Good Life Project

We’ve all been told, try to live a life without regret. But, what if regret was actually a good thing? That’s the highly provocative question today’s guest, Dan Pink ask. And then answer with a whole bunch of scientifically researched and validated ways that regret can actually be an incredibly valuable experience, and power tool for a life well-lived. In fact, a life entirely without regret, he argues, might even do more harm than good. I’ve known Dan for well over a decade now, and he’s been on the show a number of times over the years. A former White House speechwriter, he left politics and shifted focus to writing books that open our eyes to the human condition and plant seeds to do life better, including New York Times bestsellers A Whole New Mind, Drive, To Sell Is Human, and When. His books have sold millions of copies, been translated into forty-two languages, and have won multiple awards.In Dan's new book, The Power of Regret, he takes on a topic we’ve all grappled with, and gives it a surprising reframe. He draws on research in psychology, neuroscience, economics, and biology to challenge widely-held assumptions about emotions and behavior. Using the largest sampling of American attitudes about regret ever conducted as well as his own World Regret Survey—which has collected regrets from more than 16,000 people in 105 countries—he identifies the four core regrets that most people have. These four regrets, Dan argues, operate as a “photographic negative” of the good life. In it, and through our conversation today, we find out how regret, our most misunderstood emotion, can be the pathway to our best life.You can find Dan at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the earlier conversation we had with Dan about the powerful role of timing in life.Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the WheelVisit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So, what might happen if you let go of what you thought your life would or should be, and created the space to let it show you what it truly yearns to be? Then, followed that thread. That’s been the experience of today’s guest, Parker Palmer. Graduating Berkley with a Ph.D. in ‘69, he thought he’d head into the world of academia, but instead found himself heading to DC to become an activist and community organizer for 5 years. But, something else began to call him, and he took what he thought would be a short sojourn to a Quaker learning community that turned into 11 years. Over time, a new sense of calling emerged as a writer, speaker and activist who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality and social change. Parker is founder and Senior Partner Emeritus of the Center for Courage & Renewal, which offers long-term retreat programs for people in the serving professions, including teachers, physicians, non-profit leaders, and clergy. Along the way, he’s written a series of bestselling books, including A Hidden Wholeness, Let Your Life Speak, The Company of Strangers, and On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity and Getting Old. In this deeply-moving conversation, Parker shares this journey and many of insights, as well as how three seasons of profound depression have shaped his experience of life, and lens on people, compassion, belonging and beyond.You can find Parker at: Website | FacebookIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Jerry Colonna, who also happens to be a close friend of Parker.Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKED. Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you noticed how hard it’s become to focus these days, to know what really matters, get out of the stuck zone, start to build momentum and actually finish the stuff that truly is important to you? It was already hard in Before Times, and now, we might as well go ahead and 10X the challenge. If you’re feeling this, you’re not alone. The struggle is real. But, what if there was a way to quickly figure out what matters most, focus on that, dislodge the wheel-spinning inertia, get unstuck, and go from idea to done? To become a productivity Jedi. That is what we're talking about in today's powerful Best Of conversation with one of my closest advisors, regular collaborator, multi-award-winning author of the book, Start Finishing, and founder of Productive Flourishing Charlie Gilkey. We dive into Charlie's specific ideas around why so much of our effort to be productive fails, and how to rewire our brains and schedules and actions to more easily see beyond distraction, identify what really matters, choose what’s worth finishing, then take immediate action to make it happen. Along the way, we also explore how Charlie's highly-unique background as a philosopher, military officer, productivity strategist and consultant to creative professionals, founders and fast-growth entrepreneurial teams has shaped his powerful lens of going from idea to done.You can find Charlie at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Brad Feld about focusing in what really matters in life or what he calls picking your 2% and putting everything up against it.Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKED.Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Imagine walking through life, knowing who you are, but not feeling like you can live as that person? That was how my guest today, Imara Jones, experienced the first half of her life, before making a series of choices that would allow her to feel safe and supported stepping back into her own life, on her terms. Imara is the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning founder of TransLash Media, a cross-platform journalism, personal storytelling and narrative project, which produces content to shift the current culture of hostility towards transgender people in the US. As part of her work at TransLash, she hosts the WEBBY-nominated, TransLash Podcast with Imara Jones as well as the investigative, limited series, The Anti-Trans Hate Machine. In 2019, she chaired the first-ever UN High-Level Meeting on Gender Diversity and was featured on the cover of Time Magazine in 2020 as part of its New American Revolution special edition. She’s held economic policy posts in the White House and communications positions at Viacom. Imara’s work as a host, on-air news analyst, contributor, and writer has been featured everywhere from The Guardian, The Nation, MSNBC, CNBC, and NPR to Mic, and Colorlines, and focuses on the full range of social justice and equity issues. We explore Imara’s experiences growing up in a family and culture where revealing and living her truth felt not just uncomfortable, but unsafe, how that experience is universal to so many, and how she made choices that effectively empowered her to reclaim a sense of agency, identity, and purpose. And, we explore the power of representation in media, stories, and everyday life as a vehicle to open minds, conversation, and cultivate understanding, connection and the sense of shared humanity we all long for, especially now.You can find Imara at: Website | Instagram | TransLash PodcastIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Thomas Page McBee.Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKED.Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Millions of us are re-examining the role of work in our lives, getting more honest about what it needs to give us, beyond a paycheck. And we're realizing the way we're working isn't working. So, how do you know what opportunities will truly fill you with purpose, possibility, joy and connection, and what will leave you disengaged, empty and disconnected? How do you know whether to stay where you are and reinvent the way you do your job, or look for or start something entirely new? The decisions we make now may well change the course of our lives for the better - if we make the right call - but also for the worse, if we choose wrong. That thing everyone's calling The Great Resignation also has the potential to turn into The Regret. So, how do you set yourself up to understand what jobs, teams, projects, companies, roles or opportunities to run toward, and what to run from? That's what we're diving into in today's special 2022 jumpstart episode, with a focus on understanding and tapping your source-code level driver for work that makes you come alive - your Sparketype®. And, remember, every Monday for the entire month of January, we're bringing you these special deep-dive episodes featuring a single topic that is critical to your ability to live your best live, and set up 2022 for growth and possibility.You can find the 1-page worksheet HERE.Find All Of The Episodes In This Series:How to Do the Ultimate Year-End ReviewHow to Accomplish Big Things | The 2022 PlanHow to Feel More Alive | The 2022 PlanCheck out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKEDVisit Our Sponsor Page For a Complete List of Vanity URLs & Discount Codes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When you think about the word “prayer,” does it repel you, trigger you, or draw you in? My guest today, Agapi Stassinopoulos, offers a way into this sometimes loaded word that is both inclusive and powerful, no matter your beliefs, your background, or relationship with any kind of organized religion. The type of prayer she invites us to invoke operates on a very different level. One that anyone can get behind, and find connection and solace from. And this idea, along with many specific examples, is the focus of her newest book, Speaking with Spirit: 52 Prayers to Guide, Inspire, and Uplift You.Agapi is what I like to call a walking hug. She embodies love, which in fact is the translation of her name. A best-selling author and speaker who inspires audiences around the world, after being raised in Athens, Agapi was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, but then shifted direction, focusing her wisdom, words and presence away from the theatrical stage, getting her master’s in psychology and speaking more directly to the hearts and minds of people with intention of inspiring us all to live better lives. She’s authored numerous books, spoken to organizations around the world, from L’Oreal, Accenture, and LinkedIn to Google, Nike, Starbucks, Museum of Modern Art, and hundreds of others. In today’s conversation, we dive deep into what happens we muster the courage to speak aloud a hard truth, a deep need, open to vulnerability, and reconnect with something bigger than ourselves. If there was ever a time to embrace this idea, it’s now.You can find Agapi at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Agapi in a prior episode that shares more of her personal story, and the experiences that have shaped her.Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKED. Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

