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Good Life Project

Jonathan Fields / Acast

Good Life Project is a podcast and video series for people navigating midlife with intention. Hosted by Jonathan Fields, each episode is a deep, honest conversation about what it actually takes to build a life that feels like yours, through the reinventions, reckonings, and reclamations that define your 40s, 50s, and beyond. Grounded in science, fueled by genuine curiosity, and always in service of the real work of living well. Often top-ranked, it’s been listened to and viewed more than 100 million times. New episodes weekly. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

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August 6 · 53 min
Not All Pain Has a Purpose | Marisa Renee Lee
What if the kindest thing someone told you about your pain was that it didn't have to mean anything? Marisa Renee Lee has spent her career inside other people's grief and her own. She's the bestselling author of Grief Is Love, a former deputy director in the Obama White House, and now CEO of Beacon Advisors. Her new book, Waiting for Dawn, comes out of her own experience with chronic illness, and it argues against nearly every wellness cliché about turning pain into purpose. In this conversation, you'll explore: Why Marisa refuses to promise anyone that their suffering serves a purpose, even her own family's "Gray grief": a name for the grief that has no end date, no diagnosis, and no cultural script The difference between identity (what you built) and essence (what's still there when it's gone) Why she calls hope a discipline, not a feeling, and what that looks like on the worst days How her family held onto hope through her aunt's most devastating loss, and what happened after If you've ever felt ashamed for not finding the silver lining in something genuinely hard, this conversation is your permission to put that pressure down. You can find Marisa at: Website | Instagram | Holding Both Substack | Episode Transcript Next week, we're sitting down with Dr. Niobe Way to talk about why so many of us feel lonelier than ever even when we're surrounded by people, and what decades of research say is actually driving it. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss any upcoming episodes! Check out our sponsors and resources: Visit Our Sponsor Page Share your midlife reinvention story with us HERE. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
August 3 · 1 hr 2 min
Top Headache Doc: Migraine Is Not What You Think
For decades, migraine was explained to patients as a blood vessel problem: swelling, throbbing, treat it by shrinking things back down. That explanation is mostly a myth, and it may be part of why so many older treatments never worked. Dr. Fred Cohen is medical director of Headache Intervention and an assistant professor of medicine and neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He's one of the few headache specialists in the country trained in both internal medicine and headache medicine, has over 40 publications in journals including The Lancet and Cephalalgia, and has lived with migraine himself since his teens. In this conversation, you'll explore: Why migraine is a neuroinflammatory condition, not a vascular one, and why some medical schools still teach the outdated version The "broken thermostat" phenomenon of chronic sensitization, and how untreated migraine can convince your brain that constant pain is normal Why only about 30% of people with migraine ever experience aura, and the surprising range of ways it can actually show up The current treatment landscape, from triptans to CGRP therapies, Botox, neuromodulation devices, and what's coming next Why Dr. Cohen calls this the golden age of headache medicine, and what that means if you gave up on treatment years ago If migraine has ever made you feel like your body was working against you, or like you'd already tried everything, this conversation will change how you see both. You can find Fred at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript Next week, we're sitting down with Marisa Renee Lee to talk about why the tidy stories we tell ourselves about grief and resilience tend to fall apart, and what it actually looks like to build a life around pain instead of waiting to get past it. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss any upcoming episodes! Check out our sponsors and resources: Visit Our Sponsor Page Share your midlife reinvention story with us HERE. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 30 · 48 min
Time Anxiety: Beating the Dread That You’ll Never Get Ahead | Chris Guillebeau
You know that feeling, like you’re forever running behind in work and life? That you’ll never finally be “there,” or be able to relax and enjoy things. Like the days are just collapsing into each other? Welcome to the wacky world of time anxiety. You are not alone. Chris Guillebeau has spent fifteen years writing about the questions that keep smart, capable people stuck. He is back on the show to talk about his new book, Time Anxiety, the clearest thing he has written yet on why "get up an hour earlier" backfires and what actually helps. In this conversation, you'll explore: Why your brain is chronically wrong about how much time anything takes, and the fifteen-minute fix for chronic lateness The eighth day exercise, a way to find out what you actually want to do with your time by imagining a day with zero obligation to anyone else The traffic light method for working with your real energy instead of fighting it Why swapping the word "productive" for "valuable" changes how a day feels The shame so many caretakers feel about carving out time for themselves, and the answer Gretchen Rubin gave Chris that changed how he thinks about it If you've ever felt like your calendar is lying to you about how much time you have, this is the conversation for it. You can find Chris at: Website | A Year of Mental Health Substack | Instagram | Episode Transcript Next week, we're sitting down with Dr. Fred Cohen to talk about why almost everything you've been told about migraines is outdated, and what the science actually says about treating them. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss any upcoming episodes! Check out our sponsors and resources: Visit Our Sponsor Page Share your midlife reinvention story with us HERE. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 27 · 46 min
