What is a Good Life?

What is a Good Life? #171 - What Must My Life Be About with Robert J. Anderson

Mark McCartney — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 04:00:00 +0200

Robert J. Anderson joins the show for a wide-ranging conversation about purpose, intuition, shadow work, and the question that has guided his life. He talks beautifully about doubt and fear alongside grace and synchronicity, and what it takes to keep saying yes when you can't see where it's going.

Robert J. Anderson has been a pace setter in the field of Leadership Development for over 30 years. He is the Founder and Chief Knowledge Officer of Leadership Circle, and the co-author of Scaling Leadership and Mastering Leadership. Bob created the Leadership Circle Profile, a 360° assessment used by organisations worldwide to measure the effectiveness of their leaders (individually and collectively), chart a pathway for their development, and assess their progress as they develop. In 2005, the Stayer Center for Executive Education at the University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business awarded Bob the Partner in Innovation Award. The MEECO Leadership Institute awarded him the International Thought Leader of Distinction in 2018.

If you sense you are still not fully committing to the path you are already on, this will offer plenty of inspiration.

For more of Robert J. Anderson's work:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-j-anderson/
Company Website: https://leadershipcircle.com/

00:00 The Guiding Question
03:30 Becoming Who I Am
07:00 Writing the Musts
11:30 Learning to Trust Intuition
16:00 Around the World Experiment
22:00 The Brennan School Years
28:00 Leadership Circle is Born
34:00 What Is Wanted Now
40:00 Unity as Foundation
47:00 The Soldier and the White Light
54:00 The Divine Elephant
1:03:00 Joy at the Bottom
1:10:00 What is a good life for Robert?

What is a Good Life? #170 - Recovering Right Relationship with Ally Kingston

Mark McCartney — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 05:29:14 +0200

What does a truly good life look like - and how do we find our way back to it?

In this episode of What is a Good Life?, Mark McCartney speaks with Ally Kingston about recovering the capacity for "right relationship": with ourselves, with nature, with community, and with something greater.

Ally is a creative strategist and facilitator, and strategy lead at non-profit Purpose Disruptors and Agency for Nature. She designs interventions to galvanise public imagination and redirect our creative skills to work in harmony with the natural world. Also passionate about holding space for grief and loss in our changing times, she has also trained as a death doula and rites of passage holder. Once an advertising and sustainability leader, and one of Forbes’ 43 People Changing Advertising for the Climate, she writes & lectures on storytelling, imagination and new conceptions of the good life.

They explore:

- What "right relationship" actually means — and why we've lost it
- Sobriety as a gateway to a fuller life
- The Artist's Way and morning pages as a daily return to self
- What four days alone in a forest teaches you about civilisation
- The imagination crisis - why our vision of the future is shrinking
- Death, grief, and why learning to let things end well matters now more than ever

If you're searching for meaning beyond consumption, or asking what it means to live well in uncertain times, this conversation is for you.

🎙️ What is a Good Life? - conversations that go to the heart of what matters.
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Leave a review if this episode resonated with you.

For more from Ally's work:
Purpose Disruptors: https://www.purposedisruptors.org/ally-kingston
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ally-kingston-75922025/

00:00 How to be in right relationship?
03:45 Two Tomatoes and an Epiphany
08:25 The Word Recovery
09:45 Sobriety and the Paradigm Shift
17:02 Threads Pulling Together
21:24 Morning Pages and the Artist's Way
25:29 Four Days in the Forest
33:24 How Do I Help Things Die?
38:12 Accompanying Her Grandmother
48:30 The Shrinking Imagination
53:04 What is a Good Life?

Tags: good life, meaning, right relationship, sobriety, nature connection, death doula, climate, imagination, morning pages, the artist's way, wilderness, grief, belonging, mindfulness, purpose

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

Mark McCartney — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 03:59:00 +0200

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?