These last few years have left so many of us feeling drained, stifled, without energy, excitement or well, happiness or joy. At least not consistently. And that’s understandable, it’s been a tough moment. But, what if access to feeling these things was more in your control, regardless of your immediate circumstance, than you thought? That feeling of being alive, of flourishing, of feeling positive and hopeful and connected, it’s so important to our ability to live a good life. And after all, that’s what GLP has been all about, for a decade now.So, today, we’re going to dive into a powerful, science-backed model that comes out of the world of positive psychology, that’ll help you understand how to reclaim those feelings of flourishing or aliveness that, for so many, seem to have gone missing over these last few years, no matter what life has delivered to your doorstep. And, along with each element, we’re including specific actions you can take to start feeling more like yourself, more alive and capable and connected than maybe you have in a long while. A quick reminder, I am not a mental health professional. While the ideas and the framework and specific exercises I’m about to share come from the world of research and clinical application, if appropriate for your unique needs and circumstances, please be sure to check in with friends, family, the many freely available mental health resources, and a qualified mental health professional. Okay, now, so excited to share today’s exploration of how to feel more alive in this new year.You can find the 1-page worksheet HERE.Find All Of The Episodes In This Series:How to Do the Ultimate Year-End ReviewHow to Accomplish Big Things | The 2022 PlanCheck out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKED.Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest today, Yrsa Daley-Ward, is an author, actor, model, and screenwriter of mixed Jamaican and Nigerian heritage. Growing up in the northwest of England, she found herself quickly exited from her home, being raised by her grandparents at the age of 6, and struggling in many ways to understand what had just happened. Reading and writing became her salvation. A more introverted kid, raised in a strict religious family, in a tradition that no one outside the family shared, being vegetarian, and the only Black person in her school who also happened to stand nearly a foot above her peers by her early teens, she yearned to just fit in. To not stand out. She didn’t want to be different. Yet, something in the order of magic happened when her teacher noticed Yrsa’s gift for language and asked her to begin sharing her poems before the class as spoken words. She came alive. It was like she stepped outside herself and all was as it should be. And that very feeling, though stifled for a time, would come roaring back to life years later when, living in Cape Town, South Africa, she stumbled into a weekly poetry group. Following a weekly prompt, Yrsa wrote a poem entitled Mental Health, then performed it from the stage. The response took her breath away. In that moment, she knew this would be her life. And, it has become just that.Now, three books and many stages in, having cultivated a giant global community, co-written Beyoncé's musical film and visual album, Black Is King, her work has appeared in Vogue, Elle, Harpers Bazaar, and so many other outlets. Her work draws from her own experiences and larger issues affecting our behavior, culture, and life, fusing poetry with theatre, music, and storytelling, while sharing universal, often hard, but honest and real experiences in verse, in a way that draws you in and makes you feel less alone. Yrsa’s newest book ‘The How,’ was written entirely during the pandemic, and we talk about her journey to this moment, explore some of the poems and ideas, and also dive into what it was like to create work that is so close to the bone at a moment like this.You can find Yrsa at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Cleo Wade, about crafting language, performing and moving people.Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKED.Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is there something big that you would love to accomplish in this new year? Something maybe you've been thinking about for a while, something maybe you have tried to figure out, try to succeed at tried to accomplish in the past, maybe something that was a new year's resolution in the past, though, it doesn't necessarily have to be. We live in different times and, very often that affects what we want to accomplish. And this thing that to you is big, it doesn't have to be big to anyone else. It can be something internally. It can be so as important to you as learning how to get really comfortable in social situations, it can be something external, like running a 10k it can be something like finding a new job, or something that is just really deeply personal, like writing a book or pretty using a podcast, whatever it may be.Is there something big that as you step into this new world, you would love to make happen this year, but really can't wrap your head around how to make it happen? Well, if that's you, then this entire episode is going to help you a ton. I'm going to walk you through what I call my Success Scaffolding, introducing you to the eight elements. I call them the eight Ps and each one of these is critical to succeeding at anything that is not sort of, you know, accomplished in the blink of an eye. Anything substantial, anything that will take effort that is sustained over a longer window of time, anything where the stakes are higher and really deeply meaningful to you, anything where maybe you have tried in the past and just it hasn't worked for so many different reasons. What I'm about to share with you may also explain exactly why past attempts have not gotten you to where you wanna be, and also give you a really powerful step-by-step framework to accomplish anything big in nearly any context, any part of your life. That is what I'm going to walk you through today. Success Scaffolding, the eight Ps, and how to accomplish anything really big. So excited to share this framework with you.You can find the 1-page worksheet HERE.Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKED.Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As we bring this year to a close, and what a year it’s been, I’ve been reflecting on how profound so much of the past 12-months have been. So much change, uncertainty, and disconnection, inexplicably bundled with moments of profound hopefulness, connection, creation, and possibility. Along the way, I’ve had the incredible opportunity to sit down with over 100 of the wisest, most inspiring, genuine, kind, creative, and “tapped into source” human beings through the vehicle of this podcast. It has, in no small way, been an anchor, and a source of deep nourishment. So, I’ve been spending time reflecting on the people, conversations, ideas, stories and moments that’ve really moved me over this last year on the podcast, on a quest to distill them down into a handful of powerful moments that might serve as both a reflection, an honoring, and, in a weird way, a body of evidence that, yes, we still have much work to do in the world, but at the same time, there are so many beautifully big-hearted, open-minded, impact-driven humans who continue to live and give and create and offer and gather in ways that give me hope, tethered to the acknowledge that, even in hard times, there is good to be savored, and even in the face of adversity, there is reason to believe in the possibility.While it’s impossible to share every person, story, idea, and conversation, we’ve curated a handful of the conversations, ideas, and stories that’ve really stayed with me, generated amazing responses from our incredible community, and speak to the possibility of coming together to not just inhabit, but bring into existence the world in which we seek to live. So excited to share this 2021 year-in-review montage with you. If you LOVED this episode:You can find Valarie at: Full Conversation | Instagram | Understanding America: 20 Years LaterYou can find Peter Frampton at: Full Conversation | Website | InstagramYou can find Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis at: Full Conversation | Website | Instagram | Love.Period. podcastYou can find Andy at: Full Conversation | Website | Instagram | Creative Pep Talk PodcastYou can find Anthony at: Full Conversation | Website | InstagramYou can find Mel at: Full Conversation | Join The High 5 Challenge | InstagramYou can find Justin at: Full Conversation | Instagram | Man Enough PodcastYou can find Tara Brach at: Full Conversation | Website | InstagramYou can find Ocean at: Full Conversation | Website | InstagramYou can find Rev. angel Kyodo williams at: Full Conversation | Instagram | WebsiteMy new book Sparked.Check out our offerings & partners: Outschool: Inspire kids to love learning with Outschool classes. It's 100% fun, live & teacher-led. Explore over 100,000 topics and learn in small groups via Zoom. Perfect for ages 3-18. Join for free. To learn more about all Outschool has to offer and to save $15 off your child’s first class go to Outschool.com/GOODLIFE  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Even as a kid, my guest, Elizabeth lesser was the rebel, the activist, the feminist in the family. Growing up with three sisters, and one very traditional father, she could never understand why the women didn't make more decisions and have more power. Hers was not a voice that could be silenced, even from the earliest age. She eventually traveled down a path of activism, social justice, graduated from Barnard, became a student of a renowned Sufi mystic, and studied with a wide range of spiritual teachers. Her fierce devotion to discovering what is real and true, teamed with a passion for advocacy and intentional community, lead Elizabeth to co-found the iconic Omega Institute, a 140-acre communal gathering and learning retreat in Rhinebeck, New York, that has hosted everyone from Eckhart Tolle, Eve Ensler, and Maya Angelou, to Pema Chödrön, Ram Dass, Allen Ginsberg, Gloria Steinem, Pete Seeger, and thousands of other luminaries from every tradition and walk of life.Elizabeth also found an outlet in writing, eventually penning a series of moving memoirs and social commentary. Her book, Marrow: A Love Story, shares her experience of profound reconnection and healing between her and the sister, who she’d donate bone marrow to in a quest to save her life. Her most recent book, Cassandra Speaks: When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes, reveals how humanity has outgrown its origin tales and hero myths, and empowers women to trust their instincts, find their voice, and tell new guiding stories. In today’s deep-dive Best Of conversation, we explore the moments, stories and insights that awakened her call to action, community, and creativity, and how a personal crisis, in the form of her sister’s cancer, led to unforeseen reconnection and reckoning that eventually led to reconciliation and healing. And, right now, we could all use a little more of this. You can find Elizabeth at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Glennon Doyle about honoring your deeper voice of truth and becoming untamed.My new book Sparked.Check out our offerings & partners: Outschool: Inspire kids to love learning with Outschool classes. It's 100% fun, live & teacher-led. Explore over 100,000 topics and learn in small groups via Zoom. Perfect for ages 3-18. Join for free. To learn more about all Outschool has to offer and to save $15 off your child’s first class go to Outschool.com/GOODLIFE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest today, Mansi Shah, spent years building a stunning career as a lawyer in the fast-moving world of Hollywood entertainment, working with some of the most iconic storytellers in the industry. But, behind her success as an entertainment lawyer, a lifelong yearning was brewing. She felt deeply called to not just help others tell their stories, often built around narratives that didn’t resonate with her background, but to actually be the storyteller, herself. And, to focus her lens on bringing the authentic immigrant experience, her own personal and family story, to a wide audience. So, she started writing her own stories, eventually penning the book that would become the groundbreaking and beautiful new novel, The Taste of Ginger. But that journey was anything but easy or linear. Over the 10-years since she started writing, the story and the