The 3 Things Every Room You Live In Must Have to Be Okay | Leidy Klotz
Most of us think the biggest decision about a room is whether it's functional. Leidy Klotz thinks that's the wrong question, and the right one changes how a desk, a kitchen, or an entire return-to-office policy actually lands on the person living inside it. Leidy Klotz is a behavioral scientist and engineering professor at the University of Virginia who studies how and why humans design. His research has appeared in Nature and Science, and he's been interviewed everywhere from Hidden Brain to Freakonomics to The Atlantic. Before any of that, he spent 22 years as a professional soccer player and then built schools for a living, which is part of why his take on space is so physical and so lived-in. In this conversation, you'll explore: The three psychological needs that every space either feeds or starves, and why they trace straight back to hunter-gatherer survival Why Susan Cain's open-office backlash and today's return-to-office mandates are the same failure wearing different clothes The strange, well-documented phenomenon of "habituation," including the story of an architecture student who walked past a six-story landmark building for years without ever seeing it A simple practice called "space before screen," and why the top of a parking garage might be the cheapest awe you'll ever find What it means to build a space that keeps someone's memory alive, drawn from one of the most personal stories Leidy has ever told on a podcast If you've ever felt something shift the moment you walked into a certain room and couldn't say why, this conversation gives you the language for it. You can find Leidy at: Website | LinkedIn | Episode Transcript Next week, we're sitting down with Chris Guillebeau to talk about why the anxious feeling that you're running out of time might be less about your calendar and more about a story you've never questioned. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss any upcoming episodes! Check out our sponsors and resources: Visit Our Sponsor Page Share your midlife reinvention story with us HERE. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 23 · 51 min
How Much Money Is Enough? Your Confusing Money Questions Answered. | Leisa Peterson
By the age of 7, most of us have absorbed the rules that run our financial lives…forever. And almost none of us checked to see if they were true. Not the numbers. The rules. The slogans we heard around the kitchen table about what money means, who deserves it, and what it says about us if we don't have enough of it. Leisa Peterson spent three decades inside the financial services industry before a near-fatal event forced her to see how far she had drifted from her own life. Today she coaches people, most of them women, on the inherited stories that quietly run their financial decisions long after childhood ends, and how to rewrite them, along with their financial futures. In this conversation, you'll hear: Why twins raised in the exact same household can end up in completely different financial and emotional places as adults The specific questions to ask a financial advisor before you hire one, and the one answer that should make you walk away Why financial regret research shows the real damage isn't the bad decision, it's the silence around it How to start defining your own "enough" instead of borrowing someone else's number What Leisa's husband's diagnosis taught her about the assets that never show up on a bank statement If you've ever felt behind, ashamed, or just quietly unsure whether you're getting this right, this conversation will change how you think about all of it. You can find Leisa at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript Next week, we're sitting down with Leidy Klotz to talk about how the rooms you live in every day shape how much control, connection, and competence you feel, often without you ever noticing it. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss any upcoming episodes! Check out our sponsors and resources: Visit Our Sponsor Page Share your midlife reinvention story with us HERE. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 20 · 57 min
Tapping: Surprising Science Behind Healing Claims (and how to do it) | Jessica Ortner
Your body already knows you're stressed before your brain finishes the thought. That tightness in your chest before a hard conversation. The way your stomach drops before you walk into a room full of people. Logic doesn't reach it. Telling yourself you're fine doesn't touch it. What if you could send a direct signal to your nervous system that you're safe, and actually change the chemistry? Jessica Ortner is a New York Times bestselling author and co-founder of The Tapping Solution, a movement that has brought EFT Tapping to millions worldwide, fueling hundreds of published studies, a massively downloaded app with tens of millions of sessions completed, and work that now extends to veterans, schools, and communities in crisis. In this conversation, you'll explore: What tapping is, where it came from, and how it works. Why positive thinking and reframing often fail, and what the nervous system actually