Good Life Project

Farnoosh Torabi (http://www.farnoosh.tv/) has been fascinated by how people relate to money, including herself, for as long as she can remember.

Her first book, You’re So Money, was a nationally acclaimed tell-all for people searching for financial independence. That led to regular appearances on the Today Show and Good Morning America, writing for magazines like Glamour, Marie Claire and O Magazine, features on the reality series Bank of Mom and Dad, TLC’s REAL SIMPLE. REAL LIFE and a personal finance series, Financially Fit on Yahoo! Torabi’s award-winning podcast, So Money, (https://goo.gl/dbj3hQ) made its debut in January 2015. 

Along the way, she got married, became a mom and also found herself the primary breadwinner in her family. That made her curious about what happens when women in relationships earn more than men. This question became not only a very personal one, as it affected her relationship with her husband and friends, but it also became the focus of her last book, When She Makes More (https://amzn.to/2pNxGEg).

In today's conversation, we explore all of this, along with her early interests and pursuits, the impact of growing up in a family where her parents were first-generation immigrants and so much more.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) 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.

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.

How does a kid obsessed with making it in music end up becoming an internationally renowned, best-selling author, journalist, screenwriter, playwright, radio and television broadcaster and...and yes, musician? That's what we explore in today's wide-ranging conversation with Mitch Albom (https://www.mitchalbom.com/).

Albom is the author of numerous #1 New York Times bestsellers. Tuesdays with Morrie, which spent four straight years atop the New York Times list, is now the bestselling memoir of all time. Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, For One More Day and Have a Little Faith have been made into award-winning television movies. His books have collectively sold nearly 40-million copies worldwide. Albom's latest book is The Next Person You Meet in Heaven (https://amzn.to/2po61tC).  

Along the way, Mitch has followed his curiosity into journalism, sports-radio broadcasting, and continues to perform as a member of a band with a crew of other well-known authors. He founded nine charities in Detroit, including the first ever 24-hour medical clinic for homeless children in America, operates an orphanage in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, which he visits monthly and lives with his wife, Janine, in suburban Detroit.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) 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.

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.

Question for you...

“How do you figure out what kind of work will fill you with a sense of purpose and meaning, let you fully express yourself, your gifts, passions and skills, and drop you into that transcendent state of flow where you just know, deep down, you’re doing the work you were put on the planet to do?”

Here’s what I’ve come to believe…

We’re all born with a certain “imprint” for work that makes us come alive. Work that lets us wake up in the morning and know, deep down, we’re doing what we’re here to do. Work that sets us ablaze with purpose and, fully-expressed in a healthy way, becomes a mainline to meaning, a pathway to that transcendent state of flow, and a gateway to connection and joy. Put another way, work that “sparks” us.

You may find thousands of satisfying outward expressions of this deeper imprint. I believe this is much of what people talk about when they use the word passion, and why any one person can have many equally satisfying outlets for this deeper driver.

But, much to my amazement, every time I’d keep drilling down in search of the deeper root, the essence, the DNA-level “source-code,” I come back not to millions of unique answers, but to the same, remarkably simple set of 10 core imprints or archetypes for meaning and work.

I call these Sparketypes™ (http://sparketype.com/). The archetypes for work that sparks you.

This is not a “woowoo” thing. It’s actually incredibly practical, easily-validated through your own experience, and all about application in the real world. It’s about giving you tools to reveal, then live into a deep sense of purpose, potential and possibility.

And today, I’ve recorded a very special hour-long podcast that takes you deep into the world of the Sparketypes, introduces you to all 10 of them, explains how each becomes expressed in your life, and how we can tap this wisdom to cultivate purpose, meaning, joy and, ultimately, freedom and flow.

And, there’s one other thing. THIS. IS. REALLY. BIG.

Many of you will get a “sense” of your Sparketype simply from what I share about each on the podcast. But, you don’t have to settle for that.

Over the last year, we’ve been working fiercely behind the scenes to develop, test and optimize a proprietary Sparketype Assessment™ that will reveal your Sparketype (actually two of them) in a matter of minutes.

The Sparketype Assessment™ is now available for YOU to take! (http://sparketype.com/)

It is 100% free. It takes about 7-10 minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. And, it also just might change your life.

So, listen to the podcast. Take the Sparketype Assessment.

Then, share the podcast, your personal Sparketype and the Sparketype Assessment with anyone you know who needs a little help figuring out the work they’re here to do.

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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.

Rebel hospitality entrepreneur (http://www.chipconley.com/) and New York Times bestselling author, Chip Conley, founded and grew Joie de Vivre into the second largest boutique hotel brand in America.

Twenty-four years in, he sold the company, leaving him to figure out what to do with the rest of his life, and the wisdom he'd accumulated. He was approached by the founders of Airbnb to help transform the company into the world’s leading hospitality brand as Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy and now Strategic Advisor for Hospitality and Leadership.

Along the way, he's immersed himself in global festival culture, launched the Modern Elder Academy (https://chipconley.com/modern-elder-academy) and written five books, including his new book, WISDOM@WORK: The Making of a Modern Elder (https://chipconley.com/wisdom-at-work). In today's conversation, we dive deep into this journey.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) 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.

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.

Zainab Salbi (http://zainabsalbi.com/) is a humanitarian, author, and global change-maker. At the age of 23, Salbi founded Women for Women International, a grassroots humanitarian and development organization dedicated to serving women survivors of wars by offering support, tools, and access to life-changing skills to move from crisis and poverty to stability and economic self-sufficiency.

Under her leadership as the organization’s CEO (1993-2011), the organization grew from helping 30 women upon its inception to more than 400,000 women in 8 conflict areas. It also distributed more than $100 million in direct aid and micro credit loans that impacted more than 1.7 million family members.

But, the whole time, she was living with a huge, dark secret. In her new book, Freedom is an Inside Job, (https://amzn.to/2pnnPou) she shares how owning our darkness along with out light is the unlock key for self-healing and global transformation. And, in today's conversation she shares how this realization awakened her to the need to own her own dark family secret in order to heal herself and serve at a higher level.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) 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.