book took countless turns. The early manuscript was, in fact, rejected by the very editor who, years later, would circle back to acquire and then champion it. Along the way, Mansi’s lens on what the story could be and needed to be, and how she needed to honor her creative impulse, commitment to advocacy, and desire to speak to people who were so often left out of the popular storytelling narrative, evolved and became centered in a way that only time and reflection could have crafted. We explore all of this in today’s conversation.You can find Mansi at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Dr. Sayantani DasGupta about writing stories that expand the landscape of popular narratives.My new book Sparked.Check out our offerings & partners: Outschool: Inspire kids to love learning with Outschool classes. It's 100% fun, live & teacher-led. Explore over 100,000 topics and learn in small groups via Zoom. Perfect for ages 3-18. Join for free. To learn more about all Outschool has to offer and to save $15 off your child’s first class go to Outschool.com/GOODLIFEParachute: Premium quality sheets, towels, robes and more. Like nothing you've ever felt. Make staying in more comfortable with our modern home collections. Responsibly manufactured. Visit ParachuteHome.com/GOODLIFE for free shipping and returns on Parachute’s very comfortable home essentials.Bean Box: Give the coffee fanatic in your life an unforgettable coffee-tasting experience with Bean Box. Our coffee is expertly curated and always fresh, with fast delivery and free shipping. Order today at beanbox.com/GOODLIFE and get 15% off purchases of $40 or more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do you live a good life? That’s the question we’ve been asking here for nearly a decade. My guest today, Cathy Heller, has been along a similar journey, exploring the role of intentionality, purpose, and presence in a life well-lived. Raised in a household where mental illness and conflict were the norm, she took on the role of peacemaker at the age of 5, became a deep observer of human behavior, first, out of necessity, then out of curiosity, and eventually from the lens of calling. Cathy is a seeker in many ways. After studying mysticism and religion in college, followed by 3 years deepening her study of mysticism and self-actualization in Jerusalem, she headed back west, landing in LA, and looking to make her mark in the world of music. She eventually did, but in a way Cathy never saw coming. She became so successful, in fact, Cathy felt called to share what she’d learned, which launched her into the world of teaching, writing, distance learning, and launching her wildly popular Don’t Keep Your Day Job podcast, which has over 25 million downloads. Her book of the same name, Don’t Keep Your Day Job, offers a step-by-step approach to not just building a purpose-centered living, but also a deeply intentional life. Cathy is a sort of modern mystic meets kindness crusader meets creative visionary meets business savant. More simply, she’s a walking bundle of love and wisdom, and we talk about it all in today’s conversation. You can find Cathy at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Morgan Harper Nichols about crafting a creative life and living around openness and honesty.My new book Sparked.Check out our offerings & partners: Outschool: Inspire kids to love learning with Outschool classes. It's 100% fun, live & teacher-led. Explore over 100,000 topics and learn in small groups via Zoom. Perfect for ages 3-18. Join for free. To learn more about all Outschool has to offer and to save $15 off your child’s first class go to Outschool.com/GOODLIFEBean Box: Give the coffee fanatic in your life an unforgettable coffee-tasting experience with Bean Box. Our coffee is expertly curated and always fresh, with fast delivery and free shipping. Order today at beanbox.com/GOODLIFE and get 15% off purchases of $40 or more.Theragun: A deep muscle massage treatment, unlike anything you've ever felt. Feel better, move better, and recover faster with tension and soreness relief. Try Theragun for 30-days starting at only $199. Go to Therabody.com/GOODLIFE right now and get your Gen 4 Theragun today.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You may know my guest today, Jeffrey Marsh, from their spiritual and inclusive messages that have received over 1 billion views on social media. Jeffrey is a viral TikTok and Instagram sensation, the first openly nonbinary public figure to be interviewed on national television, and the first nonbinary author to be offered a book deal with any "Big 5" publisher, at Penguin Random House. Jeffrey’s bestselling Buddhist self-esteem guide How To Be You, is an innovative, category-non-conforming work that combines memoir, workbook, and spiritual advice, inviting anyone and everyone into the conversation through a lens of kindness and inclusivity. How To Be You topped Oprah's Gratitude Meter and was named Excellent Book of the Year by TED-Ed. Jeffrey has also been a student and teacher of Zen for over twenty years, and this practice has been central to both their lens on life, and capacity to do the work they do in a grounded, deeply-present, open-heart and joyful way.You can find Jeffrey at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Trystan Reese about living and advocating for your truth.Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the WheelVisit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We tend to take on one of 3 modes as we head into the end of the year:Rush To The Finish | Goal Striving ModeCheck Out | Vacation ModeReflect, Integrate & Assess | Review & Plan ModeThat last one is my approach. I love to use these final weeks to understand what happened over the last 12 months, in all parts of life, consider what went well and why, where I stumbled and why, and how I can learn and integrate all of it into setting up the year to come to rise higher.And, I thought I’d walk you through my process - it’s a very different take based on a model I developed a number of years ago around the key elements of living a good life I call the Good Life Buckets. Super excited to share this powerful process with you in today’s episode.You can find the 1-page worksheet HERE.My new book Sparked.-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This has been a year that has tested our boundaries on nearly every level. Work, friendship, family, community, geography, politics, religion, social issues, love, wellbeing. It’s like we’re being asked to draw lines, all day, every day. Question is, how? How do you create and uphold boundaries that are clear, healthy, and constructive, while also acknowledging the nuance, kindness, and understanding this moment demands? Well, my guest today, Nedra Glover Tawwab, can help. A licensed therapist and sought-after relationship expert, she has practiced relationship therapy for 12 years and is the founder and owner of the group therapy practice, Kaleidoscope Counseling. Every day she helps people create healthy relationships by teaching them how to implement boundaries. Her philosophy is that a lack of boundaries and assertiveness underlie most relationship issues, and her gift is helping people create healthy relationships with themselves and others. Nedra is also the author of New York Times Bestselling book, Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself, along with her newly-released Set Boundaries Workbook.You can find Nedra at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Terri Cole, who brings a beautifully complementary lens to the critical exploration of boundaries.My new book Sparked.-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From the age of 3, Micah Johnson knew what he wanted to be when he grew up - a professional baseball player. From that moment on, he lived baseball, and in 2012, his dreams came true when the Chicago White Sox drafted him. But, what Micah didn’t know was that his true calling in life was just getting started.Traded to the LA Dodgers a few years later, Micah, almost on a lark, discovered painting, something that had never been a part of his. And it called to him in a way he never saw coming. Now, while his full-time job was pro baseball, drawing, painting and creating art became a new, increasingly consuming passion. But, it was a single moment, when his young nephew came and asked him whether Black people could be astronauts, that changed everything. Micah painted this moving depiction of a young, confident, Black boy in an oversized astronaut helmet, ready for adventure, as a way to not just answer yes, but create a powerful visual depiction of courage and possibility. At the same time, Micah was feeling called to bring his baseball career to a close and go all-in on art. But, no longer a novelty as a pro-athlete painter, he found his art hard to sell. Until everything came together when the character he’d painted for his nephew met the emerging world of NFTs, crypto-art, Web3, and the power of digital aspiration movements. He turned that painting into a character named Aku, then began to build a world, a community, an enterprise and a movement around it. Micah’s work has centered around empowering young African-American kids to see the possible & dream without limitations. Micah began releasing NFTs in January of 2020 & in February of 2021, and Aku’s message became a viral sensation and the first NFT ever optioned to become a major feature film. As we air this conversation, Micah is just coming off of helming a 15,000 square-foot, immersive, multidisciplinary experience in Miami’s Art Basel called Aku’s world.We dive into all of this in today’s conversation, along with a bit of a mini-primer on these mysterious things called NFTs, which has been creating quite a stir these days and become a growing fascination of mine. You can find Micah at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Lisa Congdon about coming to art later in life.My new book Sparked.-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Imagine going to college and getting a minor in ‘you!’ Well, that’s just one of the semi-wild ideas that bubbled up during my conversation with week’s guest, Mark Groves. Mark describes himself as a Human Connection Specialist on a mission to help individuals step into their most authentic, effective, loving selves by way of a little bit of tough love and no-BS relationship guidance. Immersing himself and pursuing an education in the world of psychology after his model of life and relationships feel apart, he’s become a bridge between the academic and the human, inviting people to explore the good, bad, downright ugly, and beautiful sides of connection. And, given the state of the world these days, we could all use a bit more wisdom around how we show up and relate to others. Mark shares insights, ideas, and strategies about being a better human, living a better life, and understanding how to craft relationships that are truly nourishing with a global community of over a million people on his Create the Love Instagram account, his eponymous podcast, and through a growing library of courses, and programs. What I’ve always found so powerful about Mark and his work is that he doesn’t pull punches. He doesn’t hide who he is, what he believes, his irreverence or willingness to poke fun at himself and, really, any other paradigm or system that just doesn’t make sense. He is, in many ways, a truth-teller, and we need more of that these days. You can find Mark at: Website | Instagram| Mark Groves PodcastIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Diego Perez who uses the name Yung Pueblo online about finding peace and clarity in an upside-down world.My new book Sparked.Check out our offerings & partners: Bean Box: Give the coffee fanatic in your life an unforgettable coffee-tasting experience with Bean Box. Our coffee is expertly curated and always fresh, with fast delivery and free shipping. Order today at beanbox.com/GOODLIFE and get 15% off purchases of $40 or more.ZenBusiness: ZenBusiness has helped hundreds of thousands of people get their business off the ground by guiding them every step of the way and making it easier to launch a successful business. Get started today for as low as $49 at zenbusiness.com/GOODLIFE.Come From Away: Broadway’s Tony-winning, feel-good again musical is welcoming audiences back into the heart of the remarkable true story. In the middle of nowhere, one small town showed the world that the kindness of strangers could bring us closer. Come back together at Come From Away. