Good Life Project

I’ve come to believe that the quality and richness of our lives is, in no small part, determined by the depth and quality of our attention. If it’s massively distracted, perpetually spinning out, and focused on negativity, that will also largely be the state of our lives, regardless of the actual objective circumstance of our lives. And, that is where we go in a powerful way with my guest today, Johann Hari. 

Johann is a writer and journalist, whose work appears in everywhere from the New York Times, Le Monde, to The Guardian and many other newspapers and media outlets. His TED talks and NowThis viral video have been viewed almost 100 million times, and his work has been praised by a broad range of people, from Oprah Winfrey to Noam Chomsky. He was the Executive Producer of the Oscar-nominated film “The United States vs Billie Holiday” and of a forthcoming eight-part TV series starring Samuel L Jackson. And following an incident with his Godson a few years back, he decided to turn his attention to the topic of attention, what attention actually is, how it affects us our mental and physical health, relationships, careers, and lives, what our ability to either harness or lose control of it is doing to us, and how our world, technology and global enterprise have built models designed to hijack our attention not in the name of the betterment of our lives or of humanity, but rather for their own good. Johann goes deep into his research and ideas in the groundbreaking book, Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention - and How to Think Deeply Again, and we explore what he calls an attentional pathogenic culture, how it’s making life both harder and sadder, and, importantly, what we can do about it to reclaim our attention and, in doing so, our lives.

You can find Johann at: Instagram | Website

If you LOVED this episode:

• You’ll also love the conversations we had with neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley about the way our brain works.

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What do you think of when you hear the word influence? Or the phrase, “be an influencer?” Maybe you think about the ability to affect another person, to have influence over them. Or, to persuade them to adopt an idea, point of view or opinion. Or, maybe take an action or commit to something, or buy something. Whether we’re comfortable with the notion of influence or persuasion or not, we’re all immersed in overlapping processes of subtle and not-so-subtle influence all day, every day. And to better understand how to both cultivate our own skills and tools, and also become more aware of the scripts that are running all around us, I’m so excited to be able to sit down with my friend, Dr. Zoe Chance. 

Zoe is a writer, teacher, researcher, and climate philanthropist obsessed with the topic of interpersonal influence. She earned her doctorate in behavioral science from Harvard and now teaches “Mastering Influence and Persuasion,” the most popular course at Yale School of Management. And, her framework for behavior change is the foundation for Google’s global food policy that helps over 100,000 people make healthier choices every day. Before focusing on academic pursuits, she also managed a $200 million segment of the Barbie brand for Mattel.

Zoe teaches smart, kind people to raise money for charity, get elected to political office, fund startups, start movements, save lives, find love, negotiate great deals and job offers, and even get along better with their kids. In other words, she helps people to use their superpower of influence as a force for good. And, by the way, if you love today’s conversation, you’ll also love her book, Influence is Your Superpower.

You can find Zoe at: Website | Twitter

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Charles Duhigg about building habits.

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Is energy medicine real? What about Ayurveda? What about Western/modern medicine, what’s right and not so right about it? Does the gender of a patient make a difference in how they’re treated, or in their health outcomes? What about the role of plants, herbs, and intuition? These are all questions that have come up in conversations over the years as I’ve had the incredible opportunity to sit down with women who are leading voices and often voices of change in various approaches to medicine and wellbeing. And, in today’s episode, we’ve curated key elements from four of those conversations to share and potentially pull back the curtain on so many myths, misunderstandings and confusion and plant some seeds to explore a different lens and maybe even some different modalities when it comes to exploring your own physical, mental, and energetic wellbeing. 

If you LOVED this episode:

You can find Jill at: Website | Instagram

You can find Avanti at: Website | Instagram

You can find Aviva at: Website | Instagram

You can find Latham at: Website | Instagram

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My guest today, Blair Imani, grew up in a house where sitting quiet in the face of any level of injustice was just not an option. Whether it was advocating for the needs of a sibling or standing up to right a wrong in her community, her parents set a powerful example and invited Blair to always rise to the challenge. And that’s exactly what she’s done. 

But, along the way, Blair also discovered, there are different ways to make a difference, and we each need to figure out how to take up the mantle of change, while also honoring our unique circumstances and needs, and that includes acknowledging our own, very personal psychological and physical wellbeing. 