needs to release stress The cortisol study that shows a serious reduction in stress hormones from a single session, and what that means for your daily life How tapping physically rewires the brain's response to food cravings, trauma, and intrusive thoughts, with fMRI data to back it Why your body can hold chronic pain in ways that have nothing to do with the original injury, and tapping might help How to use tapping covertly before a difficult conversation, a big presentation, or a social situation when anxiety tends to take over You don't have to believe this works for it to work. You just have to try it. You can find Jessica at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript Next week, next week we're sitting down with Leisa Peterson to talk about why the quiet question "am I actually behind with money?" never goes away, no matter how many articles you've read or podcasts you've listened to — and what it actually takes to resolve it at the level it lives. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss any upcoming episodes. Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 16 · 53 min
Why Plans Fail, and What To Do Instead | Midyear Reset Pt 2
Share your midlife reinvention story with us HERE. You have a plan for how to succeed in the second half of the year, how to “get back on track.” And a plan, it turns out, is the most sophisticated way to actually stand still while feeling like you're moving. This is Part 2 of a special two-part midyear series on Good Life Project. In Part 1, Jonathan led a different kind of honest check-in, setting down the scorecard version of taking stock and actually looking at the one part of life that has been running quietly low. This episode is the moving part. It’s about taking action and building momentum, without waiting for a plan. In this episode, you'll explore: Why plans fail, and why the reason is not the one you've been told. The flaw isn't you. It's how plans are built. The difference between a plan and a move, and why only one of them has ever actually changed a life. Seven elements that make a move more likely to survive a bad week, including Peter Gollwitzer's research on implementation intentions. The four traps that turn a move back into a plan, and how to recognize them before they happen. Why the middle of the year is one of the most powerful fresh start landmarks available, and almost nobody uses it. A five-step sequence you'll work through before this episode ends, leaving with a specific move already made, not planned. This episode is for anyone who has spent the first half of this year meaning to do something and hasn't yet. Not because you lacked motivation, but because you were waiting for the right conditions that were never going to arrive. They don't have to. You just have to make one move. Episode Transcript If you LOVED this episode, you can find the 1-page worksheet HERE. Next week, I'm sitting down with an old friend, Jessica Ortner, to explore something that most people have never tried, that looks a little ridiculous at first, and that turns out to have a surprisingly serious body of research behind it. It's called tapping. We're not going to sell it, and we're not going to dismiss it. We're going to give it a genuinely honest look: what the science does and doesn't support, who it's actually for, and then Jessica is going to guide me through a real session, live, on the episode that you can follow along with in real time. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss it. Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 13 · 51 min
Midyear Wake-Up Call | Part 1
You can hit every goal you set in January and still be running on empty in the parts of your life the list never thought to measure. That's not a failure story. That's a design flaw in the instrument most of us reach for at the midpoint of the year. Jonathan Fields has spent 14 years exploring what it takes to build a life that genuinely feels like yours. In this solo episode, he gets personal about a stretch that looked, by every external measure, like one of the best runs he'd had in years. A major work transition, real momentum in business, and every morning from 7:30 to 9, writing the first draft of his first novel. A genuinely good season. And one that was quietly drawing down on something no scorecard ever caught. What you'll explore in this conversation: Why grading yourself against January goals in July is the least useful thing you can do at the midpoint of the year, and what to reach for instead The three Good Life Buckets framework (Vitality, Connection, Contribution) as a practical audit tool, not an abstract idea Two ways a bucket drains that most driven, successful people never see coming: the leak and the missing refill Why the most dangerous bucket is often not the one that aches, but the one filling and draining at the same time Three reckoning questions that surface something more honest than any goal list you've ever written Why so many of us would rather stay tired and certain than rested and unsure, and what it actually costs us This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Part 2 arrives in a few days with the specific actions to take for your mid-year wake-up call. Episode Transcript If you LOVED this episode, you can find the 1-page worksheet HERE. Next week, we're coming back for Part 2 of this series with Jonathan to talk about what to actually do once you've named the bucket, and why you don't need a plan for the second half of your year. You need a move. One small, real, repeatable move. And we're going to figure it out together in real time before that episode is over. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss it. Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 9 · 1 hr
Healing Family Estrangement: What To Say, And What Never to Say.