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.

Social anxiety. #ugh! It's that constant voice of judgment and inadequacy that leaves you terrified of being "found out," and stops you from sharing the real you. Guess what? You're not alone.

DR. ELLEN HENDRIKSEN (http://ellenhendriksen.com/)is a clinical psychologist who helps millions calm their social anxiety and be their authentic selves. How? Through her award-winning podcast, Savvy Psychologist (https://goo.gl/uKh7U7), in the clinic at Boston University's Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders (CARD). And, now through her groundbreaking book, HOW TO BE YOURSELF (https://amzn.to/2OqLUJ7).

Hendriksen earned her Ph.D. at UCLA and completed her training at Harvard Medical School. Her scientifically-based, zero-judgment approach has been featured in New York Magazine, The Observer, The Verge, Vice, Vox, Psychology Today, Scientific American, Susan Cain's Quiet Revolution, and many other media outlets. Savvy

Today, we dive into her personal journey with social anxiety, how an aspiring architect found her way into psychology and specialized in social anxiety and how to identify and work through this incredibly common, yet often disabling experience.

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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.

Scott Harrison was living a life that was as close to pure hedonism as you could come. He was on top of the world, getting paid to party and living utterly (and destructively) in the moment...in the worst way

Eventually, falling apart physically and emotionally, Harrison found himself wondering, "what is the exact opposite of the life I'm now living?" And, then, remarkably, he set about living that alternative path. Paying to serve on a floating hospital ship off the coast of Liberia, he reconnected with a deeper mission to help others, with water as his focus.

Scott then founded and is the CEO of charity: water, (https://www.charitywater.org/thirst) one of the fast-growing non-profits in history, that has mobilized over one million donors around the world to fund over 28,000 water projects in 26 countries that will serve more than 8.2 million people. This journey is detailed in his powerful new book, THIRST: A Story of Redemption, Compassion and a Mission to Bring Clean Water to the World (https://amzn.to/2poKHUH).

In today's conversation, we dive deep into his personal journey, and also his current vision for both charity: water and the world of philanthropy in general.

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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.

By the age of 25, Michael Ventura had founded and built one of the "hottest" shops in the interactive design world. From the outside-looking-in, he was flying high. But, from the inside looking out, he was riddled with stress and falling apart.

His body eventually gave in, leaving him with three ruptured discs and the prospect of fusion surgery and arthritic pain for the rest of his life. At the same time, the economy crashed, decimating his business.

He saw this as a wake-up call, both personal and professional. Ventura began to explore an alternative path to healing that led him not only back to full recovery without surgery, but on his path to becoming a practitioner of eastern and indigenous medicine, working through his private practice, Corvus Medicine as a healer.

At the same time, he rallied the tiny group of remaining employees to redefine what their company was about and stand in a place of radical honesty and vulnerability with their clients. Relaunching in 2009, as Sub Rosa (http://wearesubrosa.com/), they've grown into an award-winning, strategy and design practice with a focus on what they called Applied Empathy (http://appliedempathy.com/), which also happens to be the name of Ventura's latest book (https://amzn.to/2PQb0iy)

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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.

Radha Agrawal (http://radhaagrawal.com/) is the co-Founder, CEO and Chief Community Architect of Daybreaker (http://daybreaker.com/), the early morning, sober dance celebration. This global gathering happens in 25 cities and more than a dozen college campuses, with a global community of more than 500,000 people. Agrawal is also a successful serial social-entrepreneur, author, DJ, inventor, investor and gifted experience-designer named by MTV as “one of 8 women who will change the world.”

But, none of this would have happened had she stuck to her original plan to build a career as a New York City investment banker. In today’s conversation, we dive deep into her journey and explore critical moments of awakening and change, along with ideas from her new book BELONG: Find Your People, Create Community & Live A More Connected Life (https://amzn.to/2NyYJxj). We also explore answers to the question, "how do I find my people?" and "How do I create large and meaningful communities in the real world?"

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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.

Ben Nemtin (http://www.bennemtin.com/) is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of What Do You Want To Do Before You Die? and the star of the MTV show, The Buried Life.

As the co-founder of The Buried Life movement, Ben’s message of radical possibility has been featured by major media outlets including The Today Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, Inc., ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC News. Oprah called Ben’s life work “truly inspiring.”

In a pit of depression, Ben and his three best friends decided to create the world’s greatest bucket list to make them feel alive. They bought a rickety old bus and crisscrossed North America, achieving the unthinkable. And most importantly, every time they accomplished a dream, they helped a complete stranger cross something off their bucket list.

From playing basketball with President Obama to streaking a professional soccer field, from raising over $400,000 for charity to placing a record-breaking $250,000 bet on roulette—Ben’s bucket list quest has inspired millions to chase their dreams and realize that impossible is possible.

In today's conversation, we talk about this remarkable journey, then we bring the conversation current and reveal the equally revelatory adventure Ben has been on in the year's since his original sojourn into the world's greatest bucket list.

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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.

Born in a small town in upstate New York, pop-music phenom, Andy Grammer (http://andygrammer.com/)earned his place in music the hard way. He spent years busking on the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, honing is voice and skills as a singer, songwriter and also learning what draws attention and makes people feel good.

He’s since become the first male pop star in a decade to reach the Top 10 at Adult Pop Radio with “Keep Your Head Up” and “Fine By Me,” from his 2011 self-titled debut. His second album, Magazines or Novels, featured the triple-platinum smash “Honey, I’m Good,” which was one of the best-selling songs of 2015, and the certified gold anthem “Good to be Alive (Hallelujah).”

Now, with mega-hits and a successful career, he’s thinking a lot about how to speak his own truth. The concept of honesty—what it means and how to attain it—offers both inspiration and challenge to one of the most successful pop artists to emerge in recent years.

You can see this reflected in his recent album, “The Good Parts,” which has racked up over 400 million total streams. He’s also launched a new podcast by the same name, where he sits down with people to explore the stories they often never share publicly.