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With the rigor of a world-class researcher and the intention of someone who cares deeply about the human condition and understanding how we all got to this moment in history, Dr. Keisha N. Blain is an award-winning historian of the 20th century United States with specializations in African American History, the modern African Diaspora, and Women’s and Gender Studies. She is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh and the president of the African American Intellectual History Society. She is also the author of the multi-prize-winning book Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom, and co-editor of the Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism, and Racial Violence. Her #1 New York Times Best Seller Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, edited with Ibram X. Kendi, drew together an incredible collection of voices with a vision to reclaim the historical narrative. And her new book, Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America, is a powerful look not just at the role of civil and voting rights activist, Hamer and other Black women in social and political change, it’s also an invitation for us all to explore our individual roles in the path to equality and freedom, led by Hamer’s famed rallying cry, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”You can find Keisha at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Austin Channing Brown.My new book Sparked.-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’re entering a time of year where gratitude is on our minds. And, honestly, it’s also been a year, even a season, where being thankful, noticing what’s wondrous or good, or even just not bad, well it's not always the easiest thing. And, yet, gratitude, attentiveness, and appreciation are such deeply-wired contributors to the human condition, ones that carry with them the capacity to transform nearly any experience - one of anger, one of loss, one of fear, one of anxiety, one of sadness, agitation, futility, or grief - into a moment of awakening, solace, connection and, in its highest forms, grace. There’s even powerful research on the psychological and physiological effect of gratitude and appreciation, both as a state and a willful intervention.So, we wanted to take the occasion of this week to explore a few different takes on gratitude, appreciation, and generosity-of-spirit, drawing upon conversations I’ve had over the years with famed author and social-observer extraordinaire, Anne Lamott, writer, producer, and big thinker, Janice Kaplan, and I’m also weaving in a few thoughts from one of my books, How to Live a Good Life. I hope you enjoy this exploration of gratitude, attentiveness, and appreciation, how it changes us, and why we might want to bring more of it into our experience of life.You can find Anne Lamott at: Website | Instagram | Dusk Night DawnYou can find Janice Kaplan at: Website | Instagram | The Gratitude DiariesYou can find the audiobook Jonathan's book at: How to Live a Good LifeIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the full-length conversations we had with Anne Lamott & Janice Kaplan.-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the leading physicists of her generation, Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is a Professor of Physics and Core Faculty Member in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of New Hampshire. She’s also one of fewer than a hundred Black American women to earn a Ph.D. from a department of physics. Born in East Los Angeles, a devout Dodgers fan, she’s a citizen of both the United States and Barbados and a descendant of Afro-Caribbean and Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants. Chanda decided to become a theoretical physicist at the age of 10, after an experience, which we dive into, lit a fire of curiosity and possibility. Her vision of the cosmos is vibrant, buoyantly non-traditional, and grounded in Black feminist traditions. A powerful voice in her field, Chanda urges us to recognize how science, like most fields, is far from an equal playing field, with racism, sexism, and other dehumanizing systems playing a role not only in who participates in the field but also in the essential nature of the work and the potential discoveries and insights it yields. She lays out a bold new approach to science and society that begins with the belief that we all have a fundamental right to know and love the night sky. In her groundbreaking new book, The Disordered Cosmos, Chanda shares her love for physics, from the Standard Model of Particle Physics and what lies beyond it, to the physics of melanin in skin, to the latest theories of dark matter — all with a new spin informed by history, politics, and the wisdom of Star Trek. We explore her personal journey and many of these ideas in today’s conversation.You can find Chanda at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor about the science of the brain.My new book Sparked.-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if you could work, play, and live in a state of wonder? Even now! That’s the question I explore with today’s guest, Jeffrey Davis. A poet, writer, deep-thinker, founder and CEO of the Tracking Wonder Consultancy, Jeffrey’s got an invitation for all of us. To get off the toxic productivity treadmill, which so many have been hammered by in recent times, and reclaim a sense of possibility, meaning, and wonder. To step back into a place of curiosity and lightness. And, when Jeffrey offers that invitation, it’s not just a naive suggestion to rediscover your inner child, but rather a quest to bring wonder back into your life, based on more than 15 years of research, experimentation, and application. Along the way, Jeffrey has developed a powerful, proven, step-by-step methodology to begin bringing wonder back into your work, relationships, devotions, and life. He shares this in his gorgeous new book, Tracking Wonder, and we dive into key ideas and explorations in today’s conversation.You can find Jeffrey at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with iconic author, Anne Lamott, about opening to all life brings your way.My new book Sparked.-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Kamal Ravikant about reimagining life and learning to love himself.You can find Tim Ferriss at: Website | Instagram | The Tim Ferris Show podcastTim Ferriss has been a man on a mission, driven to deconstruct mastery and excellence, then share what he's learned. It began with his own relentless experimentation and documentation, which yielded #1 New York Times bestsellers The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef along with a series of other books. In more recent years, this yearning has led him to sit down with hundreds of elite performers, from a vast array of domains, on a quest to reveal what made them them. These conversations are shared weekly on Tim's award-winning podcast, The Tim Ferris Show. In today's Best Of conversation, we cover very different ground, and get very personal. Tim actually lost a number of people in the year before we sat down in the studio, turned 40 and found himself in a deeply contemplative and emotional space, thinking about who he is, how he wants to create the next 40 years of his life and what matters. When I sat down with Tim, he'd recently returned from an intensive 10-day silent meditation retreat. While gone, he lost yet another close friend. He was, in his own words, in an incredibly "porous" place, leading more from the heart than the head, which was a bit of a major turnaround for him.We spent time deconstructing Tim's 10-day silent meditation experience, his struggles and awakenings, how it compared to psychedelic experiences and how, barring one major saving grace, his retreat may have sent him spiraling into a very bad place. We also talked about his experience with death, his decision to append audio of his departed friend, Terry Laughlin, which was recorded by Terry's daughters in the hospital during his final days of life to the end of Tim's recent podcast interview with Terry. Tim also shared his decision to take the TED stage, switching last minute to talk about something deeply painful and personal, and what that meant to him, his lens on legacy work (and how it landed with his family, who didn't know what he'd be talking about). And, we explored Tim's awakening to a "softer" set of metrics to measure a life well-lived and his evolving definition of what it truly means to live a good life.My new book Sparked.-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis is an author, Activist, and Public Theologian, the first woman and first Black Senior Minister at Middle Collegiate Church, which is a multiracial, incredibly welcoming, and inclusive congregation in the Lower East Side of New York City, which dates to 1628. Growing up in church in the South Side of Chicago, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when she was nine incited what would become a lifelong devotion to activism and social justice. Graduating school, then spending a decade working in the corporate world, she felt called to redefine how she would step into her own exploration of faith, attending Princeton Theological Seminary, then devoting herself to urban ministry, with the intention of reimagining what faith, church, and community could be. Eventually becoming a leader in Middle Church, Rev. Lewis has been instrumental in bringing together what she calls a “multiethnic rainbow coalition of love, justice, and worship that rocks her soul,” and has remained a leading voice in activism, with her work have featured by the TODAY Show, MSNBC, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, among many others. She is the creator of the MSNBC online show, Just Faith and the PBS show, Faith and Justice, in which she led important conversations about culture and current events. Her podcast, Love.Period., is produced by the Center for Action and Contemplation. And her new book, Fierce Love: A Bold Path to Ferocious Courage and Rule-Breaking Kindness That Can Heal the World, is a deep exploration of faith, race, justice and transformation, bundled with exercises that invite you in a path of personal growth, activism and collective elevation.You can find Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis at: Website | Instagram | Love.Period. podcastIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Bishop Michael Curry about love as a path to reconciliation and healing.My new book Sparked.