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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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Yesterday · 55 min
Sex in Midlife: It Doesn’t Have to Fade (and Can Even Be Great) | Susan Bratton
Susan Bratton has spent over two decades teaching people the passionate lovemaking and intimate communication skills that sex education (and life) never covered. At 42, after eleven years of marriage, she had never had an orgasm from intercourse, and her husband was already having an affair to cope with it. What actually turned things around wasn't couples therapy. It was something else entirely, and it changed how she teaches everyone who's come to her since. Susan is the author and publisher of 44 books and programs on lovemaking, sensual communication, and what she calls regenerative intimacy, reaching more than 1.5 million people worldwide. She's become one of the most trusted, least censored voices teaching people how sex actually works in the body, at every age. This conversation is guest-hosted by acclaimed author and coach Cynthia Morris. What you'll explore: The three different things people lump together under "low libido," and why untangling them changes what you actually need to fix. Why Susan stopped using the word "sex" altogether, and the shift she's seen in how people respond once she doesn't. The physical reason arousal builds so differently in men's and women's bodies, and the one image that makes it click instantly. The specific framework Susan built after her own marriage nearly came apart over unmet needs, and how any couple can use it. What changed the moment she stopped treating tools and technique as something to be ashamed of. If you've quietly decided your best sex is behind you, this conversation is the case for reconsidering that, whatever decade you're in. You can find Susan at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript You can find Cynthia at: Website | Instagram Next week, we're sitting down with Scott Harrison to talk about how twenty years, a lot of failure, and one story told the right way turned into a movement that's brought clean water to tens of millions of people who never had it. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss that or any upcoming episodes! Check out our sponsors and resources: Visit Our Sponsor Page Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Thursday · 39 min
The Endings You Don’t See Coming (Until They’re Gone) | Jonathan Fields
Somewhere in the past few years, you did something you love, with someone you love, for the very last time. And you had no idea when it happened. This solo episode is about why we cruise through our most meaningful endings, and why that might actually be the best possible news about how you've been living. In this deep-dive solo, Jonathan Fields unpacks an idea he calls unmarked lasts, the everyday endings that slip past without ceremony, starting with a story about fifteen years of chairlifts with his daughter and the ordinary Sunday that unceremoniously closed an era. It's a conversation built for anyone in their 40s, 50s, or beyond who has started to notice that the archive of things that ended is getting fuller, and wonders if they should have been paying better attention. In this episode, you'll explore: Why the baby book has a page for every first and not a single page for the lasts, and what that asymmetry does to us The structural reason you cannot catch a casual last while it's happening, no matter how present or grateful you become What researcher Hal Hershfield discovered when he asked people to imagine a meaningful place for the very last time, and the surprising thing that didn't happen to their happiness The centuries-old Portuguese word for the ache you've probably never been able to name Two kinds of lasts, and the completely different thing each one asks of you The endings you can't remember may be the strongest evidence of a life you were fully inside of. Episode Transcript Next week, guest host Cynthia Morris is sitting down with Susan Bratton to talk about why desire in midlife doesn't fade so much as it gets misread, and what actually rekindles it at any age. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss that or any upcoming episodes! Check out our sponsors and resources: Visit Our Sponsor Page Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
September 14 · 1 hr 1 min
Jodi Picoult: Why Every Villain is the Hero of Their Own Story
Every villain is the hero of their own story. That line opens part two of Jodi Picoult's thirtieth novel, and she'll tell you it's also how most of us get through any given day, or life. Picoult is the number one New York Times bestselling author of thirty novels, including My Sister's Keeper, Small Great Things, and Wish You Were Here. Her new one, Hollow Bones, arrives right around the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and centers on a woman whose entire career is built on preparing for catastrophe, who gets blindsided anyway. For three decades, Picoult has done her research by climbing all the way inside other people's lives, including people whose beliefs she can barely stand to sit across from, and a good part of this conversation is about how and why she does that, how it impacts her own life, beliefs, and approach to storytelling. We explore: What thirty years of living inside other people's heads has actually cost her, including the nightly ritual one narrator forced on her before she could face her own family The moment in an interview when she had to leave the room, splash water on her face, and decide which version of herself was walking back in One finding from her research on lying that explains why a small untruth gets harder to take back the longer you hold onto it Why one of her books landed on the most banned book in America list last year, and how she responded Where the line actually sits between sugarcoating your own life and bending the truth to protect someone you love, and what tends to happen to people who never find it If you have ever told a gentler version of the truth to protect somebody you love, this conversation will sit with you for a while. You can find Jodi at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript Next week, it's just me, and I want to talk about something that's been on my mind: the moments in our lives that end without us ever knowing they were the last ones. