On the 26th episode of the "What is a Good Life?" podcast, I am joined by Angela Kirwin, who is a Writer, Speaker, Campaigner, former Social Care Worker, and author of the acclaimed book "Criminal: How Our Prisons Are Failing Us All"

In this episode, Angela shares with us her journey towards experiencing greater comfort in her own skin. From mainly focussing on hitting big goals to observing what actually makes her feel content (community and a common purpose), and from realising it was less about changing herself but returning to who she was. 

We discuss her process of observing, understanding, and accepting her experience with ADHD through therapy, as well as the life lessons around vulnerability and authenticity she witnessed from men’s groups she facilitated in prison. While she also highlights the importance of appreciating the nuance and complexity of others in order to afford ourselves more compassion.

If you are presently being hard on yourself, experiencing negative self-talk, or you feel like you are on a constant treadmill to earn your own self-acceptance, this episode will give you plenty to contemplate, as well as providing a number of paths and perspectives to cultivate greater empathy for yourself. 

Subscribe for weekly episodes, every Tuesday, and check out my YouTube channel (link below) for daily clips and reflections.

Contact me at [email protected] to book a free 30 minute consultation for one-on-one coaching programs or to hear about corporate workshops I am offering around this question.

Running Order:

01:38 Podcast begins

02:13 How does change happen, societally, culturally, and individually?

05:10 Comfort in my own skin

08:08 Community and Purpose

13:18 How much are we in control of change?

17:23 Change or returning to who you were?

22:06 Inspiration from vulnerability of men in prison

29:52 Lack of honesty with ourselves and others

34:00 Journey with ADHD

39:38 Inspiration for writing books

45:56 Appreciating the nuance of other people’s lives

51:37 The power of openness, honesty, and a willingness to listen

59:38 What is a good life for Angela?

For further content and information check out the following: 

- For the podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos

- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/

- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/

- Angela's newsletter and podcast: https://hyperactiveliving.substack.com/

- Angela's book: https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Angela-Kirwin/dp/1398705837

On the 25th episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast, I am joined by Jamie Crawford, a former CEO and leader of multiple media brands in Ireland who was diagnosed with MS at 32. After his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, together they created The Good Glow, a wellness company, with a hugely popular podcast and number one best selling book, Glow, to inspire people to live fulfilled and healthier lives.

In this episode, Jamie takes us through discovering he had MS and what he felt contributed to this diagnosis. He also shares the series of adversities he faced in only a few years after the MS diagnosis, losing his father to cancer, and his wife being diagnosed with breast cancer several months after giving birth.

We explore our sometimes unhealthy capacity to compartmentalise our struggles and how it generally exacerbates our problems. While Jaime shares how he is grateful for his experiences and what they have taught him in terms of resilience, the changes he has made to his life, and for ultimately becoming more aware of what matters most to him in life - moments & time with his family and helping others.

Whether you are struggling with something presently in your life, facing adversity, or are finding it difficult to share your problems with others, this episode will provide you with plenty of inspiration, encouragement, and new perspectives, while providing numerous reminders of what truly matters in life. Jamie’s story is a great example of the obstacle becoming the way.

Subscribe for weekly episodes, every Tuesday, and check out my YouTube channel (link below) for daily clips and reflections.

Contact me at [email protected] to book a free 30 minute consultation for one-on-one coaching programs or to hear about corporate workshops I am offering around this question.

Running Order:

01:50 Podcast begins

02:35 How can I help?

05:55 Life is a series of mountains and valleys

09:05 Developing resilience

11:10 Stress and MS

13:15 The source of ambition

15:43 Early signs of MS

21:40 Denial and doubling down on effort

25:35 Compartmentalising our problems

32:00 Opening up about vulnerabilities and MS

38:37 Self-discovery, curiosity and nature

41:40 Being a father and the simple things

45:26 Turning focus to helping others

51:05 What is a good life for Jamie?

For further content and information check out the following: 

- For the podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos

- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/

- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/

- Jaime's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-crawford-ba2b3b5/

- The Good Glow website: https://www.thegoodglow.ie/

On the 24th episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast, I am joined by Robbie Stamp, who is the is CEO of BIOSS International, a Senior Fellow at the Resilience and Sustainable Development Programme at Cambridge University, Chairman of HappenedHere, and was an Executive Producer on the Hitchhikers’s Guide to the Galaxy feature film.

In this episode, we discuss the quality and significance of paying attention, cultivating compassion for ourselves and others, becoming ok with not knowing, appreciating all phenomenological and conscious experiences, the mirror AI holds up to us and the limitations AI will have in accounting for all human experience, and how there will always be a tension between creative and destructive behaviour, both internally and collectively.

