This is Episode 32 of the Life Well Lived Podcast. 

Most of the episodes of this podcast so far have been broadly about self-awareness, self-exploration and self-improvement. 

A big part of the motivation for the show is to offer help or guidance for individuals to explore and express their individuality, so that they can live each day in a way that’s aligned and purposeful, which over time can add up to a fulfilled and happy life. 

There is a meme that goes around the Internet and it says:
 “Happiness is an inside job.”

The way we think about things has an outsized impact on our happiness both in the micro moment and in the macro long-term too.

But equally, there is lots about living a happy life that is outside our own individual control.

So this podcast will include some more episodes and interviews about bigger issues affecting humanity as a whole, such as universal basic income, agriculture and food sources, and the biggest issue of them all, climate change.

This episode of the podcast is the first step in that direction.

My guest in this episode is Professor Carlos Moreno. 

Carlos is a professor in IT at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France. He was born in Colombia and moved to France when he was 20, and for the past four decades he has been leading research that is certain to deliver tangible benefits for people all over the world in the years and decades to come. A key specialism for Prof Moreno is intelligent control of complex systems, and to that end he has dedicated much of his work towards the concept of Living Cities or Smart Cities, and in recent years has developed the concept of “the 15-minute city”, which he speaks about at length in this episode.

As a result of his work in research and education, Prof Moreno was awarded the rank of Chevalier of the Order of the Legion of Honour in Paris, one of France’s highest accolades, in 2010

One final thing to note before the interview.

Prof Moreno is from Colombia and has lived in France for approximately 40 years. English is perhaps his third or fourth language, and while he is fluent and delivers some exceptional answers here, if you have any problems understanding his accent, I have made this full podcast available as a written transcription too.

To access that free download,visit www.shanebreslin.com/32 where you will find a PDF download. I promise you that it will add greatly to the enjoyment and learning you will get from this episode.

In this show, we discuss:

• The concept of the 15-Minute City
• American Jane Jacobs and living cities
• Edgar Morin and theories of complexity
• The South American writers and the theory of "topophilia", or the love of place
• The rise of the "zombie geek" and technology-driven disconnection of people and place
• Why it's so important to get this right, in the context of wider social unrest during the Covid-19 pandemic
• Some examples of cities around the world which are making great progress in their approach to urban planning

This is Episode 32 of the Life Well Lived Podcast. 

Most of the episodes of this podcast so far have been broadly about self-awareness, self-exploration and self-improvement. 

A big part of the motivation for the show is to offer help or guidance for individuals to explore and express their individuality, so that they can live each day in a way that’s aligned and purposeful, which over time can add up to a fulfilled and happy life. 

There is a meme that goes around the Internet and it says:
 “Happiness is an inside job.”

The way we think about things has an outsized impact on our happiness both in the micro moment and in the macro long-term too.

But equally, there is lots about living a happy life that is outside our own individual control.

So this podcast will include some more episodes and interviews about bigger issues affecting humanity as a whole, such as universal basic income, agriculture and food sources, and the biggest issue of them all, climate change.

This episode of the podcast is the first step in that direction.

My guest in this episode is Professor Carlos Moreno. 

Carlos is a professor in IT at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France. He was born in Colombia and moved to France when he was 20, and for the past four decades he has been leading research that is certain to deliver tangible benefits for people all over the world in the years and decades to come. A key specialism for Prof Moreno is intelligent control of complex systems, and to that end he has dedicated much of his work towards the concept of Living Cities or Smart Cities, and in recent years has developed the concept of “the 15-minute city”, which he speaks about at length in this episode.

As a result of his work in research and education, Prof Moreno was awarded the rank of Chevalier of the Order of the Legion of Honour in Paris, one of France’s highest accolades, in 2010

One final thing to note before the interview.

Prof Moreno is from Colombia and has lived in France for approximately 40 years. English is perhaps his third or fourth language, and while he is fluent and delivers some exceptional answers here, if you have any problems understanding his accent, I have made this full podcast available as a written transcription too.