What is a Good Life? #168 - What It Means to Be Fully Alive with Joel Monk

Mark McCartney — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:00:00 +0200

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.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-monk-33952613/
Coaches Rising Podcast: https://www.coachesrising.com/podcast/

00:00 Awakening Into Full Humanity
02:00 Magic Mushrooms on the Moors
07:15 Coming Into the Body
10:20 The Yum
13:47 Clinging to Bliss
17:00 Safety, Okayness, and Intimacy
20:45 Intoxified by Life
27:42 Moving Beyond Renunciation
31:07 The Gift of Grace
38:52 Inquiring Into God
46:17 Fully Alive in Dark Times
51:37 What Is a Good Life

What is a Good Life? #167 - Gifts, Rituals, & The Path To Belonging with Bruce Anderson

Mark McCartney — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 05:54:41 +0100

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

00:00 – Three Kinds Of Glue
04:01 – Why Spirit Grounds Everything
10:50 – The Search For Faith
15:13 – How Did All This Begin?
18:26 – Where Beauty Comes From
22:05 – Home In The Wild
28:00 – Gifts & The Gift Exchange
33:25 – Seeing Gifts In Others
38:00 – Competence Isn't Your Gift
42:05 – Parker Palmer & Hospitality
47:14 – The Role Of Ritual
56:46 – What Is A Good Life?

What is a Good Life? #166 - Living Your Own Version Of Success with Kaylyn Lehmann

Mark McCartney — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 05:54:01 +0100

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/

00:00 The Bird Question
02:03 Death as a Life Guide
05:49 Autonomy & Self-Direction
08:26 Living Your Values
12:15 Building Self-Trust
18:38 Permission to Redefine Success
22:23 Is Today the Day?
28:30 The Gift of Family Time
34:27 Fear & Starting the Business
39:53 Resilience & the Long Game
46:13 Play as a Life Essential
53:54 What is a Good Life?

What is a Good Life? #165 - Money Is Never Just Money with Bogumil Baranowski

Mark McCartney — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 06:30:22 +0100

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/

00:00 – How can I help?
03:14 – When money stops being the point
06:28 – Holding someone's hand
11:13 – What clients really talk about
14:20 – Money as intimate conversation
18:21 – Inheritance and unasked questions
22:18 – Finding the story behind the number
27:47 – When words don't tell the truth
32:18 – Rediscovering presence and wonder
40:52 – Why idle minds light up
45:00 – The shift away from scarcity
56:02 – What is a good life for Bogumil

What is a Good Life? #164 - The End Of All Seeking with Nicholas Janni

Mark McCartney — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 04:00:00 +0100

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 means

For more from Nicholas Janni's work:
Leading in Chaos: www.leadinginchaosbook.com
Matrix Development: www.thematrixdevelopment.com/

00:00 – What is it to be fully human?
01:59 – Throwing the baby out with the bath water
06:32 – Theatre, emptiness & direct experience
10:17 – Resting as a radical act
17:35 – When word and energy align
23:57 – Transmission in corporate spaces
32:28 – We're already in collapse
38:00 – Being recoded right now
42:10 – Somebody before nobody
48:11 – Feeling alive vs. feeling small
55:53 – What is a good life?

What is a Good Life? #163 - Listening To The Mighty Heart with Dr Scilla Elworthy

Mark McCartney — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 04:59:14 +0100

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/

00:00 – Introduction
02:06 – Why the Heart Doesn't Lie
07:07 – The Rhythm of Your Heart
10:46 – Learning to Meditate Deeply
15:02 – Meditators Beneath the Diplomats
21:04 – Inner Intelligence in Others
27:51 – Who Am I, Really?
33:45 – Nourishing a Hurting Heart
42:52 – The Mighty Heart Program
46:39 – What Is a Good Life?

What is a Good Life? #162 - What Comes After Optimising with Jasper Walshe

Mark McCartney — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 04:00:00 +0100

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/

0:00 – Jasper's evolving life question
02:30 – The high performance Kool-Aid
06:00 – Curiosity beyond performance
10:33 – Letting go of identity
15:04 – "So, who are you?"
19:30 – Dropping the filtered answers
23:00 – The couch breakthrough moment
28:30 – How "wonder" emerged
36:30 – Visualising five years ahead
45:44 – What self-respect looks like
58:55 – What is a good life?

What is a Good Life? #161 - The Potential For Compassion with Rasmus Hougaard

Mark McCartney — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 03:45:00 +0100

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 work
The cultural wisdom Rasmus found in Nepal that the West is missing
How his brother's death inspired his life's purpose
A profound encounter with an unknown monk that transmitted unconditional love
The difficulty of being human, even with deep practice and good intentions
The 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/

00:00 Why Aren't We Happy?
05:30 Finding a Practice at Seventeen
11:45 Wisdom in Himalayan Culture
17:20 Life's Purpose from Tragedy
24:30 Meeting Bodhisattva Charles
31:15 Our Innate Human Goodness
37:40 The Difficulty of Being Human
43:10 Forced Surrender and Self-Compassion
48:25 Transformation in Corporate Spaces
52:15 Multiple Lives, Less Pressure
54:30 What is a Good Life for Rasmus?

