Good Life Project

Mary Fons knew she wanted to be a writer from a young age, and was pursuing that path when a catastrophic illness nearly took her life, leading to surgery and changing her future forever.

As she recovered and started to stitch her life back together, she began working with her mom, Maryann Fons, a legend in the world of quilting and author of what has become known as the "Quilter’s Bible."

Simultaneously rebuilding her health while building her own name as a leading voice in the massive quilting world, she began speaking, writing books, designing textiles and producing media and appearing regularly on television with her mother. Still, she knew deep down that quilting wasn't her dream. Writing and spoken-word began to call her back to a more deeply ingrained destiny.

We recorded this conversation at a major point of inflection for Mary. She was about to make a huge move, and in a way, this conversation is her announcement. As we wrap up, Mary also reads a powerful spoken word piece that landed her writing and poetry big attention and accolades. You don't want to miss this.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• The mind-blowing statistics behind the world of quilting.
• The catastrophic illness and events that changed Mary’s life forever.
• How Mary has learned to handle the stress of living her life in her niche’s public eye.
• How Mary navigated the tricky path to becoming a success in the shadow of a legendary woman and finding her way in the world of quilting.
• How to be successful and earn a living in quilting.
• How performing, improv and spoken word entered her life.
• Why Mary has decided to make the leap from writing to writing.

Mentioned in This Episode:

• Connect with Mary: Mary Fons | Blog | Quilty | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram
• Fons & Porter
• Make & Love Quilts: Scrap Quilts for the 21st Century by Mary Fons
• Quilter’s Complete Guide by Marianne Porter & Liz Fons
• Creative Mornings
• QuiltCon West
• The Modern Quilt Guild
• The Neo-Futurists: Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind
• Mark Twain
• Write Club

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Have you ever thought about leaving everything behind and traveling the world? Of cashing out your savings to hit the road and create lifelong memories and new experiences?

This may sound like an impossible dream to most, but our guest today did just that. Alastair Humphreys was poised to accept his dream job when he made the decision to spend the next four years of his life biking 46,000 miles around the world.

Alastair lived for four years traveling on just under $10,000 without taking any other jobs or earning any other money. Sounds impossible, doesn’t it? That was just the beginning of an incredible life of adventures.

Alastair has become a documentary filmmaker, author, speaker, and blogger while continuing to pursue his passion for adventuring. Today, he shares why he continues to go on these adventures and what he gains from them. Alastair’s extraordinary experiences are some that I know many of you may envy and wish to emulate, and he shares the steps you can take to start your incredible journey.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• How to live in the “ah” moment.
• How Alastair went from a bookish kid to an adventurer.
• The moment that started it all for Alastair.
• The struggles Alastair faced in his trek.
• Alastair’s tips for anyone wanting to start their own adventure.
• The best way to fund an adventure.

Mentioned in This Episode:

• Connect with Alastair: Alastair Humphreys | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram | YouTube
• Ernest Shackleton
• Investment Biker: Around the World with Jim Roger by Jim Rogers
• Adventure Capitalist: The Ultimate Road Trip by Jim Rogers
• A Journey Around My Room by Xavier de Maistre
• Mindset

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Today’s guest, Chris Daze Ellis, is a born-and-bred New York artist with a fascinating origin story. Although he began his prolific painting career in the gritty New York subways of the mid-70s, Daze is one of the few artists from that initial group to have successfully transitioned from the underground to the studio, then the galleries and […] The post Chris “Daze” Ellis: From Street Artist to Museum Collections appeared first on Good LifeProject.

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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How did an Australian woman who wanted to be the next Olivia Newton-John become the voice of SIRI and the confident giver of directions in than 400 million GPS and smart-enabled devices?

Also known as “GPS Girl,” today’s guest, Karen Jacobsen, never saw her device-enabled voice-future coming. It happened entirely under a shroud of secrecy, when Karen took a job that required spending days cloistered in a studio, reading tons of phrases, but never being told why. It wasn’t until a friend called years later and said “you’re on our GPS” that she finally learned what’d happened!

Behind her golden voice, though, is a much bigger story. At heart, Karen is a songwriter and singer. Her dream was always to become the next Olivia Newton-John in the United States. To take the pop music world by storm.

That dream has since led to a career not just as the voice of SIRI and GPS devices, but in music, including gigs singing the national anthem in front of massive stadiums on TV, having songs featured on hit shows, and a career as a featured keynote speaker. But, it’s also been, at times, a brutally hard road, that’s taken humility and a willingness to “get real” and even head home to recover and recalculate, then rebuild.

And, funny enough, Karen and GLP founder, Jonathan Fields, have a fun, intertwined back story that led them both to appear together on the front page of the New York Times Jobs section back in the early 2,000s.

Today, Karen takes us on her incredible journey. She shares how taking the voice-over gig completely changed her life and how it eventually reflected back on her life and her career in an entirely different way than she ever expected. And, she also ends up singing us a little something about a good, good life!

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

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

Ever wonder why the exact same touch by one person will give you the creeps, but by another will make you yearn for more?

On this episode of The Good Life, I am excited to bring you David Linden, a Johns Hopkins Neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author of Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart, and Mind.

The research that David has been conducting on the effects of touch on the human mind is a powerful reminder of the role touch plays in nearly every aspect of human development. Everything from love to intelligence, sex to attachment, orgasm or itch and beyond... basically, anything we touch or get touched by profoundly influences our personality, perception of people and the world.

Whether touch is given or withheld at any age can shape the entirety of our beings. Our neurology, psychology and our ability to live functional, good lives is dependent on touch.

If you have ever wondered why touch is so important to the development of infants, or why we find touch so vital to our own mental well-being, you are going to want to turn up the volume and listen in. David answers all of these questions and so many more.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• The events that led David to write three books on touch.
• The catastrophic results when loving touch is withheld from infants.
• How appropriate touch can change the way a patient views a doctor’s effectiveness and care.
• How incidental sensory experiences can influence our impressions of others.
• What touch actually is and how we've adapted different mechanisms to experience it.
• How touch is involved with everything from orgasm to reading Braille.
• How touch varies across cultures.
• Why sexual touch is so powerful.

Mentioned in This Episode:

• Connect with David: David Linden | Blog
• Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart, and Mind by David Linden
• Dacher Keltner | Greater Good Science Center
• John Bargh
• Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges by Amy Cuddy
• National Institutes of Health

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

Imagine having just about everything you wanted – a great job, making a lot of money, being able to get as much “stuff” as you want – and then, ending up miserable. That’s the plight of today’s guests, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, also known as The Minimalists.

What started as an awakening to a different way of life, built around value, rather than accumulation, has now grow into a blog with millions of readers at TheMinimalists.com, a popular Minimalism, book a top-rated podcast and now a fantastic new documentary called Minimalism.

