Good Life Project

If you’re ever heard the term, “highly sensitive person,” or even been called highly sensitive and maybe even recoiled a bit when that happen, you’ll be deeply moved by the work of today’s guest, Dr. Elaine Aron. She first identified high sensitivity as a distinct character trait more than 25 years ago, introducing the term “Highly Sensitive Person” to describe someone who is easily overwhelmed by strong sensory input, subtleties in environment and other people’s moods, and deeply feels pressures and overstimulation. Since its publication in 1995, her preeminent book on the subject, The Highly Sensitive Person, has gone on to become an international bestseller translated into 30 languages. She is also the author of The Highly Sensitive Parent, and many others. Credited for first recognizing high sensitivity as an innate trait and pioneering the study of HSPs since 1990, she has established the Foundation for the Study of Highly Sensitive Persons and has published numerous scientific articles on sensitivity in the leading journals in her field.Turns out, today’s conversation, was also personal, because in many ways, I am a highly sensitive person. But, I also discovered so much more about the way I move through the world, how this trait relates to introversion and extroversion - very surprising - and how you can be both highly sensitive, while also being high-sensation, which I’d never heard before. You can find Elaine at:Website : https://hsperson.com/If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Susan Cain, the author of Quiet, about the power of introverts : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/susan-cain-introverts-power-and-the-quiet-revolution/id647826736?i=1000380458433-------------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.

A refugee at the age of two, Ocean Vuong and his mom found themselves fleeing Saigon, Vietnam, traveling across the globe, then dropped into a world that was simultaneously a source of renewal and safety, while also delivering a daily dose of profound othering. The English language came slowly to Ocean, struggling to read at the age of 11. But, over time, his deep curiosity and sense of observation led to a love of language that grabbed hold and never let go. In 2016, he released a critically acclaimed poetry collection Night Sky that dazzled the literary world. His gorgeously written and deeply stirring first novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (https://amzn.to/3htad7j), which became an instant New York Times bestseller, draws largely on his experience growing up in Hartford, Connecticut with a mom who shared a complex love in a community he seemed perpetually estranged from. A recipient of the 2019 MacArthur "Genius" Grant, Ocean is also the winner of the Whiting Award and the T.S. Eliot Prize. His writings have been featured in The Atlantic, Harper's Magazine, The Nation, The New Republic, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. You can find Ocean at:Website : https://www.oceanvuong.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/ocean_vuong/If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Axel Mansoor about the experience of being a third culture kid and how he found an outlet in music : https://pod.link/goodlifeproject/episode/3bd82ee46ef2d24985dfd3f9d7ffa52f-------------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.

Dallas Graham never planned to help kids tell their life stories. A fiercely creative and compassionate Salt Lake City graphic designer, poet, and writer, he’s worked on a wide variety of projects over the years. But, his experience of one particular moment, family and child, would change everything. Setting him down a path to blend everything he’d learned about writing, poetry, and design with his deep love of kids and story to create an offering and an experience that would change so many lives. As the publisher and executive director of the Red Fred Project, Dallas is currently creating life legacies, in the form of books written and created by kids as a way to help them share their stories, ideas, and lens on the world at a moment of an otherwise profound challenge. After seven years of this life-altering work, his belief has strengthened in this idea: “We are producing the greatest stories ever told.” You can find Dallas at:Website : http://redfredproject.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/redfredproject/If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Mitch Albom about his love of story and service : https://tinyurl.com/GLP-Mitch-------------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.

Glennon Doyle is an activist and founder and president of Together Rising an all-women-led foundation that has revolutionized grassroots philanthropy – raising over $30 million for women, families, and children in crisis. She is also the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Untamed (https://amzn.to/3hmqKIX), a Reese’s Book Club selection, which has sold over two million copies, and the #1 New York Times bestseller Love Warrior (https://amzn.to/3gVTXvd), an Oprah’s Book Club selection, as well as the New York Times bestseller Carry On, Warrior (https://amzn.to/3jdGG2w). And she’s also launched and now co-hosts, along with her sister, the fantastic We Can Do Hard Things podcast (https://pod.link/1564530722). So excited to share this Best Of conversation at a moment in time where we’re all being called to dig deeper and step more fully into our personal and collective truths.You can find Glennon Doyle at:Website : https://momastery.com/blog/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/glennondoyleWe Can Do Hard Things : https://pod.link/1564530722If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Elizabeth Gilbert about love, loss, creativity and the freedom to be exactly who you need to be : https://tinyurl.com/GLP-LizG-------------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.

It seems, every time I sit down with my friend, illustrator, fine artist, and author Lisa Congdon, she’s in a moment of transformation. Truth is, it’s a bit of a perpetual state for her. Lisa is best known for her colorful, graphic drawings and hand lettering. Her work appears in private collections, merchandise, textiles, apparel, and a wide array of collaborations with clients around the world including Method, Target, Comme des Garçons, Crate and Barrel, Facebook, MoMA, REI, and Harvard University among many others. She is the author of nine books, including Art Inc: The Essential Guide to Building Your Career as an Artist; Find Your Artistic Voice: The Essential Guide to Working Your Creative Magic; and her latest book, You Will Leave a Trail of Stars: Inspiration for Blazing Your Own Path. Lisa teaches in the Applied Craft & Design MFA program at Pacific Northwest College of Art. She lives and works in Portland, Oregon, and is also a devout cyclist, having just finished an intense ride to Crater lake and, as we talked, was getting ready to complete the Gravel Grinder race, where she would climb more than 30,000 feet in elevation on her bike, on gravel. You might wonder what, if anything, has to do with the creative life and art, and as you’ll hear, the answer is everything.You can find Lisa at:Website : https://lisacongdon.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/ellen_hendriksen/The Lisa Congdon Sessions : https://pod.link/1562400129If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Mari Andrew. She is an author, illustrator, has a tremendous following across the socials and has an incredible ability to sort of get into all of our heads and through words and art express, what we're thinking and feeling in the most relatable way : https://tinyurl.com/GLP-Mari-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Glo Atamno stepped on a plane with a one-way ticket and $500 years back, she knew she wanted a life that was different from the one she was expected to live, one filled with adventure, one that broke the mold of how others had always told her life was “supposed” to be lived. What’s unfolded has been a life of not just adventure, but also profound exploration, growth, connection, and impact. A life of stories. Over a period of years, she also figured out how to build a powerful living around her quest as a creative entrepreneur and online educator. Starting as a travel blogger, venturing to over 80 countries across 6 continents and telling the stories of destinations around the world, she landed features in Forbes, Oprah Magazine, Conde Nast, Essence, BBC, collaborates with major brands, and hosted "The Glo Show" podcast. But, over time, her journey began to morph into something both bigger and deeper, especially over the last few years, as she felt called to speak honestly and openly on issues of equity, race, and community in a more intentional way. She's the founder of The Social Educators Academy, helping people leverage their social platforms to make a difference and make a living. As we spoke, Glo shared powerful reflections on the travel-centered life she’s been living, her experience both in the U.S. and on the road as a Black woman, and how she’s continuing to evolve her focus, life, and livelihood in new directions as we all emerge back into a changed world. You can find Glo at: Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/glographics/The Glo Show : https://pod.link/1537789031If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Chris Guillebeau, who spent a decade traveling to every country in the world, while building a global community fueled by impact and adventure : https://tinyurl.com/GLP-Chris-------------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.

