In this episode, I sit down with sociologist and demographer Paul Spoonley to explore how the population changes already underway could shape the life you’re able to build in the decades ahead.

We’re living longer, having fewer children, becoming more culturally diverse and concentrating more of our populations in major cities. Paul explains why those shifts matter to you, from the future of retirement and healthcare to regional communities, migration and the number of people available to work.

We also look at the choices underneath the statistics. Why are fewer people having children? How much is the cost and structure of modern life narrowing those choices? What makes you stay where you are or move elsewhere? And what happens when the systems built for one generation no longer fit the next?

Paul argues that demography is destiny. Many of these changes can already be anticipated, which means the bigger question is what you choose to do with that knowledge.

We talk about retirement, taxation, intergenerational fairness, the changing nature of work and what you might need to think about now as you prepare for a very different future.

Episode Highlights

🌍 Why Demography Matters to Your Life: How ageing populations, falling birth rates and migration quietly shape the choices available to you and the life you’re able to build.

👶 Why Fewer People Are Having Children: How housing, cost of living, careers and changing expectations are influencing one of life’s most personal decisions.

💰 Rethinking Retirement: What longer lives and fewer working-age people could mean for superannuation, healthcare, taxation and how you prepare financially for your future.

🏡 Where You Choose to Live: How work, affordability, family, friendship and quality of life create a “centre of gravity” that can influence whether you stay, move or build a life somewhere new.

🤝 The Changing Contract Between Generations: Why younger generations are entering a different economic reality, and what questions that raises about fairness, wealth and who pays for the systems we rely on.

🔮 Preparing for a Future We Can Already See Coming: Why understanding demographic trends now can help you make better decisions about work, money, family, community and the decades ahead.

Chapters 

00:00 Demography Is Destiny

02:31 Paul Spoonley’s Story and Social Cohesion

05:52 What Makes a Bountiful Life?

09:52 Why Demography Matters to Your Life

16:09 Why Birth Rates Are Falling

24:20 Ageing Populations and the Future of Retirement

31:59 Where We Choose to Live, Work and Build a Life

37:22 Superannuation, Tax and the Social Contract

50:55 What’s Different for Younger Generations

55:04 Preparing Now for the Future We Can See Coming

Guest Bio 

Paul Spoonley is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Massey University and one of New Zealand’s leading sociologists. Over more than four decades, his research has explored social and demographic change, including immigration, cultural diversity, population ageing, the changing nature of work and political extremism. He has published 29 books and more than 300 peer-reviewed academic articles, was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, and has held research roles with the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Germany. Paul is a Fellow of Royal Society Te Apārangi and in 2025 was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to sociology.

Bountifull Podcast 

Bountifull is a self-improvement, personal growth and wellbeing podcast exploring what helps us live richer, more meaningful lives. Hosted by Sian Simpson, each episode brings together ideas from psychology, science, health, relationships, work, culture and lived experience to better understand how we can live well.

Website: www.bountifullworld.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/bountifullworld/

This week on Bountifull, I’m joined by Brittany McNabb for the first in a four-part series exploring health, wellbeing, food and fitness from a very different angle.

Brittany is a personal trainer with a background spanning psychology, business, psychotherapy, nutrition, meditation and behaviour change. Her work starts from a simple idea: lasting change is about far more than calorie deficits, macros or what you do at the gym.

Brittany describes much of the health and fitness industry as focusing on the tip of the iceberg: the habits, meal plans, macros and training programmes we can see. Her work goes underneath that, into our identity, beliefs, nervous system, conditioning and capacity for change. Because the goal isn’t simply to achieve a result. It’s to find an approach to health that you can actually sustain — one that builds your strength, energy and capacity for life rather than requiring you to make your life smaller to maintain it.

But first, we go back to Brittany’s own story. We talk about growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness, severe bulimia and anorexia, shame, perfectionism, miscarriage, birth trauma, significant weight gain and the journey that eventually led her to lose 40 kilos, rethink her relationship with health and build a business helping thousands of women create lasting change.

It’s the story behind the work, and the foundation for everything we’ll explore next.