-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Imagine going through life with the name, Andy J. Pizza. That’s what my guest today goes by, but it wasn’t his given name, but rather his claimed name. More on that when we talk. Andy was the kid who perpetually zagged when everyone else zigged. And, at a young age, he saw this same pattern in his mother, he was so much like her. Which, in part, lit him up, but also terrified him. In his mom, these same impulses were married to mental illness that led to a life of struggle. He feared that’s where he was headed, too, until a realization dropped that would not only lead him down his own path, but also empower him to embrace life differently and trust he could make it work. And, indeed, he has. Andy has built a stunning career as an illustrator, author of kid’s books, animator, and contributor to The New York Times, Apple, Nickelodeon and countless other mega-brands. Driven to share and inspire others in the creative community, he heads up the fantastic Creative Pep Talk podcast, where, by the way, I was his guest recently. And, Andy is a master of the stage, with a style of public speaking that’s one part TED Talk, one part one-man show — with a sprinkle of stand-up comedy. His friends call his approach Laydown Tragedy ( 😆) - because it’s the opposite of stand-up comedy, in that instead of shooting for laughs, he aim for tears, but in the best of ways!You can find Andy at: Website | Instagram | Creative Pep Talk PodcastIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Morgan Harper Nichols about leaning into creativity and language as a form of both creative expression and emotional processing.My new book Sparked!-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor about how we can understand and tap our whole brains to live fuller lives.Anthony Trucks entered the foster system, along with his two siblings, when he was three years old, then spent years enduring a series of brutal experiences. Until he found a home where, after 8 years of legal battles, he became emancipated from his mom and was adopted by his then longtime foster parents. Still, a young Black man, now part of a White family who also struggled with poverty, he struggled to belong. Not so much to his family, but to the broader culture around him. He turned to football, working to rise up in the sport and, years down the road, accomplished his dream of being drafted and playing for the NFL. But, not long into his time with the Pittsburgh Steelers, a career-ending injury would bring it all tumbling down, and leave him stripped not only of his career but his very identity. And, that led to deep struggle, the demise of his family, and a season where Anthony found himself having to rediscover and redefine his sense of identity, who he was as a human being, a partner, a father, a friend, and someone driven to inspire agency and change in others. That journey led him back into the world of wellness, personal growth, speaking, training, and even competing in American Ninja Warrior. As a speaker and identity shift coach, Anthony teaches people how to design and build better lives and businesses by learning how to access the power of their identity to tap into their full potential, a methodology shared in his book, Identity Shift: Upgrade How You Operate to Elevate Your Life.You can find Anthony at: Website | InstagramMy new book Sparked!-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Born in Guayaquil Ecuador, Deigo Perez - who is known by the pseudonym Yung Pueblo - moved with his family to Boston, where he saw his parents work relentless hours and struggle with poverty. He turned to activism and advocacy at a young age, then attended Wesleyan where his life devolved into partying and drugs that threatened to become his way of being as he moved into adulthood. But a moment of reckoning would awaken him both to his need to refocus on mental and physical wellbeing, as well as recenter meaning in his work and life.A quest was set in motion, one that would eventually lead Diego into a 10-day vipassana meditation experience that had a profound impact and would set him on a path of self-discovery, and an ever-deepening devotion to a now years-long, 2-hour-a-day meditation practice, regular extended retreats, and the pursuit of truth and wisdom. A part of that exploration also involved writing, and what began as a tool to process his own experiences eventually became a public writing practice. His words landed in a powerful way, amassing a global audience of millions of people, writing under the pseudonym, Yung Pueblo, which is both a reminder to him to stay grounded in a younger, growth mindset, and also a contained to frame this current season of work as a project that doesn’t constrain his own personal and professional growth. Diego’s new book, Clarity & Connection, shares many of his recent insights about life, meaning, love, work, self-awareness, and of course, clarity and connection.You can find Yung Pueblo at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Tara Brach about wisdom and compassion.My new book Sparked!-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brought up in a deeply observant Jewish Orthodox household with a reverence for her family’s history, Shelly Tygielski embraced the traditions, teachings, and practices of her faith, even spending summers in Jerusalem with family. Heading to college, then grad school, she pursued her masters in international affairs, then began building a powerhouse career in business, along with a family. But, along the way, she found herself questioning the rules and assumptions by which she lived, and the more she did, the more the walls began to come tumbling down. At 27, diagnosed with a chronic disease that left her temporarily blind, she knew a different narrative needed to be set in motion. She began to embrace her then years-long exploration of Eastern traditions and practices, growing largely out of Tibetan Buddhism, and started the process of reclaiming and reimagining her life. A process that would eventually lead her away from a 20-year career at the highest levels of business and into the world of advocacy and self-care. Though, as you’ll learn, advocacy and a deep exploration of the heart and mind, have always been a part of her DNA. Shelly began teaching meditation to a few friends on the beach, and each time, more people started showing up, until her Sunday meditation on the beach grew into a community of more than 15,000 people that call themselves The Sand Tribe. Her promise - no barrier to entry, all are welcome. Her fierce devotion to elevating others led her to post a simple form online during March of 2020, connecting those in need with those who wanted to help. It went viral, becoming a global mutual aid movement called the Pandemic of Love that has now generated more than $60-million in mutual aid, matched over 2-million people, and served as a bridge to see the humanity in others at a time it’s needed more than ever. She shared much of this journey in her powerful new book, Sit Down to Rise Up: How Radical Self-Care Can Change the World.You can find Shelly at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Jennifer Pastiloff about leading with love and compassion.Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book Sparked | My New Podcast SPARKEDVisit Our Sponsor Page For a Complete List of Vanity URLs & Discount Codes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Surviving what he describes as a tormented childhood riddled with abuse, Alan Cumming turned to acting, before he knew it was acting, as a way to step out of the world he inhabited and into one of his own creation. One that was safe, where he made the rules. That impulse eventually led him to leave home, study drama in Glasgow, and, in his words” tumble” into a career that, from the outside-in, has appeared as an endless stream of successes. He’s performed with everyone from Jay Z to Liza Minelli; won countless theatrical awards, made back-to-back films with Stanley Kubrick and the Spice Girls; played God, the Devil, Hitler, the Pope, a teleporting superhero, Hamlet, all the parts in Macbeth, General Batista of Cuba, a goat opposite Sean Connery, and political spinmeister Eli Gold on seven seasons of The Good Wife. He’s also owned the stage and invited people to re-examine their beliefs, identity, sexuality and sense of power, propriety and openness in the role of the EmCee in Cabaret, which he took on three times over 22 years in London and on Broadway. He’s the author of five books including a #1 New York Times best-selling memoir; and played the first-ever gay leading role on a US network drama, CBS’s Instinct. And, Alan was made an Officer of the British Empire for his contributions to the arts and LBGT equality by the Queen, and has had a love affair with New York City for nearly three decades, where he lives with his husband, and just for fun, also owns a bar.What sounds like a near-magical life on stages, television and the big screen, though, has also seen its share of profound pain, loss, grief, existential struggle, and eventually a series of reckonings, and awakenings to who and what matters, and a certain reclamation of joy and life. Now in his 50s, he reflects on these moments along this journey in his new book, Baggage: Tales from a Fully Packed Life, and we dive into all of it, along with his take on current culture, in today’s conversation. You can find Alan at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Matthew McConaughey about what really matters in life.My new book Sparked!-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Najwa Zebian is a Lebanese-Canadian activist, author, speaker, and educator who developed a passion for language at a young age, immersing herself in Arabic poetry and novels. As someone who found herself repeated displaced, leaving Lebanon for Canada when she was 16, not realizing it wasn’t just a trip, but rather a permanent change, would she’d find herself searching for a home—what Najwa describes as a place where the soul and heart feel at peace, a quest that continues into her adult life.Her passion for language, quest to understand her place in the world and compassion for those who’ve been displaced and disenfranchised led her to pursue a Ph.D. in education. But it was an experience teaching young refugees that rekindled her love of writing, after having left it behind because of an association with pain. She began to heal her sixteen-year-old self by writing to heal her students. Since self-publishing her first collection of poetry and prose in 2016, Najwa has become an inspiration to millions of people worldwide, and a trailblazing voice for women everywhere.Drawing on her own experiences of displacement, discrimination, and abuse, Najwa uses her words to encourage others to build a home within themselves; to live, love, and create fearlessly. Her new book, Welcome Home, invites us to explore how to create that feeling we so yearn for within ourselves first, before looking outside.You can find Najwa at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Humble the Poet about defining your own identity in a world where you don’t seem to fit the mold.My new book Sparked.