman about designing your life as a perpetually evolving experience.

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What does it actually mean to have a “good” death? If you’re like most people, the very question - simply by the nature of it - scares you. In fact, you may be about to tune out of this episode at this very moment. I urge you to stay with me. Because there are things we all need to think about, to feel, to know. Because, in no small way, the idea of a “good” death is an essential part of the conversation we’ve been having for the last decade about living a good life. But if we never talk about, feel into it, and have open, honest, sometimes hard, but deeply meaningful conversations around it, then we leave our final act largely to fate or the will of others. To the extent that, when the time comes, we have some level of agency, at a moment where - and this is a critical distinction - we’re of sound mind, fully-supported and well-informed, it’s important to know - what are the things to consider, what are the unknowns, and how much of any of it is really in our hands? 

These are the questions and the circumstances that my guest, acclaimed author, screenwriter, and teacher, Amy Bloom, were presented with when her beloved husband was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s in his 60s, and quickly made a decision that, in his words, “the long goodbye” was not for him. The time that followed was marked by no small amount of suffering, not just because of the looming loss of a beloved, but because of the landscape that confronted them when seeking to “do it their way” compounded that suffering. The experience is laid bare, in an achingly beautiful and also stunningly eye-opening way, in Amy’s new book, In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss. This is not an easy conversation, but it is an incredibly important one. And I’m grateful for Amy’s openness, vulnerability, and wisdom in both sharing her story and guiding this conversation.

You can find Amy at: Website

If you LOVED this episode:

• You’ll also love the conversations we had with Robert Thurman about how we experience our time in the most present and engaged way.

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How does a surgical and pediatric nurse become one of the most widely acclaimed writers of our time? This was the jumping-in point for my conversation with Sue Monk Kidd. From her earliest memories, Sue wanted to write, but growing up in a small town in Georgia, she was channeled into a much narrower set of career offerings that were offered up as the “only appropriate kinds of work for a woman.” That never sat well with Sue, but not quite having found her own voice yet, she ended up following the thread into nursing school, then into a season of life where she built a career in medicine while raising a family. But, when she turned 30, that stifled yearning to make writing her devotion was reawakened. She literally announced she was going to be a writer out loud to her husband and kids at the kitchen table, who didn’t quite realize the seriousness of what had just happened. 

Profoundly influenced by contemplative writers, like Merton, Sue began to pen essays, meditations and stories and see them published, which led to books about her own take on life, feminism, and a more expansive and inclusive spirituality. Then, more than a decade into her writing life, she did what writers are so often cautioned away from. Sue changed lanes from nonfiction to fiction, writing short stories, and eventually, going all-in on a novel that would become the mammoth, international blockbuster, A Secret Life of Bees, the writing of which was its own 5-year odyssey. 

As we sat down, we explored this incredible journey, and how she navigated major shifts in both career and life. We also dive into her most recent novel, The Book of Longings, a fictional imagining of the early life of Jesus, told through the eyes of an equally strong and vibrant wife, whose presence would never “make” the pages of history. You can imagine, this book stirred a lot of conversation and served as a provocation to explore not only this story, but also the frame that is brought to the way stories of women have, and have not been told throughout history, and who holds the power of the pen.

You can find Sue at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode:

• You’ll also love the conversations we had with Elizabeth Lesser about the writing life and the role of women in historical narratives.

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How do you create a radical change in direction in your life? My guest today, Rosie Acosta, found herself asking that question in her mid-teens, after being arrested, and the answer came in a way she never saw coming. Born and raised in East LA at a time when gang violence was the norm, Rosie pushed up against authority from a young age. But, after being arrested, a simple sentence led her to commit to a radical reimagining of her own life. She didn’t know what form or shape it would take, until one day, ditching school, she found herself in the Self Realization Fellowship in LA, listening to the words of a woman who would change her life, and lead her down a path of spirituality she never saw coming. Especially since she’d rejected religion, or anything smacking of faith, in the years before.

Now, a sought-after advisor, coach, yoga and meditation teacher, she travels the world leading workshops, retreats, and trainings, boasts a private clientele that includes Olympic athletes, NFL champions, NBA All-Stars and veterans of war, and hosts the Radically Loved podcast. A first-gen Mexican-American, Rosie’s mission is to help others overcome adversity and experience radical love, and she shares her philosophy on radical love in her new book, You Are Radically Loved: A Healing Journey to Self-Love.

You can find Rosie at: Website | Instagram

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• You’ll also love the conversations we had with Justin Tranter about defying convention and expectation and carving your own path in the world.

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These last few years have dealt a lot of blows to our state of mind, body, and health. On some level, it’s been hard to escape trauma. Even if you can’t point to a big capital-T thing that happened, we live in a perpetual sea of micro-moments that unsettle, upset and shake us in a way that leaves a mark. Whether we know it’s there or not, whether we realize or acknowledge it, it’s affecting us. You, me, pretty much everyone on some level. 

Question is, what do we do about that? This is the very question I explore with my guest this week, Bessel van der Kolk, legendary trauma researcher, psychiatrist, and author of a book that has been locked into the #1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list for years now, The Body Keeps the Score. In 1984, Bessel established one of the first clinical/research centers in the US dedicated to study and treatment of traumatic stress in civilian populations, while also training researchers and clinicians specializing in the study and treatment of traumatic stress. He was a member of the first neuroimaging team to investigate how trauma changes the brain. 

Bessel’s efforts led to the establishment of the Trauma Research Foundation, developing new treatment models that are widely taught and implemented nationwide, a research lab that studied the effects of neurofeedback and MDMA on behavior, mood, and executive functioning, and numerous trainings nationwide to a variety of mental health professional, educators, parent groups, policymakers, and law enforcement personnel.

You can find Bessel at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode:

• You’ll also love the conversations we had with Ellen Hendrickson about social anxiety.

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How do you design a life of wonder and love, contribution and meaning, joy and expression? At the end of the day, that’s what we all really want. To know we’ve used our time on this big, blue marble in a way that was worthy, that was wise, that was alive. Which is why I was so excited to sit down with an old friend, Debbie Millman, who just happens to be a legendary thinker and doer in the world of design, branding, innovation and life. Named “one of the most creative people in business” by Fast Company, she’s an author, educator, curator and host of the iconic Design Matters podcast, where she’s interviewed hundreds of the most creative people in the world over the past 17 years. 

Debbie is also the author of seven books, and her new book, Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People, is a stunning compilation of her own take on everything from design to branding, business, entrepreneurship and life, mixed in with moments from guests that have, in no small part, collectively designed the world we live in.