This week’s conversation goes deep into Ryan and Joshua’s journey, both personally and as friends, into the exploration of what Minimalism really is and is not and how it can change not only your life, but life as we know it.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• Why minimalism is not actually about giving everything up.
• Ryan and Joshua’s 5th-grade “fat kid bond” that launched their 20+ year-long friendship.
• How Ryan came up with the "$50,000 Equation" that would (theoretically) help them reach their dreams and set them free.
• Why reaching that goal made him completely miserable and caused him to lose sight of what life is all about.
• Joshua’s epiphany after his mother’s tragic passing that set him on the path to minimalism.
• The true benefits of minimalism (they're not what you think).
• How Joshua’s 21-day downsizing journey led to creating TheMinimalists.com.
• How Ryan and Joshua’s brand expanded to different mediums to spread their message.
• How they define value that an item may add to their lives.
• Ryan and Joshua’s process for choosing which projects they should take on at any given time.

Mentioned in This Episode:

• Connect with Ryan and Joshua: www.TheMinimalists.com | podcast | documentary
• Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus
• Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus
• Clutterfree with Kids: Change your thinking. Discover new habits. Free your home. by Joshua Becker
• Exile Lifestyle, by Colin Wright
• Becoming Minimalist by Joshua Becker
• Be More with Less by Courtney Carver

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This time on The Good Life Project, I am joined by Jadah Sellner and Jeffrey Davis for a roundtable-style discussion of a few of the burning issues and questions that have been on our minds...and maybe yours, too. This discussion was incredibly fun and full of so much information, I couldn't wait to share it with all of you. Jadah is the cofounder of Simple Green Smoothies and JadahSellner.com. She has developed her groundbreaking life strategy, Love Over Metrics, with the help of her dream-tribe that supports her vision for the future of the world. Jadah’s passion is to help everyone to start and grow their own tribe in order to inspire action that will change the world. Jeffrey Davis is a poet, author, teacher, brand-strategist, founder of Tracking Wonder and author of Coat Thief and The Journey from the Center to the Page: Yoga Philosophies and Practices As Muse for Authentic Writing.

We dive into a wide swath of topics today, from the legacy that we want to leave our families and the world to the amount of control the government should have on the hours we work to grit, the infamous “aha” moment and so much more.

Mentioned in This Episode:

• Connect with Jadah: Jadah Sellner
• Connect with Jeffrey Davis: Tracking Wonder
• Coat Thief by Jeffrey Davis
• The Journey from the Center to the Page: Yoga Philosophies and Practices as Muse for Authentic Writing by Jeffrey Davis
• Big Ass Fans
• BJ Novak
• World Domination Summit
• Treehouse
• Seth Godin
• Anders Ericsson
• Edward C Banfield
• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
• Daniel Gilbert
• Tim Cook

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This week, our in-depth conversation features David Nihill. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, David, like so man of us, had a deep fear of public speaking. But, he found himself having to face this head on, when he reluctantly agreed to host a benefit comedy show he had suggested for a friend, Arash Bayatmakou, who had suffered a severe spinal cord injury (Comedy for a Spinal Cause). He quickly realized the best speakers were also often the funniest. Not because of the one-liners they threw into the audience, but because they knew how to tell a story in a way that made people laugh.

In at attempt to learn the craft and also face his crippling fear of public speaking, he spent a year traveling the country pretending to be an accomplished comedian and talking his way onto as many comedy show stages and festivals as possible. Along the way, he not only overcame his fear of speaking, he began to deconstruct the best story-driven comedy and figured out a methodology he could not only bring to the stage himself, but also teach pretty much anyone. Even people who consider themselves to have nearly zero ability to tell stories or be funny.

The shared this approach in a book, k, Do You Talk Funny?, then launched a community, writers platform, and conference series under called FunnyBizz Conference: Where Business Meets Humor, with the intention of helping everyone from speakers and executives to content creators tap the power of storytelling, comedy and improv to engage readers and audiences on a whole new level.

David realized he had learned something in the process that could be valuable to other businesspeople — most people, with the right techniques, could learn to be funny, (at least on stage) and learning how to structure a comedy routine involves the exact same skills as making a successful presentation. He now also runs an agency that lets anyone from executives to speakers to anyone who wants funnier content tap a team of freelance comedy writers to punch up anything from a keynote or best-man's speech to an article or boardroom presentation.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• What it was like faking his way onto stages
• How his Irish heritage played into his ability to tell stories
• Which TED talks have the most laughs per minute.
• How comedy & copywriting are correlated.
• That US comedy is a testament to tight TV ready writing.
• How many laughs per day a baby has compared to adults over 35 years old.
• That CEOs perceive people with a sense of humor as doing better work.

Mentioned in This Episode:

• FunnyBizz Conference: Where Business Meets Humor
• 80 free tips from his book
• David's udemy course
• Arash Bayatmakou's TEDx talk

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Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you had chosen another path? Would you have been more successful in your craft? A better writer, artist, musician? Would you have made a bigger impact in the world? My guest today, Jesse Browner, has by all rights been extremely successful. He has a great marriage and family, living in the middle of Manhattan. He is a successful author whose books have been published by some of the biggest houses in New York City and he has a lucrative full-time job.

However, as Jesse approached his 50s, he started wondering, "What if?"

Jesse spent his 20s in what was known as the heartbeat of Bohemia in New York City (if you have ever seen the movie or the musical Rent, then you know exactly the place I am describing). As he looked back at this time, he realized that although no one he knew was extremely successful or rich, they were all living and breathing their craft.

From this reflection came the question, "Is there an untapped wealth of talent just buried within me?"

Jesse's exploration of this question over many years led to his latest book, How Did I Get Here?. Today, Jesse guides us through his incredible journey of discovery and letting go. If you have ever been tormented by the “What If?” questions in your life, then this episode is one you cannot afford to miss. So turn up the volume, get comfortable and listen in as we take you on an incredible journey of growth and development.

Mentioned in This Episode:

• Connect with Jesse: Jesse Browner | Facebook | Twitter
• How Did I Get Here?: Making Peace with the Road Not Taken by Jesse Browner
• Scenes From The Life Of Bohemia: Scenes De La View De Boheme (1896) by Henri Murger
• Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey
• Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill by Matthieu Ricard
• The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World by Lewis Hyde
• La Boheme
• Rent
• Whiplash
• Seamus Heaney

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"Love and Justice are not two. Without inner change, there can be no outer change. Without collective change, no change matters." – Reverend angel Kyodo williams

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Today's guest on the podcast is author, maverick spiritual teacher, master trainer and founder of Center for Transformative Change, Reverend angel Kyodo williams. She has been bridging the worlds of personal transformation and justice since the publication of her critically-acclaimed book, Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace, which was hailed as “an act of love” by Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Walker and “a classic” by Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield. Her new book, Radical Dharma, explores racial injustice as a barrier to collective awakening.

