Good Life Project

Priya Parker is the founder of Thrive Labs, where she helps activists, elected officials, corporate executives, educators, and philanthropists create transformational gatherings.

She works with teams and leaders across technology, business, the arts, fashion, and politics to clarify their vision for the future and build meaningful, purpose-driven communities. Her clients have included the Museum of Modern Art, LVMH, the World Economic Forum, meetup.com, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, the Union for Concerned Scientists, and Civitas Public Affairs.

Parker is the author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters. In today's conversation, we explore the power and art of gathering, how to turn a hum-drum party or dinner into a life-changing experience. We also dive into her very personal experiences with race, exclusion, activism, resolution, hard conversations and the moments that both shaped who she would become and define the path she would choose in work and life.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. 

Photo Credit Mackenzie Stroh

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From the outside-looking-in, Ryan Lee had it all.

After 6 years working in a hospital helping physically-disabled and sick kids find more joy and ease, Ryan felt the tug of entrepreneurship. So, he left the job he loved to play in the world of "internet marketing," where he quickly made a name for himself and went on to built numerous, hugely-successful companies in the health and nutrition field. Along the way, Lee married his college sweetheart and was raising four great kids. He owned a beautiful house in Connecticut, worked from cafes and loved life.

Then, everything started falling apart...

Ryan's body began to betray him to the point where he could barely walk. He'd soon learn that was just a symptom of a much larger reckoning. A wake-up call that would test his health, his business, his closest relationships and lead to a complete reboot of his wellbeing, his living and life. And, as is his pattern, scratching the itch of his own wellbeing, Ryan began to notice a serious gap in the market. This culminated in the launch of a new professional path and a new company, REWIND, that is on a mission to produce nutrition solutions that "turn back the clock," and make life better and easier, starting with the world's first "super-bar."

Ryan has been featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, on dozens of TV shows, has spoken on stages to over 100,000 people and has been called “the world’s #1 lifestyle entrepreneur” by Entrepreneur. But, what you're about to hear in today's conversation is the deeply-personal, raw and honest side of Lee's story that has never before been told in any of these outlets. A story of rising-high, crashing-hard, deep-reckoning, then realigning with a giant heart of service.

Be sure to listen to the end, where Ryan answers the question, "what are you afraid of?" His answer is powerful reset to all who aspire to big things in the world.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is your DNA your destiny? Can you swap in better "source code" to save your life, change your appearance, be smarter or more athletic? Can a mother inherit DNA from her fetus? What do you really get when you pay for inexpensive genome-testing? These questions are just part of what we cover in today's deep with acclaimed science-writer, Carl Zimmer. 

Zimmer writes the Matter column for the New York Times and contributes to The Atlantic, National Geographic, Time, and Scientific American, among others. He has won the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Science Journalism Award three times, among a host of other awards and fellowships. He teaches science writing at Yale University. His previous books include Parasite Rex, Evolution, and Microcosm.

His new book, She Has Her Mother's Laugh is a stunning, powerfully-researched, eye-opening look at the truth about heredity, DNA, what is truly in our control and the astonishing breakthroughs coming our way in just the next few years.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

Photo Credit Mistina Hanscom

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Susan Piver (http://susanpiver.com/) is the New York Times best-selling author of 9 books, a speaker, and founder of the largest virtual mindfulness community in the world, The Open Heart Project. She has been featured on Oprah, TODAY, CNN, speaks around the world and leads teachings and retreats on Buddhism, meditation, relationships and the essential practices for a life well-lived.

In her most recent book, The Four Noble Truths of Love, (https://amzn.to/2laMDxV) she offers a powerful set of tools to reimagine and better navigate long-term, loving relationships in a way that respects each person's individual truth, while making space for a living, evolving container for love.

In our podcast conversation this week, Piver shares the eye-opening revelation that brought her to the Four Noble Truths of Love, then walks us through each one. She reveals the genesis of this work, her own 20-year marriage, her struggle with attachment to "what was" and the innately human need to contain and define and preserve it. And, she shares her awakening to how trying to lock something living and breathing and changing into the confines of something simple and clean and certain can only lead to suffering, while the opposite just might lead to freedom and a deepening sense of connection.

To watch to Piver's incredible journey from Austin bartender to music industry exec to bestselling author to Shambhala meditation teacher, check out our earlier conversation here (http://www.goodlifeproject.com/video/mindfulness-serendipity-and-the-unplanned-life/).

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Artist, poet, activist and author, Cleo Wade, likes to say she has three parents, her mom, her dad and the city of New Orleans.