Debbie co-founded the world’s first graduate program in branding at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, was the President one of the world’s leading branding consultancies, Sterling Brands, where she worked on the brand identity for everyone from Burger King, Hershey’s, Haagen Dazs, Tropicana, Star Wars, Gillette, to the No More movement.

Her writing and illustrations have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, Print Magazine, and Fast Company. Her artwork is found in private collections, universities and museums around the world. Debbie has a deeply insightful and experienced lens on how we live our lives, how we show up in work and life, and tell the stories that bring it all alive.

You can find Debbie at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode:

• You’ll also love the conversations we had with Milton Glaser about building a life of meaning and impact.

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What do you think of when you hear the word “family?” For some, it’s feelings of love, belonging, support. For others, its estrangement, friction, and angst. Especially over these last few years. Which is why the notion of chosen family has become an increasing part of the conversation about who we surround ourselves with, how they make us feel, and how, together, we can expand the idea of family to create a bigger impact ripple in society. 

This is one of the topics we dive into in today’s powerful Best Of conversation with Mia Birdsong. As the founding Co-Director of Family Story, Mia lifted up a new national story about what makes a good family, and as Vice President of the Family Independence Initiative, she leveraged the power of data and stories to illuminate and accelerate the initiative low-income families take to improve their lives. Mia is a Senior Fellow of the Economic Security Project, was an inaugural Ascend Fellow and faculty member with The Aspen Institute, a New American California Fellow, and Advocate-in-Residence with the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice. In her book How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community, she examines community life, reimagines family and chosen family, and points us toward the promise of our collective vitality. 

You can find Mia Birdsong at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode:

• You’ll also love the earlier conversation we had with Kat Vellos about her sense of identity, creativity, and expression.

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When the curator of the longest-running study on human flourishing, the Grant Study, was asked if there was any one factor that most contributed to a life well-lived, his answer was clear - love, full stop. In no small way, love makes a life. And, we’re not just talking romantic love. So, today, we’re bringing you a very special episode drawing upon the deep wisdom of five past guests, each experts in the space of love, relationships, and self-discovery, to share provocative, unique, and valuable insights about how to love and be loved, how to hold relationships with curiosity and allow room for growth, how to create a society-wide container of compassion, then invite everyone in, even those you struggle to like, or be in the same room with, let alone love. 

You’ll hear from Julie and John Gottman, who’ve been married and also researching love and relationships, both clinically and in the lab for over 4 decades together, and writing mega-bestselling books on the topic. You’ll hear from Diego Perez, who most know from his online moniker Young Pueblo, on creating the space for growth. Rev. angel Kyodo williams will share an expansive lens on love and its connection to compassion, holding the space for difference, and liberation. And, our friend, spoken-world artist, IN-Q, shared a beautiful spoken-word piece, framed by his own experience of falling in love, wrapping with an invitation for us all to find moments to create magic.

If you LOVED this episode:

You can find Julie & John Gottman at: Full Conversation | Website | Instagram

You can find Digeo Perez (Yung Pueblo) at: Full Conversation | Website | Instagram

You can find Rev. angel Kyodo williams at: Full Conversation | Instagram | Website

You can find IN-Q at: Full Conversation | Website | Instagram

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Cole Arthur Riley grew up in a house full of personalities that she describes as loud and funny, but as a kid, as loved as she felt, she kept her voice from others. In fact, Cole barely spoke until she was 7. Still, her dad kept finding ways to, as she described, bribe her to share her voice and nurture her creative impulse, often in writing, from poems to stories and beyond. As she grew into herself, she developed a dual passion for contemplative spirituality, and also the work of writers, like Audre Lorde, Octavia Butler, James Baldwin, Thomas Merton, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou. Over time, her lens on spirituality yearned for a more expansive expression, one that embodied more of her lived experience as a Black, queer woman, who’d also find herself living with an autoimmune disease that manifested in illness, pain, and uncertainty.

Cole was drawn to liturgy and began to write her own blended prayer-meets-poetry, informed by her, unique experience of life, faith, love, creativity, harm, inequity, and justice. She began sharing these modern liturgies on Instagram under the moniker, Black Liturgies, which she describes as a space for Black spiritual words of liberation, lament, rage, and rest. The project quickly grew into a global phenomenon, with deep resonance far beyond her original intended audience, and led to her debut book, This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us, which explores some of the most urgent questions of life, identity, and faith: How can spirituality not silence the body, but instead allow it to come alive? How do we honor, lament, and heal from the stories we inherit? How can we find peace in a world overtaken with dislocation, noise, and unrest? In this stunning work, Cole invites us to descend into our own stories, examine our capacity to rest, wonder, joy, rage, and repair, and find that our humanity is not an enemy to faith but evidence of it.

You can find Cole at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode:

• You’ll also love the earlier conversation we had with Ashley C. Ford about her sense of identity, creativity, and expression.

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Ever wonder what it would be like to have a near-magical ability to find yourself at peace, to dial in a state of calm, no matter what the circumstances around you?

The last few years have been tough. Perpetual groundlessness. High-stakes. Uncertainty. We tend to experience this as spin, anxiety, fear, doubt, unease, an inability to relax. Like calm packed up and left the building. Thing is, our ability to come back to a place of peace is so central to our ability to live good lives. And to also access the state of presence that allows us to notice what is good and true and nourishing, even when much around us is hard.

So, how do we access a state of calm, even when the world around us seems to keep ripping it away? In today's episode, we dive into 7 powerful ideas, tools, and practices that can help guide you back to a place of calm abiding. And, at the end, I’m going to share a guided practice designed to bring you back to center. So, be sure to listen all the way, and you may want to tap the icon to save this episode so you can return to it whenever you want to drop into that peaceful place on-demand.

You can find the 1-page worksheet for today's episode HERE.

Find All Of The Episodes In This Series:

• How to Bring Purpose & Possibility Into Your Work | The 2022 Plan
• How to Feel More Alive | The 2022 Plan
• How to Accomplish Big Things | The 2022 Plan
• How to Do the Ultimate Year-End Review

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• My New Podcast SPARKED: We’re looking for special guest “wisdom-seekers” to share the moment you’re in, then pose questions to Jonathan and the Sparked Braintrust to be answered, “on air.” To submit your “moment & question” for consideration to be on the show go to sparketype.com/submit. 
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes

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Ever look at someone who has made an astonishing change in career, leaving behind what seemed like a dream career, from the outside looking in, to start something new that makes them so alive and think, “wow, I’d love to do that, too?” Well, you’re not alone. And this week’s guest, Janine Kwoh, shares how and why she left behind the world of private equity and venture philanthropy to follow her heart into the world of art, creativity, and tapping a very old, very physical printing technology to share images and words that give feeling and emotion to the experiences that are often so hard to share.