Episode Highlights

• Why lasting health change is about far more than calories, macros and exercise

• How shame, perfectionism and not feeling “good enough” can shape our behaviour

• Why our relationship with food is often about comfort, belonging, control and more than nutrition

• How to pursue health and body goals without making your life smaller in the process

• How to separate what you genuinely want from what you’ve been conditioned to want

Chapters 

00:00 — Why lasting change goes deeper than food and fitness

03:10 — Brittany’s background in psychology, psychotherapy, nutrition and training

07:12 — The iceberg beneath behaviour change

12:14 — Growing up with shame, fear and external authority

16:30 — Food, comfort, belonging and control

18:16 — Not enoughness, perfectionism and eating disorders

23:05 — Performing for others and losing yourself

27:20 — Miscarriage, birth trauma and significant weight gain

33:32 — Relearning health after restriction and shame

36:20 — Losing 40 kilos without shrinking your life

38:18 — Why more information isn’t making us healthier

40:03 — Female conditioning, beauty standards and self-control

43:24 — Separating what you want from what you’ve been handed

46:25 — What it means to live a Bountifull life

Guest Bio 

Brittany McNabb is an Auckland-based personal trainer, psychology graduate and founder of Mind, Body, Britt. With a background spanning psychology, psychotherapy, nutrition, nervous system education and behaviour change, her work helps women understand what sits underneath their relationship with food, exercise and their bodies.

Drawing on both her professional training and her own experience with severe eating disorders, significant weight gain and a 40-kilogram weight loss that she has maintained for more than five years, Brittany has developed an approach to health that goes far beyond meal plans and workouts. Through her RESET programme and wider work, she helps thousands of women create sustainable change while building greater strength, capacity and freedom in their lives.

www.mindbodybritt.com/

www.instagram.com/mindbody.britt/

Bountifull Podcast 

Bountifull is a self-improvement, personal growth and wellbeing podcast exploring what helps us live richer, more meaningful lives. Hosted by Sian Simpson, each episode brings together ideas from psychology, science, health, relationships, work, culture and lived experience to better understand how we can live well.

www.bountifullworld.com/

What if some of the things we struggle to understand about ourselves have roots we can’t easily explain?

In this episode of the Bountifull Podcast, I sit down with Shirley Johnson, a journalist, astrologer, tarot reader and past life regression therapist who has spent more than four decades exploring how we make sense of ourselves, our relationships and the patterns that shape our lives.

Shirley began studying astrology in 1980 and has been facilitating past life regressions since 1991. Along the way, she has contributed to magazines and newspapers, appeared regularly on radio and television, and continued to explore her own creativity through painting and writing.

We talk about reincarnation and what happens during a past life regression, as well as dreams, déjà vu, love at first sight, astrology, spirit guides and Shirley’s own beliefs about what might happen after we die. We also explore why people are always searching for answers, the patterns we carry through life and the many different ways we try to understand who we are.

At 81, Shirley is still learning, creating and following her curiosity. At the heart of this conversation is an invitation to keep doing the same: to remain open, continue discovering ourselves and take an active role in creating a bountiful life.

Episode highlights

• What past life regression is and how it works
• Reincarnation, past lives and the idea of soul groups
• Dreams, déjà vu and memories that feel strangely familiar
• Love at first sight, relationships and soul connections
• Astrology as a tool for self-awareness and understanding ourselves
• Why we repeat patterns and where our fears and phobias might come from
• Spirit guides, angels and beliefs about what happens after death
• Curiosity, self-discovery and continuing to learn throughout life

Guest Bio

Shirley Johnson is a New Zealand-born astrologer, past life regression therapist, journalist, tarot reader and artist whose career has spanned more than four decades. She began studying astrology in 1980 and trained as a past life regression therapist in 1991 and hypnotherapist in 1992.

Earlier in her career, Shirley worked as a radio journalist in London and as assistant editor of Woman’s Way magazine in Dublin. She later served as president of the Astrological Federation of Ireland, founded a healing centre in Dublin and co-founded the Irish Association of Regression Therapists.

Over the years, Shirley has written long-running magazine columns, appeared on radio and television and worked with clients around the world. Born in New Zealand and long based in Ireland, she now divides her time between the two countries.

