Flourishing Leaders Podcast

What if the next generation of leaders doesn't need to wait until tomorrow to start changing the world?

In this episode of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons welcomes Jonathan Harper, FRSA, an award-winning social entrepreneur and co-founder of Global Social Leaders, for an inspiring conversation about youth leadership, character development, service learning, community belonging, and human flourishing.

With more than 20 years of experience developing youth leadership and social impact initiatives, Jonathan has helped empower over 10,000 young people across 100 countries to deliver more than 3,500 community action projects.

Jonathan shares why real-world experiences are essential for developing confidence, responsibility, compassion, and agency—and why adults sometimes need to step aside and give young people the space to lead.

Together, Scott and Jonathan explore:

• Why leadership is a responsibility, not simply a title.
• How experiential learning and community service help young people develop character.
• Inspiring social action projects led by young people in India and Ukraine.
• What supporting families after the Grenfell Tower tragedy taught Jonathan about compassion, listening, and trust.
• How CanTeam transforms school canteens into welcoming community dining spaces.
• Why belonging, relationships, and shared meals can strengthen entire communities.
• How to grow successful social initiatives while preserving local ownership and human connection.

From youth-led innovation to community dinners, Jonathan demonstrates how meaningful leadership begins when we create opportunities for people to contribute.

The central message: Young people are ready to lead now. Our responsibility is to create the conditions that allow them to flourish.

Whether you're an educator, parent, coach, community organizer, nonprofit leader, or someone who believes in the potential of the next generation, this conversation will challenge you to think differently about leadership, learning, and service.

Connect and learn more:

Global Social Leaders: https://www.globalsocialleaders.com/

CanTeam: https://www.future-foundations.co.uk/canteam/ 

Thank you for listening to the Flourishing Leaders Podcast!
Hosted by Dr. Scott Parsons, this podcast explores how character, virtue, wisdom, and purpose can shape a more flourishing life and leadership journey.

Learn more at: Flourishing Leaders Academy
Subscribe & Follow: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | YouTube
Share this episode with someone who’s ready to lead with integrity and flourish in every domain of life.
Connect with Scott: LinkedIn | [email protected]

Flourish with us—because leadership rooted in character changes everything.

What happens when fear makes our differences louder than our shared humanity?

In Episode #70 of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons and co-host Jason Viyar sit down with Angela McIllece, Co-Founder, President, and COO of Human Flourishing, for a deeply personal conversation about agency, identity, authenticity, disagreement, and what it takes to build relationships and communities in which people can truly flourish.

Angela shares how more than 30 years as a military spouse and more than 20 moves around the world shaped her understanding of identity, adaptation, and belonging—including a powerful story about moving to New Delhi with four young children and discovering how fear can narrow our view of other people.

The conversation explores why Human Flourishing was created, how we can recover agency when circumstances feel overwhelming, why understanding someone does not require agreeing with them, and what becomes possible when we approach disagreement with curiosity rather than defensiveness.

Angela also explains why Human Flourishing is committed to measuring whether its work actually changes how people live, why Mission Partners such as Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Institute for Character and Leadership matter to the movement, and what Human Flourishing hopes to learn at its upcoming Founding Salon and public gathering, The Case for Optimism.

At its heart, this is a conversation about becoming harder to divide and better at connecting—and learning to stay grounded in what we believe without hardening toward one another.

In This Episode

Scott, Jason, and Angela explore:

• What flourishing leadership looks like when leaders create space for agency, growth, risk, and even failure
• Identity beyond the roles we play
• Why fear can make differences louder than our shared humanity
• Agency as the question, “What can I actually do?”
• Why we cannot defend a belief and examine it at the same time
• Understanding versus agreement
• Measuring flourishing through meaningful changes in behavior
• The role of Mission Partners in the Human Flourishing movement
• Why authentic relationships require vulnerability
• The upcoming Human Flourishing Founding Salon and The Case for Optimism
• Angela’s hope that we become harder to divide and better at connecting

Connect & Learn More

HumanFlourishing.us 

Thank you for listening to the Flourishing Leaders Podcast!
Hosted by Dr. Scott Parsons, this podcast explores how character, virtue, wisdom, and purpose can shape a more flourishing life and leadership journey.