Janine is now the owner, artist, and entrepreneur behind Kwohtations, a creative studio that offers cards, prints and an array of gifts that reflect and celebrate a diversity of identities and life experiences, as a way to reflect on and honor the lives we actually lead, versus the ones we think we should. Topics range from navigating love and loss, (re)defining family and success, and figuring out what it means to show up honestly and openly in life. In fact, it was the loss of her partner in life at the age of 28 that both dropped her into the experience of grief and also awakened her to a sense of imperative to do what made her truly come alive. What began as a side passion led to sharing her work and eventually grew into her full-time devotion. And, Janine’s lens on grief, in particular, and the way she shares it through her art, led to a deeply meaningful body-of-work that’s seeded her new book, Welcome to the Grief Club: Because You Don't Have to Go Through It Alone, which she offers not as a how-to manual, but more of an offering to let you know, you’re not alone.

You can find Janine at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode:

• You’ll also love the earlier conversation we had with Lisa Congdon about coming to art later in life.

My new book is available!

• Order Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive today!

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• AquaTru: Countertop reverse osmosis water purifier that's certified to create bottled-quality water. Receive $100 off an AquaTru plus free shipping when you go to AquaTru.com & enter code GOODLIFE at checkout.

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We’ve all been told, try to live a life without regret. But, what if regret was actually a good thing? That’s the highly provocative question today’s guest, Dan Pink ask. And then answer with a whole bunch of scientifically researched and validated ways that regret can actually be an incredibly valuable experience, and power tool for a life well-lived. In fact, a life entirely without regret, he argues, might even do more harm than good. 

I’ve known Dan for well over a decade now, and he’s been on the show a number of times over the years. A former White House speechwriter, he left politics and shifted focus to writing books that open our eyes to the human condition and plant seeds to do life better, including New York Times bestsellers A Whole New Mind, Drive, To Sell Is Human, and When. His books have sold millions of copies, been translated into forty-two languages, and have won multiple awards.

In Dan's new book, The Power of Regret, he takes on a topic we’ve all grappled with, and gives it a surprising reframe. He draws on research in psychology, neuroscience, economics, and biology to challenge widely-held assumptions about emotions and behavior. Using the largest sampling of American attitudes about regret ever conducted as well as his own World Regret Survey—which has collected regrets from more than 16,000 people in 105 countries—he identifies the four core regrets that most people have. These four regrets, Dan argues, operate as a “photographic negative” of the good life. In it, and through our conversation today, we find out how regret, our most misunderstood emotion, can be the pathway to our best life.

You can find Dan at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode:

• You’ll also love the earlier conversation we had with Dan about the powerful role of timing in life.

My new book is available!

• Order Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive today!

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• Air Doctor: Capture contaminants and chemicals with a medical-grade UltraHEPA air purifier that’s 100X more effective than ordinary purifiers. Go to airdoctorpro.com and use the promo code GOODLIFE to receive a 35% discount off their classic AirDoctor 3000 purifier.

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So, what might happen if you let go of what you thought your life would or should be, and created the space to let it show you what it truly yearns to be? Then, followed that thread. That’s been the experience of today’s guest, Parker Palmer. Graduating Berkley with a Ph.D. in ‘69, he thought he’d head into the world of academia, but instead found himself heading to DC to become an activist and community organizer for 5 years. But, something else began to call him, and he took what he thought would be a short sojourn to a Quaker learning community that turned into 11 years. Over time, a new sense of calling emerged as a writer, speaker and activist who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality and social change. 

Parker is founder and Senior Partner Emeritus of the Center for Courage & Renewal, which offers long-term retreat programs for people in the serving professions, including teachers, physicians, non-profit leaders, and clergy. Along the way, he’s written a series of bestselling books, including A Hidden Wholeness, Let Your Life Speak, The Company of Strangers, and On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity and Getting Old. In this deeply-moving conversation, Parker shares this journey and many of insights, as well as how three seasons of profound depression have shaped his experience of life, and lens on people, compassion, belonging and beyond.

You can find Parker at: Website | Facebook

If you LOVED this episode:

• You’ll also love the conversations we had with Jerry Colonna, who also happens to be a close friend of Parker.

My new book is available!

• Order Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive today!

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• Peloton: Peloton makes it easy to take care of yourself during the stresses of the holiday season and start 2022 off on the right foot, so check them out! Try Peloton classes free for the rest of the year. New members only. Visit onepeloton.com/app to learn more. Terms apply. Peloton. When your workout is a joy, it’s a joy to work out.
• Sleep Number: Adjustable firmness, comfort and support on each side. Proven quality sleep is life-changing sleep, which starts with Sleep Number adjustability. During Sleep Number's January Sale, save $1000 on the Sleep Number 360® Special Edition smart bed. Plus special financing, for a limited time. Only at Sleep Number® stores or sleepnumber.com/GOODLIFE. Disclaimer: Subject to credit approval. Minimum monthly payments required.

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Imagine walking through life, knowing who you are, but not feeling like you can live as that person? That was how my guest today, Imara Jones, experienced the first half of her life, before making a series of choices that would allow her to feel safe and supported stepping back into her own life, on her terms. Imara is the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning founder of TransLash Media, a cross-platform journalism, personal storytelling and narrative project, which produces content to shift the current culture of hostility towards transgender people in the US. As part of her work at TransLash, she hosts the WEBBY-nominated, TransLash Podcast with Imara Jones as well as the investigative, limited series, The Anti-Trans Hate Machine. 

In 2019, she chaired the first-ever UN High-Level Meeting on Gender Diversity and was featured on the cover of Time Magazine in 2020 as part of its New American Revolution special edition. She’s held economic policy posts in the White House and communications positions at Viacom. Imara’s work as a host, on-air news analyst, contributor, and writer has been featured everywhere from The Guardian, The Nation, MSNBC, CNBC, and NPR to Mic, and Colorlines, and focuses on the full range of social justice and equity issues. We explore Imara’s experiences growing up in a family and culture where revealing and living her truth felt not just uncomfortable, but unsafe, how that experience is universal to so many, and how she made choices that effectively empowered her to reclaim a sense of agency, identity, and purpose. And, we explore the power of representation in media, stories, and everyday life as a vehicle to open minds, conversation, and cultivate understanding, connection and the sense of shared humanity we all long for, especially now.