To access that free download,visit www.shanebreslin.com/32 where you will find a PDF download. I promise you that it will add greatly to the enjoyment and learning you will get from this episode.

In this show, we discuss:

• The concept of the 15-Minute City
• American Jane Jacobs and living cities
• Edgar Morin and theories of complexity
• The South American writers and the theory of "topophilia", or the love of place
• The rise of the "zombie geek" and technology-driven disconnection of people and place
• Why it's so important to get this right, in the context of wider social unrest during the Covid-19 pandemic
• Some examples of cities around the world which are making great progress in their approach to urban planning

Time stamps

• 4:00: First two weeks of separation
• 8:00: Six years old, and the knock on the door. Everyone afraid to ask a question
• 11:30: Young mothers forcibly separated from their children
• 14:00: How Tony felt different. Questions of identity
• 16:30: Fear of not fitting in, fear of rejection and fear of the religious orders
• 23:00: Alcohol and its impact on his life and relationships
• 36:00: What the recovery journey looks like
• 39:00: The phone call that saved his life
• 42:30: Finding and facing up to the root of the problem
• 49:00: The six words that can change your life╝
• 57:00: Trying to trace and contact with birth mother
• 1:02:00: Why closure is not possible
• 1:04:00: Psychotherapy and helping people beyond addiction
• 1:08:00: Two books Tony recommends

For more on Tony Dunne’s practice, visit the Tony’s Therapy and Counselling website here.

Watch Tony’s TEDx talk, “The Journey of an Adoptee” here

Time stamps

• 4:00: First two weeks of separation
• 8:00: Six years old, and the knock on the door. Everyone afraid to ask a question
• 11:30: Young mothers forcibly separated from their children
• 14:00: How Tony felt different. Questions of identity
• 16:30: Fear of not fitting in, fear of rejection and fear of the religious orders
• 23:00: Alcohol and its impact on his life and relationships
• 36:00: What the recovery journey looks like
• 39:00: The phone call that saved his life
• 42:30: Finding and facing up to the root of the problem
• 49:00: The six words that can change your life╝
• 57:00: Trying to trace and contact with birth mother
• 1:02:00: Why closure is not possible
• 1:04:00: Psychotherapy and helping people beyond addiction
• 1:08:00: Two books Tony recommends

For more on Tony Dunne’s practice, visit the Tony’s Therapy and Counselling website here.

Watch Tony’s TEDx talk, “The Journey of an Adoptee” here

The guest on this episode of the show is William Sieghart of The Poetry Pharmacy.

William Sieghart has made a phenomenal contribution to the arts and particularly poetry during a career spanning more than three decades.

He is the founder of the Forward Prize for Poetry and National Poetry Day, both of which have been running successfully since the 1990s. More recently he has established the Poetry Pharmacy

We talk about poetry as therapy and solace for a whole range of things, including the coronavirus / Covid-19 pandemic, as well as many other things, such as anxiety, loneliness and fear.

I'm a big believer in poems as a form of prayer for a restless mind, and when I discovered the work of The Poetry Pharmacy, I thought that William would be a perfect person to speak to right now.

The guest on this episode of the show is William Sieghart of The Poetry Pharmacy.

William Sieghart has made a phenomenal contribution to the arts and particularly poetry during a career spanning more than three decades.

He is the founder of the Forward Prize for Poetry and National Poetry Day, both of which have been running successfully since the 1990s. More recently he has established the Poetry Pharmacy

We talk about poetry as therapy and solace for a whole range of things, including the coronavirus / Covid-19 pandemic, as well as many other things, such as anxiety, loneliness and fear.

I'm a big believer in poems as a form of prayer for a restless mind, and when I discovered the work of The Poetry Pharmacy, I thought that William would be a perfect person to speak to right now.

Show Notes - Peter Beckenham Life Well Lived Podcast Interview 

I first got to know Peter a couple of years ago when I saw what he was up to on Facebook.

Here was a man who was using technology and social media in a way that put many people many decades younger than him to shame.