Wade’s new book, Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom For a Better Life, (https://amzn.to/2Ltivce) is a moving collection of poems, provocative thoughts and moments that leave you questioning the status quo and opening your heart and mind to a different set of possibilities. Her artwork includes everything from short, hand-written posts shared with her giant following on Instagram to collaborations with major brands and large-scale public art installations, including a 25-foot love poem in the skyline of the New Orleans French Quarter titled “Respect.”

In today’s episode we explore how being raised as a mixed-race kid in the famed New Orleans French Quarter by two fiercely-creative parents influenced her, how hurricane Katrina changed everything, why she moved to New York, how she walked away from a career as a rising star in fashion to rediscover and cultivate a deeper, artistic voice as a writer and artist, sharing her work online and in public spaces and leveraging her influence for social justice. Be sure to listen to the end, where Cleo reads a moving poem from her new book.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michael Pollan is the author most recently of mega New York Times bestseller, How to Change Your Mind, and of seven previous books that became global phenomena, including Cooked, Food Rules, and The Omnivore's Dilemma.

A longtime contributor to the New York Times Magazine, he also teaches writing at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley where he is the John S. and James L. Knight Professor of Science Journalism. In 2010, Time magazine named him one of the one hundred most influential people in the world.

In today's episode, we explore his lens on the writing life, then dive into his year's long investigative journey into the mysterious world of psychedelic molecules, like LSD, psilocybin (magic mushrooms), MDMA and something called "the toad." We talk about the fact, fiction, history, science and revolutionary clinical studies now underway, mostly from the lens of therapeutic outcomes.

This conversation is not a permission-slip to experiment with any of what he talks about, nor an endorsement, so please do not take it as such. Rather, it is a balanced, non-hyperbolic or sensationalized conversation about a category of substances that are now at the cutting-edge of research in the treatment of mental conditions that afflict tens of millions of people.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jen Sincero is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of You are a Badass and You are a Badass at Making Money.

But it all started from humble beginnings, playing in a band and living in a garage in Venice Beach, California, Sincero made a decision to change her life, stepping into her true identity, leading with her real, wise, funny, badass voice, and reframing her relationship with money. Money, it turned out, was not the enemy, but rather a conduit for expression and impact.

With this shift in intention and action, she set a new course and built a career as an internationally-acclaimed and massively successful writer on her own terms. Still, the story behind what it took to sell her first book, You Are a Badass (which has now sold a bajillion copies and been on the NYT list for years) is pretty amazing. We dive into that and so much more in this week's Best Of conversation.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sadie Lincoln had a powerhouse career in a global fitness company, where her husband Chris also worked. But deep down, she knew the company she was helping to grow was no longer aligned with who she was and how she wanted to contribute to the world. Her career in wellness was leaving her unwell.

So, she and Chris decided to quit their jobs, sell their home and move from the San Francisco area to Portland, Oregon, in the name of pursuing a dream. Together, they founded barre3, a whole-health movement studio and community that has now grown to more than 100 locations worldwide.

In today's episode, we explore Sadie's journey growing up in an alternative family with her mom and a small group of friends - her "aunties" - who all raised their kids together. We dive into her love of movement and creativity and teaching, her openness to following serendipity into the world of fitness, and her emerging commitment to helping women cultivate and share their voices.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rich Roll transformed his body and health, losing 50-pounds and becoming an acclaimed plant-powered ultra-endurance athlete. This led to the blockbuster book, Finding Ultra. But, behind the scenes, he was struggling with something else that would eventually bring him, once again, to his knees.

While he'd figured out his physical wellbeing, he had also awakened to the fact that his career as a lawyer was deeply unfulfilling. Married, with a wife and four kids, he left the law behind. Now, he had to figure out how to craft a new living. This led to a years-long, often brutally-hard journey that brought him within hours of losing the family home. But, together with his wife, Julie Piatt, they held to their belief that the only way was through.

That eventually led to a new vocation as an advocate, speaker, author and podcast producer focusing on healthy-living, plant-powered eating, sustainable food-systems and meaningful living. That journey is still unfolding. And, in today's conversation, we dive into the major points of reckoning, inflection and celebration. This part of his journey is also detailed in a newly updated version of Finding Ultra.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Her ninth-grade teacher changed her life, but the loss of a friend followed by time in service of Tibetan refugees in India would lead Leah Weiss to change the lives of thousands in ways she never saw coming, until they arrived.

Leah Weiss, Ph.D., MSW, is a teacher, researcher, and meditation expert at Stanford University specializing in mindfulness and compassion. She teaches a perennially waitlisted course at Stanford, Leading with Mindfulness and Compassion, and is the Principal Teacher and Trainer for Stanford’s Compassion Cultivation Training program, founded by the Dalai Lama. She is also the author of How We Work (https://amzn.to/2jxpULU), and a women's rights advocate who strives to bring actionable methods for difficult work situations to women at all levels.

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Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.

If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.