You can find Imara at: Website | Instagram | TransLash Podcast

If you LOVED this episode:

• You’ll also love the conversations we had with Thomas Page McBee.

My new book Sparked.

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• Squarespace: Squarespace is the all-in-one solution for anyone looking to create a beautiful website. Check Out Squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you are ready to launch go to squarespace.com/GLP and use offer code: GLP to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
• Outschool: Inspire kids to love learning with Outschool classes. It's 100% fun, live & teacher-led. Explore over 100,000 topics and learn in small groups via Zoom. Perfect for ages 3-18. Join for free. To learn more about all Outschool has to offer and to save $15 off your child’s first class go to Outschool.com/GOODLIFE
• Scribd: The world's largest digital library. Enjoy millions of eBooks, audiobooks, magazines, podcasts, sheet music, and documents. Right now, Scribd is offering our listeners 2 months of Scribd for only $0.99. Go to try dot scribd.com/GOODLIFE to get your first two months for less than $1.

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Millions of us are re-examining the role of work in our lives, getting more honest about what it needs to give us, beyond a paycheck. And we're realizing the way we're working isn't working. So, how do you know what opportunities will truly fill you with purpose, possibility, joy and connection, and what will leave you disengaged, empty and disconnected? How do you know whether to stay where you are and reinvent the way you do your job, or look for or start something entirely new?

The decisions we make now may well change the course of our lives for the better - if we make the right call - but also for the worse, if we choose wrong. That thing everyone's calling The Great Resignation also has the potential to turn into The Regret. So, how do you set yourself up to understand what jobs, teams, projects, companies, roles or opportunities to run toward, and what to run from? That's what we're diving into in today's special 2022 jumpstart episode, with a focus on understanding and tapping your source-code level driver for work that makes you come alive - your Sparketype®.

And, remember, every Monday for the entire month of January, we're bringing you these special deep-dive episodes featuring a single topic that is critical to your ability to live your best live, and set up 2022 for growth and possibility.

You can find the 1-page worksheet HERE.

Find All Of The Episodes In This Series:

• How to Do the Ultimate Year-End Review
• How to Accomplish Big Things | The 2022 Plan
• How to Feel More Alive | The 2022 Plan

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• My New Book Sparked
• My New Podcast SPARKED
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For a Complete List of Vanity URLs & Discount Codes.

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When you think about the word “prayer,” does it repel you, trigger you, or draw you in? My guest today, Agapi Stassinopoulos, offers a way into this sometimes loaded word that is both inclusive and powerful, no matter your beliefs, your background, or relationship with any kind of organized religion. The type of prayer she invites us to invoke operates on a very different level. One that anyone can get behind, and find connection and solace from. And this idea, along with many specific examples, is the focus of her newest book, Speaking with Spirit: 52 Prayers to Guide, Inspire, and Uplift You.

Agapi is what I like to call a walking hug. She embodies love, which in fact is the translation of her name. A best-selling author and speaker who inspires audiences around the world, after being raised in Athens, Agapi was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, but then shifted direction, focusing her wisdom, words and presence away from the theatrical stage, getting her master’s in psychology and speaking more directly to the hearts and minds of people with intention of inspiring us all to live better lives. She’s authored numerous books, spoken to organizations around the world, from L’Oreal, Accenture, and LinkedIn to Google, Nike, Starbucks, Museum of Modern Art, and hundreds of others. In today’s conversation, we dive deep into what happens we muster the courage to speak aloud a hard truth, a deep need, open to vulnerability, and reconnect with something bigger than ourselves. If there was ever a time to embrace this idea, it’s now.

You can find Agapi at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode:

• You’ll also love the conversations we had with Agapi in a prior episode that shares more of her personal story, and the experiences that have shaped her.

My new book is available!

• Order Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive today!

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• KiwiCo: KiwiCo delivers science and art projects for kids of all ages. Redefine learning with play and get 50% off your first month plus FREE shipping on any crate line with code GOODLIFE at kiwico.com
• Sleep Number: Adjustable firmness, comfort and support on each side. Proven quality sleep is life-changing sleep, which starts with Sleep Number adjustability. It's time for Sleep Number's Lowest Prices of the Season. Save up to $1000 on Sleep Number 360® smart beds. Plus special financing, for a limited time. Only at Sleep Number® stores or sleepnumber.com/GOODLIFE.
• OUAI: Get healthy hair & soft skin with our nourishing formulas. Does your hair need a Detox? Leave last year’s build-up behind and start the year feeling refreshed and ready with OUAI. Go to theouai.com and use code GOODLIFE to get 15% off your entire purchase.

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These last few years have left so many of us feeling drained, stifled, without energy, excitement or well, happiness or joy. At least not consistently. And that’s understandable, it’s been a tough moment. But, what if access to feeling these things was more in your control, regardless of your immediate circumstance, than you thought? That feeling of being alive, of flourishing, of feeling positive and hopeful and connected, it’s so important to our ability to live a good life. And after all, that’s what GLP has been all about, for a decade now.

So, today, we’re going to dive into a powerful, science-backed model that comes out of the world of positive psychology, that’ll help you understand how to reclaim those feelings of flourishing or aliveness that, for so many, seem to have gone missing over these last few years, no matter what life has delivered to your doorstep. And, along with each element, we’re including specific actions you can take to start feeling more like yourself, more alive and capable and connected than maybe you have in a long while. A quick reminder, I am not a mental health professional. While the ideas and the framework and specific exercises I’m about to share come from the world of research and clinical application, if appropriate for your unique needs and circumstances, please be sure to check in with friends, family, the many freely available mental health resources, and a qualified mental health professional. Okay, now, so excited to share today’s exploration of how to feel more alive in this new year.

You can find the 1-page worksheet HERE.

Find All Of The Episodes In This Series:

How to Do the Ultimate Year-End Review

How to Accomplish Big Things | The 2022 Plan

My new book Sparked!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest today, Yrsa Daley-Ward, is an author, actor, model, and screenwriter of mixed Jamaican and Nigerian heritage. Growing up in the northwest of England, she found herself quickly exited from her home, being raised by her grandparents at the age of 6, and struggling in many ways to understand what had just happened. Reading and writing became her salvation. A more introverted kid, raised in a strict religious family, in a tradition that no one outside the family shared, being vegetarian, and the only Black person in her school who also happened to stand nearly a foot above her peers by her early teens, she yearned to just fit in. To not stand out. She didn’t want to be different. 