Building on this, Blair transitioned from organizing and activism to focusing on education, but in a way only she could do - harnessing the power, reach, interactivity and visual impact of social media by creating short, punchy, informative and entertaining bursts of wisdom and inspiration she calls her Smarter in Seconds series, which, at this point, has become a global movement.

Now a writer, mental health advocate, award-winning educator, and historian living at the intersections of Black, Queer, and Muslim identity, Blair is the bestselling author of Read This to Get Smarter, Making Our Way Home, and Modern HERstory. Her scholarship spans intersectionality, gender studies, race and racism, sociology, and United States history. She has presented at Oxford, Stanford, and Harvard, serves on the Board of Directors for the Tegan and Sara Foundation, and been featured in The New York Times and tons of other outlets.

You can find Blair at: Instagram | Website

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Austin Channing Brown, about how we create the world around us and how we bring ourselves to it from a place of equity, dignity, and justice.

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We all breathe. It just happens. But, what if the way you breathe made a massive difference in everything from your risk for debilitating illness to your depth and quality of sleep, energy, creativity, and performance? Turns out, it does. Breathing is maybe the single most effective and accessible switch we can throw to radically transform and take control of the way we feel and live. And, by the way, when we leave it chance - as most of us do - our breathing often defaults into a mode that sends us spiraling into poor physical and mental health, and underperformance in all parts of life. Which is why I was so excited to sit down with James Nestor for this Best Of conversation.

James is a science writer who has written for Outside, Scientific American, The Atlantic, Dwell, The New York Times, and more. His award-winning book Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves was a revelation and, in no small part, kicked off this science writer’s fascination with the breath. That led to a years-long, immersive quest to understand this often-ignored key to both human potential and all forms of peril. And it led to his blockbuster book, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, which is a myth-busting and paradigm-shifting look at how we breathe, what it does to us and how to harness breathing to transform our health and lives.

You can find James at: Instagram | Website

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Wim Hoff about breathing and how it affects your physiology and psychology.

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When was the last time you felt truly at peace? Relaxed, physically and emotionally at ease? How can you downregulate your mind and body and reclaim control over everything from your current state of mind to your sleep, risk of illness and even how fast or slow you age? What if you had so much more control over these than you imagined, no matter what seemingly breathless circumstance swirls around you? 

Turns out, we do, and it’s all about understanding our nervous system and how to actively bring ourselves into what my guest today, Professor Sara Mednick, calls the downstate. Sara is a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of California, Irvine and author of the powerful new book, The Power of the Downstate: Recharge Your Life Using Your Body's Own Restorative Systems. She is passionate about understanding how the brain works through her research into sleep and the autonomic nervous system. 

In fact, her seven-bedroom sleep lab works literally around the clock to discover methods for boosting cognition by napping, stimulating the brain with electricity, sound and light, and pharmacology. Her research findings have been published in such leading scientific journals as Nature Neuroscience and The Proceedings from the National Academy of Science, and covered by major media outlets, in no small part because of their importance and practical application in helping us feel better, and live healthier, more vibrant lives.

You can find Sara at: Website | Twitter

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor about understanding your brain to live a better life.

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I’m fascinated by the idea of snap decisions, how some can lead to amazing outcomes, and others can destroy lives. What you so often find is that nothing actually happens in a moment, there is no real snap, but rather a series of experiences leading up to it, often years in the making, were as much authors of the moment as the instance itself. And, sometimes, when those moments lead to something you’ll regret for a lifetime, you get to the next question - what is recoverable - redeemable - how do you make that happen, and who gets to write the story of your reclamation? 

This is the powerful thru line of my conversation with Shaka Senghor, New York Times bestselling author of Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison. A leading voice on criminal justice reform, tech investor, head of Diversity, Equality & Inclusion at TripActions, former MIT Media Lab Director’s Fellow, and member of Oprah Winfrey’s SuperSoul 100, he took another young man’s life at the age of 19, served the next two decades in prison, 7 in solitary, and through a series of awakenings, began to unwind the pieces of his life and begin the process of understanding, reassembling and eventually redemption. 