What is a Good Life? #160 - The Art Of Living With Coherence with João Sevilhano

Mark McCartney — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 03:56:00 +0100

What does it really mean to live a coherent life?

In this episode of What Is a Good Life, Mark McCartney is joined by João Sevilhano for a deep, reflective conversation on coherence, something that goes beyond rigid moral ideals and is more a lived, imperfect practice. João is a psychologist and learning experience designer. Co-CEO of Way Beyond, where he works on human development and organisational transformation. His background is in clinical psychology and psychoanalysis. He collaborates with Porto Business School and NOVA Doctoral School, and he tends to think meaningful conversation is underrated as a tool for change.

Together, they explore:

What coherence feels like in everyday life
The tension between values, actions, and changing our minds
Why coherence is different from authenticity or consistency
Parenting, work, and small decisions as tests of alignment
“Slow activism” and the impact of how we show up with others

Rather than offering quick answers or formulas, this conversation sits with uncertainty, contradiction, and the discipline of paying attention - particularly when no one is watching.

This episode is for anyone feeling the pull between who they are, how they live, and what the world is asking of them right now.

For more of João's work:
Newsletter: https://useful-uselessness.com/
Way Beyond Website: https://www.waybeyond.pt/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joaosevilhano/

00:00 Questions as Companions

07:00 Spirituality in Everyday Life

13:00 Coherence as Purpose

16:30 Flexibility and Awareness

22:30 Discipline and Practice
30:00 Helping Without Imposing

36:00 Slow Activism and Stubbornness

42:00 Living With Contradiction

49:00 Reflection on Sacrifice

54:00 Not Knowing as a Practice

What is a Good Life? #159 - Cultivating Interconnected Harmony with Cindy Forde

Mark McCartney — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 04:15:00 +0100

How do we live in harmony with each other and the natural world?

Cindy Forde is a thought leader and acclaimed author with over 25 years dedicated to systems change. In 2023, she won the Change Champion Award alongside leaders such as David Attenborough and Malala Yusafzai for her children's book 'Bright New World,' which was adopted by the Australian National Curriculum. She founded Planetari, pioneering Earth-led education, earning a Climate Positive Award at UN COP28. Previously MD of Blue Marine Foundation and CEO of Cambridge Science Centre, she is an Associate Fellow of University of Cambridge Homerton College where she is currently co-founding the Centre for Systemic Change. She is a trained yoga teacher and sound healing practitioner.

In this profound conversation, we explore the role of spiritual practice in sustaining changemakers, the paradox of living in systems misaligned with our values, and why "cosmic time" might offer a more realistic perspective on transformation than human urgency. Cindy shares why we need the courage to build entirely new models rather than fixing broken systems, and how current education systems crush the natural interconnectedness that children understand.

For more of Cindy's work:
Website: https://cindyforde.world/
Planetari: https://planetari.world/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindy-forde-10668911/

00:00 - The Guiding Question of Harmony
05:45 - Growing Up Between Two Worlds
12:30 - Discovering Spiritual Practice
18:45 - Inner and Outer Coherence
25:15 - The Corporate Paradox
30:00 - Understanding Cosmic Time
35:30 - Urgency and Thinking Differently
40:30 - Single Issues to Systems
44:00 - Courage to Call Out
47:30 - Crushing Natural Interconnectedness
50:00 - What Is a Good Life

What is a Good Life? #158 - Finding Self-Love Beyond Achievement with Alan Wilson

Mark McCartney — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 04:00:00 +0100

What is a Good Life? #158 | Finding Self-Love Beyond Achievement

Where do you belong? How do you best use your gifts?

These questions have followed Alan Wilson throughout his life—from childhood football pitches to corporate boardrooms. In this deeply honest conversation, Alan shares his journey from seeking external validation to cultivating self-love, exploring how grief, self-inquiry, and simple presence have reshaped his understanding of a good life.

Alan Wilson is a Director of People & Operations and qualified coach with 17+ years in senior leadership roles. He supports leaders and organisations navigating change by combining commercial insight with a deeply human approach—focused on self-awareness, integrity, and sustainable performance.

In this episode:

The childhood patterns behind our adult struggles
Why achievement never feels like enough
Finding centre in an increasingly distracted world
How children guide us back to presence
Why self-love transforms leadership
The agency we have despite feeling disempowered

This conversation is for anyone questioning whether they're enough, struggling with validation, or wondering if there's more to life than the next achievement.