Learn more at: Flourishing Leaders Academy
Subscribe & Follow: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | YouTube
Share this episode with someone who’s ready to lead with integrity and flourish in every domain of life.
Connect with Scott: LinkedIn | [email protected]

Flourish with us—because leadership rooted in character changes everything.

How do we create institutions where people do more than survive or avoid burnout—where they can genuinely flourish?

In the Season 3 premiere of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons welcomes Dr. Cheryl Maurana, Provost at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Founding Executive Director of the Kern National Network for Flourishing in Health.

Cheryl has spent much of her career asking how institutions can honor human dignity, strengthen connection, cultivate character, and help people become their fullest selves.

Together, Scott and Cheryl explore:

• Why flourishing leadership begins with purpose and caring for others 
• How the Kern National Network for Flourishing in Health began 
• Why health professions education needed to move beyond burnout, resilience, wellness, and well-being 
• The KNN framework of character, caring, practical wisdom, and flourishing 
• Why flourishing must be woven through the fabric of institutions rather than treated as an add-on 
• What the KNN Forest teaches us about interconnectedness, community, and growth 
• Why people were never meant to flourish in isolation 
• The importance of building bridges across differences 
• Why “brave spaces” may matter more than merely “safe spaces” 
• How moral dilemmas can deepen judgment, empathy, and practical wisdom 
• Why leaders should stay rooted in purpose rather than productivity 
• How small practices of hope can sustain people through difficult seasons 
• Why flourishing is not a destination but a way of showing up in the life we actually have 

At its heart, this conversation is about creating the conditions in which people, professions, institutions, and communities can flourish together.

And Cheryl leaves us with one final invitation:

Kindness. Always kindness.

Thank you for listening to the Flourishing Leaders Podcast!
Hosted by Dr. Scott Parsons, this podcast explores how character, virtue, wisdom, and purpose can shape a more flourishing life and leadership journey.

Learn more at: Flourishing Leaders Academy
Subscribe & Follow: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | YouTube
Share this episode with someone who’s ready to lead with integrity and flourish in every domain of life.
Connect with Scott: LinkedIn | [email protected]

Flourish with us—because leadership rooted in character changes everything.

What actually makes a flourishing life?

Love?

Purpose?

Character?

Wisdom?

Relationships?

Challenge?

Service?

Perhaps the answer is not one ingredient at all—but the way these things come together.

In the Season 2 finale of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons introduces a new recurring series:

Flourishing Conversations: A Quarterly Roundtable.

Four times during Season 3, the podcast will bring together scholars, practitioners, educators, and changemakers around one important question at the heart of human flourishing.

For this inaugural conversation, Scott is joined by four returning podcast guests:

Dr. Katy Granville-Chapman, educator, leadership scholar, author, and Senior Fellow of the Harvard Human Flourishing Network;

Emmie Bidston, educator, author, leadership practitioner, and Associate Fellow at the Oxford Character Project;

Brian Wellinghoff, Senior Director of Leadership and Outreach at Barry-Wehmiller;

and David Pickersgill, Senior Outreach Program Leader at Barry-Wehmiller.

Together, they explore:

• Why flourishing is a journey rather than a destination 
• How people can flourish even through difficult “winter” seasons 
• Whether love can—and should—be reclaimed in leadership 
• Why character enables us to put love into action 
• How purpose gives courage and direction 
• The role of wisdom in adapting to life’s changing circumstances 
• Why flourishing is inherently relational 
• How mistakes can become pathways to growth and practical wisdom 
• Why accountability can elevate rather than diminish people 
• The difference between work-life balance and work-life harmony 
• Why being loved for who we are may matter more than being admired for what we achieve 
• How listening, kindness, recognition, and courageous action make flourishing practical 

The episode closes with a new tradition for Flourishing Conversations: One Practice—a simple action each participant offers listeners to try in the week ahead.