Ordained as a Zen priest, Rev. angel is a Sensei, the second black woman recognized as a teacher in her lineage. She is a social visionary that applies wisdom teachings and practice to social issues. She sees Transformative Social Change as the world’s next great movement. Both fierce and grounded, she is known for her unflinching willingness to both sit with and speak uncomfortable truths with love.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• How growing up in New York City profoundly shaped Rev. angel’s life.
• How moments to awaken are all around us, if we just open to them.
• How to move closer to a liberated life.
• How race and the consciousness movement interact with each other.
• The #1 component contributing to a full, complete life.
• The difference between grasping and aspiration.

Mentioned in This Episode:

• Connect with Rev. Angel: angel Kyodo williams | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | 27 Days of Change
• Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace by angel Kyodo Williams
• Radical Dharma
• Richard Wiseman
• Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki

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This week, my special guest is Karan Bajaj. Karan is a #1 bestselling Indian novelist with a full-time corporate job and a rather unique approach to life, fulfillment, and personal happiness. His novels have sold more than 200,000 copies worldwide and both are being turned into major films.

One thing that really jumped out at me about Karan and got me excited about having him on the show is his ability to write captivating novels with an underlying lesson while working a full-time job AND taking an entire year off every four years.

Join us on this episode to hear about Karan’s childhood, growing up in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains in northern India, how his Indian upbringing and culture have influenced his decisions along the way, and the incredible story of his journey from small mountain town boy to bestselling author.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• How the official divorce rate for arranged marriages is 1%, and why Karan says this can be misleading.
• What it’s like to be a child in India trying to become a doctor or an engineer (and the insane levels of competition to make a life for yourself).
• Karan’s 4-1-4 method of taking a year off for every four years of work, and what he’s learned in the process
• How Karan builds his “intuitive” muscle and develops his ability to switch from intense working and focus to his “off” years.
• How you can actually make more progress (and money) in a year off as a byproduct than in a year of intensely focused work
• The difference between gradual uncovering to drive change and dramatic movements
• The combination great pieces of art are able to master and how it will make you a better artist

Mentioned in This Episode:

• Karan's Website: KaranBajaj.com
• Karan's Books: The Yoga of Max's Discontent, The Seeker, Johnny Gone Down, Keep Off The Grass
• Stefan Sagmeister

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This week on The Good Life Project, we welcome Sharon Salzberg, a renowned meditation and lovingkindness teacher and founder of Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. She travels the world teaching people how to become aware and cultivate lovingkindness in their lives.

Sharon also recently partnered with Dan Harris to bring her latest venture to life, 10% Happier, an exciting new app that builds on Dan’s book, 10% Happier.

Today, Sharon and I dive into her inspiring path to peace and love and her journey to help others achieve the same. A journey that involved a pilgrimage to India, where she's meet not only her teacher, but a small group of students who, along with her, would eventually rise up to become some of the world's greatest teachers.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• How Sharon's difficult childhood set in motion a deeper quest.
• Why Sharon went to India, what she hoped to find, and the surprises that awaited.
• How Sharon ended up in the town of Buddha's birth with a small group of students who would become some of the world's greatest teachers.
• What called Sharon back to the U.S. and why she decided to found the Insight Meditation Center in Barre, MA.
• What lovingkindness meditation really is and the unusual way Sharon practices it.
• How Sharon became involved with Dan Harris and the 10% Happier app.
• Why you need to take care of yourself in order to show others kindness.

Mentioned in This Episode:

• Connect with Sharon: Insight Meditation Society | Facebook | Twitter | 10% Happier App
• 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works – A True Story by Dan Harris
• Daniel Goleman
• Susan Piver
• Ram Dass
• Jack Kornfield
• Linda Stone

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This week, my special guest is Dr. Shefali Tsabary. If her name sounds familiar, you may have seen one of her appearances as the resident parenting expert on Oprah.

Dr. Shefali is the author of multiple books, including her latest, The Awakened Family. She is a clinical psychologist with an incredibly unique East-meets-West approach to helping adults become who they need to be through a relationship with children.

I knew that I needed to have Dr. Shefali on the show to share her incredible insight on the anxiety that many families experience. This anxiety can be present not only between parents and children but also between adults.

As we talk today, Dr. Shefali shares her own personal journey, from growing up in Mumbai in a strongly patriarchal society to finally striking out on her own and heading to San Diego and then New York. Her growth is an inspirational story of what you can achieve with supportive parents, a dream and the drive to succeed.

Listen in to learn to determine how to help people to emerge into a life that’s happy, fulfilled and in a place where you can be truly yourself.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• How Dr. Shefali experienced the death of her former life...and why you might want to as well.
• Why, as parents, we need to let go of what "we" want for our kids.
• How kids can be a profound vessel of liberation for parents
• Why we are so afraid to step into who we truly are.
• The unique way Dr. Shefali’s parents helped her to become who she is today.
• What Dr. Shefali holds most sacred for childhood development.
• Be mindful of your child's journey of figuring out who they are.
• Why Dr. Shefali has a deep respect and reverence for Sigmund Freud.

Mentioned in This Episode:

• Shefali’s Website: DrShefali.com
• Shefali’s Books: The Awakened Family, The Conscious Parent, Out of Control
• Shefali’s Facebook: Dr. Shefali
• California Institute of Integral Studies
• Sigmund Freud

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What if you had to live your life in the spotlight. With thousands of people watching not just your every move, but the things you said, the way you looked, the state of your body and life?

And, what if earning your living depended on it?

That's the place today's guest, Petra Kolber, found herself in. A renowned teacher, speaker, athlete and spokesperson in the fitness industry for decades, she lived nearly every waking minute in the public's eye.

It was an extraordinary experience, but it also came with a cost. An obsession with perfection, setting the bar at a level that was persistently emotionally and physically unattainable. And, that led to an inner life that was a very different place than her outer life. Her awakening to this led to a heroine's journey that's left her in a very different place, one of renewal, positivity and a willingness to forgive her own humanity.

Moving into a new season in her life, Petra remains "exposed," but now she's speaking directly to the issue, and to the near-maniacal and destructive push for perfection that seems to be fueling so much of life today. She has presented in over 30 countries and spoken at TEDx. Her mission is to help others stretch their dreams, kick fear to the curb, strengthen their courage muscle and build a life filled with joy and purpose.

In today's episode, we dive deep into her remarkable journey.

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What if success was less about mastery and more about sight?

Simple truth: Most of us don’t see what is right in front of us.

Instead, we see mental models and imprints of what things “should” look like or what we’ve been told to see. And, we miss what's actually happening, along with all the critical details.

As entrepreneurs or professionals, it’s extremely difficult to become extraordinary at anything, to serve on the deepest level or build businesses, careers and lives that are tapped into their potential until we first understand how to see what’s in front of us.

Today’s guest, Amy Herman, can help. A former lawyer with a dual education in art, she saw how a pervasive inability to both see truth and details and then share them in a clear way was limiting the work of so many people. So, she developed The Art of Perception, a program to teach (non-artist) professionals strengthen their perception skills using classic works of art in a museum setting.