Yet, something in the order of magic happened when her teacher noticed Yrsa’s gift for language and asked her to begin sharing her poems before the class as spoken words. She came alive. It was like she stepped outside herself and all was as it should be. And that very feeling, though stifled for a time, would come roaring back to life years later when, living in Cape Town, South Africa, she stumbled into a weekly poetry group. Following a weekly prompt, Yrsa wrote a poem entitled Mental Health, then performed it from the stage. The response took her breath away. In that moment, she knew this would be her life. And, it has become just that.

Now, three books and many stages in, having cultivated a giant global community, co-written Beyoncé's musical film and visual album, Black Is King, her work has appeared in Vogue, Elle, Harpers Bazaar, and so many other outlets. Her work draws from her own experiences and larger issues affecting our behavior, culture, and life, fusing poetry with theatre, music, and storytelling, while sharing universal, often hard, but honest and real experiences in verse, in a way that draws you in and makes you feel less alone. Yrsa’s newest book ‘The How,’ was written entirely during the pandemic, and we talk about her journey to this moment, explore some of the poems and ideas, and also dive into what it was like to create work that is so close to the bone at a moment like this.

You can find Yrsa at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode:

You’ll also love the conversations we had with Cleo Wade, about crafting language, performing and moving people.

My new book Sparked!

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Is there something big that you would love to accomplish in this new year? Something maybe you've been thinking about for a while, something maybe you have tried to figure out, try to succeed at tried to accomplish in the past, maybe something that was a new year's resolution in the past, though, it doesn't necessarily have to be. We live in different times and, very often that affects what we want to accomplish. And this thing that to you is big, it doesn't have to be big to anyone else. It can be something internally. It can be so as important to you as learning how to get really comfortable in social situations, it can be something external, like running a 10k it can be something like finding a new job, or something that is just really deeply personal, like writing a book or pretty using a podcast, whatever it may be.

Is there something big that as you step into this new world, you would love to make happen this year, but really can't wrap your head around how to make it happen? Well, if that's you, then this entire episode is going to help you a ton. I'm going to walk you through what I call my Success Scaffolding, introducing you to the eight elements. I call them the eight Ps and each one of these is critical to succeeding at anything that is not sort of, you know, accomplished in the blink of an eye. Anything substantial, anything that will take effort that is sustained over a longer window of time, anything where the stakes are higher and really deeply meaningful to you, anything where maybe you have tried in the past and just it hasn't worked for so many different reasons. What I'm about to share with you may also explain exactly why past attempts have not gotten you to where you wanna be, and also give you a really powerful step-by-step framework to accomplish anything big in nearly any context, any part of your life. That is what I'm going to walk you through today. Success Scaffolding, the eight Ps, and how to accomplish anything really big. So excited to share this framework with you.

You can find the 1-page worksheet HERE.

My new book Sparked.

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As we bring this year to a close, and what a year it’s been, I’ve been reflecting on how profound so much of the past 12-months have been. So much change, uncertainty, and disconnection, inexplicably bundled with moments of profound hopefulness, connection, creation, and possibility. Along the way, I’ve had the incredible opportunity to sit down with over 100 of the wisest, most inspiring, genuine, kind, creative, and “tapped into source” human beings through the vehicle of this podcast. It has, in no small way, been an anchor, and a source of deep nourishment. 

So, I’ve been spending time reflecting on the people, conversations, ideas, stories and moments that’ve really moved me over this last year on the podcast, on a quest to distill them down into a handful of powerful moments that might serve as both a reflection, an honoring, and, in a weird way, a body of evidence that, yes, we still have much work to do in the world, but at the same time, there are so many beautifully big-hearted, open-minded, impact-driven humans who continue to live and give and create and offer and gather in ways that give me hope, tethered to the acknowledge that, even in hard times, there is good to be savored, and even in the face of adversity, there is reason to believe in the possibility.

While it’s impossible to share every person, story, idea, and conversation, we’ve curated a handful of the conversations, ideas, and stories that’ve really stayed with me, generated amazing responses from our incredible community, and speak to the possibility of coming together to not just inhabit, but bring into existence the world in which we seek to live. So excited to share this 2021 year-in-review montage with you. 

If you LOVED this episode:

You can find Valarie at: Full Conversation | Instagram | Understanding America: 20 Years Later

You can find Peter Frampton at: Full Conversation | Website | Instagram

You can find Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis at: Full Conversation | Website | Instagram | Love.Period. podcast

You can find Andy at: Full Conversation | Website | Instagram | Creative Pep Talk Podcast

You can find Anthony at: Full Conversation | Website | Instagram

You can find Mel at: Full Conversation | Join The High 5 Challenge | Instagram

You can find Justin at: Full Conversation | Instagram | Man Enough Podcast

You can find Tara Brach at: Full Conversation | Website | Instagram

You can find Ocean at: Full Conversation | Website | Instagram

You can find Rev. angel Kyodo williams at: Full Conversation | Instagram | Website

My new book Sparked.

Check out our offerings & partners: 

Outschool: Inspire kids to love learning with Outschool classes. It's 100% fun, live & teacher-led. Explore over 100,000 topics and learn in small groups via Zoom. Perfect for ages 3-18. Join for free. To learn more about all Outschool has to offer and to save $15 off your child’s first class go to Outschool.com/GOODLIFE

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Even as a kid, my guest, Elizabeth lesser was the rebel, the activist, the feminist in the family. Growing up with three sisters, and one very traditional father, she could never understand why the women didn't make more decisions and have more power. Hers was not a voice that could be silenced, even from the earliest age. She eventually traveled down a path of activism, social justice, graduated from Barnard, became a student of a renowned Sufi mystic, and studied with a wide range of spiritual teachers. Her fierce devotion to discovering what is real and true, teamed with a passion for advocacy and intentional community, lead Elizabeth to co-found the iconic Omega Institute, a 140-acre communal gathering and learning retreat in Rhinebeck, New York, that has hosted everyone from Eckhart Tolle, Eve Ensler, and Maya Angelou, to Pema Chödrön, Ram Dass, Allen Ginsberg, Gloria Steinem, Pete Seeger, and thousands of other luminaries from every tradition and walk of life.