In today’s conversation, we explore where Andy came from, how his parents and his faith have shaped him and how, now as a husband and father, he’s re-examining his life and work. We also dive into how he is paying fierce attention to crafting a career that allows him to be present and also feel fully-expressed and alive and, at the heart of it all, be of service to his audience.

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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.

Brene Brown (http://brenebrown.com/) and I met a few years back while speaking at an event. We clicked immediately, grabbed lunch and laughed a lot. I asked her to come and share a bit of her journey with our Good Life Project community. The conversation that unfolded left me changed.

Brown’s fascination with what she calls wholehearted living eventually led her to explore how we dance with shame and vulnerability, and how we navigate criticism, and awaken to our own power and potential. How we become brave, awake and alive. She's since written numerous books, including, Daring Greatly (http://brenebrown.com/books/), Rising Strong (https://amzn.to/2vvqvnE) and Braving the Wilderness (https://amzn.to/2M2YWfQ).

I asked her to join me on Good Life Project in October 2012 and the conversation that unfolded moved us both to tears at various points. Brene was so beautifully real, raw, candid and wise. Every part of that conversation is as relevant today, maybe more so given the current climate, than it was the day we talked.

We first aired this as a video conversation in October 2012. Click here to watch the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=Sd3DYvBGyFs). I'm so excited to share this "Best Of" episode with you today.

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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.

Dave Gilboa is the co-founder/CEO of Warby Parker (http://warbyparker.com/).

Growing up in San Diego, the son of two doctors, Gilboa was sure he'd become a doctor, too. But, a random moment where he lost his glasses on a plane set in motion a series of awakenings that would change the course of his life.

Starting with a simple idea that pretty much everyone said was impossible, Dave, his co-founder and team have now built a socially-conscious global brand valued at over $1-billion that offers designer eyewear at a human price, while giving millions of pairs of glasses to people and families in need.

Dave has worked extensively with non-profit organizations and serves as a founding member of the Entrepreneur Board of Venture for America, an organization dedicated to mobilizing graduates as entrepreneurs in low-cost cities. He is a member of the Aspen Institute’s 2014 Henry Crown Fellowship class and the Aspen Global Leadership Network, has received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, and was recognized as part of “The Next Establishment” by Vanity Fair. In 2015, Fast Company named Warby Parker the most innovative company in the world.

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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.

Growing up in South Central, LA in the '60s and '70s, Ruth King (https://ruthking.net/) was taught to bury her emotions, to hide her heart and do what was necessary to survive. Feeling was not a good thing, getting home safe was. But, eventually, a call to reconnect with her big heart deep empathy came in the form of open-heart surgery in her 20s.

Returning to school, King pursued her Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology, managed training and organizational development divisions at Levi Strauss and Intel, where she designed diversity awareness programs and consulted to leaders on cultural change initiatives. Over time, her interests expanded to include the study of insight meditation and Tibetan Buddhism. King is now an insight meditation teacher and emotional wisdom author, mentored by Jack Kornfield in the Theravada tradition.

King’s work has been influenced by many cultures, and is often described as “ceremony.” Her intuitive methods, knowledge, and skills weave the fields of Western psychology, Buddhist philosophy, leadership development, mindfulness meditation, and fun! She is a guiding teacher at Insight Meditation Community of Washington and Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and the founder of Mindful Members Insight Meditation Community of Charlotte.

King is also the author of The Emotional Wisdom Cards, Healing Rage: Women Making Inner Peace Possible, and her new book, Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the Inside Out (https://amzn.to/2MrygRN).

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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.

Photo Credit VaschelleAndre-2017

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

Raised on an island in South Carolina, singer/songwriter Trevor Hall realized at a young age that music was more than just a passion - it was his life’s art. So, he moved to California to pursue a degree in music, began performing live shows and was quickly signed to his dream deal at a major label. His trajectory seemed meteoric, then everything came tumbling down. His albums never made it out of production, he found himself out of money, abandoned by his label and on his own to figure out how to move forward.

During this same time, he was also introduced to yoga and meditation and found himself traveling to a local ashram to practice and eventually find housing and sustenance. In his time of greatest need, he found himself living in the ashram, then traveling to India and rediscovering who he really was and how he wanted to bring his music and voice to the world. From there, he began to rebuild not only his living as a musician, but also his life.

Hall’s music, a blend of roots and folk music with hints of inspiration from India, has since led him to a series of sold-out tours and collaborations with artists such as Steel Pulse, The Wailers, Jimmy Cliff, Matisyahu, Michael Franti, Xavier Rudd and Nahko & Medicine for the People. Trevor Hall’s Chapter of the Forest (2014) and KALA (2015), debuted at #3 and #2 on the iTunes singer/songwriter chart respectively. He is currently touring around the US and Australia. While on tour, Hall collects donations to support children’s education in India.

Hall’s latest album, The Fruitful Darkness, became the #1 Kickstarter Music campaign of 2017 and debuted at #9 on the iTunes alternative chart.

Be sure to listen to the end, where Trevor shares a moving acoustic rendition of one of his songs, live in the studio.

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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.

Photo credit: Emory Hall Photography

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

Growing up, Grace Bonney, was all about culture and music, with a strong connection with jam bands that landed her on the business side of music and media in New York City. Along the way, she launched a side project blog called Design Sponge, to share insights about growing passion for accessible home design.

The blog exploded and, eventually, she left her full-time job to build Design Sponge into a full-blown media company of her own with a massive, global audience, a book, travel and an increasingly public profile. But, along the way, Grace’s interests evolved, creating a gap between what she was creating, what she genuinely cared about and how she wanted to live.

That all came to a head about 5 years ago when pretty much every part of her life, her marriage, her health and work-life were profoundly disrupted, setting in motion an awakening to a new direction in all three domains. Grace was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, her marriage ended, she came out, fell in love with her now wife, Julia, wrote a new book called In the Company of Women not about design, but about powerful creative women in business, launched a print magazine called Good Company, moved out of New York City, her home of 15 years, to live in a country hamlet with 400 people and rediscover true community, purpose and presence.