About the Bountifull Podcast

The Bountifull Podcast explores what it means to live a bountiful life through conversations about personal growth, wellbeing, mental health, self-improvement, resilience, relationships, creativity and what makes life meaningful. Hosted by Sian Simpson, each episode brings together fascinating people from different backgrounds to share real stories, practical wisdom and ideas that help us better understand ourselves, each other and the world around us — and live with more joy, connection and purpose.

www.bountifullworld.com/

This week on Bountifull, I’m doing something a little different. My guest is Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant.

After more than 80 conversations exploring what it means to live a Bountifull life, I wanted to ask AI the same central question. Not because AI has lived experience, but because it has been trained on an enormous body of human knowledge, ideas, philosophy and conversation. What would it say makes a life feel rich, meaningful and full?

We start there, with Claude’s own answer, before moving into some of the bigger questions that have come up through the podcast. What does “enough” really mean? Why do so many of us know what matters but still struggle to live accordingly? Can someone living in poverty experience a Bountifull life? We also explore ideas from Eastern and Western philosophy, the role of community and belonging, self-worth, money, hustle culture, constant self-improvement, and why we are so drawn to productivity and external markers of success.

Perhaps most importantly, we ask whether a good life needs to look extraordinary at all. The conversation takes us through relationships, curiosity, rest, nature, slowness, generosity, small rituals and defining what enough means for yourself.

A slightly unusual conversation this week, but one that ultimately asks the same question Bountifull always does: what really makes a life feel full?

Key highlights from this episode

• What Claude thinks it means to live a Bountifull life
• Why defining “enough” for yourself matters
• The gap between knowing what matters and actually living that way
• Whether someone living in poverty can still experience a Bountifull life
• What different philosophical traditions can teach us about living well
• The role of community, belonging and meaningful relationships
• What Claude says about self-worth and why achievement may not be the answer
• Whether more money really does mean more happiness
• The difference between meaningful hard work and hustle culture
• Why constant optimisation and self-improvement can become a trap
• Some of the most underrated ingredients of a good life, including slowness, rest, nature, boredom and small rituals
• Why a Bountifull life does not need to be extraordinary

About Claude

Claude is an AI assistant created by Anthropic, an AI safety and research company. Anthropic describes Claude as a next-generation AI assistant designed to be helpful, honest and thoughtful.

Claude can work across a wide range of conversational and analytical tasks, including writing, reasoning, research, analysis, coding and answering questions. Anthropic’s research and training approach is focused on developing AI systems that are useful while behaving safely, ethically and transparently.

About Bountifull Podcast

Bountifull is a podcast about what it means to live a full and meaningful life.

Hosted by Sian Simpson, each episode explores the ideas, experiences and small choices that shape how we live, from wellbeing, relationships and community to work, creativity, resilience, curiosity and joy.

Through conversations with fascinating people from all kinds of backgrounds, Bountifull asks a simple but expansive question: what does it mean to live a bountiful life?

⁠bountifullworld.com/⁠

Jeff Williams is the former mayor of Arlington, Texas, a civil engineer, business leader and author of The Unity Blueprint. After leading one of the most diverse cities in America, he believes a richer life begins not with what we accumulate, but with what we contribute.

In this episode, Jeff shares why generosity, service and helping others are central to a flourishing life. We explore how friendships are built by reaching out first, why kindness requires intention and what can happen when we become curious about people instead of relying on our assumptions.

Jeff also offers a powerful reminder that unity does not mean agreeing on everything. It means creating enough trust and respect to remain connected through disagreement. That requires us to listen to understand, make room for people to be imperfect and resist writing someone off because they disappoint us once.

Drawing on his time as mayor, Jeff explains how ordinary people can shape the places they live. A community becomes stronger when people feel valued, see where they can contribute and take pride in building something together. But that kind of belonging does not happen automatically. Someone has to extend the invitation, begin the conversation or offer the first act of kindness.

We also talk about humility, character, celebrating our wins and the importance of having people in our lives who keep our egos in check. For Jeff, that person is often his wife, Karen, who reminds him that no matter how important his work becomes, he still needs to take out the rubbish.

This is a conversation about choosing to participate in life: reaching out, helping others and contributing to the people and places around us. Because a bountiful life is not something that simply happens to us. It is something we help create.