This episode will help you appreciate the messiness of being human and yourself, feel more comfortable with the uncertainty and paradoxes of life, exhibit more compassion for us all while striving to improve, and to cultivate some humility around the limitations of your own knowledge and perspective.

Subscribe for weekly episodes, every Tuesday, and check out my YouTube channel (link below) for daily clips and reflections.

Contact me at [email protected] to book a free 30 minute consultation for one-on-one coaching programs or to hear about corporate workshops I am offering around this question.

Running Order:

01:31 Podcast begins

02:06 Paying attention

06:51 Compassion for the messiness of human beings

10:14 The paradox of needing to be hard and kind to yourself

17:29 Becoming ok with not knowing

21:32 Getting comfortable with uncertainty

28:19 AI and the mirror it holds up to us

33:11 What AI cannot capture

38:13 The significance of all conscious experiences

44:31 Suspending our labels and perspectives

48:08 How do we create better civil discourse

51:21 Burdening ourselves with ideas of Utopia

54:56 Paradox of humility

57:36 What is a good life for Robbie?

For further content and information check out the following: 

- For the podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos

- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/

- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/

- Robbie's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbie-stamp-70254/

On the 23rd episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast, I am joined by Robyn O’Brien, who is on the Forbes’ Impact 50 List for her work at the intersection of food and climate, the best-selling author of The Unhealthy Truth, the Founder at Sirona Ventures - providing impact capital, advisory and consulting services, and an Adjunct Professor at Rice Business. 

In this episode, Robyn shares moments of adversity from her journey of confronting the food industry in America over the use of chemicals in the food supply after her own child experienced an allergic reaction. She discuss the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people, not numbing ourselves to pain, paying attention to moments in our lives where our calling can be revealed, and then having the courage to follow it. 

This episode provides plenty of inspiration as to where this life can take us when we decide to act in the face of sizeable challenges, appreciate the lessons or clues that adversity provides, and how a life of service and collaboration can help us overcome many obstacles.

Subscribe for weekly episodes, every Tuesday, and check out my YouTube channel (link below) for daily clips and reflections.

Contact me at [email protected] to book a free 30 minute consultation for one-on-one coaching programs or to hear about corporate workshops I am offering around this question.

Running Order:

01:30 Podcast begins

03:45 Surrounding yourself with the right people

06:30 Being in service and alignment

10:40 Paying attention 

12:30 Staying open to pain as a teacher

15:20 Challenges in confronting the food industry

21:05 The importance of having the right people around

23:57 I’m grateful that I know my purpose

30:00 Everything and everyone is either nourishing or extracting

32:30 A movement with collaboration not ego

36:30 Making a breakthrough with a TED talk

41:52 Curiosity in finding solutions

45:34 The significance of people having our backs

48:18 Courage can be in the smallest steps

50:37 What is a good life for Robyn?

For further content and information check out the following: 

- For the podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos

- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/

- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/

- Robyn's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robyn-o-brien-a395b42/

On the 22nd episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast, I am joined by Craig Slee, who is a disabled writer, consultant, and theorist dealing with mythology, magic, culture, and exploring life through the lens of landscape, disability, and fugitive embodiments. He has contributed essays and poetry focusing on the numinous and disability to various anthologies and has also co-facilitated seminar series at the Dresden Academy for Fine Arts, including one on Ableism and the Arts in 2022.

In this episode, Craig takes us on a journey from burning out from trying to be “normal,” living with a life-long disability, exploring other ways of being and existing, developing a deeper awareness regarding the subtleties of life, pain, and suffering, and ultimately to discovering vitality and aliveness in living his own good life.

There is plenty to take from this episode in terms of guiding you to pay attention, developing a more subtle awareness, and the significance in our inquiries of sensing the world without labelling it, and what all this may lead to in terms of finding other ways of existing.

Subscribe for weekly episodes, every Tuesday, and check out my YouTube channel (link below) for daily clips and reflections.

Contact me at [email protected] to book a free 30 minute consultation for one-on-one coaching programs or to hear about corporate workshops I am offering around this question.

Running Order:

02:00 What is going on that we don’t notice?

03:34 Burning out striving for "normal"

07:37 What we don’t notice outside of the “norm”

12:58 Cultivating a deeper awareness of pain / Sensing not interpreting or labelling the world

17:40 Subtleties in awareness alters relationship with pain

21:19 When the general narrative of illness and recovery doesn’t apply

26:57 Disability doesn’t have to be suffering

32:59 Exploring other ways of existing and consciousness

38:49 What is truly internal and external?

