Good Life Project || Inspiration | Motivation | Happiness | Meaning | Success

For generations, when it came to your brain, we pretty much assumed that once you reach adulthood, it pretty much is what it is. That meant you couldn’t get smarter or faster or wittier or optimize it to perform at a higher level and, on the other side, if you suffered an injury, there was very little you could do to help your brain recover or even rewire itself to function at a higher level again. Turns out, much of that was wrong, and my guest today, Dr. Ryan D’Arcy, is an acclaimed neuroscientist and entrepreneur who is at the leading edge of this awakening. The co-founder, President, and Chief Scientific Officer of HealthTech Connex a brain health technology company, he also holds Professorship appointments at Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia, where he serves as a BC Leadership Chair in neuroimaging and neurotechnology. He has published more than 260 academic works, and led major scientific advances include the discovery of white matter activation in functional MRI, the

Question, when was the last time you made a really good new friend, as a grown-up? Like the kind that actually knows you, not just online, but the real you? Turns out, it’s not actually so easy to create those kinds of friendships. But it is critically important to our ability to live good lives, especially during challenging times.My guest today, Kat Vellos, is here to help, She earns her living as a UX designer, which means Kat figures out how to make experiences as easy and organic as humanly possible to step into. She’s applied her unique genius to everything from giant apps, platforms and technology like Slack and Pandora on a mass-scale, to local, face-to-face gatherings, community-building, and most recently to examining and tackling the quest to form deep friendships as a design problem. She goes deep into her journey of discovery in her wonderful book, We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships, which I loved and learned so much from.Kat has been featured in Forbes and FastC

What if your work could make you come alive? What if it could fill you with meaning, purpose, and excitement like you're fully accessing and expressing all parts of yourself and stepping into your fullest potential? Like you're doing the thing you're here to do. We call this state being "sparked." The first step isn't about big, painful or disruptive change. It's about knowing yourself better, discovering your unique imprint for work that makes you come alive - your Sparketype®In today's episode, we're taking you deep into the world of the Sparketypes and exploring how to discover yours, then tap it to reimagine and redesign the way you contribute to the world, whether it's the thing you get paid for, the thing you do because you're called to it, the thing you do on the side or some blend, on a quest to get as close as you can, or at least a lot closer than you are now, to this feeling of aliveness.Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifepro

When I think about Peter Frampton, I’m immediately transported back to my teens when Peter’s musical juggernaut of a live-album, Frampton Comes Alive, took the world and my life by storm with anthemic songs like Do You Feel Like We Do, Show Me the Way, Lines On My Face and Baby, I Love Your Way. I cannot think about those songs without also hearing what became his signature voice-box sound vibrating through my body.Known in his earlier years for his fierce talent as a guitarist and musician, co-founder one of the first rock-supergroups, Humble Pie, and a collaborator with everyone from George Harrison, David Bowie, and Jerry Lee Lewis, to then Stones bassist, Bill Wyman, and Ringo Starr, that album changed everything. Frampton Comes Alive became a global phenomenon and bestselling live album for decades. Following on the heels of the album came an equally iconic, shirtless cover of Rolling Stone, shot by Francesco Scavulo and accompanied by a feature story written by a then-young Cameron Crowe, Peters as

Success is not just about knowing what to do. It's about doing it. Information, plans and goals, alone, will not get you where you want to go. Nor will willpower. Success at anything truly meaningful is about something bigger. Today’s show is going to be very different. Instead of deep-dive conversations with guests, it’s just going to be Jonathan, going deep into how to find success accomplishing big, meaningful things. There’ll be a ton of myth-busting and you'll learn something called Success Scaffolding™, a unique approach to making big things happen, especially things you’ve tried and failed at many times before. We’ve shared Success Scaffolding before, but over the years, we keep refining it and making it better and better. So, you’ll want to give this episode a listen with fresh ears even if you've listened to past episodes about it, because there are a bunch of new insights, changes and additions. You may also want to open your "notes" app to take notes. Or, if you'd like a detailed, one-pag