Between 10 and 15 percent of mothers and 1 in 4 fathers are currently estranged from a child. If those numbers feel shocking, the harder truth might be this: most of the moves parents instinctively make once estrangement begins are the exact moves that keep the door shut. Dr. Joshua Coleman has spent more than four decades as a practicing psychologist and is a Senior Fellow with the Council on Contemporary Families. His own daughter once cut off contact with him. That experience, and everything he has learned since, shaped his work helping families find their way back to each other. He is one of the most trusted voices in the country on family estrangement and reconciliation. In this conversation, you will explore: Why estrangement rates are at historically high levels and what massive cultural shifts are driving them The five defensive moves parents make that almost always make things worse, including why fighting for fairness is the most damaging trap of all What a genuinely healing apology actually sounds like, and why most apologies miss the mark entirely Why radical acceptance and hope are not opposites, and how to hold both at the same time How the principles of repair transfer to sibling estrangements and to grandparents cut off from grandchildren If someone you love has pulled away and you cannot figure out why, or if you are the one who has needed distance and are wondering what repair could look like, this is the conversation for it. You can find Joshua at: Website | Instagram | Family Troubles Substack | Episode Transcript Next week, I am going solo, actually for the entire week, for a two-part midyear summer series about really taking a fresh look at where we are right now. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss it. Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 6 · 47 min
The Caregiving Conversation Everyone Postpones Until It's Too Late.
Here is something most people never see coming: the hardest part of caring for an aging parent is not the logistics. It is the grief. The grief for who your parent used to be, for the life you thought you would be living by now, and for the version of yourself that is quietly disappearing inside a role you never planned to fill. Couple that with being there for kids, even adult kids, and it can feel like a lot. Candace Dellacona is a New York City estate attorney known as "a family's lawyer," advising families, athletes, and entertainers on estate planning, asset protection, and the full arc of what it takes to navigate a family through its most vulnerable seasons. Not just the logistics, but also the many, more nuanced shifts in identity, relationships, and responsibilities. She is also a member of the sandwich generation herself, which is what led her to launch The Sandwich Generation Survival Guide podcast. She brings both the legal expertise and the lived experience to this conversation. What you will explore in this conversation: Why the sandwich generation is far broader than you think, and why it applies to you even if your parents are healthy right now, or your kids are grown The four shifts that happen inside you during a caregiving season, identity, ownership, grief, and loneliness, and why we almost never talk about them Why the conversations about aging, death, and documents are almost always saved for the worst possible moment, and how to have them earlier in a way that actually feels like love The three-person team that can change everything, and what each one actually does The unexpected beauty that enters the equation in a caregiving season, the reconciliation, the closeness, the chance to usher someone you love through If you have a parent who is still healthy and you have never had a real conversation about what happens if that changes, this one is for you. You can find Candace at: Website | The Sandwich Generation Survival Guide Podcast | LinkedIn | Episode Transcript Next week, I am sitting down with Dr. Joshua Coleman, a psychologist who has spent years studying something that is reshaping American families in ways most of us have not fully reckoned with: family estrangement. Why it is rising, what is actually driving it, and what to do if you are on either side of it. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you do not miss it. Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 2 · 54 min
When You Can't Stop Thinking About Something, Here's What To Do. | Donna Jackson Nakazawa
There is something your brain is spinning right now, that you may never have been given a name for or a way out of. The thought you keep replaying. The conversation you keep recasting. The reel that loads up again and again without resolution, making you feel worse each time and no closer to clarity. That is rumination. And according to the neuroscience, it is the single greatest pre-diagnostic factor for depression and anxiety we have identified, and we are all doing it more than we ever have. Donna Jackson Nakazawa is an award-winning science writer whose work sits at the intersection of neurobiology, emotion, and mental health. Her new book, Mind Drama, is the most rigorous and humane investigation of rumination yet written: what it is, why your brain does it, what it is actually trying to tell you, and how to use a specific neurobiologically grounded framework to loosen its grip. In this conversation, you will explore: Why rumination is a survival response gone rogue, and why knowing that changes how you relate to your own spinning thoughts What a brain scan of Donna's own ruminating mind revealed, and what those red swirls in the default mode network actually mean for your daily life Why midlife may be the season when old ruminative patterns return with the most force, and what