What is a Good Life?

How do you hold on to that feeling of childlike enchantment that you remember as a kid?In this captivating conversation, Mark sits down with Sam Lee, singer, composer, and author. We explore the nature of wonder, the role of ritual, and the significance of rite of passages and thresholds. He talks about his apprenticeship to Scottish traveller and balladeer Stanley Robertson and how that completely dismantled what he thought folk music was. We talk about songs as medicine and what it means to be their custodian, as well as being being dangerously surrounded by a dozen shepherd's dogs in the Carpathian mountains.Sam Lee is a Mercury prize-nominated singer, composer, arranger, folksong interpreter, connecting his passion for nature and song into timeless unique ways. Collector of songs from across the British Isles & Ireland he’s also the creator of many live nature immersions including the annual sell-out Singing With Nightingales. Penguin recently published his debut novel 'The Nightingale, Notes on a songbird' telling the epic tale of this highly endangered bird. And his latest album is the critically acclaimed, Guardian 5 star and Mojo Album of the Month ‘songdreaming’. Sam is also an Ambassador for The Global Rewilding Alliance.This conversation and Sam's stories are for anyone seeking more aliveness in this life. For more from Sam Lee's work:Website: https://samleesong.co.uk/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samleesong/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/samleesongFor more from Mark McCartney:Newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/Website: https://www.mmcleadership.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlifeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/markcmccartney00:00 Does Wonder Ever Cease?02:29 A Life of Proximity05:00 The Gift of the Puffball09:04 A Rite of Passage17:30 On Ritual and Threshold18:03 Bar Mitzvah to Bison Tracking26:58 Surrounded by Shepherd's Dogs35:10 Apprenticed to Stanley Robertson48:30 Songs as Medicine53:40 Walking Into Darkness59:40 What is a Good Life?Keywords: Meaning of Life Interviews | meaning of life conversations | exploring life | big life questions | meaning of life discussions | creating a meaningful life​

What does it mean to be fully alive? Mark sits down with Joel Monk to explore the journey from spiritual bypassing to embodiment. They talk about dark nights of the soul, the "yum" of visceral wellbeing, trauma-informed healing, the role of grace and prayer, and what it actually means to feel safe, okay, and enough. An episode for anyone on a path of dropping deeper into their own humanity and body.Joel Monk is the founder of Coaches Rising, one of the world’s leading platforms for transformational coaching, with a global community of more than 65,000 coaches. He is the host of the Coaches Rising Podcast and is known for his work in transformational coaching, embodiment, and human development. He has coached hundreds of entrepreneurs, CEOs, and senior executives — even a Zen master — helping high-level leaders unlock deeper presence, wiser action, and profound personal transformation.For more from Joel Monk's work:Company website: www.coachesrising.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-monk-33952613/Coaches Rising Podcast: https://www.coachesrising.com/podcast/For more from Mark McCartney:Newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/Website: https://www.mmcleadership.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlifeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/markcmccartney00:00 Awakening Into Full Humanity02:00 Magic Mushrooms on the Moors07:15 Coming Into the Body10:20 The Yum13:47 Clinging to Bliss17:00 Safety, Okayness, and Intimacy20:45 Intoxified by Life27:42 Moving Beyond Renunciation31:07 The Gift of Grace38:52 Inquiring Into God46:17 Fully Alive in Dark Times51:37 What Is a Good LifeKeywords: Meaning of Life Interviews | meaning of life conversations | exploring life | big life questions | meaning of life discussions | creating a meaningful life​

What makes a life truly good? In this rich and wide-ranging conversation, Mark speaks with Bruce Anderson, Executive Director of the Core Gift Institute, about the three kinds of glue that hold relationships, communities, and the world together: gifts, welcoming, and ritual. Bruce shares why he believes our primary gifts are not earned but given to us through spirit and why they always emerge from our deepest wounds. They explore belonging, the question of how everything began, the wildness of love, and why a home in a wild place might just be the perfect metaphor for a life well lived. Currently living on an island by Seattle, USA, Bruce has a storied life of living in remote Alaska, commercial fishing, log-cabin building, and being a schoolteacher and mayor. He is known for bringing intriguing ideas from other cultures and times, personal stories, and practical ideas into the international work he does with others.Whether you're feeling lost, searching for direction, or simply curious about what a meaningful life looks like, this conversation will leave you with a lot to sit with.For more of Bruce's work:Core Gift Institue: https://www.coregift.org/home LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruce-anderson-742a3722/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011545838837 For more from Mark McCartney:Newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/Website: https://www.mmcleadership.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlifeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/markcmccartney00:00 – Three Kinds Of Glue04:01 – Why Spirit Grounds Everything10:50 – The Search For Faith15:13 – How Did All This Begin?18:26 – Where Beauty Comes From22:05 – Home In The Wild28:00 – Gifts & The Gift Exchange33:25 – Seeing Gifts In Others38:00 – Competence Isn't Your Gift42:05 – Parker Palmer & Hospitality47:14 – The Role Of Ritual56:46 – What Is A Good Life?Keywords: Meaning of Life Interviews | meaning of life conversations | exploring life | big life questions | meaning of life discussions | creating a meaningful life​