Over the history of this show, we’ve been incredibly blessed to not only have hundreds of guests in the physical and now virtual studio for conversation but also live performances from a wide variety of acclaimed artists, many of whom are icons in their chosen form of creation and expression. The performances have ranged from unaccompanied to fully sound-designed spoken word, to a capella or instrument-accompanied live music. Many of these performances represented moments of emotion and awakening, connection. It’s been a kind of magical ingredient for me, as a lover of spoken word and music, to be able to share these with you over the years. So we decided to do something a little different as a sort of offering to you as we bring this year to a close. We culled through years of tape and pulled together today’s live performance super-cut for you, sharing a lineup of 11 artists, spread out over nearly 7 years of performances in the studio. Some, short and sweet, others longer-form and profound. All will ma

There’s something about the sound of Mark Nepo’s voice that just puts me at ease. He’s been immersed in a path of spiritual inquiry for more than forty years, taught all over the world, authored more than twenty books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller The Book of Awakening, More Together Than Alone and others. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages and in 2014, Mark traveled the country with Oprah Winfrey on her sold-out The Life You Want Tour and has appeared several times on her Super Soul Sunday program.The last time I sat down with Mark, we caught up on life, then dove into his decades-long inquiry around how we are wired to live in community, what happens when the bonds that connect us fail and how to rediscover community at a time when we seem more divided than ever. This conversation was actually recorded before the year we’ve all just been through, but it is more relevant and more needed than ever before. You can find Mark Nepo at:Website : https://marknepo.

We’re on a quest to help you live a more meaningful, connected and vital life. Every week we share inspirational, intimate and disarmingly-unfiltered conversations about living a fully-engaged, fiercely-connected and purpose-drenched life. We’ve been on a quest to find “embodied teachers,” then co-create in-depth, unscripted, often deeply-moving and fiercely wise conversations. From world-shakers like Brené Brown, Matthew McConaughey, Austin Channing Brown, Elizabeth Gilbert, Bishop Michael Curry, Secretary Julián Castro, Dr. Yusef Salaam, Seth Godin and Gretchen Rubin to everyday guests, every story matters. We also love to create practical and powerful tools, programs, and trainings designed to help people live more engaged, connected, and vital lives. Listen to the podcast, then visit Goodlifeproject.com to learn more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Christen Brandt and Tammy Tibbetts are on a mission to unlock the potential of girls and women, especially in parts of the world where they’re often excluded from education and, in turn, much of life and the opportunity to help shape their communities and lives in a meaningful way.Both Christen and Tammy grew up in households where they were loved and supported, taught to believe in themselves and the power of education and become strong advocates. They were the first in their families to go to college, and both landed in the fashion magazine world in New York after graduating, where they started building careers and rising up in the industry. But an increasing awakening to inequity led them into a collaboration that would start as a viral video to raise awareness and eventually lead them out of the world of magazines and to co-found a foundation to help women and girls globally become educated, called She’s the First. Along the way, they’ve reimagined the foundation model, becoming leading voices in a n

I’ve been fascinated with alternative approaches to healing and medicine for my entire adult life. Especially when so many millions of us are walking around with pain and inflammation that doesn’t seem to fair well with a more Western approach. But, at the same time, I’ll also admit, I’m equally skeptical of a lot of solutions, practices, and claims. Which is why I’ve been deeply curious, for many years, about Ayurveda - a healing methodology that has been practiced, refined and sustained for some 5,000 years, and I was so excited to sit down with my friend, Avanti Kumar Singh, a traditionally-trained physician who experienced firsthand the limitations of Western medicine and decided to leave behind a career in emergency medicine to begin a 20-year journey to study, research and experience traditional healing systems from a wide range of cultures that landed her back in Ayurveda and reconnected her with a sense of calling. A central tenet of Ayurveda is the notion that each of us has the innate ability t

