How much would you pay to save a life?

In this episode, I’m joined by Sjir Hoeijmakers, CEO of Giving What We Can — the non-profit behind the 10% Pledge, a growing global movement to help people give more effectively.

We explore how thoughtful giving can enrich your life, deepen relationships, and empower you to make a real difference. Sjir shares practical tips for making giving easier and more impactful — and we also talk about ways to contribute beyond donating money.

Whether you’re curious about how you can do good through giving or already on the effective giving path path, there’s plenty to take away. Enjoy!

Resources

Websites:

• Giving What We Can — building a global community of people who care about doing what they can to help others, especially through the 10% Pledge

• Effective Altruism — a movement based on evidence and reason to identify the most effective ways to help others, and act on those findings

• School for Moral Ambition — a growing global movement helping as many people as possible take the step towards a job with a positive impact

• 80,000 Hours — helping people find fulfilling careers that make a big positive impact on the world’s most pressing problems

• Ambitious Impact (AIM) — a platform providing exceptional people with the training, funding, and research to improve lives at scale, through four programs:

  • Charity Entrepreneurship — start a new high-impact charity

  • Founding to Give — launch a high-growth company to donate to high-impact charities

  • Grantmaking — increase the impact of your philanthropic giving

  • Research — equip participants to research and recommend the most effective charities

Books:

• The Life You Can Save — Peter Singer

• Doing Good Better — William MacAskill

• Moral Ambition — Rutger Bregman

• Humankind: A Hopeful History — Rutger Bregman

Is our obsession with chasing pleasure putting our well-being — and our chance to live meaningfully — at risk?

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr Bhuvan Awasthi, a cognitive neuroscientist and global leader in the science-policy-diplomacy space. Currently a Senior Behavioural Scientist with the Canadian Government, Bhuvan’s work draws on insights from neuroscience, emotion, and decision-making research.

Named Australia’s Neuroscientist of the Year for his outreach work, Bhuvan brings fascinating behavioural insights to help us better understand ourselves. Together, we unpack the difference between pleasure and well-being, where meaning fits in, and practical ways to help us make better decisions and live more meaningfully. 

Resources: 

• The Dunedin Study: https://dunedinstudy.otago.ac.nz/ 

• A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3041102/ 

Further reading on the relationship between self-control and well-being:  

• Unraveling the Relationship Between Trait Self-Control and Subjective Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Four Self-Control Strategies: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00706/full 

• High Self-Control Individuals Prefer Meaning Over Pleasure: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/19485506251323948 

• See also a media write up on the above study: https://www.psypost.org/people-with-high-self-control-prefer-meaning-over-pleasure-study-finds/ 

In this episode, I’m joined by the wonderful David Bradbury, a seasoned chaplain who has spent decades walking alongside people — through everyday struggles at work and life’s big, existential questions around purpose, faith, and meaning.

Together, we explore the essence of spirituality beyond religion — and why so many of us in the West feel spiritually hungry, yearning for deeper connection in a world that can feel increasingly lonely and disconnected. David offers gentle wisdom and practical ways to cultivate a richer spiritual life, even if you don’t consider yourself religious or particularly spiritual.

We talk about the importance of curiosity, community, and making space for meaningful connection — not just in milestone moments, but in the quiet, everyday ones too.

From reflections on the nature of God (or ‘the Other’) and our deep interconnectedness, to the power of silence, presence, and truly listening, this conversation invites you to slow down, breathe, and go inward. Because sometimes, connection begins with something small and unassuming — like watching the sunrise or simply sharing a quiet moment.

Should we bring intergenerational living back?

In this episode, I'm joined by two remarkable Indigenous Australians, Paul Ah Chee and Jessica Johannsen — custodians of the world's oldest continuous culture, with more than 65,000 years of caring for country.

Paul is a singer-songwriter and respected community leader whose career spans sport, arts, tourism, and business. His daughter, Jessica — a great friend of mine from school — is a general practitioner at the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, a primary healthcare service for Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory in outback Australia.

Both are leaders in their respective professions in their home of Mparntwe (Alice Springs).

Together, we yarn about Indigenous perspectives on living a meaningful life — exploring kinship, the deep ties between Country, spirituality, and responsibility, and the power of intergenerational care and learning.

While no single conversation can do full justice to the richness of Indigenous wisdom, this one begins to open the door to a more grounded and connected way of being.

In this episode, I sit down with Margaret Hamley to explore the power of storytelling in shaping who we are and how we make sense of the world — not just as a tool for reflection, but as a way to understand and reshape how we see ourselves and others. 

We delve into narrative therapy, which centres people as the experts in their own lives, and explores how the stories we tell ourselves — and the ones told about us — influence our identity, relationships, and emotional wellbeing. Together, we unpack the core principles of narrative therapy, especially the concept of externalisation: that we are not our problems. Reclaiming or rewriting our stories, we discover, can help us realise that we are multi-storied — and move beyond judgement and expectations that are often misplaced. 

We also explore the transformative impact of listening with deep curiosity, and of asking questions you don’t already know the answers to  —  questions like “What is your superpower?” or “What are you most proud of?”. These can open space to challenge the self-limiting narratives we carry. 

This episode is an invitation to reflect on the stories we tell ourselves and our loved ones— and a reminder that they are not fixed. With intention, they can be re-authored.

Resources

Curious to learn more about narrative therapy? Check out the Dulwich Centre — a gateway to narrative therapy and community work.

We also briefly touched on the concept of the Becky Brain, coined by Mo Gawdat, as a way to understand your thoughts as separate from your sense of self. You can hear more about it ⁠here⁠.

In our very first episode, I’m delighted to be joined by Isabel Doraisamy to explore the idea of social health — how our relationships shape our wellbeing and sense of meaning.

We dive into the power of meaningful connections, the importance of community, the experience of loneliness, and the complexity of our social identities.

Isabel shares thoughtful insights on navigating conflict, nurturing real connection, and being more intentional in how we show up for each other.

Isabel also offers simple, practical tips for cultivating meaningful relationships and making space for quality time with the people who matter most.

We touch on a few gems you might want to check out:

• Robert Waldinger’s TED Talk — What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness

• Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones on Netflix
• Isabel’s Instagram @oursocialhealth — full of thoughtful stories, tips, and quotes on connection, friendship, and wellbeing.

Start here to discover what Matters of Meaning is all about.
In this short teaser, host Olivia Hicks introduces Matters of Meaning — a podcast that explores the big, bold questions: What makes life meaningful? And why does that matter?

Each episode features conversations with people who are rethinking what truly matters — through their work, creativity, or the way they live. This isn’t about perfect answers — it’s about the inquiry.

If you’ve ever paused to ask, “Is this it?” or “What really matters to me?” — you’re in the right place.