that signal is asking you to hear The research showing that women ruminate at significantly higher rates than men, why this is, and what the neuroscience says about the acting-in pattern and its link to depression The MIST framework: a four-step neurobiological practice for naming the mental movies, emotions, and somatic sensations underneath your rumination so the brain can actually let go Why rumination is never random, always circling the question of whether you matter to the people who matter most to you If you have ever told yourself to stop thinking about something and found you could not, this conversation is for you. You can find Donna at: Healing Together Substack | Instagram | Episode Transcript Next week, we are sitting down with Candace Dellacona, a trust and estates attorney who is also personally in this season, to talk about the caregiving years, and what it costs you when you are pulled in every direction at once, not just logistically but in terms of who you are and who you thought you would be by now. If you are caring for an aging parent, a younger dependent, or both at the same time, this one was made for you. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts, so you do not miss any upcoming episodes. Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
June 29 · 1 hr
Why More Choices Make You Less Happy | David Epstein
Most of us believe more options equals better outcomes. Research says no. In much of life, the opposite is true, and the gap between what we believe and what the data shows is one of the more quietly consequential misconceptions shaping how we live right now. David Epstein is the author of Range and the new book Inside the Box, both New York Times bestsellers. He spent years studying human performance and creativity, and this conversation picks up where Range left off. If Range was about why broad exploration matters early in life, Inside the Box is about what you actually do once you have all that range. The answer turns out to be counterintuitive: you box yourself in. In this conversation, you'll discover: Why people with more options to watch are consistently more bored than people with fewer, and what that reveals about how your brain actually works The difference between satisficing and maximizing, and why maximizers make worse decisions, feel more regret, and are less happy with their lives despite spending more time and energy on every choice How Keith Jarrett recorded the best-selling solo jazz piano album of all time on a broken, out-of-tune instrument he almost refused to play, and what that says about where creative breakthroughs actually come from The paired constraints process used by Monet, Dr. Seuss, and Isabel Allende, and how you can use the same structure to unstick your own creative projects Why our attention switches tasks every 45 seconds on average now, down from every three minutes 25 years ago, and what it's actually costing us in terms of stress, creativity, and the simple experience of loving our work This is a conversation for anyone who has ever felt scattered across too many possibilities, half-committed to too many things, and quietly wondered if the constraint they've been avoiding might be exactly the thing they need. You can find David at: Website | Instagram | Range Widely Substack | Episode Transcript Next week, we're sitting down with Donna Jackson Nakazawa to talk about why rumination feels so productive even when it's actively working against you, and what the neuroscience actually says about how to loosen its grip. She has a framework for this that I haven't been able to stop thinking about since we recorded. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts, so you don't miss it. Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
June 25 · 47 min
The Toll of Generalized Resentment (and What to Do About It)
There is a feeling many people in midlife carry that does not have a name, a clear cause, or anyone to blame. It shows up when you have been the dependable one long enough that dependable starts to feel like a cage. Or when you have handled everything capably and walked away feeling hollowed rather than proud. Or when you have given more than you have received for so long that the imbalance stopped feeling like generosity and started feeling like the terms of your life. In this solo episode, Jonathan Fields examines what he calls diffuse resentment, a specific, accumulated form of feeling that is distinct from the anger or grievance most people recognize as resentment. It does not have an address. It does not require a villain. And because it feels illegitimate, because the voice in your head says you made these choices, you have so much to be grateful for, it tends to go unexamined, parked, managed, and silently expensive. In this solo episode, Jonathan draws on his own experience, research from psychologists Jennifer Lerner, Laura Carstensen, James Pennebaker, and Nick Epley, and thousands of conversations over 14 years of doing this work, to offer a way of looking at this feeling directly. In this episode, you will explore: The five territories where diffuse resentment most reliably lives, the calcified role, the invisible labor ledger, the deferred self, relational drift, and the unlived path Why midlife is specifically when this feeling tends to become unavoidable, and why it often intensifies precisely when things are going well What the research on emotional suppression actually shows about the cost of carrying unexamined feelings Two movements (not steps) for beginning to look at this honestly, and why the first must come before the second is possible What becomes available on the other side: accuracy, energy, and a different quality of closeness in the relationships that matter most If you have been explaining away a feeling you cannot quite name, this episode is for you. Episode Transcript Next week, we're sitting down with David Epstein to talk about something that runs against just about everything the self-help world has told you about freedom and options: why the constraints, limits, and boundaries you have been trying to escape are often the very conditions that make creativity, focus, and satisfaction actually possible. It is a genuinely counterintuitive conversation, and it is the kind that stays with you. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss it. Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