Elizabeth also found an outlet in writing, eventually penning a series of moving memoirs and social commentary. Her book, Marrow: A Love Story, shares her experience of profound reconnection and healing between her and the sister, who she’d donate bone marrow to in a quest to save her life. Her most recent book, Cassandra Speaks: When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes, reveals how humanity has outgrown its origin tales and hero myths, and empowers women to trust their instincts, find their voice, and tell new guiding stories. In today’s deep-dive Best Of conversation, we explore the moments, stories and insights that awakened her call to action, community, and creativity, and how a personal crisis, in the form of her sister’s cancer, led to unforeseen reconnection and reckoning that eventually led to reconciliation and healing. And, right now, we could all use a little more of this. 

You can find Elizabeth at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode:

You’ll also love the conversations we had with Glennon Doyle about honoring your deeper voice of truth and becoming untamed.

My new book Sparked.

Check out our offerings & partners: 

Outschool: Inspire kids to love learning with Outschool classes. It's 100% fun, live & teacher-led. Explore over 100,000 topics and learn in small groups via Zoom. Perfect for ages 3-18. Join for free. To learn more about all Outschool has to offer and to save $15 off your child’s first class go to Outschool.com/GOODLIFE

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest today, Mansi Shah, spent years building a stunning career as a lawyer in the fast-moving world of Hollywood entertainment, working with some of the most iconic storytellers in the industry. But, behind her success as an entertainment lawyer, a lifelong yearning was brewing. She felt deeply called to not just help others tell their stories, often built around narratives that didn’t resonate with her background, but to actually be the storyteller, herself. And, to focus her lens on bringing the authentic immigrant experience, her own personal and family story, to a wide audience. 

So, she started writing her own stories, eventually penning the book that would become the groundbreaking and beautiful new novel, The Taste of Ginger. But that journey was anything but easy or linear. Over the 10-years since she started writing, the story and the book took countless turns. The early manuscript was, in fact, rejected by the very editor who, years later, would circle back to acquire and then champion it. Along the way, Mansi’s lens on what the story could be and needed to be, and how she needed to honor her creative impulse, commitment to advocacy, and desire to speak to people who were so often left out of the popular storytelling narrative, evolved and became centered in a way that only time and reflection could have crafted. We explore all of this in today’s conversation.

You can find Mansi at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode:

You’ll also love the conversations we had with Dr. Sayantani DasGupta about writing stories that expand the landscape of popular narratives.

My new book Sparked.

Check out our offerings & partners: 

Outschool: Inspire kids to love learning with Outschool classes. It's 100% fun, live & teacher-led. Explore over 100,000 topics and learn in small groups via Zoom. Perfect for ages 3-18. Join for free. To learn more about all Outschool has to offer and to save $15 off your child’s first class go to Outschool.com/GOODLIFE

Parachute: Premium quality sheets, towels, robes and more. Like nothing you've ever felt. Make staying in more comfortable with our modern home collections. Responsibly manufactured. Visit ParachuteHome.com/GOODLIFE for free shipping and returns on Parachute’s very comfortable home essentials.

Bean Box: Give the coffee fanatic in your life an unforgettable coffee-tasting experience with Bean Box. Our coffee is expertly curated and always fresh, with fast delivery and free shipping. Order today at beanbox.com/GOODLIFE and get 15% off purchases of $40 or more.

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How do you live a good life? That’s the question we’ve been asking here for nearly a decade. My guest today, Cathy Heller, has been along a similar journey, exploring the role of intentionality, purpose, and presence in a life well-lived. Raised in a household where mental illness and conflict were the norm, she took on the role of peacemaker at the age of 5, became a deep observer of human behavior, first, out of necessity, then out of curiosity, and eventually from the lens of calling. Cathy is a seeker in many ways. 

After studying mysticism and religion in college, followed by 3 years deepening her study of mysticism and self-actualization in Jerusalem, she headed back west, landing in LA, and looking to make her mark in the world of music. She eventually did, but in a way Cathy never saw coming. She became so successful, in fact, Cathy felt called to share what she’d learned, which launched her into the world of teaching, writing, distance learning, and launching her wildly popular Don’t Keep Your Day Job podcast, which has over 25 million downloads. Her book of the same name, Don’t Keep Your Day Job, offers a step-by-step approach to not just building a purpose-centered living, but also a deeply intentional life. 

Cathy is a sort of modern mystic meets kindness crusader meets creative visionary meets business savant. More simply, she’s a walking bundle of love and wisdom, and we talk about it all in today’s conversation. 

You can find Cathy at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode:

You’ll also love the conversations we had with Morgan Harper Nichols about crafting a creative life and living around openness and honesty.

My new book Sparked.

Check out our offerings & partners: 

Outschool: Inspire kids to love learning with Outschool classes. It's 100% fun, live & teacher-led. Explore over 100,000 topics and learn in small groups via Zoom. Perfect for ages 3-18. Join for free. To learn more about all Outschool has to offer and to save $15 off your child’s first class go to Outschool.com/GOODLIFE

Bean Box: Give the coffee fanatic in your life an unforgettable coffee-tasting experience with Bean Box. Our coffee is expertly curated and always fresh, with fast delivery and free shipping. Order today at beanbox.com/GOODLIFE and get 15% off purchases of $40 or more.

Theragun: A deep muscle massage treatment, unlike anything you've ever felt. Feel better, move better, and recover faster with tension and soreness relief. Try Theragun for 30-days starting at only $199. Go to Therabody.com/GOODLIFE right now and get your Gen 4 Theragun today. 

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You may know my guest today, Jeffrey Marsh, from their spiritual and inclusive messages that have received over 1 billion views on social media. Jeffrey is a viral TikTok and Instagram sensation, the first openly nonbinary public figure to be interviewed on national television, and the first nonbinary author to be offered a book deal with any "Big 5" publisher, at Penguin Random House. 

Jeffrey’s bestselling Buddhist self-esteem guide How To Be You, is an innovative, category-non-conforming work that combines memoir, workbook, and spiritual advice, inviting anyone and everyone into the conversation through a lens of kindness and inclusivity. How To Be You topped Oprah's Gratitude Meter and was named Excellent Book of the Year by TED-Ed. Jeffrey has also been a student and teacher of Zen for over twenty years, and this practice has been central to both their lens on life, and capacity to do the work they do in a grounded, deeply-present, open-heart and joyful way.

You can find Jeffrey at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode:

You’ll also love the conversations we had with Trystan Angel Reese about living and advocating for your truth.