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss that or any upcoming episodes! Midlife Design Lab: I'm opening up an intimate retreat with me and a small, curated group in Boulder, CO (Oct 24-25, 2026), followed by 3 months of virtual group coaching. A few weeks back, I shared something I'd been building for myself, and the response blew me away, so spots are limited and I expect them to fill fast. If this calls to you, apply here. Check out our sponsors and resources: Visit Our Sponsor Page Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
September 10 · 49 min
Single at Heart: What if You Don't Need Someone Else to “Complete” You | Bella DePaulo, PhD
Bizarre fact, if you tell people you’re genuinely happy being single, they don’t believe you. You, in fact, may be among the doubters when it comes to your single-at-heart friends. Bella DePaulo has spent more than three decades studying what happens when someone is genuinely, unapologetically happy being single, and one thing keeps showing up in her data. People don't believe them. In studies where participants read identical biographies, differing only in one line, single or married, the single people who said they were happy were assumed to be exaggerating. The married people were taken at their word. Bella is a social psychologist (Ph.D., Harvard) and the author of Single at Heart: The Power, Freedom, and Heart-Filling Joy of Single Life. Her TEDx talk on what no one tells you about single people has been watched more than 1.8 million times, and The Atlantic has called her America's foremost thinker and writer on the single experience. She's been writing the Living Single blog at Psychology Today since 2008, and she founded the Foundation for the Empowerment of Single People. In this conversation, Jonathan and Bella dig into what her research, drawn from more than 20,000 people across over 100 countries, actually shows about who thrives alone, who doesn't, and why the cultural story about both gets it backwards. In this one, you'll hear about the single sentence Bella clipped from a newspaper column in 1992 that started her whole body of work. You'll hear why she believes solitude and loneliness are separated by exactly one thing, not personality, not introversion, but choice. You'll hear the surprising story of what actually happened to single-at-heart people during pandemic lockdown, when isolation should have driven them straight into relationships. You'll hear why married people tend to become more insular over time, and what that quietly costs them later in life. And you'll hear the real story behind a bike accident, a hospital, and forty-nine people who showed up. If you've ever loved your own company more than you're supposed to admit, or if you've ever wondered whether your relationships would survive without one person at the center of them, this conversation will change how you think about both. You can find Bella at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript Next week, we're sitting down with bestselling novelist Jodi Picoult to talk about how she steps inside the minds of people whose lives look nothing like her own, and why that kind of empathy might be one of the most undervalued skills we have. Midlife Design Lab: I'm opening up an intimate retreat with me and a small, curated group in Boulder, CO (Oct 24-25, 2026), followed by 3 months of virtual group coaching. A few weeks back, I shared something I'd been building for myself, and the response blew me away, so spots are limited and I expect them to fill fast. If this calls to you, apply here. Check out our sponsors and resources: Visit Our Sponsor Page Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
September 8 · 1 hr
The Midlife Curiosity Tour That Changed Everything | Allison Aubrey
Allison Aubrey walked into a longevity lab expecting a great story. She walked out believing she was failing at key parts of her own life. After 25 years as one of NPR's most trusted health and science reporters, Aubrey agreed to a battery of tests meant to measure her biological age, and the results rattled her enough to send her on a curiosity tour, looking for answers that had nothing to do with biology. What she found became her new book, Your Turn, a reframing of the years between 50 and 75 as a third turn, the part of life where, against every expectation, a hidden surge of energy and purpose becomes possible. In this conversation, Jonathan and Allison get into the moment a lab technician's offhand comment sent her into a spiral, the recurring dream that a professional dream analyst helped her decode, and the real reason she finally stepped away from the newsroom rhythm she'd built her 25-year identity around. You'll hear how she distinguishes passion from purpose from simply mattering, and why one of those three actually shows up in your bloodwork. You'll hear the real stories behind her "curiosity tour," including a retired police officer who found her purpose as the last person walking