The impact has been astonishing. She now works with everyone from the NYPD FBI to the Department of Defense, doctors and med students, as well as leaders in the fields of education, finance, and policy. Amy’s new book, Visual Intelligence, describes her process and her work.

In This Episode You’ll Learn:

• The impetus behind the launch of Amy’s programs.
• The experience of The Art of Perception and what people can expect when they go through the program.
• The four As of Amy’s program and how they help professionals become better at their jobs.
• The importance of taking a step back and making sure you have enough information if you choose to rely on a bias.
• Why eyewitness testimonies are not a reliable source of information.
• Amy’s tip for getting the complete picture of a situation at hand.
• Why Amy prohibits certain words in her classes.
• The importance of self-perception and why it’s critical to self-development.
• Why Amy is unhappy with the state of the formal art education and what she suggests to those majoring in art.

Mentioned In This Episode:

• Connect with Amy: The Art of Perception
• Visual Intelligence by Amy Herman
• The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker
• The MET
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• The Frick Collection

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How do you go from being a wine newbie to a sommelier at Thomas Keller’s famed French Laundry?

That was the journey that our today’s guest, André Mack, took. And that was just the beginning. From there, André became the head sommelier at Per Se, Thomas Keller’s restaurant in New York, before becoming a winemaker and creating his own, provocative wine brand, Mouton Noir.

In this episode of the Good Life Project, André shares his incredible journey and his love affair with learning, entrepreneurship, wine and design, as well as the deep insights he’s gained along the way. We talk about his consuming obsession with becoming extraordinary and how it moved him to become an award-winning sommelier, winemaker, designer & author. You won’t want to miss this inspiring episode!

In This Episode You’ll Learn:

• André’s experience growing up as a prototypical military kid and how it opened up his world.
• Why André and his wife decided to homeschool their kids.
• The reason why he left the finance world for the service industry.
• How the TV show, Frasier, inspired him to learn more about wine.
• André’s process for committing wines’ subtle nuances to memory.
• His journey to becoming a sommelier at The French Laundry and Per Se.
• His consuming obsession with becoming extraordinary.
• How André’s need for being creative drove him to starting his own business.
• The power of leveraging past relationships.
• The idea behind the Mouton Noir’s branding.

Mentioned In This Episode:

• Connect with André: andremack.com | Mouton Noir Wines | Small Thyme Cooks
• Frasier
• The French Laundry
• Per Se
• David Chang and Momofuku
• Hall & Oates

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

Today's guest is Eileen Flannigan, the Founder and Managing Director of Girls on Fire Leaders, a non-profit that provides young girls in developing nations with personal and community leadership skills through immersive travel, experiential self-learning, authentic self-expression, and global connectivity.

Eileen was a successful digital marketing strategist for large tech startups in Silicon Valley. But after two decades in this field, she began listening to the voice inside her that called her to make a bigger contribution to the world.

When she turned forty, Eileen went to India and gave herself two guidelines: she would go alone, and she would follow her heart completely. For nearly two months, she hung out with street kids and young girls in brothels. Her time there set her life on a transformational course that blossomed into Girls on Fire Leaders, which now empowers adolescent girls all around the world.

Don’t miss this inspiring and insightful look into the life and mind of an entrepreneur who left her familiar world to serve the world in a deeper way.

In This Episode You’ll Learn:

• Why you don’t need to be an extrovert to be a leader.
• How her tendency as a kid to pay attention to the “underdog” manifested itself in surprising ways.
• The tension she felt between not wanting to destroy the life she had created, but wanting to do something that made a bigger difference.
• How Eileen literally followed her heart when she went to India.
• The story of how Eileen became involved with Kiva, and its connection to eventually quitting her job.
• The surprising insights Eileen gained about poverty through living and working with people in the slums.
• Why it’s so hard for women trapped in poverty to escape from it.
• Why people living under corrupt governments often don’t speak up for themselves.
• How leading Girls on Fire has impacted Eileen personally.
• How Eileen defines a “good life.”

Mentioned In This Episode:

• Connect with Eileen: Girls on Fire Leaders | LinkedIn
• Kiva
• Portfolios of the Poor by Daryl Collins
• Restore NYC
• Grab your spot at the Camp GLP at the Early Bird discount rate!

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

Today's guest is obsessed with wonder. In fact, it's his vocation.

Jeffery Davis is the founder of Tracking Wonder, where he explores how to reconnect with wonder and also help people tell their their stories through books, businesses and beyond.

As a kid, he became concerned about paying attention to life and ensuring that he'd never lose his imagination. That led him to become a poet, a teacher, an author and then...everything fell apart.

He realized he'd been living entirely "from the neck up," largely disembodied and disconnected from his heart. That awakening launched a years-long quest to rediscover a deeper, more soulful driver. It brought him back to wonder as a driving force in his life and eventually as his career.

He has taught his signature approaches to creativity, writing, and branding at numerous universities, conferences, and centers around the world. An author, speaker, and online columnist for Psychology Today, he is in dogged pursuit of what helps creatives thrive amidst constant challenge and change. He lives in a farmhouse in the Hudson Valley with his wife and two girls.

Maybe his biggest true driver, though, is to be the kind of adult whose life reveals to his daughters the grace and beauty and joy of a wonder that never ends.

His new book of poetry is Coat Thief.

In This Episode You’ll Learn:

• The gift that his father gave him, passed down from his grandfather.
• How he ended up living with his bachelor father during high school.
• How he faked being an extrovert growing up.
• Why his friends called him 'The Mystery Man'.
• His decision between joining the monastery or becoming a poet.
• The entry point that broke him out of his intellect and into his body.
• The two-fold silent promise he made to his baby girl after she was born.

Mentioned In This Episode:

• Connect with Jeffrey: Tracking Wonder
• Quiet by Susan Cain
• Beat Generation
• William Carlos Williams: "The Red Wheelbarrow"
• Wallace Stevens
• Robert Creeley
• City Reservoir by Jeffrey Davis
• Focus by Daniel Goleman
• TKV Desikachar
• The Journey from the Center to the Page: Yoga Philosophies and Practices as Muse for Authentic Writing by Jeffrey Davis
• Shiva Suturas
• Grab your spot at the Camp GLP at the Early Bird discount rate!

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

Today's Good Life Project Roundtable™ features guests-in-residence Daniel Lerner and Gabra Zackman. This is session 3 in their three-week residency.

Dan Lerner is a leading expert on elite performance, excellence and the realization of unique potential, working with musicians, athletes, and numerous Fortune 500 companies and executives. He's on the faculty at both New York University (where he teaches the always waitlisted “The Science of Happiness”) and the University of Pennsylvania, where he works with the graduate program in Applied Positive Psychology. He is currently writing a book about the process and mindset that leads to healthy, uniquely individual excellence.