-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Adam J. Kurtz (whose artist’s identity is Adam JK, is a designer, artist, and speaker whose work is rooted in emotional honesty, humor and even a little bit of darkness, but always with the intention of connection, honoring the reality of any given moment, and being honest. He’s been making and sharing on the internet since age creating his first fan website at twelve years old, eventually went to school for graphic design and learned to express, in his words “slightly too much." Adam’s work embraces the world with a certain "backhanded optimism" and a dark sense of humor or what he describes as "positivity adjacent." And he speaks frankly about channeling human emotion into art, and generally just trying to be more okay with whatever we've got and wherever we are in life. This comes out, often, in the form of hand-lettered aphorisms and illustrations that you’ll find all over the internet and social platforms, as well as in books, merch, prints, stationary and brand-focused gifts under his ADAMJK® brand. His books have been translated into over a dozen languages and his offbeat, fun and irreverent creative work has been featured everywhere from NYLON and Adweek to Vice, The New Yorker, and more. In his newest book, You Are Here (For Now): A Guide to Finding Your Way, Adam steps more fully into his writer side, sharing longer-form stories, insights, and ideas. We dive into all of this, how his lens and work have been shaped by an othrodox religious upbringing, what led him down the path of zagging when everyone else was zigging, how his move from New York to Hawaii has changed him and so much more.You can find Adam at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Morgan Harper Nichols about art and life.My new book Sparked-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Imagine being so drawn to a pursuit as a kid, it consumes most of your waking hours, rapidly becomes your identity, and is the thing you believe you’ll devote your life to, and then, in the blink of an eye, it’s taken away. That’s what happened to Maya Shankar, who fell in love with the violin as a small child, studied it with love and devotion, was being mentored by the legendary Itzhak Perlman, and was sure it would be her profession for life. Until, an injury took it all away in the blink of an eye. How that moment affected her, and how she’d eventually discover a new, equally fulfilling devotion years later - human behavior and cognitive science - is a big part of today’s conversation, along with a deep dive into how we change our minds.Maya is currently the Senior Director of Behavioral Economics at Google and is the Creator, Host, and Executive Producer of “A Slight Change of Plans”, a podcast with Pushkin Industries. Maya previously served as a Senior Advisor in the Obama White House, where she founded and served as Chair of the White House's Behavioral Science Team — a team of scientists charged with improving public policy using research insights about human behavior. She has been profiled by the New Yorker and has been featured in the New York Times, Scientific American, Forbes, and on NPR's All Things Considered, Freakonomics, and Hidden Brain. You can find Maya at: Website | A Slight Change of Plans podcastIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Brené Brown about how we show up in our work and life. My new book Sparked-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joanne Molinaro was deep into her career as a full-time attorney when she started blogging as The Korean Vegan, a nod to both her heritage and her curiosity about reimagining the cuisine she grew up on. She soon after launched a TikTok account that exploded and, along with her other platforms, boasts over 3.5 million fans. She’s appeared on The Food Network and Al Jazeera English, been featured in the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, NPR, and CNN, and has just released her debut cookbook + memoir, The Korean Vegan Cookbook.A Korean American woman, born in Chicago, Joanne’s parents were both born in what is now known as North Korea. Their harrowing journey to the states led them to settle in Chicago. From her earliest days, she was deeply aware of inequity and felt an empathic call to advocacy, along with the impulse to help guide people through a process of change. That led her into the law, which remained her central devotion, literally, until the day before we recorded this conversation. Her TikTok (@thekoreanvegan), was started largely as a coping mechanism for the isolation caused by the global pandemic. She began posting content related to politics and life as a lawyer during quarantine. However, after a single post of her making Korean braised potatoes for dinner (while her husband taught a piano lesson in the background) went viral, Joanne shifted her attention to producing 60-second recipe videos while telling stories about her life, family, and the state of the world. She discovered an entirely new channel for advocacy and artistry in this most unusual place, one that both allows millions of people to see themselves in the stories, cultures, and yes, food, of others, and also serves as a powerful mechanism to advocate for inclusivity and change.You can find Joanne at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with MILCK about creativity, music, carving your own path and representation.My new book Sparked-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1992, after years of teaching workshops on creative unblocking, Julia Cameron self-published The Artist's Way, which became a global phenomenon that sold millions of copies, was translated into 40 languages, and anchors companion workshops that have brought creativity into the mainstream conversation. Along the way, Julia has authored more than 40 books, plays and screenplays, written for Rolling Stone, The Washington Post and The New York Times, and collaborated with legends of television and movies, including Martin Scorsese, who would, for a time, become her partner in life as well. A few years back, I had a great opportunity to sit down with Julia in her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico for a beautifully honest and open, deep-dive conversation that ranged from her upbringing to her entrée into the writing life, her years-long struggle with addiction and awakening from it, her time in Hollywood, swept up in the world of movies, and her fierce commitment to her craft and to helping others find their creative voices and let them out. So excited to share this Best Of conversation with you.You can find Julia at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Chase Jarvis about the creative calling.My new book Sparked.-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the age of 24, living in Ibiza, Matt Haig stepped to the ledge of a cliff with the intention of launching himself to his end. But something pulled him back. That experience led him and his girlfriend, who’d eventually become his wife, back to his childhood home where Matt would begin the process of picking up the pieces of his life. A writer, he kept that season of profound darkness, revelation, and recovery within his family, while he deepened into a career as a novelist and children’s book author. But years later, a simple blog post that he never thought anyone would see effectively outed that experience, leading to a book a year later called Reasons to Stay Alive that became a massive bestseller and also expanded Matt’s notoriety into the world of personal growth. He’s since blended fiction and nonfiction, penning more novels, something exploring big existential questions, but in honest and accessible ways. His book, The Midnight Library, just hit 2 million copies sold, and Matt’s latest book, The Comfort Book is Haig’s life raft: it’s a collection of notes, lists, and stories written over a span of several years that originally served as gentle reminders to his future self that things are not always as dark as they may seem. You can find Matt at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Kate DiCamillo about writing, creativity, telling the truth, but always leaving readers with hope.My new book is available!Order Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive today!-------------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.

I first met Kristoffer Carer nearly a decade ago when he raised his hand to participate in the inaugural Good Life Project immersion. It was a yearlong deep dive into work and life that we ran for about 5 years. Kristoffer or KC as most people call him, was running fast. I wasn’t sure if he was running toward something as much as he was running from it. In the end, like most of us, it was probably both. A married dad of three living in Ohio and working at a Chicago ad-tech startup after exiting life as a touring musician, he stumbled upon a book that would change the direction of his life. Our lives intersected just as that existential reimagining was shifting into high gear. There was this moment during our first weekend together, 15 strangers who’d become fast family in an industrial space in downtown Manhattan. I caught him out of the corner of my eye, sitting cross-legged against a 100-year-old wall of leaded windows, the light pouring in behind him. Hands laying open over his knees as he sat in meditation. It was a moment of powerful foreshadowing. In the ensuing years, KC would become an initiate of Yogananda’s Self Realization Fellowship, a Kriyaban yogi meditating hours a day. He’d find himself exiting his career to carve his own path, bridging the worlds of spirituality and business as an executive coach, founder of This Epic Life consultancy, and someone who remains fiercely devoted to bringing all parts of himself - the deeply spiritual yogi, the bouncing-off-the-walls kid and musician, the wise mentor, husband, and dad - to everything he does. In his words, full life integration. And along the way, he developed his own philosophy he calls the four permissions, which also happens to be the focus of KC’s new book, Permission to Glow: A Spiritual Guide to Epic Leadership.You can find KC at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Daniel Goleman about meditation, which it turns out, changes you, on the level of DNA.My new book is available!Order Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive today!-------------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.

Mel Robbins is one of the leading voices in personal development and transformation and an international bestselling author. Her work includes the global phenomenon The 5 Second Rule, four #1 bestselling audiobooks, the #1 podcast on Audible, as well as signature online courses that have changed the lives of more than half a million students worldwide and now her groundbreaking new book, The High 5 Habit. As one of the most widely booked and followed public speakers in the world, Mel coaches more than 60 million people online every month and videos featuring her work have more than a billion views online, including her TEDx talk, which is one of the most popular of all time.But, I also know Mel in a different way. She’s a dear friend of mine, with a fierce intellect, a giant heart and desire to make a genuine difference in people’s lives, starting with her own. She shares, very publicly, her own inner dance with anxiety, compulsion, negativity, and judgment, in a real, relatable, non-sugar-coated way. Mel has found herself at the center of storms that left her thinking “I can’t take another thing” more than once. In fact, the last few years landed her in just such a tornado of calamity. Yet, somehow, in those moments, she seems to gain access to ideas that become tools that turn everything around. And the moment she feels their impact in her own life, she’s off on a quest to understand how and why they work, then share them with the world. This is what she did with The 5 Second Rule and, now, The High 5 Habit, which became her second global phenomenon before the book was even released. We dive into The High 5 Habit, but also explore her take on relationships, parenting, mindset, vulnerability, transparency and beyond.You can find Mel at: The High 5 Challenge | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Brené Brown about vulnerability and bravery.My new book is available!Order Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive today!-------------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.