In the decade since his release from prison, he has started and worked with nonprofits seeking to lift people up, visited the White House, been interviewed by Trevor Noah and Oprah Winfrey, and given award-winning TED Talks, all with the goal of building a more inspired, just, fulfilling future. His latest book, Letters to the Sons of Society: A Father's Invitation to Love, Honesty, and Freedom invites men everywhere on a journey of honesty and healing through this book of moving letters to his sons.

You can find Shaka at: Website | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Ani DiFranco about our current system of justice and how it relates to expression, personal narratives, and human dignity.

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I still remember the first time I heard Joan Osborne’s iconic song, One of Us. I was 29, a couple of years into my career as a federal enforcement attorney with the SEC, and not loving my time in the industry. Asking big questions, when I turn on the radio and hear Joan’s soulful blues voice, asking “what if God was one of us?” It stopped me in my tracks. That was 1995, and that song still has the same effect on me. It also changed the trajectory of Osborne’s career and life in ways that still affect her.

Joan was a fixture in the downtown New York music scene in the 90s. But when her debut album, RELISH, came out and One of Us took off, it exploded her into music super-stardom, led to 7 Grammy nominations, and fueled what has become a decades-long career populated by world tours, many more albums, a deepening commitment to weaving together music, advocacy, and activism, and collaborations with everyone from the Funk Brothers to Stevie Wonder, The Grateful Dead, Pavoratti, Bob Dylan and so many more. And, what’s even more amazing, Joan never expected to have a career in music. In fact, it all started as a dare from a friend at an open mic night in an East Village club while studying to be a filmmaker at NYU, a story she shared in our conversation.

When the pandemic made it impossible to tour, she took these last few years to do a little organizing around the house and, in the process, discovered a treasure trove of old recordings and demos, many from her years of live performances at radio stations, and curated them into her latest release, Radio Waves. And, to her great joy, she’s now back on the road, so be sure to check our her live performance dates and catch her on tour once again.

You can find Joan at: Listen to Radio Waves Now | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Liz Phair about her life in music.

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Anxiety, even saying the word makes me a bit anxious. But, what if there was a way to unwind it and come back to calm that was counterintuitively simple. And, what if a lot of the popular thoughts around anxiety and how to deal with it today were wrong? That’s what we’re talking about today with my guest, Dr. Jud Brewer. He’s a New York Times best-selling author, neuroscientist, addiction psychiatrist, and thought leader in the field of habit change. 

Jud is also the director of research and innovation at Brown University’s Mindfulness Center, where he serves as an associate professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences in the School of Public Health. He is the executive medical director of behavioral health at Sharecare Inc. and a research affiliate at MIT. And, he’s developed and tested novel mindfulness programs for habit change, including treatments for smoking, emotional eating, and, yes, anxiety. He is the author of Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind and The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love, Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits. 

You can find Dr. Jud at: Website | Instagram | Unwinding Anxiety App (sign up with code UNWIND40 for 40% off, before downloading the app)

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Ellen Hendriksen, PhD about social anxiety and how to handle it.

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Ever wonder why a certain sad song or even a few bars of just the right melancholy music will stop you in your tracks and maybe even move you to tears? Turns out, you’re not alone. My guest today, Susan Cain, has spent years researching why certain experiences - ones that connect us to sadness, longing, or sorrow - move us so deeply, and actually add profoundly to our lives. Susan’s first book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in A World That Can’t Stop Talking, has been translated into 40 languages, spent seven years on the New York Times bestseller list, and was named the #1 best book of the year by Fast Company magazine, which also named Susan one of the Most Creative People in Business. 

Susan and I have been friends since before she launched her quiet revolution, I’ve always appreciated her deep wisdom, generosity, kindness, and a level of introspection, curiosity, and contemplative thought that’s so rare these days. And, lucky for all of us, she’s been focusing those observational and intellectual superpowers on a topic that is so universal, and yet also so misunderstood - longing. Susan’s new masterpiece, Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole, is a powerful look at why that feeling of yearning, of bittersweetness and longing, is, in fact, not just common to every sentient being, but also necessary and a critical element of a life well-lived, and source-fuel for some of the greatest works of art, science, and creation in history. And, that is exactly what we’re diving into today.

You can find Susan at: Website | Instagram | Susan's TED Talk | Bittersweet Spotify Playlist

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Elizabeth Gilbert about longing and loss.

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• My New Book Sparked
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