Would it surprise you to learn that the depth and quality of your relationships is the single biggest determinant of a life well-lived? Well, that’s what one of the longest-running studies on human flourishing, the Grant study, showed. But, chances are, you don’t need data to believe that. You just need to look at your life, and the lives of those around you. Having genuinely open, kind, honest, vulnerable, loving relationships make simply makes life better. And, over the years, we’ve had the opportunity to sit down with many of the leading voices, researchers, and thought-leaders on the topic. To ask them about their experience, insights, awakenings, and strategies. And, today, we’re sharing a powerful relationship roundup with you. We’ll hear about a reimagining of family as a more expansive chosen family of friends and community with Mia Birdsong. We’ll explore how Buddhism’s four noble truths can both guide and transform long-term, loving partnerships with Susan Piver. We’ll discover both the magic and the challenge of creating new true friendships as adults and explore ways to invite more of them into our lives with Kat Vellos. And, we’re kicking things off with Julie and John Gottman, married and collaborating professionally for decades as the founders of the legendary Gottman Institute, often known as the Love Lab that brings together powerful academic research with tens of thousands of hours of practical application. Their science-meets-on-the-gound reality will completely open your mind and give you powerful new ideas and tools to work with. So, let’s dive in.You can find Julie & John Gottman at:Website : https://www.gottman.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/gottmaninstitute/Small Things Often podcast : https://pod.link/1498172564You can find Susan Piver at:Website : https://susanpiver.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/susan.piver/You can find Kat Vellos at:Website : https://weshouldgettogether.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/katvellos_author/You can find Mia Birdsong at:Website : http://www.miabirdsong.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/miabirdsong/More Than Enough podcast : https://pod.link/1494165763If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the full-length conversations we had withJulie & John Gottman : https://tinyurl.com/GLP-GottmansSusan Piver : https://tinyurl.com/GLP-PiverKat Vellos : https://tinyurl.com/GLP-VellosMia Birdsong : https://tinyurl.com/GLP-Mia-Birdsong-------------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.

It’s one thing to feel uncomfortable around others, especially new people in a new environment. But, it’s another thing when those feelings fuel anxiety and, potentially, even panic and dread. And as we all emerge back into a more peopled daily life, social anxiety can be a very real issue. So, we’re sharing this Best Of conversation with clinical psychologist, Dr. Ellen Hendriksen, who helps millions calm their anxiety and be their authentic selves. She serves on the faculty at Boston University's Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders (CARD) and is the author of How to Be Yourself: Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety (https://amzn.to/3gBaW4x).During her tenure as founding host of the award-winning podcast, Savvy Psychologist, the podcast was downloaded 15 million times, rose as high as #3 on the overall iTunes charts, and was picked as a Best New Podcast on iTunes. Her scientifically-based, zero-judgment approach has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC News, New York Magazine, The Guardian, Harvard Business Review, Scientific American, O: The Oprah Magazine, Real Simple, Business Insider, Psychology Today, Quiet Revolution, and many other media outlets.You can find Ellen at:Website : http://ellenhendriksen.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/ellen_hendriksen/If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Emiliya Zhivotovskaya where we dive into 20 tools to tame anxiety : https://tinyurl.com/GLP-Emiliya-------------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’re like most people, there’s a certain amount of chatter that goes on in your head throughout the day. But, did you know that inner dialogue can have a profound effect on nearly every aspect of your life? Today’s guest, Ethan Kross, is one of the world’s leading experts on controlling the conscious mind. An award-winning professor and bestselling author in the University of Michigan’s top-ranked Psychology Department and its Ross School of Business, he studies how the conversations people have with themselves impact their health, performance, decisions and relationships.Earning his Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University, Ethan completed a post-doctoral fellowship in social-affective neuroscience to learn about the neural systems that support self-control. He moved to the University of Michigan in 2008, where he founded the Emotion & Self Control Laboratory. Ethan’s research has been published in Science, The New England Journal of Medicine, and The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, among other peer-reviewed journals. He has participated in policy discussions at the White House and has been interviewed on CBS Evening News, Good Morning America, Anderson Cooper Full Circle, and NPR’s Morning Edition. His pioneering research has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Harvard Business Review, USA Today, The Economist, The Atlantic, Forbes, and Time. And, he’s the author of the National Bestseller Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why it Matters and How to Harness It (https://amzn.to/3wngqGH).You can find Ethan at:Website : https://www.ethankross.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/ethankross/If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Adam Grant about the value of not getting too dug in on your thinking : https://tinyurl.com/GLP-AdamGrant-------------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 world of medicine is in a place of profound disruption, and that’s a really good thing. Because things have needed to change for a long time. That’s why I’m so glad to be able to sit down with an old friend today, Dr. Aviva Romm, who is my go-to doc for a better understanding fact from fiction, and where the world of medicine is headed, in no small part, through her efforts. Referred to as “the face of natural medicine in the 21st century” by Prevention Magazine and named one of the 100 Women to Watch in Wellness by Mind Body Green, Aviva Romm, MD has bridged the best of traditional medicine with good science for over three decades. A midwife, herbalist, and Yale-trained MD, Board Certified in Family Medicine with Obstetrics, as well as a graduate of Dr. Weil's Integrative Medicine Residency, she is an avid environmental health advocate, researching and publishing on the impact of toxins on fertility, pregnancy, women’s hormones, and chronic illness in women and children. Aviva is one of the nation’s leaders in botanical medicine and is the author of seven books on natural medicine, including the textbook Botanical Medicine for Women’s Health, The Adrenal Thyroid Revolution, and her latest book, Hormone Intelligence (https://amzn.to/3wboGt8). She is the author of the integrative medicine curriculum for the Yale Internal Medicine and Pediatric Residencies, and is on numerous scientific advisory and editorial boards, including Prevention Magazine. And, today, we’re diving into the evolving issues around medicine, equality, agency, and the role that hormones play in nearly every aspect of wellbeing, and how nearly everything we do affects this system.You can find Aviva at:Website : https://avivaromm.com/book/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/dr.avivaromm/If you LOVED this episode: you’ll also love the conversations we had with Dr. Frank Lipman about a fully integrated approach to healing and wellness : https://tinyurl.com/GLP-LipmanCheck 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.

How does the neuroscience of attention affect nearly every aspect of our capacity to live good lives? How can we harness tech as a tool to help our brains be more, rather than less present and aware? What do psychedelics and neuroscience have to do with each other, and how might both work together to profoundly improve our experience of life?These are a few of the questions today’s guest, Adam Gazzaley, has spent researching for decades, and continues to immerse himself in today. Adam is a neuroscientist, inventor, author, photographer, entrepreneur and investor. He is the founder and executive director of Neuroscape, and the David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He is also the co-Founder and Chief Science Advisor of Akili Interactive, JAZZ Venture Partners, and Sensync, and has authored over 150 scientific articles and delivered over 675 talks. And, he is also a stunningly accomplished nature photographer and artist.We dive into all of this, with a special focus on his latest initiative, The Neuroscape Psychedelic Division, dedicated to advancing the field of psychedelic science and medicine through multi-level research covering basic to translational to clinical science. The level of scientific rigor Adam and his team are bringing to this area is kind of mindblowing, and we explore where it’s all headed.You can find Adam at:Website : https://gazzaley.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/adamgazz/If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with fellow neuroscientist, Ryan D'Arcy, about advances in technology that are allowing us to rewire the brain in ways we never imagined : https://tinyurl.com/GLPryandarcy-------------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.