a community 5K, and a scientist who left a powerful research job to pull invasive vines off trees in her own neighborhood. And you'll hear the simple, repeatable patterns Allison found across dozens of women from all walks of life who made real pivots, one that starts by going inward before it ever asks you to go outward. If you've ever wondered whether the pull toward something different in your life is real or just restlessness, this conversation offers something rare: actual evidence, and actual permission. You can find Allison at: It's Your Turn Substack | Instagram | Episode Transcript Next week, we're sitting down with Bella DePaulo to talk about what it actually means to be single at heart, and why some of the deepest, most authentic lives being lived right now aren't built around a partner at all. Midlife Design Lab: I'm opening up an intimate retreat with me and a small, curated group in Boulder, CO (Oct 24-25, 2026), followed by 3 months of virtual group coaching. A few weeks back, I shared something I'd been building for myself, and the response blew me away, so spots are limited and I expect them to fill fast. If this calls to you, apply here. Check out our sponsors and resources: Visit Our Sponsor Page Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
September 3 · 1 hr 3 min
Why Grit Alone Doesn’t Cut It: New Research From Angela Duckworth
Angela Duckworth on why grit is only half the story. Acclaimed researcher Professor Angela Duckworth returns to unpack a bigger idea behind grit: your environment matters as much, if not more, than your mindset. Jonathan and Angela Duckworth explore how situation, peers, mentors, and culture shape the thoughts you have, the effort you can sustain, and the kind of person you become. They also dig into the practical question of change: if you want a different outcome, how do you stop blaming yourself and start redesigning the conditions around you? Key topics: Angela Duckworth reframes grit as part of a larger system, arguing that the "inside game" and the "outside game" are linked. She explains why high achievers often think in more positive, productive ways, and why those thoughts are strongly influenced by the situation they are in. The conversation breaks down the three-box model: situation, thoughts, response. Angela and Jonathan discuss how emotions and behavior fit into that model, and how feedback loops can create either virtuous or vicious cycles. Angela shares how trying harder during a difficult period in her marriage and career made things worse until she changed the situation. They walk through four situational levers: personal space, peers, mentors, and culture. Angela gives concrete examples of environmental design, from keeping her phone out of reach to using visible reminders like notes, rings, and calendar prompts. The episode makes a strong case for noticing before changing, using situational awareness as the first step toward agency. Angela distinguishes agency from blame, arguing that recognizing a harmful situation does not mean it was your fault. The conversation closes with a broader definition of a good life: creating situations that bring out the best in other people. You can find Angela at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript Next week, we’re sitting down with Allison Aubrey to talk about why midlife can become a turning point for purpose, connection, and a deeper kind of self-trust. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss that or any upcoming episodes! Midlife Design Lab: I'm opening up an intimate retreat with me and a small, curated group in Boulder, CO (Oct 24-25, 2026), followed by 3 months of virtual group coaching. A few weeks back, I shared something I'd been building for myself, and the response blew me away, so spots are limited and I expect them to fill fast. If this calls to you, apply here. Check out our sponsors and resources: Visit Our Sponsor Page Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
August 31 · 1 hr
How to Make Better Decisions | Shane Parrish [Best of]
Most of us think good decisions happen in the moment. Shane Parrish says they’re already decided before you sit down. And most of them end up being bad, because you waited too long to make them good. Shane Parrish spent years inside Canadian intelligence, making real-time decisions where the stakes were other people's lives, long before he founded Farnam Street and The Knowledge Project podcast. He's the author of Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results, and has quietly become the person elite investors, athletes, and Silicon Valley leaders turn to when a single decision carries outsized weight. In this conversation, you'll explore: Why the position you're in before a decision matters more than the decision itself, and how Warren Buffett almost never finds himself in a bad one The four hidden "defaults" that hijack your thinking before you notice The three-word phrase Shane uses with his own kids to defuse an argument before it escalates Why "doing your best" almost never happens in the hour it counts, and what actually determines the outcome A simple night-before, morning-after trick for spotting the blind spots in any decision you're about to make Whatever season of life you're in, this conversation will change how you see the ordinary moments that quietly decide everything else. You can find Shane at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript Next week, we're sitting down with Angela Duckworth to talk about why the advice to just make the best of your situation might be exactly backwards, and how the people and things within arm's reach are quietly shaping who you become before you ever get a say. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss any upcoming episodes! Midlife Design Lab: I'm opening up an intimate retreat with me and a small, curated group in Boulder, CO (Oct 24-25, 2026), followed by 3 months of virtual group coaching. A few weeks back, I shared something I'd been building for myself, and the response blew me away, so spots are limited and I expect them to fill fast. If this calls to you, apply here. Check out our sponsors and resources: Visit Our Sponsor Page Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