My new book Sparked.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

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We tend to take on one of 3 modes as we head into the end of the year:

• Rush To The Finish | Goal Striving Mode
• Check Out | Vacation Mode
• Reflect, Integrate & Assess | Review & Plan Mode

That last one is my approach. I love to use these final weeks to understand what happened over the last 12 months, in all parts of life, consider what went well and why, where I stumbled and why, and how I can learn and integrate all of it into setting up the year to come to rise higher.

And, I thought I’d walk you through my process - it’s a very different take based on a model I developed a number of years ago around the key elements of living a good life I call the Good Life Buckets. Super excited to share this powerful process with you in today’s episode.

You can find the 1-page worksheet HERE.

My new book Sparked.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This has been a year that has tested our boundaries on nearly every level. Work, friendship, family, community, geography, politics, religion, social issues, love, wellbeing. It’s like we’re being asked to draw lines, all day, every day. Question is, how? How do you create and uphold boundaries that are clear, healthy, and constructive, while also acknowledging the nuance, kindness, and understanding this moment demands? 

Well, my guest today, Nedra Glover Tawwab, can help. A licensed therapist and sought-after relationship expert, she has practiced relationship therapy for 12 years and is the founder and owner of the group therapy practice, Kaleidoscope Counseling. Every day she helps people create healthy relationships by teaching them how to implement boundaries. Her philosophy is that a lack of boundaries and assertiveness underlie most relationship issues, and her gift is helping people create healthy relationships with themselves and others. Nedra is also the author of New York Times Bestselling book, Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself, along with her newly-released Set Boundaries Workbook.

You can find Nedra at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode:

You’ll also love the conversations we had with Terri Cole, who brings a beautifully complementary lens to the critical exploration of boundaries.

My new book Sparked.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From the age of 3, Micah Johnson knew what he wanted to be when he grew up - a professional baseball player. From that moment on, he lived baseball, and in 2012, his dreams came true when the Chicago White Sox drafted him. But, what Micah didn’t know was that his true calling in life was just getting started.

Traded to the LA Dodgers a few years later, Micah, almost on a lark, discovered painting, something that had never been a part of his. And it called to him in a way he never saw coming. Now, while his full-time job was pro baseball, drawing, painting and creating art became a new, increasingly consuming passion. But, it was a single moment, when his young nephew came and asked him whether Black people could be astronauts, that changed everything. Micah painted this moving depiction of a young, confident, Black boy in an oversized astronaut helmet, ready for adventure, as a way to not just answer yes, but create a powerful visual depiction of courage and possibility. 

At the same time, Micah was feeling called to bring his baseball career to a close and go all-in on art. But, no longer a novelty as a pro-athlete painter, he found his art hard to sell. Until everything came together when the character he’d painted for his nephew met the emerging world of NFTs, crypto-art, Web3, and the power of digital aspiration movements. He turned that painting into a character named Aku, then began to build a world, a community, an enterprise and a movement around it. Micah’s work has centered around empowering young African-American kids to see the possible & dream without limitations. Micah began releasing NFTs in January of 2020 & in February of 2021, and Aku’s message became a viral sensation and the first NFT ever optioned to become a major feature film. As we air this conversation, Micah is just coming off of helming a 15,000 square-foot, immersive, multidisciplinary experience in Miami’s Art Basel called Aku’s world.

We dive into all of this in today’s conversation, along with a bit of a mini-primer on these mysterious things called NFTs, which has been creating quite a stir these days and become a growing fascination of mine. 

You can find Micah at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode:

You’ll also love the conversations we had with Lisa Congdon about coming to art later in life.

My new book Sparked.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Imagine going to college and getting a minor in ‘you!’ Well, that’s just one of the semi-wild ideas that bubbled up during my conversation with week’s guest, Mark Groves. Mark describes himself as a Human Connection Specialist on a mission to help individuals step into their most authentic, effective, loving selves by way of a little bit of tough love and no-BS relationship guidance. Immersing himself and pursuing an education in the world of psychology after his model of life and relationships feel apart, he’s become a bridge between the academic and the human, inviting people to explore the good, bad, downright ugly, and beautiful sides of connection. And, given the state of the world these days, we could all use a bit more wisdom around how we show up and relate to others. 

Mark shares insights, ideas, and strategies about being a better human, living a better life, and understanding how to craft relationships that are truly nourishing with a global community of over a million people on his Create the Love Instagram account, his eponymous podcast, and through a growing library of courses, and programs. What I’ve always found so powerful about Mark and his work is that he doesn’t pull punches. He doesn’t hide who he is, what he believes, his irreverence or willingness to poke fun at himself and, really, any other paradigm or system that just doesn’t make sense. He is, in many ways, a truth-teller, and we need more of that these days. 

You can find Mark at: Website | Instagram| Mark Groves Podcast

If you LOVED this episode:

You’ll also love the conversations we had with Diego Perez who uses the name Yung Pueblo online about finding peace and clarity in an upside-down world.

My new book Sparked.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With the rigor of a world-class researcher and the intention of someone who cares deeply about the human condition and understanding how we all got to this moment in history, Dr. Keisha N. Blain is an award-winning historian of the 20th century United States with specializations in African American History, the modern African Diaspora, and Women’s and Gender Studies. She is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh and the president of the African American Intellectual History Society. 

She is also the author of the multi-prize-winning book Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom, and co-editor of the Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism, and Racial Violence. Her #1 New York Times Best Seller Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, edited with Ibram X. Kendi, drew together an incredible collection of voices with a vision to reclaim the historical narrative. And her new book, Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America, is a powerful look not just at the role of civil and voting rights activist, Hamer and other Black women in social and political change, it’s also an invitation for us all to explore our individual roles in the path to equality and freedom, led by Hamer’s famed rallying cry, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”

You can find Keisha at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode:

You’ll also love the conversations we had with Austin Channing Brown.

My new book Sparked.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’re entering a time of year where gratitude is on our minds. And, honestly, it’s also been a year, even a season, where being thankful, noticing what’s wondrous or good, or even just not bad, well it's not always the easiest thing. 

And, yet, gratitude, attentiveness, and appreciation are such deeply-wired contributors to the human condition, ones that carry with them the capacity to transform nearly any experience - one of anger, one of loss, one of fear, one of anxiety, one of sadness, agitation, futility, or grief - into a moment of awakening, solace, connection and, in its highest forms, grace. There’s even powerful research on the psychological and physiological effect of gratitude and appreciation, both as a state and a willful intervention.