Today’s episode is special, it’s a unique meditation deep dive that brings together the deep, research-driven insights from Daniel Goleman, best known for his work on Emotional Intelligence, as well as his book, Altered Traits. Daniel takes us into the science behind meditation and also asks a surprising question - what if popular wisdom and science about meditation were wrong? Goleman reveals powerful new truths about meditation, what it really is and isn't, and how only about 1% of the 6,000+ studies done on the topic are what might be considered "good science."We then turn it over to Sharon Salzberg, renowned meditation and loving-kindness teacher and founder of Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. She travels the world teaching people how to become aware and cultivate loving-kindness in their lives and has been doing so for decades. Sharon also recently partnered with Dan Harris to bring her latest venture to life, 10% Happier, an exciting new app that builds on Dan’s book, 10% Happier.And finally, I’ll take the meditation reigns for our Act 3, guiding you through a special blended mindful body scan and loving-kindness meditation.I hope you enjoy this meditation deep-dive. And if you loved this episode, be sure to share it around, and listen to the full-length conversations with Daniel and Sharon, linked belowYou can find Daniel Goleman at: Website : https://www.danielgoleman.info/First Person Plural: EI & Beyond podcast : https://pod.link/1538498597You can find Sharon Salzberg at: Website : https://www.sharonsalzberg.com/Instagram : https://instagram.com/sharonsalzberg/Metta Hour podcast : https://pod.link/923019021If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the full-length conversations we had with Daniel Goleman (https://tinyurl.com/GLPgoleman) and Sharon Salzberg (https://tinyurl.com/GLPsaltzberg).-------------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 happens when the thing you’ve loved since you were a kid, the thing that led you to become an 11-time NBA All-star, and two-time champion, playing alongside the best in the world, comes to a cataclysmic end at the age of 31? Leaving you to figure out what to do with the rest of your life? That is exactly what happened to this week’s guest, Chris Bosh. He fell in love with basketball at an early age and earned the prestigious “Mr. Basketball” title while still in high school in Dallas, Texas. A year into college, Chris was drafted to the Toronto Raptors, where he played for 7 years, before joining the Miami Heat and winning two championships. But, a handful of years into his time in Miami, he was having trouble breathing and found himself in the hospital with blood clots in his lungs. A year later, the clots returned in his leg, officially ending his career, and launching him into an exploration of who he was, beyond the sport that had defined much of his life and his career. Chris shared many of his awakenings in his new memoir, Letters to a Young Athlete (https://amzn.to/3wrUfi4).You can find Chris at:Website : https://www.chrisbosh.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/chrisbosh/If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with rock icon, Peter Frampton about his profound passion for guitar that led to an album and career taking him to the top of the charts for year, but then leaving him to reimagine who he wanted to be in the context of an industry that pulled him to be someone else : https://tinyurl.com/GLPpeterframpton-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Growing up in Alabama in a family of six, Light Watkins never imagined he’d find himself in his mid-forties, some 15 years into a career as a meditation teacher having led workshops and trained thousands around the world, giving up nearly all his worldly possessions to live out of a backpack and be nomadic for the last three years. Based out of Mexico City for the moment, this last year and a half created the space to reflect on his life of teaching, travel, connection and impact. And, stories and insights began to emerge that needed to be written down and shared. Ones about being a young Black kid growing up in the south, living in New York, saying yes to a gig in advertising that would become his one and only traditional job, walking into a meditation workshop with hesitance and walking out knowing it’d be his life’s work, immersing himself in study in India, starting a sober social-movement called The Shine, and reflecting on meaning, friendship, love, serendipity, surrender, and, of course, meditation and, more broadly, the role of stillness and reflection in our lives. He’s distilled these stories and awakenings into a beautiful new book, Knowing Where to Look (https://amzn.to/3wrsBC9). We dive into all of it in today’s inspiring conversation.You can find Light at:Website : https://www.lightwatkins.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/lightwatkins/At The End of the Tunnel : https://pod.link/1515614913If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Tara Brach about a life of awareness and awakening from trance : https://tinyurl.com/GLPTaraCheck 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.

From the earliest age, Brian Broome was taught that a man was, basically, everything he wasn’t. The model of masculinity handed down to him, from his father to local kids, community, and even the local barbershop made him feel like his very existence was an affront. So, he started hiding, then began to play different roles in the name of belonging. Eventually, the weight of it all led to years doing nearly everything he could to destroy himself, sinking into addiction, until his body, heart and mind just couldn’t take it anymore. Returning to writing, which he’d loved as a kid, Brian began to pour out stories. At first, for no one but him. It was his form of exorcism, of coping, and sense-making. But when he began sharing those stories and poems in the form of spoken word, everything began to change. Now, an award-winning writer, poet, and screenwriter, and K. Leroy Irvis Fellow and instructor in the Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh, and Moth storyteller, he shares his journey in the powerful new memoir, Punch Me Up to the Gods (https://amzn.to/3fFbMwG). We dive deep into it all, including a hard, yet revealing and important look at how cultural norms about masculinity, sexuality and race shape our lives.You can find Brian at:Website : https://www.brianbroome.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/bbromb/If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Casey Gerald about his upbringing and how he navigated the world around similar topics : https://tinyurl.com/GLPCasey-------------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, how do you turn a gathering, whether over a meal or a giant event, into an experience of collective elevation? Priya Parker is on a mission to help us take a deeper look at how anyone can create collective meaning in modern life, one gathering at a time. She is a facilitator, strategic advisor, acclaimed author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters (https://amzn.to/2K95VyJ) and the host of the New York Times podcast, Together Apart (https://pod.link/1506057555). Priya has spent 15 years helping leaders and communities have complicated conversations about community and identity and vision at moments of transition. Trained in the field of conflict resolution, she has worked on race relations on American college campuses and on peace processes in the Arab world, southern Africa, and India.Parker is a founding member of the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network, a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on New Models of Leadership, and a Senior Expert at Mobius Executive Leadership. She studied organizational design at M.I.T., public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and political and social thought at the University of Virginia. Her work has been featured everywhere from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and TED to Real Simple, Oprah.com, Glamour, the Today Show and more. In today’s Best Of conversation, we dive into the art of gathering and how to create those shared moments of understanding and transformation, which we could all use more of right now. You can find Priya at:Website : https://www.priyaparker.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/priyaparker/If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Mia Birdsong about building community and really reimagining family and chosen family : https://tinyurl.com/GLPBirdsong Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKED. To submit your “moment & question” for consideration to be on the show go to sparketype.com/submit. Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ranked among the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, and visionary. He has been conferred three presidential awards in India, including one for his environmental work as well as the country’s highest annual civilian award for exceptional and distinguished service. He’s spoken before the United Nations, World Economic Forum, World Bank, the UK House of Lords, TED, and countless global companies, and has also been invited to present at Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Wharton, and MIT, among others.Over the years, Sadhguru has also launched large ecological initiatives that have created a blueprint for economic development that is ecologically sustainable. And three decades ago, Sadhguru founded Isha Foundation, a nonprofit human-service organization, with human well-being as its core commitment. The foundation has initiated yoga programs for human transformation and outreach projects to uplift rural communities. Isha is supported by over 11 million volunteers in more than 300 centers worldwide.We explore his extraordinary life’s journey today, then drop into the focus of his latest book, Karma: A Yogi's Guide to Crafting Your Destiny, (https://bookshop.org/a/22758/9780593232019) which has also been a concept that has fascinated me for years.You can find Sadhguru at:Website : https://isha.sadhguru.org/karma/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/sadhguru/If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Nepal-based French philosopher, writer, teacher, and Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, who, after having his brain study by neuroscientists, was kind of dubbed with a smile, The World's Happiest Man: https://tinyurl.com/GLPRicard-------------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 2008, Jill Bolte Taylor gave the first-ever TED Talk to go massively viral. A Harvard-trained neuroscientist, she told the story of her stroke that largely wiped out the entire left hemisphere of her brain, a horrifying experience and yet, the entire time, at her left hemisphere was shutting down, it was observing and analyzing the process in the way a scientist might, wondering at the moment by moment changes. She shared this deeply moving story, along with the 8-year journey it took to rebuild and bring her left half back online, enough to step back into her career and stand on maybe the most intimidating stage in the world and leave her audience both captivated and yearning, in an odd twist of circumstance, to experience even a glimpse of the profound expansive, connectedness and bliss Jill described as her right hemisphere took the reigns and all but eliminated and sense of separate self, otherness or separation. Despite the stunning success of her talk and book that followed, she still viewed them, in a way, as failures. Her ultimate goal was to invite people to explore reconnecting with that same sense of spaciousness, joy, empathy and compassion, to activate and embrace all parts of their brains, not just the head’s down, individualistic, achievement-oriented parts. People wanted to, but there was no clear roadmap, so she spent years deconstructing the process and distilling it into a powerful, insight-packed call to action in her new book, Whole Brain Living: The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life (https://amzn.to/2Q9MFtc), where she reveals the 4 characters living in your brain and how to harness them to live an extraordinary, intentional and present life.You can find Dr. Jill at:Website : http://www.drjilltaylor.com/If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with neuroscientists and innovator, Ryan Darcy who is doing stunning things with brain neuroplasticity : https://tinyurl.com/GLPDArcy-------------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.