Peter Tunney is a legitimate force of nature with boundless creative energy, who loves spreading positive messages in unconventional ways. After a career in finance, biotech and then nearly a decade defined by wild adventures, photo-curating and documenting travels through Africa with photographer and society fixture, Peter Beard, Tunney returned to New York in 1987 and declared himself an artist. He quickly became a central player, artist and gallerist in the legendary downtown art scene of the 80s and 90s, working with nearly every medium imaginable to create these large-scale mantras that have appeared everywhere from billboards to private collections and his own galleries in Tribeca as well as Miami’s famed Wynwood Walls. Tunney, it turns out, is not just a world-class liver of life, creator and raconteur, he believes in humankind and the good that results in endless small acts of kindness. Over the years Peter has donated countless works to deserving organizations, with his main philanthropic e

Kulap’s parents fled violence in Laos, finding themselves in a refugee camp in Thailand, before moving to DC, where Kulap would be born, and then Minnesota, where she’d grow up. Her world was blown apart when, at the age of 14, in the heat of a fight, Kulap’s mom revealed that her father was not, in fact, her biological dad. The trauma of that moment shook her, but would then get largely buried, as she left home, built a career and got married. Now, decades later, a successful writer/director, actor, comedian, former co-host of the longrunning Who Charted podcast where she sat behind the mic for 8 years, and creator, show-runner and sometimes director of the TV series Bajillions Dollar Properties, Kulap started considering having her own kids, and she felt like she had to discover her true original story in order to move forward. So she decided to do something radical to take control of her own narrative.She mounted a quest to uncover the truth, one that led her to travel back to Laos in search biological fat

Ione is a British film, television and voiceover actress based in LA with many different credits including Marvel’s Black Widow, a leading role in a motion picture which premiered on the Syfy network, as well as guest-starring in hit TV shows on CBS, Spike TV, TLC, BBC and many others. Growing up biracial in West London’s Southall neighborhood, which has been known to many as little Punjab or Little India since the 60s, she was surrounded by different cultures, developed an early curiosity for people and community, and a passion for acting that led her to the iconic Brit School of Performing Arts. Eventually heading to LA to build her career in the business, she became increasingly called to both create her own roles, focus on producing positive media, and take control of her career, founding Uplifting Content, a social media platform followed by over 1.4 million people, hosting the Uplifting Content Podcast and most recently writing the book, Uplifting Stories (https://tinyurl.com/y39e7ju6). We also exp

Over the past few decades, Seth Godin has made quite a ruckus in nearly every domain he's explored, from business to marketing to education, innovation and beyond, in no small part by encouraging us all to join him in purposeful ruckus-making, too. He's launched a number of successful companies, taught millions of people and left his mark on our creative culture. And, he’s written, just a bit. In fact he writes daily at Seths.blog, which is one of the most popular blogs in the world. He's the founder of the altMBA and The Akimbo Workshops, online seminars that have transformed the work of thousands of people. Seth is the author of 19 international bestsellers translated into more than 35 languages, including Purple Cow, Linchpin, The Dip, and This Is Marketing, and now his latest New York Times bestseller, The Practice, an insightful and provocative look at how to get more out of the work we do by giving more to it, to the world and to ourselves. Or, as he describes it, you’ll learn to dance with your fe

Jen Sincero wants you to be a badass in all parts of life. And, as we head into the end of the year and start thinking about what we want to make happen, she’s doubling down on building badass habits. A past guest, Jen is the author of #1 New York Times bestseller You Are a Badass, which has sold over three million copies, is available in over 35 languages, and has been on the New York Times bestseller list for over 4 years. Her follow-ups, You Are a Badass at Making Money - also a New York Times bestseller - and You Are a Badass Every Day are written with the same signature in-your-face kindness, down-to-earth humor and blunt practicality that made You Are a Badass a mega-bestseller and Jen a celebrated voice in the world of self-development. And, now she’s sharing that same irreverent, revealing and deeply-useful lens on the world of habits. I’ve studied a lot on habits and read pretty much everything written on them, from popular books to research. I confess I kinda thought I knew what there was to kn