So, we wanted to take the occasion of this week to explore a few different takes on gratitude, appreciation, and generosity-of-spirit, drawing upon conversations I’ve had over the years with famed author and social-observer extraordinaire, Anne Lamott, writer, producer, and big thinker, Janice Kaplan, and I’m also weaving in a few thoughts from one of my books, How to Live a Good Life. 

I hope you enjoy this exploration of gratitude, attentiveness, and appreciation, how it changes us, and why we might want to bring more of it into our experience of life.

You can find Anne Lamott at: Website | Instagram | Dusk Night Dawn

You can find Janice Kaplan at: Website | Instagram | The Gratitude Diaries

You can find the audiobook Jonathan's book at: How to Live a Good Life

If you LOVED this episode:

You’ll also love the full-length conversations we had with Anne Lamott & Janice Kaplan.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the leading physicists of her generation, Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is a Professor of Physics and Core Faculty Member in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of New Hampshire. She’s also one of fewer than a hundred Black American women to earn a Ph.D. from a department of physics. Born in East Los Angeles, a devout Dodgers fan, she’s a citizen of both the United States and Barbados and a descendant of Afro-Caribbean and Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants. Chanda decided to become a theoretical physicist at the age of 10, after an experience, which we dive into, lit a fire of curiosity and possibility. Her vision of the cosmos is vibrant, buoyantly non-traditional, and grounded in Black feminist traditions. 

A powerful voice in her field, Chanda urges us to recognize how science, like most fields, is far from an equal playing field, with racism, sexism, and other dehumanizing systems playing a role not only in who participates in the field but also in the essential nature of the work and the potential discoveries and insights it yields. She lays out a bold new approach to science and society that begins with the belief that we all have a fundamental right to know and love the night sky. In her groundbreaking new book, The Disordered Cosmos, Chanda shares her love for physics, from the Standard Model of Particle Physics and what lies beyond it, to the physics of melanin in skin, to the latest theories of dark matter — all with a new spin informed by history, politics, and the wisdom of Star Trek. We explore her personal journey and many of these ideas in today’s conversation.

You can find Chanda at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode:

You’ll also love the conversations we had with Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor about the science of the brain.

My new book Sparked.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if you could work, play, and live in a state of wonder? Even now! That’s the question I explore with today’s guest, Jeffrey Davis. A poet, writer, deep-thinker, founder and CEO of the Tracking Wonder Consultancy, Jeffrey’s got an invitation for all of us. To get off the toxic productivity treadmill, which so many have been hammered by in recent times, and reclaim a sense of possibility, meaning, and wonder. To step back into a place of curiosity and lightness. 

And, when Jeffrey offers that invitation, it’s not just a naive suggestion to rediscover your inner child, but rather a quest to bring wonder back into your life, based on more than 15 years of research, experimentation, and application. Along the way, Jeffrey has developed a powerful, proven, step-by-step methodology to begin bringing wonder back into your work, relationships, devotions, and life. He shares this in his gorgeous new book, Tracking Wonder, and we dive into key ideas and explorations in today’s conversation.

You can find Jeffrey at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode:

You’ll also love the conversations we had with iconic author, Anne Lamott, about opening to all life brings your way.

My new book Sparked.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you LOVED this episode:

You’ll also love the conversations we had with Kamal Ravikant about reimagining life and learning to love himself.

You can find Tim Ferriss at: Website | Instagram | The Tim Ferris Show podcast

Tim Ferriss has been a man on a mission, driven to deconstruct mastery and excellence, then share what he's learned. It began with his own relentless experimentation and documentation, which yielded #1 New York Times bestsellers The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef along with a series of other books. In more recent years, this yearning has led him to sit down with hundreds of elite performers, from a vast array of domains, on a quest to reveal what made them them. These conversations are shared weekly on Tim's award-winning podcast, The Tim Ferris Show. 

In today's Best Of conversation, we cover very different ground, and get very personal. Tim actually lost a number of people in the year before we sat down in the studio, turned 40 and found himself in a deeply contemplative and emotional space, thinking about who he is, how he wants to create the next 40 years of his life and what matters. When I sat down with Tim, he'd recently returned from an intensive 10-day silent meditation retreat. While gone, he lost yet another close friend. He was, in his own words, in an incredibly "porous" place, leading more from the heart than the head, which was a bit of a major turnaround for him.

We spent time deconstructing Tim's 10-day silent meditation experience, his struggles and awakenings, how it compared to psychedelic experiences and how, barring one major saving grace, his retreat may have sent him spiraling into a very bad place. We also talked about his experience with death, his decision to append audio of his departed friend, Terry Laughlin, which was recorded by Terry's daughters in the hospital during his final days of life to the end of Tim's recent podcast interview with Terry. Tim also shared his decision to take the TED stage, switching last minute to talk about something deeply painful and personal, and what that meant to him, his lens on legacy work (and how it landed with his family, who didn't know what he'd be talking about). And, we explored Tim's awakening to a "softer" set of metrics to measure a life well-lived and his evolving definition of what it truly means to live a good life.

My new book Sparked.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis is an author, Activist, and Public Theologian, the first woman and first Black Senior Minister at Middle Collegiate Church, which is a multiracial, incredibly welcoming, and inclusive congregation in the Lower East Side of New York City, which dates to 1628. Growing up in church in the South Side of Chicago, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when she was nine incited what would become a lifelong devotion to activism and social justice. Graduating school, then spending a decade working in the corporate world, she felt called to redefine how she would step into her own exploration of faith, attending Princeton Theological Seminary, then devoting herself to urban ministry, with the intention of reimagining what faith, church, and community could be. 

Eventually becoming a leader in Middle Church, Rev. Lewis has been instrumental in bringing together what she calls a “multiethnic rainbow coalition of love, justice, and worship that rocks her soul,” and has remained a leading voice in activism, with her work have featured by the TODAY Show, MSNBC, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, among many others. She is the creator of the MSNBC online show, Just Faith and the PBS show, Faith and Justice, in which she led important conversations about culture and current events. Her podcast, Love.Period., is produced by the Center for Action and Contemplation. And her new book, Fierce Love: A Bold Path to Ferocious Courage and Rule-Breaking Kindness That Can Heal the World, is a deep exploration of faith, race, justice and transformation, bundled with exercises that invite you in a path of personal growth, activism and collective elevation.

You can find Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis at: Website | Instagram | Love.Period. podcast

If you LOVED this episode:

You’ll also love the conversations we had with Bishop Michael Curry about love as a path to reconciliation and healing.

My new book Sparked.

-------------

Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.