41:09 The role of magic / “the occult” - the hidden experience of knowing

47:55 There are multiple ways of knowing and experiencing the world

50:20 Burning out with trying to be normal

54:59 Shifting experiences and behaviours with self-investigation

57:55 Vitality, aliveness, and not knowing

1:01:22 What is a good life for Craig?

For further content and information check out the following: 

- For the podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos

- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/

- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/

On the 21st episode of the "What is a Good Life?" podcast, I am joined by Katrijn van Oudheusden, who is the author of "Selfless Leadership," a writer, coach, and guide. Her work focuses on helping you see through the illusion of the separate self.

In this episode, Katrijn takes us on an exploration and investigation of the paradigm of the separate self. She references neuroscience, physics, and the traditions of Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, etc., which have been saying for centuries that there is no separate self.

Katrijn shares her own path in coming to this realisation and how this awareness leads to a life of freedom, where everything has meaning, and where one doesn't take things so personally or feel small and disconnected.

I found this conversation to be captivating, challenging, and enlivening. Regardless of the beliefs you hold, this episode will be a valuable tool in your own investigation of reality and what a good life means to you.

Subscribe for weekly episodes, every Tuesday, and check out my YouTube channel (link below) for daily clips and reflections.

Contact me at [email protected] to book a free 30 minute consultation for one-on-one coaching programs or to hear about corporate workshops I am offering around this question.

Running Order: 

01:25 The podcast begins

02:35 What is the separate self?

09:37 Duality of experience while knowing there’s no separate self

12:25 Free Will - where is the decider or the doer?

17:33 The paradox of personal consciousness

21:40 Everything has meaning

27:16 Personal path to seeing though the separate illusion

31:57 There is only this experience - you are everything

36:13 Life is no longer so personal - it simply occurs

41:57 Attachments to wonder, judgement, awe and labels

45:39 The mind’s role in separateness

51:07 Keep making plans but know we are pretending

57:11 What is a good life for Katrijn?

For further content and information check out the following: 

- For the podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos

- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/

- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/

- Katrijn's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrijnvo/

- Katrijn's website: https://selflessleadership.life/

On the 20th episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast I am joined by Pejman (PJ) Milani, who is the Content Creator at Milani Creative and the Media Arts Director, and a Teacher, at Episcopal High School.

I follow PJ's daily content (@milanicreative) where he shares visual metaphors that simplify complex ideas, so I was intrigued to hear his thoughts on this question and the role creativity plays within that.

In this episode we discuss the significance of creativity in terms of fulfilment, flow, connection, empathy, and self-expression. PJ also outlines how a daily creative practice enables us to handle ambiguity and develops greater problem solving capacities.

While he takes us through his journey and motivation for all of his work - inspiring more people to a life of creativity, that leads to a more connected and creative world.

If you don’t presently have a regular creative practice in your life, this episode will give you plenty to ponder, while for those that do, it will give you further inspiration to maintain and deepen that practice.

Subscribe for weekly episodes, every Tuesday, and check out my YouTube channel (link below) for daily clips and reflections.

Contact me at [email protected] to book a free 30 minute consultation for one-on-one coaching programs or to hear about corporate workshops I am offering around this question.

Running Order: 

01:27 Podcast Begins

01:56 Navigating the tension between ambition and contentment

05:26 Overcoming resistance

11:20 Taking your vessel out to sea

14:51 Finding Balance

17:48 Avoiding an autopilot existence

21:44 The importance of a daily creative practice 

28:26 Life is not a journey

31:26 If we could all just be a little more creative…

35:26 Colouring outside of the lines

39:09 Creativity and empathy

43:56 Creativity is good for the soul

47:11 Thought, action, and experimenting

50:37 Top tip for more creativity in your life 

55:11 The beauty of creating just for ourselves

58:25 What is a good life for PJ?

For further content and information check out the following: 

- For the podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos

- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/

- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/

- PJ's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pejmanmilani/

- PJ's instagram: https://www.instagram.com/milanicreative/

On the 19th episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast I am joined by Dan Lawrence, who is Head of Consultancy at Dallington Associates, a Jungian Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist, and a Social Dreaming Consultant.

In this episode Dan takes us on a journey from questioning where thoughts come from as a child, to his investigations and work around dreams and social dreaming. While he also shares what he has learnt from his Zen practice, silent meditation retreats, mat surfing, and his recent intensive care unit experience in Malaysia. 

Dan’s life path to date includes being a Derivatives Trader for a decade, studying Theology, briefly considering priesthood, becoming a Jungian psychotherapist, offering Psychedelic integration therapy, all while practicing Zen for 25 years. 

His unique life experiences and perspectives make him one of the most insightful people I know. Through listening to this episode I am sure you’ll widen the scope of your investigation, and awareness, in contemplating what contributes to your own good life.