How does someone who despised himself for most of his life go from loving himself and his life, and creating music that makes millions smile? That’s the journey my guest, Axel Mansoor has been on. A singer/songwriter and self-described Third Culture Kid, he’s become known for leveraging technology to build community and intimacy with his music. His songs have taken him from a Daytime Emmy nomination to collaborations with the biggest brands in the world, Spotify’s Viral 50 Chart, to your television screen as he pitched a song to H.E.R. on NBC's Songland. Axel’s debut EP, I hadn’t ever Loved Myself, just dropped and is quickly climbing the charts.And, until a few days ago, his image was the icon for the massively viral Clubhouse social audio app, appearing on the screens of tens of millions of phones. He is also the creator of the app's popular Lullaby Club: a nightly musical experience where your favorite artists sing you, and the rest of the world, to sleep. But, there’s also a deceptively beautiful and creative ulterior motive, helping artists get discovered, build careers and expand their communities.In this conversation, we explore the idea of being a third culture kid, a phrase I’ve heard more and more, and how literally living with a foot in three worlds led to this seemingly contradictory ability to fit it and make people like him, while also being brutally bullied and deepening into a place of self-hatred that tore apart his sense of self, belonging, and expression. And we talk about how music, along with a powerful inciting incident, turned his world upside-down and became a source of joy, expression and, to his surprise, even self-love. You can find Axel at:Website : http://www.axelmansoor.com/Lullaby Club : https://lullaby.club/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/axelmansoor/If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with extraordinary singer, Lisa Fischer who, in addition to her own breakout hits, spent years touring and recording with everyone from Luther Vandross to the Rolling Stones : https://tinyurl.com/GLPFischer-------------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.

David Yarrow is one of the world’s best-selling fine art photographers. He has spent the past decade documenting the natural world from new perspectives, and his distinctive, evocative and immersive photography of life on earth has earned him an ever-growing following amongst art collectors as a relevant artist of his generation. His limited edition works regularly fetch record bids of over $100,000 at auction houses such as Sotheby’s. He is also a passionate philanthropist and conservationist, and holds multiple ambassadorships including those for WildArk, Nikon, Land Rover and UBS and has donated millions to wildlife and sustainability causes. But, here’s the thing, this almost never happened. David’s career had a bit of a false start when, on break from university, he talked his way into a world cup soccer match and captures a legendary image of iconic soccer star, Maradonna. But, instead of embracing a career in photojournalism, he went into finance where he was building a big reputation. For decades. Until a series of experiences led him to walk away from it all and step back into the world of photography but in a very different way.You can find David at:Website : https://davidyarrow.photography/In Focus Podcast : https://www.davidyarrowpodcast.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/davidyarrow/If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Mark Mann: https://tinyurl.com/GLPmannYou’ll also love the conversations we had with the artist, Peter Tunney: https://tinyurl.com/GLPtunney-------------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.

Iconic actress, producer, author and activist, Marlo Thomas, never wanted to marry. She saw what she believed was the way marriage “had” to be - one person giving up their dream for the other - and knew it wasn’t for her. Then, one fateful day in 1977, she appeared as an hourlong guest on the legendary daytime talk show hosted by Phil Donaghue. Both were smitten, they sensed something powerful had happened, but neither of them knew that conversation, aired before millions of viewers on daytime TV, would effectively be a first date that would lead to a marriage that’s now lasted more than 40 years.Reflecting on what makes a relationship last that long, they got curious and began to set up double dates with many celebrity couples they know, and others they didn’t. People like Viola Davis and her husband, actor Julius Tennon, filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife Michele; award-winning journalists Bob Woodward & Elsa Walsh; Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen; Ray Romano and his wife Anna, Neil Patrick Harris and his actor/chef-husband David Burtka; the Rev. Jesse and Jacqueline Jackson, John Leguizamo and wife Justine and so many others. Those hours-long conversations went so deep, got so vulnerable, open and at times, hysterically funny, they turned interviews into the bestselling book, What Makes a Marriage Last. And now, those conversations and more are featured in their new original podcast series, Double Date (https://www.pushkin.fm/show/double-date-marlo-thomas-phil-donahue/). We had so much fun talking about those early moments in their lives and relationship, what was really going on in each of their lives, hearts and minds and what they learned sitting down for double dates with so many incredible, long-term couples. You can find Marlo & Phil's new podcast at:Double Date : https://www.pushkin.fm/show/double-date-marlo-thomas-phil-donahue/If you LOVED this episode:You will also love the conversation that we had with Julie and John Gottman (https://tinyurl.com/gottman-love-lab), who are the founders of the legendary Love Lab, and their deep-dive into what love and what long-term relationships and marriages really are all about.-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Growing up in LA, Ellen Bennett had no idea her summer spent with her grandma in a small town in Mexico would play a huge role not only his how she saw the world and related to people, but also in the career she’d eventually pursue and the company she would build. Describing herself as half Mexican, half English, born and raised in LA by a fiery mom who calls her “Mami,” and having never met a color she didn’t like, she is the founder of Hedley & Bennett, a company that crafts some of the coolest, most beautiful and kitchen tough aprons, worn by a lineage of many of the top chefs in the most iconic restaurants and kitchens in the world.But she didn’t start out that way. Coming out of high school, without a strong sense of direction, she got on a plane to Mexico City, alone, and vanished into the culture, building a career and life before feeling called back to LA to make her mark cooking, under the guidance of two legendary chefs and restaurateurs. But a single, fateful moment, when she heard her mentor ask a simple question, then made a promise that, at the time, she had no idea how to keep, led her to launch her own company. The adventures that followed are the stuff of legend, many of the learnings and tales are shared in her wonderful new book, Dream First, Details Later (https://amzn.to/3aJf9kj), and we dive into it all in today’s conversation. You can find Ellen at:Website : https://www.hedleyandbennett.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/ellenmariebennett/If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Samin Nosrat, chef, teacher, and author of one of the most beautiful and soulful cookbooks ever, Salt Fat Acid Heat, and host of the hit TV show of the same name. https://tinyurl.com/3phhve7n-------------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.