We dive into this transformational journey in today’s powerful, revealing and inspiring conversation.

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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.

When Scotty Johnson answered an ad in the paper to spend 4-months in the Arctic Circle, he never imagined it would forever change his life and lay the foundation for a stunning living filled with adventure and impact.

In the two decades since, he's taken everyone from elite leadership teams and executives, to international sports teams, students and kids into some of the most rugged environments in the world, from the Oman desert to the open sea, and from Arctic expeditions and the rainforests of Australia to deep solitude of slow-moving rivers. He's been on a quest to tap the power of these natural laboratories to reconnect people to the things that matter, the things that give meaning, the things that align to personal values, and the things that make a difference to self, family, organizations and the world we live in.

Along the way, he's found himself not only making a profound difference in people's lives but also building a career that lets him perpetually follow his fascinations, make meaning and fill his own life with exciting adventure, transformation and impact.

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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.

Photo Credit Jon Riley

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

Priya Parker is the founder of Thrive Labs, where she helps activists, elected officials, corporate executives, educators, and philanthropists create transformational gatherings.

She works with teams and leaders across technology, business, the arts, fashion, and politics to clarify their vision for the future and build meaningful, purpose-driven communities. Her clients have included the Museum of Modern Art, LVMH, the World Economic Forum, meetup.com, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, the Union for Concerned Scientists, and Civitas Public Affairs.

Parker is the author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters. In today's conversation, we explore the power and art of gathering, how to turn a hum-drum party or dinner into a life-changing experience. We also dive into her very personal experiences with race, exclusion, activism, resolution, hard conversations and the moments that both shaped who she would become and define the path she would choose in work and life.

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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. 

Photo Credit Mackenzie Stroh

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

From the outside-looking-in, Ryan Lee had it all.

After 6 years working in a hospital helping physically-disabled and sick kids find more joy and ease, Ryan felt the tug of entrepreneurship. So, he left the job he loved to play in the world of "internet marketing," where he quickly made a name for himself and went on to built numerous, hugely-successful companies in the health and nutrition field. Along the way, Lee married his college sweetheart and was raising four great kids. He owned a beautiful house in Connecticut, worked from cafes and loved life.

Then, everything started falling apart...

Ryan's body began to betray him to the point where he could barely walk. He'd soon learn that was just a symptom of a much larger reckoning. A wake-up call that would test his health, his business, his closest relationships and lead to a complete reboot of his wellbeing, his living and life. And, as is his pattern, scratching the itch of his own wellbeing, Ryan began to notice a serious gap in the market. This culminated in the launch of a new professional path and a new company, REWIND, that is on a mission to produce nutrition solutions that "turn back the clock," and make life better and easier, starting with the world's first "super-bar."

Ryan has been featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, on dozens of TV shows, has spoken on stages to over 100,000 people and has been called “the world’s #1 lifestyle entrepreneur” by Entrepreneur. But, what you're about to hear in today's conversation is the deeply-personal, raw and honest side of Lee's story that has never before been told in any of these outlets. A story of rising-high, crashing-hard, deep-reckoning, then realigning with a giant heart of service.

Be sure to listen to the end, where Ryan answers the question, "what are you afraid of?" His answer is powerful reset to all who aspire to big things in the world.

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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.

Is your DNA your destiny? Can you swap in better "source code" to save your life, change your appearance, be smarter or more athletic? Can a mother inherit DNA from her fetus? What do you really get when you pay for inexpensive genome-testing? These questions are just part of what we cover in today's deep with acclaimed science-writer, Carl Zimmer. 

Zimmer writes the Matter column for the New York Times and contributes to The Atlantic, National Geographic, Time, and Scientific American, among others. He has won the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Science Journalism Award three times, among a host of other awards and fellowships. He teaches science writing at Yale University. His previous books include Parasite Rex, Evolution, and Microcosm.

His new book, She Has Her Mother's Laugh is a stunning, powerfully-researched, eye-opening look at the truth about heredity, DNA, what is truly in our control and the astonishing breakthroughs coming our way in just the next few years.

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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.

Photo Credit Mistina Hanscom

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Susan Piver (http://susanpiver.com/) is the New York Times best-selling author of 9 books, a speaker, and founder of the largest virtual mindfulness community in the world, The Open Heart Project. She has been featured on Oprah, TODAY, CNN, speaks around the world and leads teachings and retreats on Buddhism, meditation, relationships and the essential practices for a life well-lived.

In her most recent book, The Four Noble Truths of Love, (https://amzn.to/2laMDxV) she offers a powerful set of tools to reimagine and better navigate long-term, loving relationships in a way that respects each person's individual truth, while making space for a living, evolving container for love.

In our podcast conversation this week, Piver shares the eye-opening revelation that brought her to the Four Noble Truths of Love, then walks us through each one. She reveals the genesis of this work, her own 20-year marriage, her struggle with attachment to "what was" and the innately human need to contain and define and preserve it. And, she shares her awakening to how trying to lock something living and breathing and changing into the confines of something simple and clean and certain can only lead to suffering, while the opposite just might lead to freedom and a deepening sense of connection.

To watch to Piver's incredible journey from Austin bartender to music industry exec to bestselling author to Shambhala meditation teacher, check out our earlier conversation here (http://www.goodlifeproject.com/video/mindfulness-serendipity-and-the-unplanned-life/).

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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.

Artist, poet, activist and author, Cleo Wade, likes to say she has three parents, her mom, her dad and the city of New Orleans.

Wade’s new book, Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom For a Better Life, (https://amzn.to/2Ltivce) is a moving collection of poems, provocative thoughts and moments that leave you questioning the status quo and opening your heart and mind to a different set of possibilities. Her artwork includes everything from short, hand-written posts shared with her giant following on Instagram to collaborations with major brands and large-scale public art installations, including a 25-foot love poem in the skyline of the New Orleans French Quarter titled “Respect.”