In this episode, we explore

• Why generosity and helping others are central to a bountiful life
• What being mayor taught Jeff about people
• Why kindness requires intention
• How assumptions prevent us from connecting
• Why unity does not require agreement
• Listening to understand rather than respond
• Making room for people to be imperfect
• Why forgiveness matters when people fall short
• How to disagree without becoming hostile
• What makes a place worth belonging to
• How ordinary people can strengthen their communities
• Why trust requires action, not simply words
• The importance of celebrating our wins
• How character and humility keep leaders grounded
• Why a bountiful life is something we help create through contribution

Guest Bio

W. Jeff Williams is a civil engineer, business leader, author and former three-term mayor of Arlington, Texas, serving from 2015 to 2021. He is President and CEO of Graham Associates, where his work spans infrastructure, transportation engineering, urban planning, public engagement and economic development.

During his time as mayor, Jeff helped secure a new ballpark for the Texas Rangers, supported the development of the Texas Live! entertainment complex and led Arlington’s successful bid for the National Medal of Honor Museum. He also launched a citywide kindness campaign and helped introduce an innovative rideshare-based public transport model.

About Bountifull

Bountifull is a podcast hosted by Sian Simpson exploring the stories, ideas and experiences that shape a rich, meaningful and interesting life.

We spend so much of our lives chasing happiness. But happiness naturally comes and goes, and it was never meant to be the only measure of a good life.

In this episode, I sit down with philosopher Lorraine Besser to explore what happiness misses and why we also need meaning and psychological richness.

Lorraine explains how novelty, complexity, curiosity and experiences that change our perspective can make life feel fuller, even when those experiences are difficult or uncomfortable.

We also explore Lorraine’s experience of reaching the milestones she had worked towards, only to realise how much of herself had been lost to achievement. She shares how she began reconnecting with adventure, spontaneity and the things that genuinely engaged her.

This is a conversation about boredom, risk, resonance, regret and remembering who you are. Most importantly, it shows that a rich and interesting life does not require money, constant travel or dramatic reinvention. It can begin in ordinary moments by noticing more, asking better questions and paying attention to what sparks something within you.

In this episode, we explore

• What philosophers mean by “the good life”
• Why happiness is temporary and why that is not a problem
• The pressure to feel happy all the time
• Happiness, meaning and psychological richness
• What novelty, complexity and challenge add to our lives
• Why difficult experiences can still be valuable
• How to make ordinary life more interesting
• Boredom as a signal that the mind wants to engage
• The role of curiosity, risk and emotional discomfort
• How achievement can crowd out other parts of ourselves
• Why resonance helps us recognise what is good for us
• The importance of remembering who we are
• How to create a richer family and everyday life
• Why our greatest regrets often come from what we did not do

Chapters

• 00:00 Why Happiness Isn’t Enough
• 02:14 Lorraine Besser and the Good Life
• 07:41 What Is Psychological Richness?
• 10:16 Happiness, Pleasure and Human Flourishing
• 19:39 Why Happiness Naturally Fades
• 28:41 The Missing Dimension of a Good Life
• 35:06 How to Make Ordinary Life More Interesting
• 44:06 Losing Yourself to Achievement
• 50:10 Boredom, Curiosity and Resonance
• 58:39 Regret, Risk and Living Fully

Guest Bio

Lorraine Besser is a philosopher, author and professor specialising in moral psychology, happiness and the philosophy of the good life. She is the Pardon Tillinghast Professor of Philosophy at Middlebury College in Vermont and the author of The Art of the Interesting: What We Miss in Our Pursuit of the Good Life and How to Cultivate It.

lorrainebesser.com/

A thought to leave you with

You do not need to feel happy all the time to be living well.

A good life can be pleasurable and meaningful, but it can also be challenging, surprising, emotionally complicated and deeply interesting.

We may not be able to control when happiness arrives, but we have far more control over whether we pay attention, follow our curiosity and allow life to change the way we see the world.

About the Bountifull Podcast

The Bountifull Podcast explores the stories, ideas and experiences that shape a full and meaningful life.

Each week, host Sian Simpson sits down with fascinating people from around the world to explore creativity, connection, curiosity, resilience and what it really means to live well.

These are honest, thoughtful conversations designed to challenge the way you think, introduce you to new ideas and help you find more joy in everyday life.