So question for you: When was the last time you did something where it was so immersive, so enjoyable it so captivated, the essence of who you are that you completely lost track of time? You just vanished into the experience, the activity, the moment, the conversation, the relationship, like the world around you ceased to exist. The only thing that you became aware of, if you were even aware of that, was you and the thing that you were doing, or the person or the group of people that you were engaging with or all of those things, but everything outside of that, it just vanished away. And you felt like in that one moment in time, whether it lasted a minute, whether it lasted an hour, whether it lasted a day or a week or a month for whatever window that happened, it was like, the world was, as it should be, your world was, as it should be, you are doing the thing that you were here to do with people.What if the way you work could give you that feeling? Sounds bizarre, right? It sounds like it's some sort of, you know, like utopian far-off dream. But what if that was a lie?What if there was a way to do the thing that you do and have it feel that way? Not just losing yourself in flow, but also you feel like a sense of purpose. Like you're working towards something that actually matters to you, a sense of meaning, like who you are and what you're doing is meaningful. That is what my new book's Sparked is all about. And along the way beyond the massive dataset we've gathered, that shows that you can experience this, have been story, after story, after story, after story use cases, applications, individuals showing up and sharing how they have integrated these ideas into their work and life. And today I'm going to share two of those stories with you. Amazing, powerful, moving, insightful stories, about two people who have done incredible things and continue to do incredible things and have explored how this thing called the Sparketype integrates into the way they do it. So excited to share this conversation with you.If you LOVED this episode:I have a single ask: Join me on this journey. Pick up a copy of SPARKED wherever you buy books. We’ll drop links to various booksellers. Dive into it, discover your own personal Sparketype. Then begin to bring it to the world. Because right now, we need people who’ve come alive, more than ever. Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Books-a-Million | iTunes | Audible Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKEDVisit Our Sponsor Page For a Complete List of Vanity URLs & Discount Codes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode will be unlike any conversation we’ve ever aired on Good Life Project. For the first time on the podcast, I’m on the other side of the mic. And, to be honest, the thought of it kind of terrifies me. Even now, with it’s recorded and I know how it went and what’s on tape, it still kind of terrifies me. I’m pretty comfortable asking the questions, and even answering questions on other people’s shows. This, however, is different. Today, I asked my dear friend, big-hearted human, renowned keynote speaker, community builder, “personal power alchemist,”* bestselling author, and all-around truth-teller, Cyndie Spiegel, to sit in the interviewer’s seat and not let me off the hook. That’s exactly what she did, in the kindest, but also realest way possible. I trusted her to push me into places I never go, topics I never speak about. This was a conversation that made me squirm, in the best of ways.Why would I do this? Because, by the time you’re listening to this, my new book SPARKED, will be out, or literally hours away. It’s a book about being seen, reclaiming agency and control, reimagining the way we work, and the way our work makes us feel. This book, it’s been a wild adventure that is so close to my heart in ways and on levels nothing else I’ve written has approached. Penned in the throes of the pandemic, living semi-nomadically for most of it, the journey to get here has been equally hard, beautiful, heartbreaking, heart-opening, eye-opening, and transformative. I wanted to sit down with someone who knows me well enough, who I trust enough, to take me to all those places of discomfort and vulnerability that I rarely talk about on the air. Sure, we touch into the big ideas and key awakening and insights in the book, but this conversation is about so much more. The creative process, the role of vulnerability, love, devotion, revelation, and grace.I’m both freaked out, and incredibly excited to share it with you. I’m Jonathan Fields, turning the mic over to Cyndie Spiegel, and this is Good Life Project.If you LOVED this episode:I have a single ask: Join me on this journey. Pick up a copy of SPARKED wherever you buy books. We’ll drop links to various booksellers. Dive into it, discover your own personal Sparketype. Then begin to bring it to the world. Because right now, we need people who’ve come alive, more than ever. Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Books-a-Million | iTunes | AudibleCheck out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKEDVisit Our Sponsor Page For a Complete List of Vanity URLs & Discount Codes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I’ve been a fan of Jessi Hempel’s writing and amazing podcast, Hello Monday, for years now, but it was her deeply insightful six-part series on re-opening the world of work that led us into the virtual studio space to jam. Jessi is a senior editor at large at LinkedIn and host of the award-winning podcast Hello Monday. For the past 18 years, she has been writing and editing features and cover stories about the most important people and companies in technology. Most recently, she was the head of editorial for Backchannel and a senior writer at Wired, where she profiled Dr. Fei-Fei Li and covered Uber’s attempted comeback. Earlier in her career, she was a senior writer for Fortune, where she co-chaired Fortune’s Aspen tech conference. Before that, Jessi wrote for BusinessWeek, and TIME Asia. She has appeared on CNN, PBS, MSNBC, Fox, and CNBC, addressing the culture and business of technology. But, it was her deeper impulse to get to the heart of things and her love of storytelling that really drew me to her work. In today’s conversation, we learn how those threads have woven through her life, landing her most recently in the world of audio with a focus on work and all the emotions and questions it brings.You can find Jessi at: LinkedIn | Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel podcastIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Dave Evans about designing your life.My new book is available for pre-order:Order Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive and get your book bonuses!-------------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.

Valarie Kaur is an activist, documentary filmmaker, lawyer, educator, and faith leader. She rose to global acclaim in late 2016 when her Watch Night Service address asked the question, “Is this the darkness of the tomb – or the darkness of the womb?” The video went viral with 40 million views worldwide, and her question reframed the political moment and became a mantra for people fighting for change. The daughter of farmers in California’s heartland brought up in the Sikh Faith, Valarie earned degrees at Stanford University, Harvard Divinity School, and Yale Law School. But, it was 9-11 that launched her down the now two-decades-long path of activism and advocacy, when those in her family and community became the targets of hatred and violence.Over the last two decades, Valarie’s work has led to policy change in everything from hate crimes, racial profiling, and immigration detention, to solitary confinement, Internet freedom, and more. She founded Groundswell Movement, Faithful Internet, and the Yale Visual Law Project to inspire and equip advocates at the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and justice. More recently, she heads up the Revolutionary Love Project, which is both a movement and a powerful learning hub designed to help learn about loving others, opponents, and ourselves. Her debut book, See No Stranger, is both a memoir and a manifesto, calling us all into our better, more expansive and conscious selves. This conversation opened my eyes in so many ways. You can find Valarie at: Instagram | Understanding America: 20 Years LaterIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Rev. angel Kyodo williams about the intersection between race, love, and liberation.My new book is available for pre-order:Order Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive and get your book bonuses!-------------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.

Friends make life better. We’ve all experienced that. But, could a very specific kind of friendship - Radical Friendship - lead not only to lasting bonds, love and joy, but also to systemic social change, liberation, and equality? That’s what we’re talking about today. Weaving in Buddhism, Western spiritual culture, dance, and social justice with my guest, Kate Johnson. Kate teaches classes and retreats integrating Buddhist meditation, somatics, social justice, and creativity at leading meditation centers, universities and cultural institutions around the country. She also works as a culture change consultant, partnering with organizations to help them achieve greater diversity and sustainability. She's a graduate of Spirit Rock Meditation Center's four-year teacher training and she has also earned a BFA in Dance from The Alvin Ailey School/Fordham University and an MA in Performance Studies from NYU.Her moving new book, Radical Friendship, makes a case for friendship - grounded in Buddha’s teaching - as a radical practice of love, courage, and trust, offering seven strategies that pave the way for profound social change. She invites us to consider how wise relationships make it possible to transform the barriers created by societal injustice. Radical Friendship offers a path of depth and hope and shows us the importance of working toward collective wellbeing, one relationship at a time.You can find Kate Johnson at: Instagram | WebsiteIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Ruth King about equality and social justice in the workplace and beyond.Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the WheelVisit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rev. angel Kyodo williams has been bridging the worlds of liberation, love, and justice her entire adult life. Her critically acclaimed book, Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living With Fearlessness and Grace was hailed as “an act of love” by Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Walker, and "a classic" by Buddhist pioneer Jack Kornfield. And, her book, Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love & Liberation, has been inviting communities to have the grounded, real, hard conversations necessary to become more awake and aware of what hinders liberation of self and society. Known for her willingness to sit with and speak uncomfortable truths with love. Rev. angel notes, "Love and Justice are not two. Without inner change, there can be no outer change. Without collective change, no change matters.” And right now, we are in a moment where we need change, on every level, personal, interpersonal, cultural, and societal. Rev. angel was my guest on the show a number of years ago, and that led to a friendship that has been a true gift in my life. I wanted to invite her back both to explore her personal experience and evolution of thought around identity over the last few years, and also learn from her deeply wise, insightful and, for many, surprising lens on what it takes to step into this moment equipped for the quest for collective liberation.You can find Rev. angel Kyodo williams at: Instagram | Website | Rev. angel's Belonging audio programIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Bishop Michael Curry about the healing power of love, even now.My new book is available for pre-order:Order Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive and get your book bonuses!-------------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.