What does it mean to trust yourself when the path isn't clear?Kaylyn Lehmann is Co-founder and Executive Coach at Simplified Coach, a former VP of HR, and a specialist in neuroscience leadership and character strengths. Over the past decade she has coached hundreds of C-level and high-potential executives across high tech, biotech and highly funded start-ups. Drawing on a formative experience of loss in her late twenties, Kaylyn has long carried a question from Tuesdays with Morrie: Is today the day? — not as something to fear, but as a guide. From walking away from a VP salary that no longer felt right, to building a business during a bed rest pregnancy in the middle of the 2008 recession, to a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote from her mother that reframed how she saw herself, this is a conversation that charts a path to greater autonomy and coherence. A life which realises the significance of awe and play along the way.If you are in the middle of uncertainty that you are struggling to navigate, this will offer so much to consider and support.🔔 Subscribe for weekly conversations on what it means to live a good life.For more of Kaylyn's work:Website: https://www.simplifiedcoach.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simplifiedcoach/For more from Mark McCartney:Newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/Website: https://www.mmcleadership.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlifeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/markcmccartney00:00 The Bird Question02:03 Death as a Life Guide05:49 Autonomy & Self-Direction08:26 Living Your Values12:15 Building Self-Trust18:38 Permission to Redefine Success22:23 Is Today the Day?28:30 The Gift of Family Time34:27 Fear & Starting the Business39:53 Resilience & the Long Game46:13 Play as a Life Essential53:54 What is a Good Life?Keywords: Meaning of Life Interviews | meaning of life conversations | exploring life | big life questions | meaning of life discussions | creating a meaningful life​

Most conversations about money stay on the surface. This one doesn't.Mark McCartney sits down with Bogumil Baranowski — investment advisor, author of Crisis Investing and Money Life Family, host of Talking Billions podcast, and profound thinker on the intersection of wealth and human experience.In this episode, they go deep on why money is one of the most emotionally charged forces in human life, what inheritance really carries alongside the numbers, why asking the right questions matters more than having the right answers, and how being present with another person is paramount in any field of work.Whether you're interested in wealth, relationships, meaningful work, or simply living with more intention — this conversation is for you.🔔 Subscribe for weekly conversations on what it means to live a good life.For more of Bogumil's work:Talking Billions Podcast: https://www.talkingbillions.co/Blue Infinitas: https://www.blueinfinitascapital.com/Website: https://www.bogumilbaranowski.com/For more from Mark McCartney:Newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/Website: https://www.mmcleadership.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlifeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/markcmccartney00:00 – How can I help?03:14 – When money stops being the point06:28 – Holding someone's hand11:13 – What clients really talk about14:20 – Money as intimate conversation18:21 – Inheritance and unasked questions22:18 – Finding the story behind the number27:47 – When words don't tell the truth32:18 – Rediscovering presence and wonder40:52 – Why idle minds light up45:00 – The shift away from scarcity56:02 – What is a good life for BogumilKeywords: Meaning of Life Interviews | meaning of life conversations | exploring life | big life questions | meaning of life discussions | creating a meaningful life​

What does it mean to be fully human — and to live from that place?Nicholas Janni has been working with CEO’s and senior teams globally for over twenty-five years, and teaches at two of the world’s leading business schools, pioneering a new vision and practice of leadership. He bridges the worlds of creative, personal, spiritual and professional development in a uniquely powerful, relevant and accessible way.His book “Leader as Healer, a new paradigm for 21 st century leadership” was published to wide acclaim in 2022, and won Business Book of the Year at the Business Book Awards 2023. His new book, “Leading in Chaos”, co-authored with Amy Elizabeth Fox, is available now in Europe, and from April 9th in the US. He is the co-founder of Matrix Development.We explore: - How we threw the baby out with the bath water with religion- The difference between belief and direct experience- How "life as effort" is programmed into our nervous systems- What emptiness, receptivity and wonder have to do with innovation- Why wellness alone won't cut it — and what transformation actually requires- The concept of "somebody before nobody" and the melting of identity- Why 2026 feels like a year of accelerated inner and outer collapse- And what a good life really meansFor more from Nicholas Janni's work:Leading in Chaos: www.leadinginchaosbook.comMatrix Development: www.thematrixdevelopment.com/For more from Mark McCartney:Newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/Website: https://www.mmcleadership.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlifeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/markcmccartney00:00 – What is it to be fully human?01:59 – Throwing the baby out with the bath water06:32 – Theatre, emptiness & direct experience10:17 – Resting as a radical act17:35 – When word and energy align23:57 – Transmission in corporate spaces32:28 – We're already in collapse38:00 – Being recoded right now42:10 – Somebody before nobody48:11 – Feeling alive vs. feeling small55:53 – What is a good life?Keywords: Meaning of Life Interviews | meaning of life conversations | exploring life | big life questions | meaning of life discussions | creating a meaningful life​