This episode closes Season 2 of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast and offers a first glimpse of a new series that will return four times during Season 3.

The podcast returns with its Season 3 premiere on September 29, 2026.

Thank you for listening to the Flourishing Leaders Podcast!
Hosted by Dr. Scott Parsons, this podcast explores how character, virtue, wisdom, and purpose can shape a more flourishing life and leadership journey.

Learn more at: Flourishing Leaders Academy
Subscribe & Follow: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | YouTube
Share this episode with someone who’s ready to lead with integrity and flourish in every domain of life.
Connect with Scott: LinkedIn | [email protected]

Flourish with us—because leadership rooted in character changes everything.

What is education ultimately for?

Is it simply about knowledge, examinations, and preparation for employment—or should education also help us become good people capable of contributing to the common good?

In Episode #67 of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons welcomes his longtime mentor and friend Professor James Arthur OBE, one of the world’s leading scholars of character education and the founding director of the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues at the University of Birmingham.

James has spent decades advancing the idea that education must concern itself not only with what students know, but with who they are becoming.

Together, Scott and James explore:

• Why flourishing means seeking the good for ourselves and for others 
• How James’s own teachers first awakened his interest in character 
• Why he and Dr. Jack Templeton created the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues 
• Why education must extend beyond examinations and academic outcomes 
• The leadership virtues of persistence and patience 
• Why great mentors must both encourage and challenge 
• Why truth may be one of the virtues contemporary culture most misunderstands 
• How honesty, openness, civility, and respect make meaningful disagreement possible 
• Why flourishing has become such an important global conversation 
• James’s unforgettable exchange with Queen Elizabeth II about measuring character 
• Why experienced educators still need professional judgment and practical wisdom 
• The international influence of the Jubilee Centre’s Framework for Character Education 
• What a lifetime of awards and honors means to James—and why he sees them as recognition of a team rather than himself 

James also reflects on the growing global interest in character education and the profound joy of watching ideas, students, and colleagues carry this work forward around the world.

This is a conversation about scholarship and education.

But even more, it is a conversation about living well, seeking truth, serving the common good, and helping others flourish.

Thank you for listening to the Flourishing Leaders Podcast!
Hosted by Dr. Scott Parsons, this podcast explores how character, virtue, wisdom, and purpose can shape a more flourishing life and leadership journey.

Learn more at: Flourishing Leaders Academy
Subscribe & Follow: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | YouTube
Share this episode with someone who’s ready to lead with integrity and flourish in every domain of life.
Connect with Scott: LinkedIn | [email protected]

Flourish with us—because leadership rooted in character changes everything.

What if empathy isn't a soft skill at all—but one of the most strategic capacities a leader can develop?

And what if genuine empathy requires not only understanding others, but understanding ourselves?

In Episode #66 of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons and Jason Viyar welcome Dr. Ben Freer, Dean of the Marion Turpan College of Psychology and Counseling at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Professor of Psychology, and co-founder of The Empathy Center for Research and Training.

Ben is helping redefine empathy for the twenty-first century through what he calls a binocular perspective: one lens focused on the feelings, experiences, wants, and needs of others, and the other focused on our own needs, boundaries, responsibilities, and well-being.

Together, Scott, Jason, and Ben explore:

• Why flourishing leaders must attend to their own flourishing before helping others flourish

• What “binocular empathy” means and why both lenses matter

• Why empathy doesn't require sacrificing yourself for others

• The importance of finding your “empathetic no”

• The difference between pity, sympathy, empathy, and compassion

• Why Ben describes compassion as “empathy plus action”

• Why empathy should be understood as a strategic skill rather than a soft skill

• The five core skills of empathy: cues, pulling the curtain, shifting, boundaries, and feelings

• How assumptions, stress, distraction, and misperception become roadblocks to empathy

• Why curiosity is one of the best antidotes to assumption

• How empathy and accountability strengthen rather than undermine one another

• Why conflict can bring people closer together when handled with humanity

• How empathy helps us disagree without abandoning our convictions or dehumanizing one another

• What Ben has learned about diplomacy, listening, and human connection through his work with the United Nations

• Why empathy can be understood simultaneously as a skill, a virtue, and a discipline

• How adversity, reflection, and human connection sustain hope

Ben ultimately reminds us that empathy isn't about eliminating disagreement or giving everyone what they want.