In today’s episode we explore how being raised as a mixed-race kid in the famed New Orleans French Quarter by two fiercely-creative parents influenced her, how hurricane Katrina changed everything, why she moved to New York, how she walked away from a career as a rising star in fashion to rediscover and cultivate a deeper, artistic voice as a writer and artist, sharing her work online and in public spaces and leveraging her influence for social justice. Be sure to listen to the end, where Cleo reads a moving poem from her new book.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) 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.

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.

Michael Pollan is the author most recently of mega New York Times bestseller, How to Change Your Mind, and of seven previous books that became global phenomena, including Cooked, Food Rules, and The Omnivore's Dilemma.

A longtime contributor to the New York Times Magazine, he also teaches writing at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley where he is the John S. and James L. Knight Professor of Science Journalism. In 2010, Time magazine named him one of the one hundred most influential people in the world.

In today's episode, we explore his lens on the writing life, then dive into his year's long investigative journey into the mysterious world of psychedelic molecules, like LSD, psilocybin (magic mushrooms), MDMA and something called "the toad." We talk about the fact, fiction, history, science and revolutionary clinical studies now underway, mostly from the lens of therapeutic outcomes.

This conversation is not a permission-slip to experiment with any of what he talks about, nor an endorsement, so please do not take it as such. Rather, it is a balanced, non-hyperbolic or sensationalized conversation about a category of substances that are now at the cutting-edge of research in the treatment of mental conditions that afflict tens of millions of people.

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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.

Jen Sincero is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of You are a Badass and You are a Badass at Making Money.

But it all started from humble beginnings, playing in a band and living in a garage in Venice Beach, California, Sincero made a decision to change her life, stepping into her true identity, leading with her real, wise, funny, badass voice, and reframing her relationship with money. Money, it turned out, was not the enemy, but rather a conduit for expression and impact.

With this shift in intention and action, she set a new course and built a career as an internationally-acclaimed and massively successful writer on her own terms. Still, the story behind what it took to sell her first book, You Are a Badass (which has now sold a bajillion copies and been on the NYT list for years) is pretty amazing. We dive into that and so much more in this week's Best Of conversation.

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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.

Sadie Lincoln had a powerhouse career in a global fitness company, where her husband Chris also worked. But deep down, she knew the company she was helping to grow was no longer aligned with who she was and how she wanted to contribute to the world. Her career in wellness was leaving her unwell.

So, she and Chris decided to quit their jobs, sell their home and move from the San Francisco area to Portland, Oregon, in the name of pursuing a dream. Together, they founded barre3, a whole-health movement studio and community that has now grown to more than 100 locations worldwide.

In today's episode, we explore Sadie's journey growing up in an alternative family with her mom and a small group of friends - her "aunties" - who all raised their kids together. We dive into her love of movement and creativity and teaching, her openness to following serendipity into the world of fitness, and her emerging commitment to helping women cultivate and share their voices.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) 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.

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.

Rich Roll transformed his body and health, losing 50-pounds and becoming an acclaimed plant-powered ultra-endurance athlete. This led to the blockbuster book, Finding Ultra. But, behind the scenes, he was struggling with something else that would eventually bring him, once again, to his knees.

While he'd figured out his physical wellbeing, he had also awakened to the fact that his career as a lawyer was deeply unfulfilling. Married, with a wife and four kids, he left the law behind. Now, he had to figure out how to craft a new living. This led to a years-long, often brutally-hard journey that brought him within hours of losing the family home. But, together with his wife, Julie Piatt, they held to their belief that the only way was through.

That eventually led to a new vocation as an advocate, speaker, author and podcast producer focusing on healthy-living, plant-powered eating, sustainable food-systems and meaningful living. That journey is still unfolding. And, in today's conversation, we dive into the major points of reckoning, inflection and celebration. This part of his journey is also detailed in a newly updated version of Finding Ultra.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) 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.

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.

Her ninth-grade teacher changed her life, but the loss of a friend followed by time in service of Tibetan refugees in India would lead Leah Weiss to change the lives of thousands in ways she never saw coming, until they arrived.

Leah Weiss, Ph.D., MSW, is a teacher, researcher, and meditation expert at Stanford University specializing in mindfulness and compassion. She teaches a perennially waitlisted course at Stanford, Leading with Mindfulness and Compassion, and is the Principal Teacher and Trainer for Stanford’s Compassion Cultivation Training program, founded by the Dalai Lama. She is also the author of How We Work (https://amzn.to/2jxpULU), and a women's rights advocate who strives to bring actionable methods for difficult work situations to women at all levels.

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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.

Turns out, perfect timing is less of an art and more of a science than we ever knew. In today's conversation with mega-NYT-bestselling author, Dan Pink (http://www.danpink.com/) we dive into the "secret" science of perfect timing, drawing from his new book, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing (https://amzn.to/2HB7Tuw). Prepare to be pretty seriously surprise, you just might discover there is a perfect minute, time of day, day of the week, month or year to finally do that thing you've always wanted to do AND have the highest likelihood of success.

And, of course, since we had Dan in the studio, we also dive into his career, his writing life and how, why and when he chooses to commit to a project, book and so much more.

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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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Tyler Wetherall didn't know her dad was a fugitive, until Scotland Yard came knocking. As a child, Wetherall's family was constantly changing countries and homes. But, to her, that was just "how things were. Life was an exciting adventure, until it all came crashing down and she realized the family had been on the run and the dad she loved so deeply was the one they were after.

Now, a British writer and journalist living in New York, in her memoir, No Way Home, Tyler shares this journey, how she discovered the truth, navigated the fraught relationship with her father and found a new normal. We dive into her life and also the decision to write a book that would reveal her and her family's secrets and how she created something that was true to her experience, while being respectful of those involved.

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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.

Former Gap fashion model, Light Watkins, began yoga and meditation in-between casting calls in New York City during the late nineties. It opened him to a different worldview and set of practices that would change not only the trajectory of his career, but also his path in life. Deepening his practice, traveling and spending time in India and then apprenticing with his Vedic Meditation teacher, Watkins became a full-time Vedic Meditation teacher in 2007. He now travels the world speaking on happiness, mindfulness, inspiration, and meditation. Light’s most recent book, Bliss More: How to Succeed in Meditation Without Really Trying invites people into meditation in a very accessible way. And, he also produces The Shine—a global pop-up inspirational variety show with a mission to inspire that actually started as a local dinner gathering.