Morgan Harper Nichols is an artist and poet whose work is inspired by real-life interactions and stories. Morgan spent the first couple of years of her professional life as a college admission counselor, and then, as a full-time touring singer-songwriter and musician. It was on the road that she cultivated her curiosity and passion for writing, art, and design and slowly began to share her work online.In 2017, Morgan started a project where she invites people to submit their stories to her website. From there, she creates art as a response to their stories and sends it to them before sharing the work publicly. All stories and names are kept private. The fruit of this project is shared daily around social media, in publications, and various creative collaborations and installations.As an artist, Morgan has collaborated with a wide range of brands including Coach, Adobe, Vogue Singapore, Aerie, and more. As a designer and author, her work has been available in many stores, including Anthropologie, Barnes and Noble, and Target. Her latest book, How Far You Have Come: Musings on Beauty and Courage (https://amzn.to/3azMSgm)is a beautiful collection of illustrations, poems and essays and we dive into the verse, experiences and moments that often reveal deeply personal, yet universal awakenings, in today’s conversation.You can find Morgan at:Website : https://morganharpernichols.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/morganharpernichols/Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKEDVisit Our Sponsor Page For a Complete List of Vanity URLs & Discount Codes.Ana Luisa: Sustainably-made jewelry with a conscience. If you’re looking for a gift for yourself or a loved one, check out Ana Luisa's pre-Mother’s Day sale at analuisa.com/goodlifemd to get 15% OFF.AquaTru: Countertop reverse osmosis water purifier that's certified to create bottled-quality water. Receive $100 off an AquaTru plus free shipping when you go to AquaTru.com & enter code GOODLIFE at checkout. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ever feel like life is one non-stop boundary issue? You’re not alone. And my guest, Terri Cole, can help. Before earning a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychotherapy from New York University, Terri ran a talent agency for actors and supermodels. She was your typical Type A overachiever with zero balance and no internal peace, driven by ambition, living on planes and serving as a business executive, confidante, advisor, surrogate parental figure and bounding between nearly every role, with every person imaginable. She began to realize every part of work and life was bleeding into every other part of work and life and the net effect was that everything was bleeding out. Something had to change. She wanted her life back, and she wanted to do something that felt more driven by meaning and service. Changing direction, she went back to school, started a partnership in life and family, and therapy practice at the same time, that’s now been her devotion for over two decades. What she learned in the trenches with her high-profile clients informed and continues to inspire the work she does today. She’s been on a mission. Her dharma, she shares, is teaching women how to attract and sustain healthy, vibrant, Real Love into their lives and establish and maintain effective boundaries with ease and grace. That latter part, she’s come to believe is at the heart of so much interpersonal struggle and is perpetually at the center of nearly therapeutic engagement. So, she figured it was time to share was she’s learned in her new book, Boundary Boss: The Essential Guide to Talk True, Be Seen, and (Finally) Live Free (https://amzn.to/3srgUZC). We dive deep into the world of boundaries in today’s conversation.Be sure to check out her 2017 conversation (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/podcast/terri-cole-real-love/) with us for a deeper dive.You can find Terri at:Website : https://www.terricole.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/terricoleDiscover Your Secondary Gain : https://boundaryboss.me/goodlife-------------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 a young photographer, working to stand out and rise up in a hyper-competitive industry, then getting a call one day from Iman and David Bowie, asking to shoot the cover of Iman’s next book, after two of the covers shot by two of the world’s top photographers had been rejected? That is exactly what happened with Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri. That moment would become an inciting incident, leading evermore opportunities to deepen into her wildly imaginative and compelling magical realism style and launch years of award-winning collaborations, image-making and storytelling with everyone from HBO, Vogue and Vanity Fair, to Pepsi and Nike to L'Oreal and icons like Beyonce, Gaga, Bowie, Kate Winslet, Pharrell Williams, Eugene Brave Rock, Jay-Z and countless others. Indrani’s work is exhibited in museums worldwide and in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian. Over time, she’s integrated her love of image-making and storytelling with her passion for service in the name of social justice and impact, and expanded from still images to film, including directing the powerful Girl Epidemic documentary about sex trafficking and slavery.Beyond directing, advocacy has taken a much more central role in her work and life, with positions as the co-Host of the Global People’s Summit at the United Nations, host of the New York Live Arts' Humanities Symposium, and Co-Founder and Executive Director of Shakti Empowerment Education for women and children in India. She also lectures at her alma mater, Princeton University, on "Mobilizing Millions with Art and Film for Human Rights and Social Justice." You can find Indrani at:Website : https://www.indrani.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/indranipc/-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Growing up outside Rochester, New York, all Elizabeth Miki Brina knew was that she was different, an outsider, and she blamed her mom, a first-generation immigrant from Okinawa, for it all. Elizabeth’s mother was working as a nightclub hostess on U.S.-occupied Okinawa when she met the American soldier who was deployed during the Vietnam war who would become her husband. Leaving her home, family, friends and culture, to move to the U.S, the language barrier and power imbalance that defined their early relationship followed them to the predominantly white, upstate New York suburb where they moved to raise Elizabeth, who felt perpetually othered among her peers, turning that feeling into a cocktail of anger and rebellion.Decades later, Elizabeth came to recognize the shame and self-loathing that haunted both her and her mother, and began a process of reconciliation, not only to come to terms with the embattled dynamics of her family but also to reckon with the injustices that reverberate throughout the history of Okinawa and its people. She came to see the profound courage and strength and saw her parents enduring marriage in a profoundly different light. We dive deep into this journey, which is beautifully detailed in Elizabeth’s haunting memoir, Speak, Okinawa (https://bookshop.org/a/22758/9780525657347), which is a heartfelt exploration of identity, inheritance, forgiveness, and what it means to be at peace with who you are.You can find Elizabeth at:Website : https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/611688/speak-okinawa-by-elizabeth-miki-brina/-------------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.

Justin Tranter is one of the top songwriters and collaborators in the music industry, writing with everyone from Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa, and Selena Gomez to Demi Lovato, Bebe Rexha, Brandy Clark, Shea Diamond and countless others. With their astonishing success and abundant self-love, you’d never imagine Justin was bullied mercilessly as a kid growing up in Chicago. Every day was torture until the Chicago Academy For The Arts high school provided a place of refuge and emergence and ultimately saved their life. Starting out in the business, Justin began their career on stage as the figurehead of the glam-punk band Semi Precious Weapons, but eventually discovered something surprising. They didn’t actually need to be on stage to do the part of the work they loved; collaborating, writing and helping other leading artists create works of art that told their stories in a powerful way and moved millions. Justin has since become a pioneer in the music industry, working tirelessly to elevate the voices of everyone around them — whether marginalized people, emerging artists or global pop icons. Along the way, Justin’s also remained a committed philanthropist & GLAAD Board member, using their platform to rally for change across a number of causes, including representation/inclusion for LGBTQIA+ people, women & women of color. And, in 2018, coming full-circle, Justin made a donation to fund a state-of-the-art recording studio and part-time music teacher at that very same place that was their salvation as a kid, the Chicago Academy For The Arts.You can find Justin at:Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/tranterjustin-------------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 first exposure to Anne Lamott’s work was her iconic book, Bird By Bird, which as a writer, was transformative. Not just because it helped me better understand how and why to write, but also because her wonderfully wise and irreverent voice inspired me to be more real, more honest in both my work and my life. I’ve remained captivated by her writing ever since. The author of too many The New York Times bestsellers, including Almost Everything; Hallelujah Anyway; Small Victories; Stitches; Help, Thanks, Wow; and her most recent Dusk Night Dawn (https://amzn.to/3rYhHB5), Anne goes places other fear to tread with such humility, humor and craft, it’s like you’ve been invited into her mind, her life and her ability to draw belly laughs, deep wisdom and hits of awakening from those often tiny moments that touch down in our lives that so many of us miss. She reminds you, it may not be fun while it’s happening, but it’s all part of the beautiful souffle of life and every ingredient matters.You can find Anne at:Website : https://sites.prh.com/dusknightdawntourInstagram : https://www.instagram.com/annelamott/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.