Follow the Bountifull Podcast and join us for a new conversation each week.

bountifullworld.com/

What can a lifetime spent protecting some of the world’s most extraordinary places teach us about how to live?

In part two of my conversation with Lou Sanson, we travel from Antarctica to the highest levels of New Zealand’s conservation system — and into the lessons Lou gathered through a life of ambition, responsibility and service.

Lou describes Antarctica as New Zealand’s landscape “on steroids”: a place so still you can hear your ears ringing and see for hundreds of kilometres. After first travelling there as a field assistant, he returned to lead Antarctica New Zealand, overseeing Scott Base, supporting scientific research and representing New Zealand within a treaty system involving countries with vastly different interests and ideologies.

Antarctica taught him that influence does not always come from size, money or authority. It often begins with relationships: listening to people, earning their trust and finding enough common ground to move forward together. Some of Lou’s most consequential work began not in formal meetings, but around his family dinner table.

We then follow him into the role he had imagined since childhood: Director-General of the Department of Conservation. He inherited an exhausted organisation facing limited funding and an almost limitless task. Rather than imposing another restructure, Lou chose incremental change, stronger partnerships, visible leadership and a more hopeful story about what conservation could achieve.

He shares the courage required to make unpopular decisions, the importance of standing behind your people and why playing the long game means staying committed even when progress is slow, opposition is fierce and the result may not arrive during your tenure.

Yet after all the scale, ambition and responsibility, Lou’s philosophy of a bountiful life is wonderfully immediate: find one “ten out of ten” moment every day. A sunset, a bike ride, a good meal or the call of a native bird at night.

His life reminds us that fulfilment does not come from achievement alone. It comes from meaningful work, deep relationships, service to something beyond ourselves and retaining the ability to be delighted by the world directly in front of us.

Chapters

00:00 Antarctica, conservation and the lessons of a lifetime01:00 More than 50 trips to Antarctica05:18 Why Antarctica matters to all of us07:20 The power of relationships and the family dinner table15:07 From track cutter to Director-General17:42 Leading DOC through incremental change20:17 Storytelling, partnerships and making conservation matter27:30 Public opposition, visibility and social licence33:12 Courage, decisiveness and protecting your people38:54 Playing the long game48:10 Finding a ten-out-of-ten moment every day

Guest Bio 

Lou Sanson QSO, NZAM is one of New Zealand’s most experienced conservation leaders. His career began as a track cutter in South Westland and went on to include senior leadership across Fiordland, Stewart Island and the subantarctic islands. He served as Chief Executive of Antarctica New Zealand from 2002 to 2013 and as Director-General of the Department of Conservation from 2013 to 2021. Today, he continues to contribute to conservation as a trustee of the New Zealand Nature Fund and WWF-New Zealand.

About the Bountifull Podcast 

The Bountifull Podcast explores what it means to live a rich, meaningful and fulfilling life. Hosted by Sian Simpson, each episode brings together thoughtful conversations across psychology, science, relationships, health, work, creativity, culture and society — uncovering the stories, ideas and experiences that shape how we live.

www.bountifullworld.com/

What if the way you show up in every moment, at work, at home, with strangers, is shaping not just your life, but the lives of hundreds of people you'll never meet? In this episode of the Bountifull Podcast, Sian sits down with bestselling author, 2x TEDx speaker and researcher Marcy Axelrod to unpack her life's work: understanding what it truly means to show up.

Marcy introduces her three-level framework for showing up, from barely there, to just showing up, to truly showing up, and explains the three roles we all inhabit at every moment: self, situation member, and society member. She challenges the idea that we are isolated selves operating from the inside out, drawing on neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and interpersonal neurobiology to show that we are deeply interconnected, right down to the synchronisation of our brainwaves when we look into another person's eyes.

This is a conversation about slowing down, choosing presence over performance, and recognising that how we show up to the world is exactly how the world will show up for us.

Key Highlights

• The three roles we inhabit every moment. Self, situation member, and society member, and why understanding all three is the key to moving beyond disconnection and loneliness.

• The show up continuum. What separates "barely there" from "just showing up" from "truly showing up," and why most of us spend 80% of our time at level two.

• Choice vs. decision. Why decisions narrow your options while choices are expansive, ongoing, and available in every moment.