Dr Scilla Elworthy is a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee for her work with Oxford Research Group to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics from 1983-2003. She founded Peace Direct in 2002 to fund, promote and learn from local peace-builders in conflict areas, was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003, the Luxembourg Peace Prize in 2020, the GOI Peace Award in 2023. Her TED talk on nonviolence has been viewed by over 1,500,000 people. She founded The Business Plan for Peace to help prevent destructive conflict and build sustainable peace throughout the world, based on her latest books - The Business Plan for Peace: Building a World Without War (2017), The Mighty Heart: how to transform conflict (2020), and The Mighty Heart in Action (2022).In this wonderful conversation, Scilla and Mark explore why the heart is the one faculty that will always tell you the truth, how learning to listen to it transformed her work with diplomats and military leaders, and why she believes the world is entering an era of profound change led by those willing to lead from the inside out. This is a conversation for people who sense there's a deeper way to live but haven't yet learned to trust it.For more from Dr Scilla Elworthy's work:Oxford Research Group: http://oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/Peace Direct: https://www.peacedirect.org/The Mighty Heart: https://mightyheart.co.uk/For more from Mark McCartney:Newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/Website: https://www.mmcleadership.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlifeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/markcmccartney00:00 – Introduction02:06 – Why the Heart Doesn't Lie07:07 – The Rhythm of Your Heart10:46 – Learning to Meditate Deeply15:02 – Meditators Beneath the Diplomats21:04 – Inner Intelligence in Others27:51 – Who Am I, Really?33:45 – Nourishing a Hurting Heart42:52 – The Mighty Heart Program46:39 – What Is a Good Life?Keywords: Meaning of Life Interviews | meaning of life conversations | exploring life | big life questions | meaning of life discussions | creating a meaningful life​

In this episode of What Is a Good Life?, Mark McCartney is joined by Jasper Walshe, coach, facilitator and founder of TRIPS Tank™, for an honest and wide-ranging conversation about identity, self-trust and what it really means to live well. Jasper traces his journey from fixating on high-performance coaching to a deeper, more grounded relationship with himself — touching on psychotherapy breakthroughs, psychedelic experiences, the trap of wrapping identity in achievement, and his present question: how can I live in wonder? This is a genuinely human conversation about accepting the full range of life, not just the optimised parts.Topics covered:- High performance identity & its hidden cost- Psychotherapy & the power of unfiltered honesty- Living in wonder vs chasing optimisation- Self-respect as a core value- Moments of unexpected clarity- What is a good life?This episode is for anyone who's hit the goals and found themselves asking — is this it?For more from Jasper Walshe:Company Website: https://tripstank.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasperwalshe/For more from Mark McCartney:Newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/Website: https://www.mmcleadership.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlifeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/markcmccartney0:00 – Jasper's evolving life question02:30 – The high performance Kool-Aid06:00 – Curiosity beyond performance10:33 – Letting go of identity15:04 – "So, who are you?"19:30 – Dropping the filtered answers23:00 – The couch breakthrough moment28:30 – How "wonder" emerged36:30 – Visualising five years ahead45:44 – What self-respect looks like58:55 – What is a good life?Keywords: Meaning of Life Interviews | meaning of life conversations | exploring life | big life questions | meaning of life discussions | creating a meaningful life​

What does it take to be happy? And why does happiness so often slip away?In this episode of What Is a Good Life?, Mark McCartney is joined by Rasmus Hougaard for a conversation that moves from childhood questions about happiness, to monasteries in Nepal, to the boardrooms where he now works to transform leadership. Rasmus is the Founder and Chairman of Potential Project and was nominated by Thinkers 50 as one of the eight most important leadership thinkers in the world today. He's the author of The Mind of the Leader, Compassionate Leadership, and More Human: How the Power of AI Can Transform the Way You Lead.Together, they explore:Why an eight-year-old's question about happiness became a life's workThe cultural wisdom Rasmus found in Nepal that the West is missingHow his brother's death inspired his life's purposeA profound encounter with an unknown monk that transmitted unconditional loveThe difficulty of being human, even with deep practice and good intentionsThe innate goodness we all carry (and why many of us have forgotten it)What changes when leaders ask "how are you?" before "what do we need to do?"This conversation sits with both the challenge of being human and the incredible capacity we have for loving kindness. It's about the practice of returning to what matters again and again.This episode is for anyone wondering if there's more to leadership, happiness, and being human than what we've been taught.For more of Rasmus' work:Potential Project: https://www.potentialproject.com/Books: https://www.potentialproject.com/resources#01-books LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rasmushougaard/For more from Mark McCartney:Newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/Website: https://www.mmcleadership.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlifeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/markcmccartney00:00 Why Aren't We Happy?05:30 Finding a Practice at Seventeen11:45 Wisdom in Himalayan Culture17:20 Life's Purpose from Tragedy24:30 Meeting Bodhisattva Charles31:15 Our Innate Human Goodness37:40 The Difficulty of Being Human43:10 Forced Surrender and Self-Compassion48:25 Transformation in Corporate Spaces52:15 Multiple Lives, Less Pressure54:30 What is a Good Life for Rasmus?Keywords: Meaning of Life Interviews | meaning of life conversations | exploring life | big life questions | meaning of life discussions | creating a meaningful life​