June 22 · 54 min
You Spent Years Acting Normal Inside a Life That Never Fit | Sari Botton
Gotta love a good midlife reinvention story, and today we’ve got a great one! Sari Botton built her career editing some of the most celebrated voices in American literary nonfiction. Then, in her mid-50s, she watched doors close in her face, turned down for jobs she was overqualified for, told by interviewers in their 30s that she had "done enough." Out of that experience, she launched Oldster Magazine on Substack, a publication dedicated to aging honestly, at every age. It became a global phenomenon, and led to a book deal. She turned 60 and called it the best moment of her career. In this conversation, Jonathan and Sari explore: Why the most painful thing about midlife is not getting older but realizing how long you spent performing a version of yourself that never quite fit What it costs to live at the intersection of "should" and "whatever," and what becomes possible when you stop The Gen X inheritance: latchkey-kid freedom, zero parenting bandwidth, and a generation that had to figure out what normal even meant Why the best memoir illuminates the mundane, and why women claiming that territory is a quietly radical act What it means to be "found-ish": knowing the truest part of yourself while staying open to how life keeps changing you Sari arrived at the conversation we are having right now by surviving the wrong relationships, the wrong careers, and a deep reluctance to let herself want what she actually wanted. If any of that sounds familiar, this conversation is for you. You can find Sari at: Website | Instagram | Oldster Substack | Episode Transcript Next week, I am doing a solo episode on something I have been sitting with for a long time: the hidden resentment you are probably carrying right now, and why it might be one of the most honest things about you. If you think you are not carrying any, that is especially worth your time. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you do not miss it. Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
June 18 · 54 min
The Midlife Muscle Loss Lie: How to Stay Strong at Any Age | Dr. Vonda Wright
According to Dr. Vonda Wright, almost everything we believe about aging and muscle loss is wrong. The research that told you to expect decline was built on populations where 70 percent of participants barely moved. Which means the trajectory most of us are bracing for is not biology. It is behavior. You do not have to be a statistic. Dr. Vonda Wright is an orthopedic surgeon, researcher, and the founder of PRIMA, the Performance and Research Initiative for Masters Athletes at the University of Pittsburgh. She has spent her career studying what happens to the body when people stay active, not what happens when they don't. Her book, Unbreakable: A Woman's Guide to Aging with Power, distills what that research actually shows about muscle, bone, hormones, and aging in midlife. What you will explore in this conversation: The three MRI images that upended what we thought we knew about aging muscle, a visual comparison between a sedentary 74-year-old, an active 70-year-old, and a 40-year-old, that has become widely shared because of what it shows about what is actually possible. Menalescence, Dr. Wright's term for the hormonal, physiological, psychological, and social upheaval of perimenopause and menopause, and why naming it the way we named adolescence changes how women advocate for themselves in the doctor's office. The musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause, a connection between estrogen loss and total-body joint pain that has been documented in medical literature since 1925, is still not taught in most medical schools. The critical decade from 35 to 45, why this window is the highest-leverage moment for building the physical body you will have for the rest of your life, and exactly what to do if you are past it. Why lifting heavy is not optional for women in midlife, and what four reps, four sets actually does for strength and power that lighter lifting cannot. How much protein you actually need, why the math most people do is probably too low, and the leucine argument for animal protein. If you have been told that your MRI findings, your arthritis, your bulging disc, or your bone density numbers mean you cannot or should not lift, this conversation is for you. You can find Vonda at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript Next week, I am sitting down with Sari Botton to talk about why the life you keep putting off might be the most honest thing about you — and what it actually takes to stop waiting for permission to live it. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts, so you don't miss it. Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
June 15 · 59 min
The 4 Chemicals That Run Your Brain…and Your Life | Tj Power