My guest today, Jameela Jamil, was a household name in the UK for years. Hosting shows on T4 and BBC Radio 1 before launching into the spotlight in the US, playing Tahani on the acclaimed TV show, The Good Place, and then hosting TBS late-night game show That Misery Index judging voguing reality competition show Legendary. And along the way, she has been incredibly intentional about leveraging her notoriety for social good launching the advocacy platform I Weigh and the podcast of the same name and she's on a quest to really bring together and amplify the voices of change-makers and promote equity and dignity. And for her, it's also personal. Growing up the daughter of Indian and Pakistani parents, she was often bullied, an experience made tougher after being diagnosed with a condition that affects her body's connective tissue and often causes chronic pain. And through her teens, she endured even more trauma. Became anorexic, and then at a car accident that caused a spinal injury that would profoundly change her relationship with her body. And finding her way eventually into the world of TV and radio in the UK, she headed to the US at first to write, but found herself in front of the camera, performing on a set with her childhood heroes on network TV. But it was her decision to speak truth to power and become an advocate for equality, inclusivity, and self-determination that has really become the center of who Jameela is and how she shows up in the world, a place she describes as being post shame. So excited to share this best of conversation with you.You can find Jameela Jamil at: Instagram | I Weigh PodcastMy new book is available for pre-order:Order Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive and get your book bonuses!-------------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.

My guest today, Tara Brach, has been one of my teachers for years, though she never knew it. Back in the early days of podcasting, I stumbled upon her weekly dharma talks or Buddhist teachings and meditations that she’d offer at her Insight Meditation Center in DC, record, then air as podcasts, and the blend of her gentle presence, her deep wisdom that was clearly not just studied, but also lived, her humility, real-world sensibility, and humor drew me in. Tara’s teachings blend Western psychology, she’s also a clinical psychologist, along with Eastern spiritual practices, mindful attention to our inner life, and a full, compassionate engagement with our world. The result is a distinctive voice in Western Buddhism, one that offers a wise and caring approach to freeing ourselves and society from suffering.She is kindness and insight embodied, and I’ve learned so much from both her offerings and also the way she seems to move through life over the years. Which is why I was so excited to be able to spend some time going deep into not just certain pivotal moments in Tara’s path, but also the powerful tools and practices she’s developed in the name of allowing us to breathe more easily into whatever comes our way, at the core of which is something Tara shorthands with the acronym RAIN, which is transformational and we explore how it can move into our lives, especially in the context of compassion, acceptance, and what’s been going on in society these days. So excited to share this Best Of conversation with you. You can find Tara Brach at: Website | InstagramMy new book is available for pre-order:Order Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive and get your book bonuses!-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We tend to think we’re smart, rational beings, making good choices based on clear information. In truth, we’re anything but. We are pretty much walking, talking bundles of delusion and bias, much of it utterly hidden from our consciousness, by no one other than our subconscious. How do we get past this, how do we learn to see more clearly, not just what’s going on around us, but also within us? To help answer this question, today I’m sitting down with Julia Galef, author, podcaster, and speaker with a passion for good reasoning, and host of Rationally Speaking, a biweekly podcast featuring interviews with scientists and other thinkers, about everything from “Should the United States have open borders?” to “Has scientific progress slowed down?” to “What have you changed your mind about?” She’s also the author of an eye-opening new book, The Scout Mindset, which is a deep dive into the learnable skill of looking at things honestly and objectively — why that’s so valuable, why it doesn’t come naturally to humans, and how we can get better at it.You can find Julia at: Website | Twitter | Rationally Speaking podcastIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Susan David about the role of emotions in how we think, feel and live.My new book is available for pre-order:Order Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive and get your book bonuses!-------------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 want to change something that really matters to you, but struggle to make it stick, let alone wonder how to ever get started? You’re not alone. There is so much misinformation in the world of behavior change, which is why I wanted to sit down with Katy Milkman to see if we could all get closer to the truth. And, find out, once and for all, what really works, and what’s just distraction. Katy is an award-winning behavioral scientist and a professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She hosts Charles Schwab’s popular behavioral economics podcast Choiceology, and is the co-founder and co-director of The Behavior Change for Good Initiative, a research center with the mission of advancing the science of lasting behavior change whose work is being chronicled by Freakonomics Radio. She has worked with or advised dozens of organizations on how to spur positive change, including Google, the U.S. Department of Defense, the American Red Cross, 24 Hour Fitness, Walmart and Morningstar. Her research is regularly featured in major media outlets such as The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and NPR. She is the bestselling author of How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. You can find Katy at: Website | Choiceology podcastIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Dan Ariely about the irrational ways we behave and how to see more clearly what’s really going on.-------------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.My new book, Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive is now available for order at https://sparketype.com/book/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When James Victore was told by a professor, in his design program during college, that he wasn’t cut out for the famed institution he’d been attending, instead of arguing, he left. Then, promptly launched and built his own successful design consultancy. Years later, an accomplished illustrator, designer, and provocateur of the status quo, he returned to that very school, but this team, to teach is own perpetually-packed class. James has been described as part Darth Vader, part Yoda, prolific storyteller, designer, provocateur, artist, activist and teacher. A designer and creative thought leader who people look to find clarity and purpose in their life and work. He’s widely known for his impassioned views about design and its place in the world. At the helm of his independently run design studio, James makes work that takes a strong position and often toes the line between sacred and the profane. And, the world has taken notice. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, in the permanent collections of the Louvre and the Library of Congress and his client list includes countless industry leaders. His book, “Feck Perfuction“ is sort of his manifesto on living a creative, full-contact and alive life.More recently, he’s been facilitating a Live Mentoring Program he calls ‘The Creative Warrior,' which is the culmination of decades of teaching, mentoring, sharing and, as he describes it, “just me having fun with brave souls.” So excited to share this Best Of conversation with you. You can find James at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode, you’ll also love the conversations we had with Seth Godin about the importance of honoring your inner voice and developing a practice of personal innovation.Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the WheelVisit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Work, as we know it, is broken. Has been for a long time. But this moment we're in has brought it home like never before. And, now, it's time for a reclamation! We spend the majority of our adult life working. If what you do empties you out, burns you out, or leaves you disconnected from what truly matters to you, that's a brutally hard way to live. BUT, if what you do fills you with meaning, energy and excitement, drops you into flow, and gives you a sense of purpose and joy, that's an amazing thing.Question is - how do you KNOW what kind of work will give you all the life-elevating feelings you seek? A big part of the puzzle is discovering and deepening into your Sparketype® - your unique imprint for work that makes you come alive. You can discover yours now by taking the Sparketype Assessment.Then, grab your copy of the groundbreaking new book by Jonathan Fields - SPARKED: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive - to know yourself like never before, feel seen, embraced, and finally understand how to reclaim the way you work and transform it into a source of joy, meaning, purpose and possibility.Pre-order now get some incredible bonuses.-------------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.

Farming has been a huge part of our history and culture for generations. But, there’s a part of the story that’s so often left out of the popular lore: the history, stories, and contribution of Black farmers. It’s so important to understand this part of our heritage, not only to acknowledge the challenges and contribution, but also because it’s had a profound effect on our food systems to health, education, economics, and beyond. In today’s conversation with Natalie Baszile, we dive into the history and stories, not just of the past, but of present and returning farmers. Natalie holds a M.A. in Afro-American Studies from UCLA and is a graduate of Warren Wilson College’s MFA Program for Writers. She is the author of the novel Queen Sugar, which was adapted for television by writer/director Ava DuVernay and co-produced by Oprah Winfrey for OWN. Natalie’s stunning new anthology, We Are Each Other’s Harvest, is filled with essays, poems, quotes, conversations, and first-person stories that examine Black people’s connection to the American land from Emancipation to today, with a strong focus on what she calls the Returning Generation. It elevates the voices and stories of Black farmers and people of color, celebrating their perseverance and resilience, while spotlighting the challenges they continue to face. This collection helps all of us better understand the rich history and contribution of Black farmers. Plus, the book, itself, filled with imagery, is visually gorgeous as well.You can find Natalie at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Michele Harper, the author of New York Times bestseller, The Beauty of Breaking.-------------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.My new book, Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive is now available for order at https://sparketype.com/book/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.