Gabra Zackman is an actress, writer and voice over artist, frequent traveler and lover of adventure. She works regularly in theater, has a parallel and sustaining career in audiobook narration, having recorded over 300 audiobooks to date, and has had great success with her first writing contract,the humorous, romantic, spy-centered BOD SQUAD series. Her life philosophy is 'Say yes...and rock what you got'.

Our three topics in this episode:

• How do you find those near-mystical collaborations?
• The surprising origins of mentors, what's in it for the mentor?
• Why you need to hold on to your most precious relationships loosely.

It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy! And let us know if you like this format, over on social media.

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

Ever hear of the 10,000 rule? The idea that it takes 10,000 hours to become world-class at anything?

Well, what if it wasn't true?

And, what if the research it was based on actually said something very different? Something that somehow got "lost in translation" when the data went mainstream.

In today's conversation, we sit down with K. Anders Ericsson, PhD, Professor of Psychology at Florida State University. He studies what it takes to be the best in the world in domains such as music, chess, medicine, and sports. And it was his research that served of the basis for the now wildly popular 10,000 hour rule that's been cited in some of the biggest books of the last 10 years..

Problem is, as you're about to discover, it's a lie. There never was a 10,000 rule. That number, along with the idea of a "rule," is based on a series of misinterpretations of his work.

In this new book, Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, and in today's conversation, Ericsson finally sets the record straight. He distills three decades of myth-shattering research into a powerful learning strategy that is fundamentally different from the way people traditionally think about acquiring new abilities.

EIn This Episode You’ll Learn:

• The difference between "traditional" practice, "purposeful" practice and "deliberate" practice.
• How Malcolm Gladwell may have misinterpreted Ericsson's research on the 10,000 hour rule.
• How Ericsson sees the importance of the role of a teacher in accelerating the path to expertise.
• What actually motivates someone to do the often grueling work for the years it takes to become great.
• How he's studied people who have learned and developed systems to memorize long strings of numbers.

Mentioned In This Episode:

• Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
• Whiplash

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

Today we're featuring a very special GLP Guest Riff with Melissa Ambrosini.

Melissa Ambrosini is the bestselling author of Mastering Your Mean Girl, an entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and self-love teacher.

In her signature straight-talking style, Melissa teaches women how to master their inner Mean Girl, smash through limiting beliefs, and ditch the self-doubt so that they can start truly living the life of their dreams.

THer mission is to inspire women across the globe to create a heart centred life that is wildly wealthy, fabulously healthy and bursting with love.

By now, there's a pretty good chance you've heard of FOMO or fear of missing out. In today's guest Riff, Melissa offers a provocative reframe, a little something she calls JOMO or the "joy" of missing out.

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

Today, I’m excited to be talking to Emily Heyward, co-founder of white-hot, Brooklyn-based branding phenomenon, Red Antler.

While attending Harvard, Emily took a deep dive into the study of pop culture, ethical philosophy, and what drives people at the core. After college, she entered the advertising world where her career began to take off.

After realizing she loved being in control, Emily decided to enter the world of entrepreneurship, co-founding the groundbreaking branding agency, Red Antler, which quickly exploded into one of the hottest shops, with a unique business-model. They serve early-stage ventures, often becoming involved on a level that goes way beyond traditional brand-building. Or in their words, they "build brands for startups that are changing how the world works."

I invited Emily to the Good Life Project to explore her life and her influences. She shares her thoughts about creating something of your own, as well as helping other visionaries build something that becomes a global brand and makes a huge impact on the world.

Don’t miss this behind-the-scenes look into the life of a successful entrepreneur and an incredible human being, Emily Heyward. 

In This Episode You’ll Learn:

• Emily Heyward growing up.
• The impetus behind starting her own business.
• One of the greatest lessons Emily learned - the power of delegating.
• What it takes to produce a podcast like Serial and why there are not many copy-cats.
• Emily’s take on the power of storytelling.
• What made her want to leave the advertising industry.
• Why Emily and her team valued reputation much more than paying rent early on in their business.
• The shocking statistics about the success rate of entrepreneurs with day jobs vs. ones who go all in.
• How Red Antler came to be.
• Why Emily credits their success to launching during a recession.
• Her authentic thoughts on the idea of work-life balance.

Mentioned In This Episode:

• Connect with Emily: RED ANTLER | LinkedIn
• Serial
• This American Life
• Gimlet Media
• www.Duarte.com
• The Confidence Game by Maria Konnikova
• Give and Take by Adam Grant
• Behance

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

This week's guest: 

This week, our in-depth conversation features David Burkus, dad, author, speaker, researcher, and associate professor of management at Oral Roberts University.

He teaches courses on organizational behavior, creativity and innovation, and strategic leadership and has made it his purpose to facilitate the transfer of good ideas.

THe is the author The Myths of Creativity: The Truth About How Innovative Companies Generate Great Ideas and writes regularly for Harvard Business Review, Forbes, PsychologyToday and 99U. He's also the founder and host of Radio Free Leader, a podcast that shares insights on leadership, innovation, and strategy.

His new book, Under New Management: How Leading Organizations Are Upending Business as Usual, draws on decades of research which has found that not only are many of our fundamental management practices wrong and misguided, but they can be downright counter-productive.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• How he ended up in a university teaching position he didn't see coming.
• Why paying people to quit is a great use of company funds, if you value culture.
• What happens when companies place their employees above their customers.
• That the smartest corporate leaders are the ones you've never heard of.
• Why some companies are re-evaluating or eliminating email all together.
• The benefits of pushing through the uncomfortableness of pay transparency.

Mentioned in This Episode:

• Zappos' Culture
• Zappos' transition to "Holacracy"
• Slack

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

Funny thing about competence. With rare exception, we so often look at others and think they've got it so much more together than us.

They're more skilled, smarter, more established, more connected, better able to do the thing we most want to do.

Except, it's almost always a lie.

We're all in that same "looking at the person ahead of us and wishing" boat. Thinking someday we'll get there. Or, maybe giving up and wondering how do we just be okay being okay.

When we determine our own self-worth, happiness or sense of fulfillment in comparison to others, we always lose. Because we're comparing our insides to their outsides. And, even if we knew their insides, they're not us.

So, here's the thing.

This day. This moment. We ARE enough. You Are Enough.

That's what this week's short and sweet GLP Riff is all about. And, it's a response to a listener email we recently received.

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

Today's Good Life Project Roundtable™ features guests-in-residence Daniel Lerner and Gabra Zackman. This is session 2 in their three-week residency.

Dan Lerner is a leading expert on elite performance, excellence and the realization of unique potential, working with musicians, athletes, and numerous Fortune 500 companies and executives. He's on the faculty at both New York University (where he teaches the always waitlisted “The Science of Happiness”) and the University of Pennsylvania, where he works with the graduate program in Applied Positive Psychology. He is currently writing a book about the process and mindset that leads to healthy, uniquely individual excellence.