Four chemicals, produced by your brain, serve as a master switch for nearly everything you think, do, and feel. In no small way, they also control our lives. But, all too often, instead of harnessing them to fuel amazing experiences and outcomes, we are controlled by them. Today, we learn how to take back control and harness them for good. Our guide is TJ Power, lead neuroscientist at the DOSE Lab and the author of The DOSE Effect. His research investigates how modern sedentary, digitally saturated lifestyles are reshaping the brain chemicals that govern how we feel, connect, focus, and recover from stress. He has delivered live experiences to over 75,000 people at institutions including Oxford University, Amazon, and the NHS. His DOSE framework centers on four chemicals: Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, and Endorphins. These chemicals evolved over hundreds of thousands of years for a very different experience of life. One with more movement, more connection, more sunlight, more sustained effort, and far less of what TJ calls dopamine land, the scroll-and-reward loop that phones have engineered into our days. In this conversation, you will explore: Why dopamine is not the reward chemical you were taught it was, and why the phone has hijacked the system that was supposed to motivate you The difference between dopamine and oxytocin, and why TJ believes we are pursuing the wrong chemical as a species How 90% of your serotonin is manufactured in your gut, and what ultra-processed food is actually doing to your mood Why stress evolved to be released through physical movement, and why sitting still with your problems makes them worse The 20 free behaviors from The DOSE Effect that recalibrate all four chemicals without cost, pills, or a major life overhaul If you have been wondering why certain things that used to feel easy now feel effortful, this conversation gives you a biological explanation and a practical path forward. You can find Tj at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript Next week, we are sitting down with Dr. Vonda Wright to talk about why most of what you have been told about aging is actually data about people who did nothing. The decline curve, it turns out, is negotiable, and ages 35 to 45 are the highest-leverage window. But she also makes the case that the door never closes. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss it. Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
June 11 · 49 min
What Lucky People Do Differently, According to Science | Tina Seelig
Luck is not a personality trait you either have or you don't. It is something you build, and science tells us there are specific, learnable skills behind why some people consistently seem to be in the right place at the right time while others walk right past the same opportunities. Tina Seelig has spent over 25 years at Stanford teaching and studying exactly this. As Executive Director of the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program and a longtime faculty member at the Stanford d.school, she has watched thousands of students move through the world, and the differences between those who generate luck and those who don't are far more concrete and actionable than most people realize. Her new book is What I Wish I Knew About Luck: A Crash Course on Turning Aspirations into Achievements. In this conversation, you will explore: What separates fortune from luck, and why that distinction changes everything about where you actually have agency in your life The ship, crew, and sail framework for understanding what it really takes to become luckier, and where most people skip a step Why your mental model of failure, whether it feels like a trampoline or a black hole, may be the single most powerful predictor of how much luck you create The hidden social behaviors that consistently show up in the luckiest people, from thank-you notes to a very specific way of asking for help Why luck is a long game, and the story of how behavior at a disastrous Costa Rica resort determined the outcome of a job interview fifteen years later If you have ever looked at someone who seems consistently lucky and wondered what they are doing differently, this conversation will give you some clear answers. You can find Tina at: LinkedIn | Episode Transcript Next week, we are featuring one of our most talked-about conversations from the archive, Tj Power on the four brain chemicals that are quietly running your life and why the modern environment is throwing them out of balance in ways that make everything from motivation to genuine connection harder than it should be. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss any upcoming episodes! Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
June 8 · 54 min
Why Rituals Matter More Than You Know, And How to Design Your Own | Bruce Feiler
There is a particular kind of loneliness that hits in the middle of a full life. Not because you are isolated. Because the relationships that used to hold you steady are all being renegotiated at once. Your kids have left. A parent has died. A marriage needs new terms. A friendship has frayed. And the cultural rituals that once helped people move through moments like this are mostly gone. Bruce Feiler has spent the last three years traveling to 26 countries, attending over 100 ceremonies, and interviewing hundreds of people to understand what happens when we stop gathering in intentional ways. He's a seven-time New York Times bestselling author and the creator of the LifeQuakes framework. His new book, A Time to Gather, makes the case that we are living through both a celebration recession and a ritual renaissance at the same time. In this conversation, Bruce and Jonathan explore what it actually means to feel homesick in your own home, why the four traditional life rituals no longer match the lives most of us are actually living, and what it looks like to design a