It's about creating the conditions in which people can genuinely hear one another, remain accountable to one another, and flourish together.

And sometimes it begins with something remarkably simple:

Listening.

Connect & Learn More

The Empathy Center for Research and Training

Thank you for listening to the Flourishing Leaders Podcast!
Hosted by Dr. Scott Parsons, this podcast explores how character, virtue, wisdom, and purpose can shape a more flourishing life and leadership journey.

Learn more at: Flourishing Leaders Academy
Subscribe & Follow: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | YouTube
Share this episode with someone who’s ready to lead with integrity and flourish in every domain of life.
Connect with Scott: LinkedIn | [email protected]

Flourish with us—because leadership rooted in character changes everything.

How do our experiences become sources of wisdom, character, and human flourishing?

In this inspiring episode of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons welcomes Professor Pete Allison, Associate Professor of Values and Experiential Learning at Penn State University, for a wide-ranging conversation about leadership, education, service, adventure, compassion, and the winding paths through which people grow.

Pete shares his remarkable personal journey from leaving a school that failed to engage him to becoming a university professor devoted to understanding how people learn in classrooms, communities, wilderness environments, and everyday life.

Together, Scott and Pete explore:

• Why flourishing leadership is relational, reflective, gentle, and often egoless
 • Why life and human development rarely follow a linear path
 • Kurt Hahn’s belief that education should “train the imagination”
 • The educator’s responsibility to “ignite the grand passion” and then get out of the way
 • How Outward Bound develops character across diverse cultural contexts
 • The five educational levers that shape character development
 • Why meaningful service can move people from pity to compassion
 • How habits of service strengthen individuals and communities
 • The difference between feedback and developmental “feed-forward”
 • Why compassion requires action
 • How curiosity helps us learn from people who see the world differently
 • The restorative and reflective power of wilderness, expeditions, and nature
 • The character-building framework of the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award

Pete reminds us that education is not merely preparation for employment. At its best, it helps people imagine the lives they want to lead, the people they hope to become, and the communities they want to help create.

The path to flourishing may zigzag—but every meaningful experience, relationship, act of service, and moment of reflection can help us continue moving forward.

 Connect & Learn More

Outward Bound International - Strengthening Character Through Outdoor Experiential Learning – John Templeton Foundation funded, multi-year global research initiative 

Executive Summary

Program Video (4 minutes) 

 The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award USA

Website

Thank you for listening to the Flourishing Leaders Podcast!
Hosted by Dr. Scott Parsons, this podcast explores how character, virtue, wisdom, and purpose can shape a more flourishing life and leadership journey.

Learn more at: Flourishing Leaders Academy
Subscribe & Follow: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | YouTube
Share this episode with someone who’s ready to lead with integrity and flourish in every domain of life.
Connect with Scott: LinkedIn | [email protected]

Flourish with us—because leadership rooted in character changes everything.

What if thinking about death could actually help us live more meaningful lives?

In this deeply moving episode of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons sits down with physician, medical ethicist, and Columbia University professor Dr. Lydia Dugdale to explore one of life's most universal—and often avoided—topics.

Drawing from her acclaimed books Dying in the Twenty-First Century and The Lost Art of Dying, Lydia explains how modern medicine has become remarkably good at prolonging life, while often forgetting the equally important work of helping people prepare for death.