Gabra Zackman is an actress, writer and voice over artist, frequent traveler and lover of adventure. She works regularly in theater, has a parallel and sustaining career in audiobook narration, having recorded over 300 audiobooks to date, and has had great success with her first writing contract, the humorous, romantic, spy-centered BOD SQUAD series. Her life philosophy is 'Say yes...and rock what you got'.

Our three topics in this episode:

• The soundbite culture, how we take things as gospel, without validation.
• Online, how do you tell the difference between con-artists and real deals?
• If you knew you were soon to die, what would your legacy work be?

It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy! And let us know if you like this format, over on social media.

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

Today's guest, Amy Koppelman, is a three-time novelist (so far), mom and an incredibly insightful human being. Her latest novel is Hesitation Wounds.

Amy's second book, I SMILE BACK, was turned into a movie starring Sarah Silverman that premiered at the 2015 Sundance, Toronto and Deauville Film Festivals.

I wanted to sit down with Amy, because I was drawn in by her immediate, visceral writing voice, her willingness to explore places that might scare off many others and also because of her lens on the writing journey and on life.

In this conversation, not only does Amy share a bundle of unfiltered advice on the creative writing process, she also takes us, very transparently, into her personal journey and her lifelong dance with depression, becoming a mom and wife and author and how each affected the other.

Listen in for some insightful thoughts on traversing the creative writing process to write your best work.  

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why every creative writer’s process has to be their own.
• Amy’s Tip: Assume that no one will read your writing. Your honesty will flow more freely to weave a more compelling story.
• The six-word story Hemingway wrote to win a bet.
• How using writing prompts can jumpstart your creative process when nothing else will.
• How Amy uses writing as a “toilet bowl” to therapeutically express emotions.
• Her method of expressing inner turmoil and using truth in her novel characters,
• Her view on mental health, depression, medication and therapy.
• Why comparing your work with that of professional artists isn’t a comparison at all and can lead to self-defeating tendencies.
• Amy’s take on “giving yourself permission” to do something that impacts others.
• Why personal suffering is NOT a core requirement for artists as many people believe.
• Confronting “Imposter Syndrome” when people ask “What do you do?”
• What it was like to be interviewed on air by the love of her life.

Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

• Amy’s Website: AmyKoppelman.com
• Amy’s Books: Hesitation Wounds, I Smile Back, A Mouthful Of Air
• Amy’s Interview on Her Husband’s Podcast
• J.D. Salinger
• Philip Roth - American Pastoral
• Chris ‘Daze’ Ellis (check back as we're airing an episode with him in July 2016)
• Michael Stewart
• Raymond Carver - A fantastic grammatical writer
• Toronto Film Festival

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

In Buddhism as well as in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, you'll find a conversation about four virtues known as the four immeasurables.

These are qualities that we might seek to both cultivate and then embody in the name of service. But, they're also known to have a profound affect on the way we experience challenge, stress, relationships, work and pretty much all of life.

Wondering what they are?

Loving-kindness

Compassion

Appreciative Joy

Equanimity

These are four virtues that I try to explore and cultivate in life. But, I was also curious, what might happen if you worked to cultivate the four immeasurables specifically in the quest to craft a meaningful business or career?

Exploring this question is what today's GLP Riff is all about.

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

Alec Ross is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Johns Hopkins University and the author of The New York Times bestseller The Industries of the Future.

He recently served for four years as Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Prior to his service in government, Alec was a social entrepreneur and served as convener from technology, media & telecommunications policy on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008.

Much of his interest in tapping technology and innovation to make a better world comes from his career as a sixth-grade teacher through Teach for America in inner-city Baltimore, during one of the most challenging times in the city's history, and also his upbringing in a small mining-turned-chemical town where opportunity was not always easily found.

In his book, The Industries of the Future, he explores what he believes will be the major growth industries and also career opportunities for the next few decades, while also shining the light on some of the most fascinating innovations of our time and offers a lens into where they're headed (and why we might want to get on board).

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• How growing up in a coal-turned-chemical town profoundly shaped his lens of work and life.
• His path from inner city teacher to the founder of an NGO to the tech and media policy director for the Obama campaign to working in the State Department under Hilary Clinton.
• Why he fears 'the gray twilight'.
• How he hacked solutions to foreign policy problems.
• How he got abuelas in Mexico to take down cartel leadership through texting.
• Why his name was a banned search term in China for 2 years.
• Why he believes that the next trillion dollar industry will be created from genetic code and personalized medicine.

Mentioned in This Episode:

• Theodore Roosevelt quote
• 65 percent of today’s grade-school kids may end up doing work that hasn’t been invented yet.
• Dr. Vogelstein considers the cancer genome
• Luis Alberto Diaz, Jr, M.D.

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

Caroline Paul is the New York Times best-selling author of four books, including her memoir about being a San Francisco firefighter, called Fighting Fire, and the illustrated Lost Cat, A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology. 

In her latest book, The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure, she shares her greatest escapades—as well as those of other girls and women from throughout history. The Gutsy Girl encourages a new generation to conquer fears, face challenges and pursue the lives they want—lives of confidence, self-reliance, friendship and fun.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• Her unlikely path to becoming one of the first women in the San Francisco Fire Department.
• How she learned that her brother was a secret animal liberation leader for 20 years.
• Is there such a thing a 'girl books' and 'boy books'?
• The writing collective that kept her sane.
• Why she loves flying experimental planes, but not all the fancy gadgets and gear.

Mentioned in This Episode:

• No Boys Allowed: School visits as a woman writer by Shannon Hale
• Why Do We Teach Girls That It’s Cute to Be Scared? by Caroline Paul
• Celia Slater's work with True North Sports
• When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
• Fighting Fire by Caroline Paul

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

I'm not a big surfer, but I grew up on the water and around the water.

Over the years, I've noticed a number of powerful parallels between surfing and entrepreneurship. And, sitting at the beach one day, I started to think about what surfing might teach you about launching and growing a venture.

I distilled these ideas into a short essay, which I'm sharing as spoken word in today's short and sweet Good Life Project Riff.

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

Today's Good Life Project Roundtable™ features guests-in-residence Daniel Lerner and Gabra Zackman. This is session 1 in their three-week residency.

Dan Lerner is a leading expert on elite performance, excellence and the realization of unique potential, working with musicians, athletes, and numerous Fortune 500 companies and executives. He's on the faculty at both New York University (where he teaches the always waitlisted “The Science of Happiness”) and the University of Pennsylvania, where he works with the graduate program in Applied Positive Psychology. He is currently writing a book about the process and mindset that leads to healthy, uniquely individual excellence.

Gabra Zackman is an actress, writer and voice over artist, frequent traveler and lover of adventure. She works regularly in theater, has a parallel and sustaining career in audiobook narration, having recorded over 300 audiobooks to date, and has had great success with her first writing contract,the humorous, romantic, spy-centered BOD SQUAD series. Her life philosophy is 'Say yes...and rock what you got'. They'll be our guests-in-residence for the next three weeks, so buckle up.