For more of Alan's work:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-wilson-084b3324/

00:00 - Where Do I Belong?
05:23 - The Validation Trap
10:47 - Self-Inquiry and Grief
16:12 - Moments That Allow Breathing
21:35 - Toxicity and Modern Life
27:43 - Children as Our Compass
33:21 - Beyond Material Accumulation
38:45 - Dismantling the Armour
44:02 - Agency in a Disempowered World
49:18 - Transmitting Our Gifts Daily
54:31 - A Life That's Evolving

What is a Good Life? #157 - How to Build Real Connection with Matt Zeigler

Mark McCartney — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 04:02:00 +0100

On the 157th episode of What Is a Good Life?, I’m joined by Matt Zeigler. Matt is Managing Director at Sunpointe Investments, Senior Editor at Panoptica (a multimedia collaboration with Epsilon Theory), and co-owner and host of Excess Returns, a podcast and YouTube channel. Through his Cultish Creative brand, he transforms complex ideas into accessible insights, helping people make better connections and approach challenges with curiosity.

Matt shares his journey from profound disconnection to finding an abundance of connection and meaning through family, work, and community. From a pivotal therapy session that changed everything to discovering the value of small, intentional experiences, he explores how building bridges instead of prisons transformed his life. This is a conversation about vulnerability, curiosity, and the courage to stop running from connection.

This episode is for anyone who feels cut off from others and is looking to find their way back—and for anyone looking to feel more optimistic about humanity.

For more of Matt's work:
Cultish creative: https://cultishcreative.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-zeigler/

00:00 — The Disconnection Question
04:16 — Three Layers of Life
06:50 — Leaving home, independence, and loneliness
10:11 — Therapy Wake-Up Call
18:02 — Learning to Share
23:23 — Small openings that build real bonds
31:38 — Rules, ladders, and inherited structures
45:26 — Energy shift after choosing alignment
50:09 — Community Comes Alive
58:18 — What is a Good Life for Matt?

What is a Good Life #156 - Learning To Trust My Own Voice with Alejandra Guzmán González

Mark McCartney — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 04:00:00 +0100

On the 156th episode of What Is a Good Life?, I’m joined by Alejandra Guzmán González. Alejandra is a Nicaraguan educator, lifelong learner, and mother of two. She describes herself as an artist with a dancer’s feet, the soul of a theatre actress, and the writer’s force within (publishing under the pen name aimé). Her work is rooted in curiosity, reflection, and human connection, and she continues to devote her professional life to education and learning-centred projects.

In this episode, Alejandra shares her journey of discovering how to trust her own voice. She reflects on personal experiences, family, and the process of making her own decisions with confidence while staying connected to the people she loves.

This conversation is for anyone looking to build greater trust in themselves and their own decisions.

For Alejandra's Newsletter: https://aimewrites.substack.com/

00:00 - Living the Question
03:18 - Seeking External Answers
07:02 - Teaching and Questioning
10:05 - Parenting and Frustration
13:46 - Building Inner Trust
17:53 - Cocooning and Withdrawal
22:45 - Listening Beyond Answers
30:31 - The Right to Listen
38:10 - A Defining Moment
48:03 - Health as Teacher
56:46 - What Is a Good Life For Alejandra?

What is a Good Life? #155 - Making Your Impact Count with Julian Kirchherr

Mark McCartney — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 04:02:00 +0100

On the 155th episode of What Is a Good Life?, I’m joined by Julian Kirchherr. Julian combines a career as a Partner at McKinsey & Company with his role as an Associate Professor at Roskilde University. At McKinsey, he co-leads the firm’s public sector work in Europe, focusing on people and organisational performance, while his academic research centres on the circular economy. He ranks among the most highly cited circular economy scholars worldwide. He earned his PhD from St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, and is the author of The Lean PhD: Radically Improve the Efficiency, Quality and Impact of Your Research.

In this conversation, we explore curiosity, autonomy, and the value of diverse experiences. Julian also discusses caring too much about external demands, and how this can undermine autonomy, meaning, and impact.

This episode will resonate with anyone carving out their own path and explores what it can take to make your own impact.

