What is a Good Life? #169 - Wonder, Wildness And Song with Sam Lee

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/samleesong

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/@whatisagoodlife
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markcmccartney

00:00  Does Wonder Ever Cease?
02:29  A Life of Proximity
05:00  The Gift of the Puffball
09:04  A Rite of Passage
17:30  On Ritual and Threshold
18:03  Bar Mitzvah to Bison Tracking
26:58  Surrounded by Shepherd's Dogs
35:10  Apprenticed to Stanley Robertson
48:30  Songs as Medicine
53:40  Walking Into Darkness
59:40  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​