Our three topics in this episode:

• Is there a double-standard for male Romance book models?
• Who are the musicians creating real social commentary today?
• How is technology interacting with conversation soft signals?

It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy! And let us know if you like this format, over on social media.

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

Today's guest, John O'Leary, has lived through worse than most can imagine.

At age nine, a fire burned 100% of his body. He spent five months in the hospital, underwent dozens of surgeries, lost all of his fingers to amputation and had to relearn to walk, write, and feed himself.

He endured, persevered, and survived – largely because others emerged, served and inspired. He now lives to share the life-giving lessons from his story in a new book, On Fire: The 7 Choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life.

In This episode, You’ll Learn:

• +How the fire that burned him affected his siblings.
• What it was like to date and eventually find love and marry
• Why the great goal of his life for so many years was just to be ordinary
• How he was called from carpenter and roof layer, to international inspirational speaker.
• How a book his parents wrote to say thank you to their community altered the course of his life forever.
• Four questions that you can ask yourself every day that will allow you to live an awesome mindset.

Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

• Overwhelming Odds

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

Today's Guest Riff is brought to you by Katie Dalebout.

She’s the author of the book Let It Out: A Journey Through Journaling.

Katie helps people develop a positive image of their bodies by embracing their creativity and personality outside of their physicality. She’s on a mission to share journaling tools that invoke deeper authenticity and self-awareness.

And, today's short and sweet GLP Riff is all about, you guessed it, journaling, what it is, what it isn't, what it does for you, why you should never edit when journaling and she even offers some tips and prompts to get you started.

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

Today's Good Life Project Roundtable™ features guests-in-residence Susan Piver and Lodro Rinzler. This is the last session in their three-week residency.

Susan is a New York Times bestselling author, teacher, and founder of the international mindfulness community, The Open Heart Project. Working to create a good human world, one breath at a time.

Lodro is a teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage, the author of five books on meditation, and the founder of M N D F L, a new studio making meditation accessible to all New Yorkers, and the Institute for Compassionate Leadership. They'll be our guests-in-residence for the next three weeks, so buckle up.

Our three topics in this episode:

• Who do you idolize and why?
• What does the future of meditation look like?
• There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes.

It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy! And let us know if you like this format, over on social media.

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

Today's guest is Arianna Huffington, co-founder, president, and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, and author of fifteen books.

In May 2005, she launched The Huffington Post, a news and blog site that quickly became one of the most widely-read, linked to, and frequently-cited media brands on the Internet.

In 2012, the site won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. Huffington has been named to Time Magazine's list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list.

Originally from Greece, Huffington moved to England when she was 16 and graduated from Cambridge University with an M.A. in economics. At 21, she became president of the debating society, the Cambridge Union. She serves on numerous boards, including The Center for Public Integrity and The Committee to Protect Journalists.

A devoted mom with a deepening focus on redefining the metrics of a life well-lived beyond business, she's decided to make sleep her revolutionary cause with her latest book, The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life One Night At A Time.

In This episode, You’ll Learn:

• What family means to Arianna and how her Greek heritage shaped her lens on relationships.
• How an health incident awakened her to the important of redefining success.
• Why she chose sleep as the subject of her attention and new book.
• Why sleep may well be the single biggest game-changer for your life.
• What Arianna's doing to make her smartphone into a dumb phone.
• Simple things you can start that will make the biggest difference in your sleep.
• How sleep affects mood, cravings and weight.

Mentioned In This Episode:

• Overwhelming Odds
• #SleepRevolution College Tour

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

Finish what you start.

Don't be a quitter.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

It's a lesson we all learned from well-intended advice-givers somewhere along the way. It's all about character.

Life's hard, things get hard, the people who survive and do great things in business and life are the ones who keep going, no matter what the road throws in our way.

But, what if that was wrong?

FWhat if the people who do great things are are the ones who aren't afraid to quit a parade of wrong things in the name of making the space needed to see and then do the right ones?

What if finishing what you started was only half the story? The other half being the potential benefits?

This is what today's GLP Guest Riff is all about, and it comes from World Domination Summit founder and New York Times bestselling author of the new book, Born For This, Chris Guillebeau.

Chris delivers some straight-shooting myth-busting about "stick-to-it-iveness," or when it makes sense to keep going and when the best option, both for you and for those you eventually seek to serve, is to just walk away.

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

Today's Good Life Project Roundtable™ features guests-in-residence Susan Piver and Lodro Rinzler. This is session 2 in their three-week residency.

Susan is a New York Times bestselling author, teacher, and founder of the international mindfulness community, The Open Heart Project. Working to create a good human world, one breath at a time.

Lodro is a teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage, the author of five books on meditation, and the founder of M N D F L, a new studio making meditation accessible to all New Yorkers, and the Institute for Compassionate Leadership.

Our three topics in this episode:

• Is there such a thing as 'the one' in relationships and how do you know?
• Everyone wants to own the results, but why not the process?
• How to be okay when your co-workers reject you.

It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy! And let us know if you like this format, over on social media.

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

Today's conversation features Krista Tippett, a Peabody-award-winning broadcaster, New York Times bestselling author, and National Humanities Medalist.

As the creator and host of public radio’s On Being, she takes up the great questions of meaning amidst the political, economic, cultural, and technological shifts of 21st century life.

In 2013, Krista took On Being and its emergent Civil Conversations Project into independent production, creating "a social enterprise with a radio show at its heart." She grew up in Oklahoma, attended Brown University, was a journalist and diplomat in Cold War Berlin, and holds a masters of divinity from Yale.

Her books include Einstein's God, Speaking of Faith, and most recently Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living.

In This episode, You’ll Learn:

• Lessons she drew from her hellfire and brimstone Southern Baptist grandfather.
• Her experience being in East Germany while the wall was still up.
• What drew her to divinity school.
• Why pitching her idea for On Being was a hard sell in the early 1990's.
• Why it took 2 years to convince her to release the long form, unedited content of her show and why this resonates with listeners.
• What essential quality she thinks is a mark of wisdom.
• Why leaning into mystery, being fully grounded in our bodies, and returning to the beloved community are so crucial today.
• How joy and hope play into the attainment and expression of wisdom.

Mentioned In This Episode:

• Rachel Naomi Remen — Listening Generously
• Robert Cialdini - consistency principle
• The research of Richard Davidson
• Jonathan's conversation with Liz Gilbert

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

Spend 3 ½ days with us at the end of August at our "summer camp for grown-ups." Drop the facade, revel in new friendships, play, create, move, relax and learn powerful strategies for work and life. Learn more now!

+This week's GLP Guest Riff comes from Productive Flourishing founder and process/growth maven, Charlie Gilkey.

Charlie read Jonathan's original essay, The Content Delusion, which we aired as last week's GLP Riff, and felt the need to respond. He wanted to go deeper and explore what he calls the Sustainability Thesis, while also debunking two huge myths about building a business or a career.