• Showing up "with" and "for" vs. "to". How the language of connection shapes the chemistry of the people around you, from cortisol to oxytocin.

• The ripple effect. Research showing that your behaviour influences not just the 20 people closest to you, but their networks too, reaching people you will never meet.

• Why busyness keeps us stuck. How a culture of doing prevents us from accessing the broader, more open mode of attention we need to truly be present.

• The three practices for presence. A meditative practice, a reflective practice (journaling), and a physical practice as the ecology of habits that support truly showing up.

• Authenticity over performance. Why performative living erodes trust and why deathbed research consistently reveals regret over unlived, inauthentic lives.

• Alltelligence. Marcy's coined term meaning "connectedness with intent to serve," the skill for our societal role that draws on the idea that intelligence is neither solely internal nor external.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction and welcome

• 01:24 Marcy's origin story: stuttering, observation, and the search for a blueprint

• 04:42 What does "showing up" actually mean?

• 06:34 Choosing how you show up: presence meets perspective

• 07:31 The two hemispheres of attention

• 09:42 The three roles: self, situation member, society member

• 17:30 The three levels of showing up

• 21:32 Practical exercises: the ecology of practices

• 23:16 The "Chuck" story: the show up continuum in real time

• 30:42 The three skills: groundedness, readiness, and alltelligence

• 37:39 Wisdom is not optional

• 42:54 What keeps us stuck in "just showing up" mode

• 46:08 Deathbed wishes and the cost of an inauthentic life

• 50:46 From performative living to true presence

• 54:24 Quick-fire round

• 57:28 Purpose, significance, meaning, and mattering

Guest Bio

Marcy Axelrod is the architect of the Show Up System, a bestselling author, keynote and two-time TEDx speaker, and management consultant. After beginning her career on Wall Street, she spent more than 20 years in KPMG Consulting’s high-tech strategy practice, working with global companies and leadership teams. Her latest book, How We Choose to Show Up, brings together research from neuroscience, psychology and behavioural economics to explore how we work, relate and live.

Bountifull is a personal growth and wellbeing podcast that explores how to live a richer, more meaningful life through conversations on joy, purpose, resilience, creativity and connection.

What happens when a childhood spent exploring wild places becomes the work of an entire life?

In part one of this two-part conversation, I’m joined by Lou Sanson, one of New Zealand’s most influential conservation leaders. Lou grew up on the West Coast of New Zealand, learning to cross rivers, climb mountains, cook over fires and navigate the backcountry. At 13, he encountered two forestry workers in a remote hut and decided he wanted a life spent working in nature. Over the next five decades, he would turn that early instinct into a life of extraordinary purpose and service.

We follow Lou from his first job cutting tracks through South Westland to becoming responsible for Fiordland, Stewart Island and New Zealand’s subantarctic islands. He shares the work behind Rakiura National Park, marine protection in Fiordland and one of the world’s most ambitious predator-eradication projects, while reflecting on the experiences that shaped his understanding of leadership, safety, accountability and lasting change.

At its heart, this is a conversation about what can happen when you recognise what makes you feel most alive and build your life around it. Nature became Lou’s education, his source of courage, his place of renewal and the larger purpose against which he measured his decisions. His story offers a richer way to think about a bountiful life: one grounded in belonging, contribution and responsibility, and in leaving the places entrusted to us better than we found them.

Key Episode Highlights

• How growing up on the West Coast of New Zealand shaped Lou’s courage, independence and connection to nature
• The backcountry encounter at 13 that gave him a direction for life
• Why nature became Lou’s education, purpose and place of renewal
• The leadership lesson that taught him good intentions are not enough without strong systems and accountability
• How Rakiura National Park, Fiordland’s marine protection and Campbell Island were brought to life
• Why meaningful change requires catching the wave of public feeling rather than pushing against it
• The importance of building trust and working closely with Ngāi Tahu
• The Māori philosophy that people belong within nature rather than stand apart from it