ritual from scratch when the ones you inherited don't fit. What you'll explore in this conversation: Why 5,000 Civil War soldiers were officially diagnosed as dying of homesickness, and what that history reveals about the longing you feel now The five building blocks of any ritual, from drawing the circle to creating a web of hope, and how to use them to mark a moment that matters Why Bruce calls this a celebration recession: what we stopped doing, when, and what's quietly replacing it The live ritual Bruce helps Jonathan design in real time, walking through every step from welcome to close Why rituals are not just for grief and weddings, and the new ceremonies people are creating for divorce, mastectomies, miscarriages, sobriety, and career endings If you have ever felt the ground shift under you and not known how to steady yourself with the people you love most, this is the conversation for it. You can find Bruce at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript Next week, we're sharing our conversation with Stanford professor Tina Seelig to talk about something most of us have completely backwards: how luck actually works, and why most of what we call luck is the result of deliberate actions hiding in plain sight. If you have ever wondered why some people seem to catch every break while others keep missing them, this is going to change the way you see that. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss any upcoming episodes! Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
June 4 · 57 min
Dating in Midlife…Oh My! | Bela Gandhi
Here is something most of us have never been told: falling in love was never supposed to be easy, and the fact that it hasn't been isn't a character flaw. It's a design problem. Your biology may be working against you. Your cultural programming works against you. But, more than anything, the list you've been carrying around of what you want in a partner is almost certainly pointing you in the wrong direction. Bela Gandhi is a dating coach and the founder of Smart Dating Academy, where she has helped thousands of people find lasting relationships. She was a longtime dating expert on Good Morning America and the Steve Harvey Show and built her methodology after realizing that love, like anything else worth doing, benefits from a system. What you'll explore in this conversation: Why 74% of third marriages end in divorce, and what that tells us about how most people approach finding a partner The "elevator people" exercise that reveals what you actually need in a relationship, and why it almost never matches your dream list How biology, attachment patterns, and cultural messaging conspire to make us fall for the wrong people, again and again What highly accomplished, independent women often get wrong in the dating world, and what to do about it instead Why attraction can grow rather than just appear, and how pacing changes everything If you've been wondering whether love is still possible for you at this stage of life, Bela's answer is clear. She's seen too many people find it at 50, 60, and beyond to believe otherwise. You can find Bela at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript Next week, we're sitting down with seven-time New York Times bestselling author Bruce Feiler to talk about something most of us have felt but never quite had words for: the particular loneliness that arrives in the middle of a full life, when the relationships that used to hold you steady are all being renegotiated at once, and the rituals that helped people move through moments like these for thousands of years have largely disappeared. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss any upcoming episodes! Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
June 1 · 46 min
Your Ambitions Might Not Be Yours | Tom Rath
Most of us reach our 40s and discover something unsettling: the ambitions we've been chasing weren't entirely ours. They came from parents, from culture, from the two or three careers we happened to see up close. Tom Rath calls this looking through a pinhole, and he thinks it explains more midlife restlessness than most of us are willing to admit. Tom is one of the most widely-read researchers on how careers shape health and wellbeing. His books, including the instant number one New York Times bestseller How Full Is Your Bucket? and StrengthsFinder 2.0, have sold more than 10 million copies. His latest book is What's the Point?: Turning Purpose into Your Daily Superpower. In this conversation, you'll explore: Why only 50 jobs represent half the entire labor market, and what that means for the choices you made at 18 The difference between a ladder and a garden as frameworks for a life and why one of them is making you miserable What headstones actually say (and never say) about what we thought mattered The legacy question that most people answer wrong and what Tom's grandfather's final hours taught him about the purest form of giving Why purpose is less about finding your calling and more about something entirely different There's a particular kind of grief that comes from realizing your striving belonged to someone else. This conversation is for anyone in midlife who's starting to ask whether the ladder they've been climbing was theirs to begin with. You can find Tom at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript Next week, we're sharing our conversation with Bela Gandhi to talk about why midlife is actually the moment most people become more ready for a real relationship — and what's quietly getting in the way. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss any upcoming episodes! Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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