In this provocative, philosophical and actionable riff, he dives into the idea of "scaling" your business and why, for some, that is a fantastic idea, while for others, it is a terrible one. He also explores the "dollars for hours" myth for service professionals and offers a potential defense of it as a way to build a business that is so often maligned not only in the online space, but in the community of "legitimate business" in general.

It is a great compliment to last week's Content Delusion Riff and also a bit of a reset and a permission slip to elevate service over freedom.

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

Today's Good Life Project Roundtable™ features guests-in-residence Susan Piver and Lodro Rinzler. This is session 1 in their three-week residency.

Susan is a New York Times bestselling author, teacher, and founder of the international mindfulness community, The Open Heart Project. Working to create a good human world, one breath at a time.

Lodro is a teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage, the author of five books on meditation, and the founder of M N D F L, a new studio making meditation accessible to all New Yorkers, and the Institute for Compassionate Leadership. They'll be our guests-in-residence for the next three weeks, so buckle up.

Our three topics in this episode:

• When women get emotional, do you secretly think they're crazy?
• Do we have to love the people we hate?
• Fame for fame's sake, what gives?

It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy! And let us know if you like this format, over on social media.

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

Today's conversation features Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome series, three time Webby Award winner, Harvard MBA grad, former Director of Leadership Development at Walmart, and husband, father, son, and brother.

He is the author of a new book, The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything, which started as a letter to his unborn child on how to live a happy life, after his wife told him she was pregnant on the flight home from their honeymoon!

TIn This episode, You’ll Learn:

• How Neil divides his time into 3 buckets for optimal happiness (and how they are different from the 3 buckets Jonathan offers).
• Why wanting can often lead to the exact opposite of happiness.
• Why he advocates for a 'home contract' as a key to happiness, in addition to a business or employment contract.
• How action leads to motivation, not the other way around.
• Why he's loving the word practice these days.

Mentioned In This Episode:

• 100 Awesome Things
• The 3 A's of awesome
• The Institute for Global Happiness

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

There’s this unfortunate delusion that’s gaining credibility in the world of entrepreneurship and careers.

The road to growth is paved with "content." Write, film, record and produce content and the world will rush to your doorstep.

You don’t have to put your “self” out there anymore, just put your content out there.

Problem is, it preys on a particular fear, and it’s based on a lie. At least, in part.

Content, done right, can be a fantastic mechanism to build an idea into a platform, a brand, a reputation, position, entity, business or organization. But, it’s also a way to hide from the other piece of the launch and growth pie. The side of the equation that is about something else. Something that scares us. Something that, skipped, will still leave you playing a losing game. That's what today's GLP Riff is about.

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Today's Good Life Project Roundtable™ is the third and final week for our current guests-in-residence Emiliya Zhivotovskaya, MAPP and and Bob Gower.

Emiliya is a leading voice in the world of positive psychology and the science of flourishing, and is the founder of the Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology program, which is the largest in the world. In a past life she was a party entertainer and knows pretty much every group dance ever invented.

Bob is a deep systems-thinker, author of Agile Business, organizational-dynamics consultant to some of the largest companies in the world. He's also an ex-cult member, and that comes out in interesting ways in the conversation.

Our three topics in this episode:

• What's up with the "divine feminine?"
• Does creative genius demand suffering?
• Are we trapped by our past actions and statements?

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

This week, our in-depth conversation features Cathy Burke, speaker, author, and global change maker has served as CEO of The Hunger Project Australia for nearly two decades, and has traveled extensively across the villages of Africa and South Asia in her work of ending hunger.

Cathy has been profoundly changed by what she has experienced. The women and men she has met have given her the most enduring lessons in life and leadership, resilience and the power of the human will.

She is the author of the book, Unlikely Leaders: Lessons in leadership from the village classroom, These stories are captivating and moving, providing a roadmap for personal and social change.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• How Cathy awakened to both the truth of world hunger and her role in helping to end it
• What her first trip to Ethiopia taught her that she (and her group) never saw coming
• How harnessing the power of women to lead is the ultimate catalyst
• How her work has forever changed her

Mentioned in This Episode:

• The Hunger Project

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

There are times it makes sense to throw money at a problem, and times when that's not only the worst thing you can do, it's also the least effective.

When we think about performing better, whether it's at work, in sport, even relationships, we often focus first on the things that are easiest to "tweak."

Without fail, those things are less about the "core of the matter" and more about 'optimizing the margins." And, if we can do it by buying our way to better, investing in higher-end gear, apparel, equipment, supplies, materials or technology, we try to replace work with money.

Thing is, that's often the least effective way to get where we so desperately want to go.

What if, instead of spending all of your time, work and money optimizing the margins, you focused instead on optimizing the core? Not by purchasing your way into it, but by working your way into it?

That's what we're talking about in this week's Good Life Project Riff.

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

Today's Good Life Project Roundtable™ features guests-in-residence Emiliya Zhivotovskaya, MAPP and and Bob Gower.

Emiliya is a leading voice in the world of positive psychology and the science of flourishing, and is the founder of the Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology program, which is the largest in the world. In a past life, she was a party entertainer and knows pretty much every group dance ever invented.

Bob is a deep systems-thinker, author of Agile Business, organizational-dynamics consultant to some of the largest companies in the world. He's also an ex-cult member, and that comes out in interesting ways in the conversation. They'll be our guests-in-residence for the next two weeks, so buckle up.

This is week two in their residency, to be followed by their third and final week next week.

Our three topics in this episode:

• Making time for unadulterated joy and play.
• Is it getting easier to fly your freak flag without being rejected?
• How can you hack your "best self?"

It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy! And let us know if you like this format, over on social media.

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

Today’s guest, Eric Zimmer, is the host of the wonderful The One You Feed podcast.

Growing up in Ohio, his life took a hard turn and began to spin out of control. He eventually found himself addicted to heroin and alcohol, living in a van and struggling to make sense of the world. After years living in an ever-darkening place, though, he was able to tap into a hidden well of strength, get help, get clean and rebuild his life.

But, his journey into addiction was not yet over. Believing he could go from clean and sober to casual use, he found himself spiraling back into that place of despair. But this time realized he'd have to make bigger, longer-lasting change, accept certain truths about who he was and create a way to perpetually "feed his good wolf, not his bad one."

Along the way, he rebuilt his life, relationships, and career and found solace and fulfillment in, believe it or not, podcasting. He now hosts and produces the hugely popular, The One You Feed podcast, with his childhood friend, Chris Forbes.

In this week's conversation, Eric is incredibly transparent and generous in sharing his journey, both the profound struggles and the great awakenings. He also shares how his quest to take back his life eventually led him to podcasting, back to music, to new relationships and a deep and abiding knowledge of the human condition. And he reveals how that, in turn, led him to develop a set of skills that enabled him to not only help himself, but help others move into better places as an advisor and coach. If you've ever struggled to find your way out of darkness, this is a don't miss conversation.

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