Sophia Chang is a force to be reckoned with. A soft-spoken French-lit major in college and the child of Korean immigrants raised in Vancouver, when she first heard "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five everything changed. Taken by the mix of urgency, anger, and pride that was hip-hop in the 80s and 90s, Sophia rerouted her life to New York, quickly becoming a fixture in the music industry and hip-hop scene, and finding fast-family with the legendary Wu-Tang Clan.Over the years, Chang would end up not just a member of the Wu-Tang family, but also manage a number of the group's individual members, as well as other legends including A Tribe Called Quest, Raphael Saadiq, and D'Angelo. In 1995, she left the music business to train kung fu and manage a 34th Generation Shaolin monk, who would later become her partner and father of her two children, before returning to music. Now, after decades of being the force behind other amazing artists' stories, she's finally telling her own story in her breakout audiobook, The Baddest Bitch in the Room (https://amzn.to/3sQbE2S). We're so excited to share this Best Of conversation with you today.You can find Sophia at:Website : https://www.sophchang.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/sophchangnyc/-------------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 and raised in Buffalo, NY, John Rzeznik is the founding-member, frontman and guitarist for iconic band, the Goo Goo Dolls. He's a legend in the world of music, with 19 top-ten singles, including mega-hits like Iris (which spent 12-months on the Billboard charts), Name, Black Balloon and countless others. And, like so many who turned to music at a young age as both a way to cope with discord and a form of expression, he’s lived a life of extraordinary artistry and contribution, and along with that, a certain amount of darkness and struggle that for many years found him turning to alcohol as a way to get through each day. Until it all fell apart, and he had to make a decision. One he keeps making every day. Now, sober, a devoted dad and husband, he's telling a new story with his life and music, and taking the giant, global community of Goo Goo Doll fans along for the journey. And, as you’ll hear, he’s headed into the studio to create something that is truly representative not just of this moment in time, but also of how his lens on life, music, and creativity have evolved.You can find John at:Website : https://www.googoodolls.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/johnrzeznikggd/-------------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.

With culinary training from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, and a relatability that seems to light up the screen, many people know Giada De Laurentiis as the Emmy award-winning television personality of shows like Food Network’s Everyday Italian, Giada at Home, Giada’s Weekend Getaways, as a judge on Food Network Star and Winner Cake All, an NBC Today Show contributor, and a successful restaurateur with restaurants GIADA and Pronto by Giada in Las Vegas, as well as GDL Italian in Baltimore. Or, maybe you know her as the author of nine New York Times bestselling cookbooks, including her most recent, Eat Better Feel Better (https://amzn.to/2NQEJfi), which deftly navigates the sweet spot between delicious recipes and a more healthful approach to cooking and eating. But, what you may not know, and what Giada shares in the pages of this new book and our deep-dive conversation, is how her upbringing in a dynastic family of film, both in Italy and Hollywood, shaped everything from her love of food and cooking for others, to her early disdain for being in front of the camera. Her decision to step into the world of cooking on television, in fact, caused quite a dustup in the family. And the career that, in front of the camera, seemed so beautiful and glamorous, would eventually take a serious toll on her physical and mental health. There was a slowly-building dark side that would take years to acknowledge, then eventually step out of and do the work to reimagine both her mental and physical health, as well as the way she brought herself to her work, life and devotion to food and creativity.You can find Giada at:Website : https://www.giadadelaurentiis.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/giadadelaurentiis/-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.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.

Connie Lim, whose artist name is MILCK, rose to widespread attention after a video of an a capella performance of her song "Quiet" on the street at the 2017 Women's March exploded into the public’s consciousness going viral and becoming embraced as an anthem for the movement. That moment and the impact and reach of the song led to a major record deal and collaborations as a songwriter that launched the career she’s been working to build for years. But that career almost never happened. MILCK grew up in an enclave of LA, the child of immigrants from China, and was drawn to music from her earliest days. She wrote her first song at 7 years old and studied classical piano and opera. Yet the pressure of intense perfectionism and the expectation she’d eventually leave music behind to follow the family tradition into medicine led her into years of profound emotional struggle. Eventually, she hit a point in college where she decided it was time to choose herself over the expectations of others, as well as the burden of perfectionism that had caused so many years of suffering and harm. MILCK left college and went all-in on music, performing as an independent artist for years, slowly building her name, before that fateful day in 2017 that changed everything. She’s now deep into writing, producing and performing her own work, while also writing with and for other artists and focusing on not just sharing her own creative voice, but also gathering community and shining the light on truth and inequity along the way.You can find MILCK at:Website : https://www.somebodysbeloved.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/milckmusic/-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jen Hatmaker grew up in the church, surrounded by family and community, eventually rising up to become a central figure. But, over the years, she became increasingly uncomfortable with not so much the core tenets and teachings, but rather the trapping and limitations of the institution. She struggled with what she saw as a stifling of power, expression and contribution in the context of women, the exclusion of LGBTQ+ and gender-fluid or nonconforming people and more. So, she did something she knew would leave her labeled a pariah and outcast by many. Still, it was the thing she couldn’t not do.Jen had no idea what was next, or even if faith, or any approach to organized religion would play a role in her life, let alone her vocation. But, over time, she came back to those same core tenets, but in a way that felt far more expansive, equitable and inclusive, and build a new community that welcomed all into more of what she described as a “wild faith.” She’s since written numerous books, including NY Times bestsellers For the Love and Of Mess and Moxie. She hosts the For the Love Podcast, speaks and created the Jen Hatmaker Book Club where, in her words, she “nerds out every month with thousands of women who believe good books are everything and stories still matter.” And she leaders an online community of millions of women. Her latest book, Simple and Free: 7 Experiments Against Excess (https://amzn.to/2PdDFSL), is a fascinating take on excess, bundled with a series of experiments that invite us to explore what happens when we strip down key parts of life to their essentials.You can find Jen Hatmaker at:Website : https://jenhatmaker.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/jenhatmaker/-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.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.

Melissa Bernstein, along with her husband Doug, is the Co-Founder of the legendary toy company Melissa & Doug, which has created over 5,000 children’s products and sold billions of dollars of toys since its inception. Melissa and Doug started the business in their garage in 1988, and they’ve been on a mission ever since to provide open-ended, inventive, non-technologically driven playthings for young children. Sounds like a dream life, but throughout Melissa’s remarkable career, she kept secret her lifelong battle with severe, existential depression and anxiety. She spoke about it publicly for the first time on Good Life Project a few years back and that moment became a bit of an inciting incident to come more fully out of the shadows, share her story in a bigger way and begin to devote herself to building community, experiences, and solutions to help others moving through struggle and darkness feel less alone. Among those offerings is her moving new book, LifeLines: An Inspirational Journey from Profound Darkness to Radiant Light (https://amzn.to/3czkKKm), that takes you deep into her story and then takes you along the journey of discovery and creation that would eventually become LifeLines.com, an online ecosystem she and Doug are underwriting to support those seeking support, guidance, and community on their mental health journeys. Want more of Melissa? You can listen here to our 2018 conversation (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/podcast/melissa-bernstein/)You can find Melissa Bernstein at:Website : https://www.lifelines.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/seeklifelines/-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.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 is Glasgow born photographer, Mark Mann, who has built a stunning career, photographing many of the most iconic celebrities in the world, from Robert Redford, Michael Douglas, Iggy Pop, and the Black Eyed Peas to Seinfeld, Rihanna, Queen Latifah, Stevie Wonder, Bradley Cooper, Willie Nelson, and hundreds of others. Funny thing is, Mark pretty much stumbled into photography in the most unexpected way in his late teens, then ended up on a plane to NYC where, with little experience, he found himself dropped into the world of hip hop and music, focusing some of the early icons in the space. He fell in love with the stories people’s faces told and started spending more and more time developing his signature approach to hyper-vivid, close-up, black and white portraits that, in some way, capture a moment, a mood, a vibe or story. But behind the scenes, it hasn’t been a straight line or an easy path. The reality of the photographic life is not an easy one, but, for him, it’s been the source of profound connection and a life of stories that will live in his mind long after the images themselves fade. You can find Mark Mann at:Website : https://www.markmannphoto.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/markmannphoto/-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.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.