I first heard about my guest today, Michele Harper, when stumbled upon an essay she published earlier this year, entitled When This War is Over, May of Us Will Leave Medicine. It was about the reality of her day-to-day life as an ER doc during the early days of the pandemic. It was a devastating, powerful, deeply human read. That led me to her beautiful and, at times, heartbreaking, yet hopeful New York Times bestselling memoir, The Beauty in Breaking. (https://bookshop.org/books/the-beauty-in-breaking-a-memoir/9780525537380)Graduating from Harvard and the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, for her entire career, Michele has sought emergency medicine positions in hospitals that serve under-resourced communities, often communities of color. She is not just a devout physician and healer, but also an advocate for dignity, equality and change. The seeds for this path were planted very early in life, though a blend of family trauma and deep personal conviction that has compelled her to not j

Five days into filming his first movie - Dazed & Confused - some 28 years ago, Matthew McConaughey’s dad, a towering force in his life, suddenly died. Matthew had to figure out a way to keep showing up, to keep going. His mantra became “just keep livin,” which has become a guiding ethos, a sort of lens through which he lives his life.Now, nearly three decades later, an Academy Award-winning actor, icon in the industry, married father of three, a master raconteur, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and endless creator of moments and adventures, Matthew lives life as an eternal amateur. Fiercely himself in all parts of life, ever-curious and open, he seeks experiences, wisdom, and insights, always learning, always asking, always seeking, that give him some semblance of understanding what makes life worth living. Much of his journey, his take on life, fatherhood, acting, love, family and contribution is offered up in his beautiful and moving new memoir, Greenlights (https://greenlights.com/). It’s a philosop

Ozan Varol is a rocket scientist turned award-winning professor and bestselling author.A native of Istanbul, Turkey, Ozan Varol grew up in a family of no English speakers. He learned English as a second language and moved to the United States by himself at 17 to attend Cornell University and major in astrophysics. While there, he served on the operations team for the 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers project that sent two rovers–Spirit and Opportunity–to Mars. He built stuff that went to the red planet and wrote code that snaps photos of the Martian surface. He was on track to built a powerhouse career as a literal rocket scientist.Leaving Cornell, though, Ozan pivoted and went to law school, graduating first in his class, earning the highest grade point average in his law school’s history, then became a law professor, teaching at Lewis & Clark Law School in his twenties, becoming the youngest tenured professor. While teaching law, there was always a deeper driver, the rocket scientist in him was on a mission

Sara Hendren was drawn to painting as a kid, studied it in college, then began to build her body of work and career as a fine artist, focusing on painting. Then, a series of experiences sent her in what, from the outside looking in, may have seemed like a very different direction, but from the inside looking out, what a completely organic and aligned expression of her blended passion to see, to create, to design and to be of service.Now an artist, design researcher, writer, and professor at Olin College of Engineering, Sara describes herself as a humanist in tech, focusing on the intersection between disability - or the perception of it - and what she calls the built world, or how the world is designed to either support or dismantle freedom and autonomy based on our bodies and their capabilities. And if you’re thinking “well, this isn’t about me,” you’ll quickly discover how well-intended, yet misguided that assumption is likely to be. It’s about all of us.Sara’s work over the last decade includes collaborati

Growing up in Israel, Tal Ben-Shahar wanted to be the best squash player in the world. He turned pro at a young age and quickly rose up the ranks. Then a strange thing happened, he achieved his dream, but crashed hard, realizing it didn’t make him feel how he thought it would. That experience set in motion a lifelong journey into the science of happiness that led him to study at Harvard, then eventually teach what became the most popular course at Harvard on happiness. Tal is now a bestselling author and lecturer, working with executives in multinational corporations, everyday humans, and at-risk populations exploring leadership, happiness, education, innovation, ethics, self-esteem, resilience, goal setting, and mindfulness. His books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages and have appeared on best-sellers lists around the world. Tal is a serial entrepreneur and is most recently the co-founder and chief learning officer of Happiness Studies Academy, bringing together the thinking of t