For more of Julian's work:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julian-kirchherr-42a52032/

00:00 Curiosity Over One Question

02:35 Bullshit In Academia

07:23 Autonomy And Freedom

09:01 Disillusion With Academia

12:18 Early Intellectual Influences

14:55 Myanmar And Outsized Impact

19:59 Pre-Academia Model

26:12 Energy From Dual Roles

30:02 Bias Toward Action

42:50 Bridging Knowledge And Practice

46:51 What is a good life for Julian?

What is a Good Life? #154 - The Art of Making Meaning with Katie Elliott

Mark McCartney — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 04:00:00 +0100

On the 154th episode of What Is a Good Life?, I’m joined by Katie Elliott.

Katie is a facilitator, writer, and programme designer working across community and organisational settings. With a background in jazz and a long-standing fascination with human change and habits, she creates tools, conversations, and projects that explore how people make sense of themselves and one another. Her work includes Amiko® Cards, the Adventures in Behaviour Change podcast, a series of children’s books, and an album of original piano music.

In this conversation, we explore curiosity, bewilderment, and the value of staying with experience rather than rushing to explain or resolve it. We talk about patterns, presence, and how meaning slowly reveals itself in relationships and in life — showing how deeper listening and meaningful conversation can genuinely shift how you see yourself and others.

For more of Katie's work:
Website: https://www.littlechallenges.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katieelliott/

00:00 — Patterns and Play
04:31 — Bewildered by Humans
07:48 — Not Being Believed
10:21 — Staying Open
13:01 — Kindness Inside
17:17 — Being Human Together
20:56 — Dropping the Mask
23:31 — Jazz and Freedom
31:26 — Creating Human Spaces
40:44 — Making Meaning Together
52:31 — What is a Good Life for Katie?

What is a Good Life? #153 - When Being Becomes Service with Ethan Hsieh

Mark McCartney — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 04:00:00 +0100

On the 153rd episode of What Is a Good Life?, I’m joined by Ethan Hsieh for a wide-ranging and deeply human conversation on service, being, and what happens when self-work goes too far.

Ethan is currently undertaking his PhD research integrating performance-training with 4E cognitive science. With an MA in Professional Practice: Theatre and Drama Facilitation, he has designed and delivered transformational community-building programs, retreats, and workshops across Asia and Europe through his organisation 5ToMidnight, where he is Artistic Director. He also serves as Platform Manager for The Lectern and has co-designed select practices with John Vervaeke, including the Socratic Imaginal Self-Reflection and the Socratic Search Space. Ethan maintains a private coaching practice working with corporate leaders, professional athletes, and social organisations.

Together, we explore nihilism, play, embodiment, identity, and the question that now orients Ethan’s life: When does being itself become service?

This episode invites listeners to loosen self-fixation, recover participation, and rediscover what becomes possible when we allow life—and each other—to change us.

For more of Ethan's work:
Website: https://www.5tomidnight.org/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethan-hsieh-828a63240/

00:00 A Question of Service

05:40 Self-Work’s Breaking Point

08:04 From Optimization to Orientation

12:52 Not Knowing Intimately

16:31 Returning to Play

26:56 Letting Experience In

31:31 Contact With Life

36:46 Seeing Others Anew

43:42 Identity Held Loosely

52:19 Embodiment and Coherence

59:30 What is a good life for Ethan?

What is a Good Life? #152 - Living a Life of Intimate Beauty with Tim Leberecht

Mark McCartney — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 04:00:00 +0100

On the 152nd episode of What is a Good Life?, I welcome Tim Leberecht, one of the most original and passionate voices on creating a more humane future of business. Tim is a German-American entrepreneur, curator, and author, and the co-founder and co-CEO of the House of Beautiful Business, a global community for those who seek more from work and from one another. A sought-after keynote speaker, his two TED Talks have been viewed more than 3 million times. He is the author of The Business Romantic (Harper Business, 2015), translated into ten languages, The End of Winning (Droemer, 2020), and the forthcoming Supercurator (Basic/Hachette, 2027). Tim is also a BMW Foundation Responsible Leader.

In this conversation, Tim reflects on belonging, intimacy, and what it means to live a good life amidst the pressures of performance and an increasingly AI-shaped world. He speaks to the value of sensitivity, connection, and community — and how creating spaces for presence and honest conversation can reshape how we experience ourselves and each other.

This is a conversation for anyone longing for deeper connection — with themselves, with others, and with a world becoming ever more synthetic.