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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.

Geneen Roth is done trying to fix the messy parts of her life, and she wants you to consider the possibility that a good part of your magnificence lies in your mess. A mega New York Times bestselling author of books like When Food Is Love and Women Food and God, Roth has been teaching groundbreaking workshops for over 30 years. She's been featured everywhere from The Oprah Winfrey Show, to 20/20, the Today show, Good Morning America, The View and beyond.

In her new book, This Messy Magnificent Life, she invites us to stand in our own imperfection, to allow space to feel loved and whole and good, even when open questions remain. And, to reclaim a sense of agency and expansion over our bodies, lives, relationships and power at a time when too many feel a lack of control and contraction.

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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.

Elizabeth Lesser is the co-founder of the legendary Omega Institute, recognized internationally for its workshops and conferences in wellness, spirituality, creativity, and social change. She's presented at TED, was named one of Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul 100 and is a New York Times bestselling author. Seeking to help save her younger sister's life after a diagnosis of cancer, Lesser donated her bone marrow. While her efforts, devastatingly, didn't achieve their ultimate goal, they led to a profound transformation in the relationship between the sisters that has become the focus of Elizabeth's latest book, Marrow: Love, Loss & What Matters Most.

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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.

Dr. Frank Lipman, a pioneer in both integrative and functional medicine, is the founder and director of Eleven Eleven Wellness Center in New York City, a New York Times best-selling author and the creator of Be Well, a lifestyle brand that helps people achieve genuine and sustainable life changes. We explored his moving personal journey from South Africa to NYC in a prior episode.

Today, drawing from his newest book, How to Be Well, we dive into Lipman's "Good Medicine Mandala" and six pillars of health with specific, often contrarian advice on everything from fasting and fat to sleep and sunshine.

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes

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Melissa Bernstein is the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Melissa & Doug, the global toy company committed to igniting imagination and a sense of wonder in all children so they can discover themselves, their passions and their purpose. A mom of six, Bernstein is also leading a movement to Take Back Childhood. For her entire life, though, she's lived with a secret. From her earliest memories, a sense of foreboding, sometimes consuming darkness has followed her and remains to this day. Yet, while working on ways to lift it, she's also learned to harness the energy of this heaviness to create light and laughter for millions of children and families, including her own.

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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.

Ruthie Lindsey escaped paralysis after a car accident in her late teens, but found herself in unrelenting and mysterious pain. A cocktail of medication dulled it a bit, but left her struggling to function. Years later, the pain remains and, in fact, through circumstances revealed in our conversation, has only worsened. Yet, to look at Lindsey's stunningly-joyful instagram feed, you'd think she lives a life of care-free joy, lightness and abundance. In no small way, you'd be right. But, it's not because the pain ever left, it is because she became intentional about how she chose to live with it.

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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.

As a young child, Arian Moayed's family fled Iran, taking a years-long journey that split the family, and eventually landed them just outside Chicago, where they set about building a new life in a radically different world. Stumbling into a love of acting, Moayed began to pursue a passion for theater. He was met with a wall of no's. But, to him that just meant, make it happen on your own. And, so he did.

Moayed has since become a Tony-nominated actor, co-founder of theater/film production and arts education venture, Waterwell, (http://www.waterwell.org/) and an award-winning writer/director. He's worked alongside legends like Bill Murray, Alfonso Cuaron, Barry Levinson, Spike Lee and Jon Stewart. Arian's groundbreaking thriller TV series, The Accidental Wolf (http://theaccidentalwolf.com/), starring Kelli O’Hara, Laurie Metcalf, Denis O’Hare, and a cast of 36 Tony nominations, is taking the web by storm. And, his heart is most boldly on display in the arts education program he helped develop that offers 6-12th graders in New York City free theater training, and explores not just performance, but citizenship, service and what it means to be human. We all need more of that these days.

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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.

Dr. Rana Awdish wanted to be a doctor from her earliest memories, and worked to become an ICU physician. But, when she found herself 7-months pregnant, being admitted to the hospital spiraling into multiple organ failure, the near-death experience, followed by a two year medical odyssey would forever change her.

Dr. Awdish's understanding of both what is was to be a patient, and how the relationship between doctor and patient could radically affect the experience and even outcome of a patient was transformative. This harrowing journey and her awakening to a profoundly different way to practice medicine is detailed beautifully in her memoir, In Shock.

Dr. Awdish is now the Director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Program at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and a Critical Care Physician. She was recently named Medical Director of Care Experience for the Health System and awarded the Speak-Up Hero award in 2014 for her work on improving communication, as well as the Critical Care Teaching Award in 2016.

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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.

Ever wonder, where is the sweet spot between pushing multiple projects forward simultaneously until you see which one is most likely to succeed AND drilling too many wells at the same time, ensuring that even though all may have serious potential, you never get enough traction in any to hit oil in any, let alone signal it’s the right one to move forward? That’s why my motto for this year has become "fewer things better. And, that's what we’re talking about on today’s riff.

Good Life Science Update. And, on the science side of things, today, we're diving into a cool new study on the relationship between money, happiness and fulfillment. And, as always, for those who want to go to the source, here's a link to more about the study.

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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.

Charity Tillemann-Dick grew up in Denver, CO, with her 10 brothers and sisters. She loved to sing from her earliest memories, so she did the logical thing; graduated high school 3 years early, sped through college...and became a political operative by her late teens! What?!

All the while, though, she continued to sing on the side, until Charity was eventually "discovered" by a legendary opera teacher, who took her under her wing and gave her a full-ride to study at the legendary Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary. In an instant, everything changed, a new career was born. Charity became a sought-after soprano and top-selling classical recording artist, performing all over the world.