Subscribe for weekly episodes, every Tuesday, and check out my YouTube channel (link below) for daily clips and reflections.

Contact me at [email protected] to book a free 30 minute consultation for one-on-one coaching programs or to hear about corporate workshops I am offering around this question.

Running Order: 

01:40 Podcast begins

02:00 where do thoughts come from?

04:15 The nature of dreams

09:10 Social Dreaming

12:50 Waking and sleeping dreams

16:37 Infant Observation

21:40 A Social Unconscious

25:20 Another language

31:15 Facilitating mobility and spaciousness

35:26 Importance of dreaming in understanding

40:47 The trouble with dismissing dreams

43:55 The compensatory nature of dream

46:48 Not knowing is most intimate

50:07 An intensive care unit experience

56:32 Connection with aliveness

1:01:25 Can you handle joy and awe

1:06:15 What is a good life for Dan?

For further content and information check out the following: 

- For the podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos

- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/

- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/

- Dan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-lawrence-1537271b/

- Dan's company website: https://www.theunthoughtknown.com/

On the 18th episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast I am joined by Hannah Genton, who is a Co-Founder at CGL LLP, a law firm she established, a speaker on Innovation in the Law and Work Models for Mental Health, and a Death Doula.

I contacted Hannah for this conversation after reading an amazing viral post of hers that very authentically depicted the challenge of juggling the big law career and raising a baby. This experience proved to be the inspiration for setting up a law firm that accommodated other approaches to working in this industry (“I had the sense that work should adapt to life, not the other way around”- from the post).

In this episode we discuss Hannah’s approach to developing authenticity and truly living her values, setting up the law firm, her self-reflection practices and how they have affected her approach to life, her experiences of working with the dying, and what she is learning from parenting with regards play, curiosity, and letting go of fixed plans and outcomes.

Hannah provides a great example of someone consciously constructing their life around their values, so I took a lot from this conversation as I am sure you will too.

Subscribe for weekly episodes, every Tuesday, and check out my YouTube channel (link below) for daily clips and reflections.

Running Order:

01:37 Podcast begins

02:35 How can I be authentically me?

05:52 Setting up her own law firm

09:51 The feeling of aligning with values

13:07 When your values are clear decisions are easy

14:20 Journey of self-reflection

18:51 Experiencing death early in life and working with the dying

22:04 Common threads of conversations with the dying

25:53 Finding meaning

28:35 The importance of curiosity in relating to people

32:25 Journey with Authenticity

36:02 Fun and creativity

42:02 Lessons from kids and curiosity

46:30 What is a good life for Hannah?

For further content and information check out the following: 

- For the podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos

- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/

- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/

- Hannah's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahgenton/

- Hannah's company website: https://cgl-llp.com/

On the 17th episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast I am joined by Bayo Akomolafe, who is a widely celebrated international speaker, posthumanist thinker, poet, professor, public intellectual, essayist, and author. 

Bayo is the Founder of The Emergence Network, he currently lectures at Pacifica Graduate Institute, California, and the University of Vermont, and was appointed the inaugural Global Senior Fellow of the University of California’s (Berkeley) Othering and Belonging Institute. He has also been appointed Senior Fellow for The New Institute in Hamburg, Germany.

In this episode, Bayo shares with us his journey of moving beyond the confines of final statements, final destinations, and boundaries, to an ongoing emergence, or flow. This conversation delves into the abstract, the philosophical, and the practical, as well as Bayo’s personal experiences of what his son with Autism is teaching him about wisdom.

We discuss the importance of cultivating bewilderment, wonder and inquiry, and disrupting the logic of continuity, for new ideas and solutions to emerge - to break the cycle of problems and solutions feeding each other. This episode will challenge your thinking and perhaps inspire you to new ways of problem solving and understanding, while it may also require you to listen with more than your ears and your mind.

Subscribe for weekly episodes, every Tuesday, and check out my YouTube channel (link below) for daily clips and reflections.

Running Order: 

01:44 Podcast begins

02:42 Is there pain in Heaven?

05:12 Is there another colour?

08:02 A problem with a "perfect" city

12:44 Creating the space for observing the emergent

17:13 The role of the monster / questioning stability

21:36 Holding fixed views when everything is in flux

23:29 There isn’t an originary point to return to

31:44 His son becomes his teacher and coach

40:14 Shifting perspectives to navigate the world

42:59 Communicating from a different dimension of thought

45:39 Rejecting walls

49:17 What’s more than a solution?

55:04 What’s required beyond information?

59:09 What is a good life for Bayo?

For further content and information check out the following: 

- For the podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos

- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/

- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/

- Bayo's Website: https://www.emergencenetwork.org/

- Bayo's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bayoakomolafe/