Chapters

00:00 Finding a ten-out-of-ten moment

02:56 A bountiful life shaped by the West Coast

08:22 The backcountry encounter that shaped his future

10:33 How New Zealand’s conservation system works

14:20 Building a career from the ground up

15:21 The leadership lesson that changed everything

22:32 Rakiura, Fiordland and Campbell Island

26:23 How lasting change really happens

30:59 Learning that we belong to nature

35:53 Why New Zealand’s native species matter

Guest Bio 

Lou Sanson QSO, NZAM is one of New Zealand’s most experienced conservation leaders. His career began as a track cutter in South Westland and went on to include senior leadership across Fiordland, Stewart Island and the subantarctic islands. He served as Chief Executive of Antarctica New Zealand from 2002 to 2013 and as Director-General of the Department of Conservation from 2013 to 2021. Today, he continues to contribute to conservation as a trustee of the New Zealand Nature Fund and WWF-New Zealand.

About the Bountifull Podcast 
The Bountifull Podcast explores how to live a richer, healthier and more meaningful life through conversations about psychology, relationships, health, work, culture, science and society. Hosted by Sian Simpson, each episode shares powerful stories and practical ideas to help us live with more joy, purpose, curiosity and connection.

www.bountifullworld.com/

What happens when the life you worked so hard to build no longer fits?

In this episode, I’m joined by Andy Johns for a deep and honest conversation about the valley between two mountains — the liminal space between who you were and who you are yet to become.

Andy spent 17 years in Silicon Valley climbing the first mountain of life: career, achievement, status, success, and external validation. But this conversation is less about the climb, and more about what happens after you step away. Because leaving an old life is not as simple as choosing a new one. Often, there is a long and disorienting middle — a space where the old identity has dissolved, but the next version of you has not yet fully arrived.

Together, we explore what it means to sit in that unknown. The grief of losing the person you thought you were. The fear of no longer being valued in the same way. The body’s withdrawal from stress, momentum and constant stimulation. The temptation to rush into the next thing just to escape the discomfort of not knowing.

Andy shares with rare honesty what it took to stop performing, stop achieving, and begin listening to what his body, spirit and life were trying to tell him. We talk about perfectionism, burnout, addiction, faith, rest, service, money, and the strange freedom that can come when you stop trying to force a new mountain into view.

This is a conversation for anyone who has ever found themselves between lives. For anyone who has left something behind, or knows they need to, but has no idea what comes next.

The valley can feel like failure. But maybe it is also where we begin to become more fully ourselves.

In this episode, we explore

• What Andy calls the first mountain of life

• Why success can stop feeling like success

• The valley between who you were and who you are becoming

• Why leaving an old identity can feel like grief

• The body’s withdrawal from stress, adrenaline and achievement

• Work, status and external validation as forms of addiction

• The difference between failure and misalignment

• What relationships reveal when your identity changes

• The fear and freedom of saying, “I don’t know what’s next”

• Rebuilding self-worth through service, meaning and truth

• Why rest is not laziness, but part of the healing

• How to sit in the unknown without rushing into the next mountain

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

02:00 The space between who you were and who you are becoming

09:00 When success stops fitting

18:25 The first mountain and the valley

26:10 Leaving an identity behind

31:20 Losing your sense of value and purpose

40:40 What happens to the body in the valley

50:30 Shame, addiction and survival patterns

57:00 Faith, spirituality and transformation

1:10:30 Rebuilding self-worth through service

1:20:00 Money, uncertainty and enough

1:27:30 The question everyone asks: what’s next?

1:36:00 Rest, change and becoming

1:39:00 Closing thoughts

Guest Bio 

Andy Johns is a writer, former Silicon Valley executive, advisor and investor whose work now explores identity, healing, transformation and purpose. In his earlier career, Andy worked across some of Silicon Valley’s most recognisable companies, including Facebook, Twitter, Quora and Wealthfront, where he served as President. After stepping away from a 17-year career built around achievement, status and external validation, Andy now writes and speaks about the inner work of leaving an old identity behind and navigating the uncertain space between who you were and who you are becoming.

https://cluesdotlife.substack.com/

About the Bountifull Podcast 

The Bountifull Podcast explores what it means to live a bountiful life through stories of creativity, connection, curiosity and resilience. With conversations spanning personal growth, mental health, mindfulness, emotional resilience and wellbeing, each episode offers honest stories and practical ideas to help us live with more joy, meaning and depth.

https://bountifullworld.com/