But, something was wrong. Her lungs, the very source not just of her life, but of her vocation, began to fail. Diagnosed with potentially fatal pulmonary hypertension, she had two double lung transplants, the second coming after the first pair of lungs was rejected. Still, each time, she found a way not just to sing again, but to come alive, and also become an evangelist for transplants and medical research. Her story is detailed in her memoir, The Encore. We explore this, journey, along with a beautiful love story, her relationship with faith and so much more along the way.

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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.

Want to get paid what you're worth? Don't just demand it, believe it.

It's a question I'm asked often by everyone from employees to entrepreneurs and private practice professionals. How do I raise my rates, earn more money, get paid what I'm worth?

Part of it is a marketing principal—"price implies quality." Raise your rates, ask for more and people will start to see you as someone worthy of that amount. It's all about perception, they "file" you as a higher-caliber performer because the price or salary you're asking is that of someone who is worth it. It's quality "by association."

BUT, that's only half the equation. The other half is about belief. And, if you miss this part, you can raise your fees, ask for more, demand a raise...and none of it will matter. It still won't work. Nobody will buy you're worth it until you do. That's what we're talking about in today's GLP Riff.

And, on in our Good Life Science Update, we're exploring the alarming relationship between noise, especially traffic and city noise, and heart disease. Turns out, city dwellers and traffic marauders may be at a higher risk of heart attack or stroke and many other diseases. We'll explore this phenomenon and some new research on what may be the underlying causes. And, as always, for those who want to go to the source, here's a link to more.

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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.

She wanted a family, he didn't. What happened next, neither saw coming.

In this week's conversation, Heather Harpham takes us into her whirlwind romance with a writer that led to a seemingly endless series of unexpected turns. Heather always saw her life with children, but her then-boyfriend saw no room for a child. His life was devoted to his craft as a writer. Fate, however, brought them a daughter.

The idea of bringing a child into the world, alone, cultivated emotions ranging from joy to trauma, and eventually cut deep personal divides between the two. Harpham's life was turned upside-down. But, when their daughter was born with a near-fatal illness, the small semblance that was left of Harpham's handle on normalcy was tossed out the window.

In today's conversation, Heather shares her whirlwind romance turned harrowing story of life-and-death motherhood and evolving quest to redefine what family is and can be. This journey is also detailed in her memoir, Happiness: The Crooked Little Road to Semi-Ever After.

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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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What if greatness isn't about what you accomplish, but how you serve? Some 50 years ago, in February 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a sermon entitled The Drum Major Instinct. It invites people to redefine greatness as service, while at the same time recognizing the very human instinct for attention and praise and inviting it to harness it for something bigger. That's what we're talking about in today's riff.

And, in our Good Life Science Update, we dive into a fascinating analysis of studies that reveal something stunning about over-the-counter pain medicine like ibuprofen and acetaminophen. Turns out, they don't just dull physical pain, they also may well dull emotions and thinking, too. And, as always, here's a direct citation - [Ratner et al. Can Over-the-Counter Pain Medications Influence Our Thoughts and Emotions? Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2018].

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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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How do you keep love alive? It's not what you think!

This week, we're diving deep into love, romance, danger, conflict, fact, fantasy and truth with Dr. Stan Tatkin, (http://www.stantatkin.com/) a clinician, researcher, teacher, and developer of a Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy (PACT). Tatkin's practice is based in Calabasas, California, where for the last 20 years he has specialized in working with couples, and also individuals who want to be in a relationship.

Tatkin and his wife, Tracey Boldemann-Tatkin, Ph.D., founded the PACT Institute (https://thepactinstitute.com/) where they train psychotherapists to use the PACT method in their clinical practice. They lead couple workshops and train therapists all over the world.

Tatkin is also the author of numerous books, including Wired for LOVE: How Understanding Your Partner's Brain and Attachment Style Can Help You Defuse Conflict and Build a Secure Relationship. (http://amzn.to/2GKMJWK)

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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.

Why would anyone stop eating for 7-days?

That's what I first thought when I started hearing accounts of longer-term fasting. Insane. Nuts. Dangerous. Then, I started exploring the research. There is a growing interest in, and body of science around, longer-term fasting that is revealing some incredible benefits. Everything ranging from anti-inflammation and pain reduction to weight loss, disease risk reduction, positive epigenetic signaling, immune boosting, mental acuity and more. I got curious, so I decided to run my own experiment.

Last week, I fasted for 7-days. I was surprised by what happened on many levels. I detail what I did, why I did it, and the sometimes dramatic ways it affected me in today's podcast. Of course, all the usual precautions apply. It's absolutely not for everyone, it should be done (if at all) in conjunction with a qualified healthcare professional. For a great overview on a scientific/grounded approach to fasting, you might also want to check out The Complete Guide to Fasting.

Good Life Science Update. And, on the science side of things, today, we're diving into a cool new study on how sunshine and/or vitamin D3 supplementation might actually be able to do what was once thought impossible - help repair damage to your cardiovascular system that leads to hypertension, stroke and heart attack. And, as always, for those who want to go to the source, here's a link to more about the study.

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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 turns a devout scientist into Buddhist monk?

Born in France in 1946, Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk who left a career in cellular genetics to study Buddhism and live a largely monastic life in the Himalayas over 45 years ago.

Sharing his insights, Ricard has since become an international best-selling author and a prominent speaker on the world stage, celebrated at the World Economic Forum at Davos, the NGH forums at the United Nations, and at TED where his talks on happiness and altruism has been viewed by over six million people.

His books have been translated into over twenty languages, and his newest is, Beyond the Self: A conversation between Neuroscience and Buddhism.

Ricard was lightly dubbed "the happiest man alive," after neuroscientists at the University of Wisconsin scanned his brain during meditation and found the highest capacity for happiness ever recorded.

As a trained scientist and Buddhist monk, he is uniquely positioned in the dialogue between East and West. He is an active participant in the current scientific research on the effects of meditation on the brain. He lives in Nepal and devotes all the proceedings of his books and activities to 200 humanitarian projects in Tibet, India, and Nepal.

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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.

Burned-out, overwhelmed? Try walking in the rain.