Peter is a sales coach who lives in a small village in the east of Thailand, not far from the Cambodian border, and from there he runs a business that serves business-owners and entrepreneurs all over the world.

As so many people get to grips with the new reality that is dawning all over the world, with the coronavirus pandemic and the economic fallout from that tipping the global economy into an instant recession and forcing tens of millions of people to re-evaluate their lives and careers, I thought it would be great to have a chat with someone who has seen so much in his lifetime — Peter is 75 this year — and is still busy, active and productive running a single-person global business from deepest south east Asia.

I really admire everything that Peter’s about. We worked together for a spell early last year and he gave me a new perspective on business, and especially on sales.

I hope you enjoy this conversation, which I really believe will be helpful to a lot of people who may now, following job losses and shuttered businesses on every continent, find themselves propelled into the role of reluctant business owner trying to find their way.

So without further ado from me, over to this week’s interview with the global sales coach, and someone who is a living embodiment of the philosophy of serving instead of selling and problem-solving instead of pitching, Peter Beckenham.

Time stamps:

• 04:00: How Peter went from the education system to insurance sales more than 50 years ago
• 10:00: Translating the best of education skills to a sales environment: The Four C’s and the Four E’s
• 20:00: The biggest problem with sales
• 25:00: How to have a sales conversation with love, care and transparency (and without selling)
• 30:00: The importance of believing fully in yourself, and how we might build self-belief
• 35:00: How to use social media marketing for your business, anywhere in the world (and without spending a penny on paid advertising!)
• 40:00: How to repurpose content for every platform, quickly and easily
• 42:00: Why video is so powerful for finding customers for your business
• 43:30: The first thing people might do to start a new business in the world after coronavirus
• 48:00: The fear of financials: How to set prices and get paid (without offering discounts)
• 52:00: Why Peter keeps going, at 75 years old and following his own serious health challenges

Welcome to Episode 28 of the Life Well Lived podcast.

My guest on this episode is Tom French, who has published six collections of poetry, from Touching the Bones in 2001 to his most recent collection, the Sea Field, which is published by Gallery Press just a few days after this podcast goes live. 

Tom is based in County Meath, Ireland, where I live, and he’s someone who I’m happy to say I’ve got to know a little on a personal level over the past few years, and got to know and love much of his poetry. 

I was interested in speaking to Tom against the backdrop of the current coronavirus pandemic which is sweeping the globe, and which has seen so many people, right across the Internet, resort to the words of poets and poetry for some hope, reassurance and solace.

We talk about the strange new isolated normality all of us are trying to get used to in our pandemic times, about how art and artists can respond, about how we might deal with our new awareness of mortality and death, and about how sport — both as participant and spectator — can offer its own art and poetry, and one that we miss sorely in an age of general quarantine.

During this episode Tom reads a number of his own poems, and some of his favourite poems — or secular prayers — by other poets. I hope you enjoy this episode of the Life Well Lived podcast, and if you do, it would be greatly appreciated if you could either leave a review on Apple Podcasts, which helps to get this show to more listeners, or take a screenshot of this episode and share it on your whatever social media platform you prefer.

Time stamps:

• 03:00: How poets and poetry can respond to times of collective challenge.
• 12:00: A reading of Tom’s poem, “The Dry Spell”, from his new collection, The Sea Field
• 20:00: Some poems of reassurance for challenging times (Francis Harvey's “Blessings”, and Mary Oliver's “Wild Geese”)
• 29:00: Perspectives on death and mortality, and Tom reads his poem, “Touching the Bones”
• 34:00: Where writing comes from: The technique, the practice, and the mystery
• 39:00: The art and poetry of sport, as participant and spectator, and a reading of two of Tom’s poems which relate to sport, “Cork v Galway, August 1983”, a snapshot which melds two memorable moments from the game of hurling, and “A Pieta”, a sonnet on the passing of the legendary Cork hurler Christy Ring

For more on the work of Tom French, visit the Gallery Press website here.