Christa Couture is an award-winning performing and recording artist, filmmaker, writer and broadcaster. She is also proudly Indigenous (mixed Cree and Scandinavian), queer, disabled, and a mom. Her seventh album Safe Harbour was released on Coax Records in 2020. As a writer and storyteller, Christa has been published in Room, Shameless, and Augur magazines, she’s gone viral on CBC with an article and photos on disability and pregnancy. Christa’s also a frequent contributor to CBC Radio and is currently the weekday afternoon host on 106.5 ELMNT FM in Toronto. Her life has been both extraordinary and fiercely engaged. She is utterly and awake, connected, and alive, which is a powerful state, given the stunning amount of loss that’s touched down in her life, from the loss of her leg as a child to the loss of children, a sense of identity, community, and the need to find a way to reimagine life, to not just exist, but also live in the face of deeply challenging circumstance. In her debut memoir How to Lose Everything (https://bookshop.org/a/22758/9781771622622), she shares many stories and we dive into her extraordinary path, revelations and lens of life, possibility, hope and grace.You can find Christa Couture at:Website : http://christacouture.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/christacouture/-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.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.

Lama Rod Owens is a Buddhist minister, author, activist, yoga instructor and authorized Lama, or Buddhist teacher, in the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism and is considered one of the leaders of his generation of Buddhist teachers. He holds a Master of Divinity degree in Buddhist Studies from Harvard Divinity School and is a co-author of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation, along with my friend and past GLP guest, Rev. angel Kyodo williams. Lama Rod is the co-founder of Bhumisparsha, a Buddhist tantric practice and study community. Has been published in Buddhadharma, Lion’s Roar, Tricycle and The Harvard Divinity Bulletin, and offers talks, retreats and workshops in more than seven countries. He’s also someone who has spent a lifetime exploring and working with the often blurred lines between love and rage, which also happens to be the title of his latest book, Love & Rage: The Path to Liberation Through Anger (https://bookshop.org/a/22758/9781623174095). Its prophetic truth, timing and honesty and wisdom, in dealing with the multiplicity of challenges this generation is waking up to is both an invitation to a deeper set of truths and a set of practices to help navigate the experience of life in this moment in time.You can find Lama Rod Owens at:Website: https://www.lamarod.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/lamarodowens/-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.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.

Mari Andrew is what I’d call a flaneur, she navigates the world in search of moments of discovery, wonder, serendipity and connection. That novelty often drops her into those flickering moments of aliveness - that is her muse. It’s found an expression in the form of beloved illustrations and words on her Instagram account with a community of more than 1M people and her first book. But these last 4 or 5 years have led Mari into entire seasons of deep struggle, reflection, and, ultimately, revelation that’s taken her from park benches in New York’s East Village to hospital wards in Spain and random alleys in Rio. In her new book, My Inner Sky: On Embracing Day, Night, and All the Times in Between (https://amzn.to/3bi0NIJ), Mari shares some of these moments, from an illness that temporarily paralyzed her in a foreign country to finding home within herself again and seeing the world anew. It's a call to spend more time finding grace in the truth of whatever life brings you, rather than wishing and waiting for things to change. You can find Mari Andrew at:Website : https://bymariandrew.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/bymariandrew/-------------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, Chicago-born and raised, Roy Kinsey, is a bit of an anomaly. A black, queer-identified, rapper, and librarian or as he puts it, Rapbrarian. Roy’s escape from trauma and creative outlet as a kid was writing and music and also a love of books and learning. He began sharing his words and beats, rapping at a young age, but really began to elevate his pursuit of music-making in college, performing and refining his craft. Graduating, he began making a name for himself, performing, recording and releasing albums, while simultaneously earning degrees that would find him working as a librarian by day and an artist by night.A few albums in, Roy began to feel like an essential part of him was being kept from his music and also his community, so he made the decision to come out as queer on an album at a time very few others in the space of rap and hip-hop were out. It was a moment that would transform him and his music. Roy has since released a series of powerful albums, including his latest powerful reflection, KINSEY: A Memoir (http://www.roykinsey.com/shop). He’s been featured on the cover of major local publications like Chicago Reader and the Chicago Tribune, in and on major national, and international publications like Billboard, LA Times, NPR, WBEZ’s Vocalo. And Roy has even found a way to bring his love of music and books together, running workshops as a librarian in the Teen Services/Youmedia department for Chicago Public Libraries.You can find Roy Kinsey at:Website : http://www.roykinsey.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/roy_kinsey/---------------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.

Jamie Kern Lima thought she’d spend her life in the world of broadcast TV, where after graduating, she began working her way up as a journalist, then eventually news anchor where a bright career was laid out in front of her. Then, the camera started picking up a genetic skin condition that she struggled to hide and threatened to derail what she’d worked for. That experience set in motion a quest that eventually led her out of broadcast journalism and into the world of entrepreneurship where she’d eventually found IT Cosmetics, a company she started in her living room and would eventually sell to L’Oreal for $1.2 Billion, becoming the first female CEO in L’Oreal’s 100+ year history. Her journey, though, was anything but smooth, with years of 100+ hour weeks, living hand-to-mouth, miles of no’s and countless dark nights of the soul and even a single moment that would either shut the company down or launch them into the stratosphere, which by the way, it did. Jamie is passionate about inspiring and mentoring entrepreneurs, building businesses, making a difference in the lives of women and girls and giving back in a big way. Her book, Believe IT: How to Go from Underestimated to Unstoppable (https://amzn.to/3uqLXak), shares her story and many of the big insights she’s now sharing with aspiring creators and founders.You can find Jamie Kern Lima at:Website : https://www.believeit.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/jamiekernlima/-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Marine sniper Jake Wood arrived home in the States after two brutal tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he wasn't leaving war behind him. Ten years after returning home, Jake's unit lost more men to suicide than to enemy hands overseas. He watched in horror as his best friend and fellow Marine, Clay Hunt, plunged into depression upon returning, stripped of his purpose, community, and sense of identity. Despite Jake's attempts to intervene, Clay died by suicide, alone.Reeling, Jake remembered how only one thing had given Clay a measure of hope: joining him in Haiti on a ragtag mission to save lives immediately following the 2010 earthquake. His military training had rendered him unusually effective in high-stakes situations. He wondered if there was a way to help communities in crisis, often in the wake of natural disasters, while providing a new mission to veterans? With that, he built on the early missions to co-found the now-iconic Team Rubicon, a disaster relief organization with over 140,000 volunteers that drop into locations around the world to battle hurricanes, tornados, wildfires, pandemics, and civil wars, while reconnecting with a sense of purpose along the way. In this inspiring memoir, Once a Warrior: How One Veteran Found a New Mission Closer to Home (https://amzn.to/3dt5qkt), Jake recounts this extraordinary journey.You can find Jake Wood & Team Rubicon at:Website : https://teamrubiconusa.org/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/teamrubicon/-------------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 73, Denise Kaufman is the ultimate renaissance woman, an active member of the ‘60s Bay Area psychedelic rock scene who’s seen and done it all - and continues to do it all. The longtime singer and bassist is a member of Ace of Cups, the pioneering all-female psychedelic rock band that opened for Jimi Hendrix, The Band, Janis Joplin, and more, and that shared the stage with the likes of the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. She continues to play and record new music with the recently reunited group, which has been praised by Rolling Stone, Billboard, CBS This Morning, NPR All Things Considered, The Guardian, and has recorded new songs with Bob Weir, Jackson Browne, David Freiberg, and more. A deeply spiritual person who has been exploring energy flow and community connectedness for over half a century, Denise also is a trained yoga teacher who has taught Madonna, Quincy Jones, and more. She splits her time between Venice Beach where she practices and records with the Ace of Cups (https://amzn.to/2OOUqUj) and teaches Yin Yoga - and Kaua, Hawaii, where she founded the Island School in 1977, and lives on an organic farm, and surfs in her free time.You can find Denise Kaufman at:Website : https://www.denisekaufman.com/ace-of-cupsInstagram : https://www.instagram.com/marymicrogram/-------------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.