We've all been there. That place where it feels like it's just too much. Too much work, too much stimulation, too much stress, too much expectation, too much to deliver in too little time, too much change, too much anger, vitriol, outrage. For many, it leads to overwhelm, stress, burnout and sadness.

So, what do you do about that? Many things, and it's different for everyone. But, today, we're talking about something really simple. The power of solitude, nature and movement. And, just for the fun, there's even a little poetry mixed in.

Good Life Science Update. Screen-time and happiness, oh my. This is one of those things we love to hear, and hate to hear. We all want science to back up our decision to rail against more screen-time. But, then, secretly, we don't really want to give up on our devices. Well, a new study that crunched the data from more than one-million teens revealed something pretty powerful.

There is actually a specific amount of daily screen-time that serves as a "happiness threshold." Push past it, happiness plummets. Steer clear of it, happiness rules. That's we're talking about in this week's Good Life Science Update. And, as always, for those who want to go to the source, here's a link to the full study.

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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 would you do to live your truth?

Samantha Paige is an artist, parent, philanthropist, and the founder of the Last Cut Project – but you most likely know her from Equinox’s “Commit to Something” campaign.

She’s a thyroid cancer survivor and BRCA1 previvor, but she’s a symbol of strength for so much more than that.

Samantha was subjected to a series of uncomfortable decisions throughout her life, but after a double mastectomy and an implant surgery that continued to make her sick for months, she found herself faced with surprisingly, her most life-changing decision of all: to remove the silicone implants.

Directly after her surgery, Samantha’s life took a turn, she looked around and realized that she didn’t even recognize her surroundings. As soon as Samantha made that initial decision to remove her implants, she found herself. She found truth and freedom, and was finally able to live a life that feels like hers, but with that came an internal battle to accept her new body.

Over the years, this struggle has forced her to take a long, hard look at disease and prejudice in society. She asked herself why she felt self-conscious without her breasts, and ultimately, set out on a mission to change this status quo by formulating different conversation around these topics. This inflection point led her to launch the Last Cut photo project, social movement, and podcast (“Last Cut Conversations”) which has helped encourage others to seek freedom by honoring similar decisions, their individuality, and a life that feels uniquely right to them. Now, she creates community around these conversations and allows others a place to share without shame.

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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 don't have a teacher, you're cheating yourself.

Wow, I do NOT like those words!

In fact, I resisted the whole notion of a teacher for decades. Friends and colleagues, from artists to athletes, execs to educators would all tell me about their amazing mentors, teachers, coaches and gurus. My eyes would roll. I'm an autodidact, I'd tell myself, I learn best when I'm in control. I don't need a teacher or a coach, I just need access to information.

Turns out, that is a complete and utter lie.

To go from being a newbie to being really good at anything takes a ton of work. Still, most people, with enough motivation, can get there. To go from really good to excellent takes a whole different level of effort known as "deliberate practice." But, to go from excellent to stunningly-good, to step into that final, brutally-hard to access top 5% of your potential, that takes something entirely different. Something called "directed practice." And, here's the thing, you cannot DO directed practice without a teacher. End of story. No exceptions.

What deliberate and directed practice are, and how a teacher becomes a critical player, no matter how smart you are, is what we're talking about in today's GLP Riff.

Good Life Science Update.

And, on the science side of things, today, we're diving into a cool new study from a team out of University of Illinois about how being in nature affects your ability to focus your attention, stay engaged longer and go better work. We've known about the effects of nature on your body and mind, it's an amazing Vitality Bucket filler. But, now, we've got research to show how it can effect your ability to do your best work. To fill your Contribution Bucket, too. And, as always, for those who want to go to the source, here's a link to the full study.

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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.

Scott Stabile had every reason to be angry with the world, but he chose love instead.

At the age of 14, Scott's parents were killed at the market they ran, leaving behind a family of seven kids. Stabile was the baby of the group, and nine years later, his brother overdosed and died from a heroine addiction.

In those years, he was surrounded by a lot of tragedy, addiction and loss. And, he buried it all, keeping it secret through school, until eventually, it couldn't stay buried any longer. His awakening eventually led him into a journey of discovery where his deep seeking for answers and connection led him to San Francisco and eventually into the embrace of a cult, where he stayed for many years.

Flowing through all of this was Scott's internal, turned external struggle with his sexuality as a gay man at a time when being out was a very different experience than it is now. Through it all, though, Scott continually found a way to turn back to love. And eventually, he made a choice that stuck, to live on his own terms, no matter what comes his way, with a wide-open heart. He began to share his journey and philosophy through teachings, workshops, and inspirational posts and videos that have attracted a huge and devoted social media following. And, he began to create and write.

His previous works include Just Love, Iris, and the Li’l Pet Hospital series. Scott also wrote the feature film The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure, an eye-opening experience he writes about in his new book, Big Love: The Power of Living with a Wide-Open Heart (http://amzn.to/2CTUebn).

In today's episode, we dive into this powerful journey.

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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.

Asking for honesty, but seeking validation? 

This tends to be the time of year where we look at making changes in everything from fitness and relationships and to careers, locations and beyond. And, the bigger the decision, the more we tend to look to others for advice.

But, all too often, a request for honest input is really a veiled yearning for validation. We've already made up our mind, we just want permission, often to do the thing that'd keep us in a box of illusion and complacency. We’re so wrapped up in the quest for validation, we’ve forgotten that real change only happens when we stop seeking validation and start seeking the truth. That's what we're talking about in today's GLP Riff.

Good Life Science: We know exercise is good for your heart, but can it actually "reverse" the damage done by years of inactivity? In our Good Life Science segment, we're diving into some fascinating new research on a very specific approach to exercise, and how it can reverse a specific and insidious type of damage done to the heart through sedentary living, aka, sitting around and working in a chair all day.

What's fascinating is this exercise protocol is not only highly effective but also "dose dependent." Translation, the researchers also learned that while 2-3 times a week doesn't help a lot, 4-5 times a week makes a huge difference. And, as always, for those who want to go to the source, here's a link to the full study.

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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.