Together they discuss:

• Why healing is different from curing

• The ancient Ars Moriendi ("Art of Dying")

• Why community matters at the end of life

• Character formation across a lifetime

• Medical ethics, healthcare leadership, and virtue

• Why remembering our mortality helps us live with greater gratitude, purpose, and love

The conversation begins with a remarkable personal connection: both Scott and Lydia's grandfathers flew B-17 bombers over Germany during World War II, leading to a powerful discussion about courage, legacy, and becoming the kind of person others remember.

This isn't a conversation about death.

It's a conversation about living wisely.

Thank you for listening to the Flourishing Leaders Podcast!
Hosted by Dr. Scott Parsons, this podcast explores how character, virtue, wisdom, and purpose can shape a more flourishing life and leadership journey.

Learn more at: Flourishing Leaders Academy
Subscribe & Follow: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | YouTube
Share this episode with someone who’s ready to lead with integrity and flourish in every domain of life.
Connect with Scott: LinkedIn | [email protected]

Flourish with us—because leadership rooted in character changes everything.

What does it really mean to live a good life?

Is flourishing simply about happiness, achievement, or well-being… or is it something much deeper?

In this episode of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons and Jason Viyar welcome Professor Blaine Fowers, one of the world's leading scholars on virtue, practical wisdom (phronesis), courage, and flourishing.

Together they explore why modern life often emphasizes techniques and effectiveness while overlooking the importance of character and practical wisdom. They discuss Aristotle's enduring influence, the role of moral courage in leadership, the science of virtue, flourishing measurement, and why becoming a flourishing leader begins with becoming the right kind of person.

Whether you're a leader, educator, healthcare professional, coach, researcher, or simply someone seeking to live wisely, this conversation offers timeless insights into what it means to flourish.

In this episode you'll discover:

• Why practical wisdom matters more than technique 
• The difference between physical courage and moral courage 
• What flourishing measures often miss 
• How virtue science is reshaping psychology 
• Why relationships are central to leadership 
• How character is cultivated over a lifetime 

Flourishing isn't simply something we measure.

It's something we practice.

Thank you for listening to the Flourishing Leaders Podcast!
Hosted by Dr. Scott Parsons, this podcast explores how character, virtue, wisdom, and purpose can shape a more flourishing life and leadership journey.

Learn more at: Flourishing Leaders Academy
Subscribe & Follow: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | YouTube
Share this episode with someone who’s ready to lead with integrity and flourish in every domain of life.
Connect with Scott: LinkedIn | [email protected]

Flourish with us—because leadership rooted in character changes everything.

What if the greatest barrier to flourishing isn't a lack of talent...

...but believing you need to become someone else?

In this inspiring episode of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons and Jason Viyar welcome Liz Walker and Dr. Alison Maitland, co-founders of Becoming International, for a conversation about leadership, identity, courage, and authentic human growth.

Together they explore why flourishing begins not by fixing ourselves, but by becoming more fully who we are uniquely created to be.

In this episode you'll discover:

• Why vertical development transforms leaders from the inside out 
• The difference between adding more skills and growing deeper roots 
• Why courage often comes before confidence 
• How Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) informs leadership development 
• The role of curiosity, values, and psychological flexibility in flourishing 
• Why discomfort is often the doorway to meaningful growth 
• How leaders create environments where people flourish rather than simply perform 

This conversation is a powerful reminder that leadership isn't about perfection.

It's about continual becoming.

Whether you're an executive, educator, coach, entrepreneur, student, or lifelong learner, you'll leave encouraged to embrace growth, not by becoming someone different, but by becoming more fully yourself.

Connect & Learn More

Becoming International

Liz Walker

Dr. Alison Maitland

Thank you for listening to the Flourishing Leaders Podcast!
Hosted by Dr. Scott Parsons, this podcast explores how character, virtue, wisdom, and purpose can shape a more flourishing life and leadership journey.

Learn more at: Flourishing Leaders Academy
Subscribe & Follow: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | YouTube
Share this episode with someone who’s ready to lead with integrity and flourish in every domain of life.
Connect with Scott: LinkedIn | [email protected]

Flourish with us—because leadership rooted in character changes everything.