For more of Tim's work:
Website: https://houseofbeautifulbusiness.com/
Books: http://timleberecht.com/books/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tleberecht/
HoBB newsletter: https://houseofbeautifulbusiness.substack.com/

00:00 — The question of belonging
04:15 — Morning reconstruction of self
07:42 — Performance and authenticity tension
11:18 — Limits of self-optimisation
15:03 — Beauty and the good life
19:27 — Connection in a synthetic world
23:54 — Silence as shared intimacy
28:31 — Intimacy beyond human relationships
33:45 — AI as conversational partner
38:12 — Being changed by dialogue
44:08 — Sensitivity as core value
51:36 — Conditions for belonging

What Is A Good Life? #151 - Seeing What We’ve Been Missing with Olaf Lewitz

Mark McCartney — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 04:00:00 +0100

On the 151st episode of What is a Good Life?, I welcome Olaf Lewitz. Olaf is the Trust Artist, a leadership thinker and coach who’s endlessly curious about our similarities and differences, and how context shapes the quality of attention we give each other. He’s learning how to change systems so that they support life rather than extract or exploit it, sourcing wisdom and insight from unexpected places. He does this through his TrustTemenos Academy and his work with Dark Matter Labs.

In this conversation, we explore the question “What am I missing?” as a way into anger, boundaries, and the stories we tell ourselves – and how much of our “drama” is created by our interpretations rather than reality.

Olaf shares how an unshakeable sense of worth and hope help him live with paradox: enjoying a good life while staying awake to harm, responsibility, and the future of our children – and what that invites us to examine in our own lives.

For more of Olaf's work:
Website: https://www.trusttemenos.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olaflewitz/

00:00 — “What Am I Missing?”
06:00 — Discovering Anger & Boundaries
11:20 — How We Create Drama
15:45 — Interpreting vs. Experiencing Reality
20:50 — Laughing at Ourselves
24:45 — Balancing Care and Boundaries
29:35 — Childhood Patterns & Self-Worth
35:55 — Hope Without Optimism
41:50 — Paradox of a Good Life
47:40 — Future, Responsibility & Children
53:50 — What is a good life for Olaf?

What Is A Good Life? #150 - Moving From Fear To Love with Claire Goodey

Mark McCartney — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 04:13:00 +0100

On the 150th episode of What is a Good Life?, I welcome Claire Goodey. Claire is an artist, writer, and humanistic psychotherapist. After a decade in private practice—alongside a new autism diagnosis, perimenopause, and a shifting social landscape—she’s returning to her creative roots to cultivate a slower, more analogue way of living. From this liminal space, Claire blends therapeutic insight with artistic expression, offering presence, vulnerability, and play to others feeling the squeeze of modern life.

In this conversation, Claire and I explore what it means to stay part of a world that often feels overwhelming, especially while navigating major life transitions. We discuss the gap between knowing something intellectually and living it, the challenge of discerning fear from genuine bodily wisdom, and the importance of presence, rest, and connection.

Claire shares her evolving relationship with retreat—what she calls “getting into the slipper”—and how love, openness, and honest self-attunement can shape a more humane way of being.

For more of Claire's work:
Website: https://www.clairegoodey.com/

00:00 Being a part of the world

05:01 Pendulum of growth

06:45 Late autism diagnosis

11:51 Base needs

12:15 Embodiment vs thinking

17:51 Trust the process

19:30 Fear driving so much of the culture

26:22 Sound sensitivity outside

35:33 “Into the slipper”

39:10 Intentional resting

52:28 What is good life?

What Is A Good Life? #149 - Finding Your Unique Role In The World with Adam Mastroianni

Mark McCartney — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 04:04:00 +0100

On the 149th episode of What is a Good Life?, I welcome Adam Mastroianni. Adam is an experimental psychologist and author of the popular science newsletter Experimental History. His work has been featured in Nature, The New York Times, and Jimmy Kimmel Live. He has escaped from over 170 escape rooms.

In this conversation, Adam discusses the nature of questions and curiosity as driving forces in life. He explores the concept of being possessed by ideas, the role of suffering in personal growth, and the shift from academia to independent thought.

This episode highlights the impact that finding your unique role—and contributing meaningfully to the world from that place—can have on your life.

For more of Adam's work:
Newsletter: https://www.experimental-history.com/
Website: https://www.adammastroianni.com/

00:00 – Possessed By Big Questions

04:06 – Enjoying The Friction

07:48 – Why Toilets Took Millennia

13:13 – First Day Being Curious

18:16 – Internet Praise Vs Real Life

23:51 – Freedom Without A Boss

28:07 – Choosing Productive Fear