Miles Chamley-Watson is on a mission to take fencing mainstream. A British-born, 6-foot-four Black man, covered in tattoos with bleached blond hair, he breaks pretty much every generations-old assumption and mold about what the staid, traditionally-conservative and often elitist sport is about. Miles actually struggled a lot as a young kid, especially with focus, attention and school, until one day a teacher introduced him to fencing. That moment changed everything. He was obsessed and it gave him a physicalized way to learn and develop intense focus that soon became the driving force in his life. Miles wanted to be the best in the world and win the Olympics. And indeed, already a world champion and an Olympic medalist, he’s well on his way. Miles also decided to redefine the public perception of the sport, to make it more modern, alive, high-profile and appealing to a younger generation, especially those often excluded from the pursuit. And he’s on a mission to reimagine the financial side of this sport, introducing a level of popular appeal, relevance and excitement that’s landed him a huge social media following and big endorsement deals with brands like Coach and Red Bull.You can find Miles Chamley-Watson at:Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/fencer/-------------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 New York City to a Tunisian father and a Swiss mother, Suleika Jaouad attended The Juilliard School's pre-college program for the double bass, and earned her BA with highest honors from Princeton University and an MFA in writing and literature from Bennington College. Leaving music behind, she thought she’d a war correspondent, but her plans were cut short when, at age 22, she was diagnosed with leukemia that led to a brutal 4-year stint in and out of the hospital, with multiple rounds of chemo, and a bone marrow transplant. She began writing her New York Times column and Emmy-award winning video-series “Life, Interrupted” from her hospital room at Sloan-Kettering, and has written reported features, essays and commentary for New York Times Magazine, Vogue and NPR, among other publications. Suleika served on Barack Obama's Presidential Cancer Panel, the national advisory board of the Bone Marrow and Cancer Foundation, and the Brooklyn Public Library’s Arts & Letters Committee. She is also the creator of the Isolation Journals, a community creativity project founded during the Covid-19 pandemic to help others convert isolation into artistic solitude; over 100,000 people from around the world have joined. Her debut memoir, Between Two Kingdoms (https://amzn.to/3qaugcf), is a gorgeously written exploration of so many moments, people and stories that have led to her this moment in life.You can find Suleika Jaouad at:Website : https://www.suleikajaouad.com/bookInstagram : https://www.instagram.com/suleikajaouad/-------------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 the short-lived West African country of Biafra, Louis Chude-Sokei and his mom fled the country during the war that would take the life of his father, a figure of such great reverence in the country that it would create a set of expectations about who Louis was and should be that would follow him well into his adult life. Landing first in Jamaica, where his mother was from, then eventually making their way through DC, to LA, he spent his life, as the line from the Bowie song, Space Oddity, goes, “floating in a most peculiar way.” That song, in fact, has been a bit of a lifelong obsession for Louis, along with Bowie and his music and, in fact, it’s the name of his moving new memoir, Floating in a Most Peculiar Way (https://amzn.to/36NqRZh), his evolving exploration of everything from identity and race to science fiction and music. Louis is now Professor of English at Boston University where he directs the African American Studies Program. He is also the author of influential and award-winning scholarly work and his writing appears in national and international venues, and he is the Editor in Chief of The Black Scholar, the premier journal of Black Studies in America.You can find Louis Chude-Sokei at:Website : https://www.bu.edu/afam/profile/louis-chude-sokei/-------------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, Renee Jain, started into her career as a tech entrepreneur who secretly suffered with her own sometimes dizzying and even paralyzing anxiety. One day, a panic attack led her to step back and re-examine her life, seek help and begin to acquire the skills and understanding to live with more ease. It was transformative. But, along the way, something she never expected began to happen, she began wondering why every child doesn’t learn those same skills early in life, so they can live with more ease and joy. Solving that problem became her driving cause. Renee earned her Master’s degree in Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and founded her own ed-tech company, GoZen!, to help a new generation of kids, parents and therapists. She is recognized as a pioneer in marrying technology and child psychology in a unique approach that nurtures the hearts and minds of kids. Through her writing, product invention, masterclasses, and children’s advocacy, she works to build the emotional intelligence of kids by creating media and experiences that speak to them in a way they not only understand, but love. Renee is also the co-author of New York Times bestselling book, Superpowered (https://amzn.to/3cDOJT1), a groundbreaking book that every parent needs, not just for their kids, but for themselves, too.You can find Renee Jain at:Website : https://gozen.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/gozenlove/-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What would it take to make you rethink a deeply held point of view or belief? That’s one of Adam Grant’s recent fascinations. Adam is an organizational psychologist and TED speaker who helps people find meaning and motivation at work. He has been Wharton’s top-rated professor for 7 straight years. As an organizational psychologist, he is a leading expert on how we can find motivation and meaning, and live more generous and creative lives. He has been recognized as one of the world’s 10 most influential management thinkers and Fortune’s 40 under 40.Adam is also one of TED's most popular speakers, his books have sold millions of copies, his talks have been viewed more than 25 million times, and his podcast WorkLife with Adam Grant has topped the charts. His pioneering research has inspired people to rethink fundamental assumptions about motivation, generosity, and creativity. And he is a former Junior Olympic springboard diver. Adam’s new book, Think Again, is a fascinating deep dive into how to come to form a point of view, why it’s so important to hold even our staunchest beliefs more lightly than we think, and what happens when stay doggedly attached to opinions and beliefs even as the world starts to reveal how wrong they were.You can find Adam Grant at:Website : https://www.adamgrant.net/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/adamgrant/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.

Ellen Harper has been around the folk music scene her whole life. Her mother, Dorothy Chase performed and taught banjo and guitar at Hecht House in the 1950s in Boston with Bess Lomax Hawes and her dad, Charles Chase repaired any and all instruments that came his way. Ellen learned to play, perform and teach guitar and other folk instruments at her mother’s knee and eventually, the family moved west to Claremont, California where they create the iconic Folk Music Center that became a hub for all the biggest names in folk, from Dylan to Joan Baez, Pete Seeger and so many other lesser-known, yet equally important players. Ellen’s kids grew up in that same place, surrounded by those same people and, in fact, one son Ben Harper, caught the music bug and has since become an acclaimed singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist in his own right. In 2000 Ellen participated in Ben’s documentary Pleasure and Pain filmed by iconic rock photographer, Danny Clinch, whose also been a guest on the podcast. That led to them to collaborate on an album. Childhood Home. Ellen’s latest project, Light has a Life of its Own is a collection of her original songs reflecting the unusual musical heritage that has defined and shaped several generations of Chase/Harpers. Ellen currently runs the Folk Music Center, the Claremont Folk Festival and teaches music classes, and her new memoir, Always a Song (https://amzn.to/3pBZQzi), is a wonderful journey not only through so many of the stories of her life, but also the history and world of folk music.You can find Ellen Harper at:Website : https://www.ellenharper.net/-------------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 wtih 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. You can find Tara Brach at:Website : https://www.tarabrach.com/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/tarabrach/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.

I first learned about today’s guest, Jason Naylor, through his art, which at that point, started appearing on walls and buildings all over New York City, and now is featured all over the world and on products, shows, in fashion and beyond. Jason is originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, where he grew up in a Mormon community and eventually felt called to step away and define his own path. After getting his BFA in graphic design from Brigham Young, he moved to New York City where he began his career in MAC Cosmetics’ Creative Department as a designer, but the whole time, he was creating his own work and starting to paint these hyper-vivid murals on walls around the city, often featuring inspirational words and quotes on the side. His style just kind of exploded with energy and kindness and playfulness. As his work caught on, leading to more and bigger commissions and collaborations with companies like Coach, Sephora, and Pepsi, he left his full-time gig and went all-in on his own art, now running his own brand, Jason Naylor Studio, where he continues to share his positivity through murals, graphic pieces, and collaborations with New York City communities, as well as popular brands. Much of his work and his philosophy of life and creativity appears in his new book, Live Life Colorfully (https://tinyurl.com/yy4mopvp).You can find Jason Naylor at:Website : https://jasonnaylor.nyc/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/jasonnaylor/-------------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.