August 27 · 58 min
Why Avoiding a Fight is Killing Your Relationship (and How to Fight Well) | Priya Parker
Priya Parker comes back to argue that the fights you're avoiding aren't threatening your closest relationships; they're the only thing that can save them. Priya Parker is a facilitator and strategic advisor who has spent two decades helping churches, companies, and families fight better, not less. She's the acclaimed author of The Art of Gathering and her new book, The Art of Fighting, and she's spent her career inside the rooms where groups either fall apart or find their way back to each other. What you'll explore: Why "conflict is not sin," and how a moral hangover from that idea keeps good relationships stuck in surface-level peace The concept of "relational longing," the pulse underneath a fight that tells you whether it's worth having Priya's three-phase framework for a healthy fight, and the one question that unlocks the middle phase The "we're not a" clause: a phrase to listen for that reveals what a group is actually trying to become Why giant sequoias can't reproduce without fire, and what that means for families, teams, and marriages that go decades without a real disagreement If you've been mistaking distance for peace, this conversation is an invitation to find out what's actually still alive underneath. You can find Priya at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript Next week, we're sitting down with Shane Parrish to talk about why the way most of us make big decisions is quietly working against us, and the small, repeatable shifts that can change that. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss any upcoming episodes! Midlife Design Lab: I'm opening up an intimate retreat with me and a small, curated group in Boulder, CO (Oct 24-25, 2026), followed by 3 months of virtual group coaching. A few weeks back, I shared something I'd been building for myself, and the response blew me away, so spots are limited and I expect them to fill fast. If this calls to you, apply here. Check out our sponsors and resources: Visit Our Sponsor Page Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
August 24 · 44 min
The Menopause Timeline Most Women Never Learn Until Midlife | Dr. Jessica Shepherd
Most women don't hear about perimenopause until they're already deep into it, sometimes a decade in. This week, guest host Karen Walrond talks with OB/GYN and Generation M author Dr. Jessica Shepherd about the actual, gradual shape of that transition, the real math behind hormone therapy decisions, and why nearly 40% of a woman's life happens after menopause even begins. It's less a symptom checklist than a new starting point for the next several decades. What you'll explore: The gas-tank way to picture where you actually are between reproductive years and menopause Why symptom severity has almost nothing to do with how "together" you otherwise are The difference between the "symptom bucket" and the "longevity bucket" in deciding on hormone therapy Why perimenopause itself splits into an early, mid, and late phase, and why the late phase is the window with the most protective upside for starting hormones What the SWAN study found about how menopause symptoms differ by race, and why that matters long-term If you've been treating menopause as a phase to survive rather than a stage to prepare for, this resets the starting point. You can find Jessica at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript Next week, we're sitting down with Priya Parker to talk about why conflict, handled well, might be one of the things that makes your closest relationships stronger instead of weaker, and what most of us get backwards about the moment right before it happens. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss any upcoming episodes! Midlife Design Lab: I'm opening up an intimate retreat with me and a small, curated group in Boulder, CO (Oct 24-25, 2026), followed by 3 months of virtual group coaching. A few weeks back, I shared something I'd been building for myself, and the response blew me away, so spots are limited and I expect them to fill fast. If this calls to you, apply here. Check out our sponsors and resources: Visit Our Sponsor Page Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
August 20 · 1 hr 3 min
How to Avoid Cognitive Decline & Dementia (starting in your 40s) | Dr. Tommy Wood
Your brain does not have to decline with age. Recent research reveals that for most people, staving off cognitive decline or dementia is more about lifestyle, especially in your 30s to 50s, than age or genetics. And, amazingly, retirement might be the single biggest danger zone for your brain health. Neuroscientist Dr. Tommy Wood has spent his career studying what actually predicts a declining brain, and the answer has almost nothing to do with age. It's what happens the day you stop being challenged, especially the day you retire. This week: why the smartest, most accomplished people you know may be the ones most at risk, and the two-part check you can run at your next doctor's visit that sets the stage for the next fifty years. What you'll explore: Why age-specific dementia rates have quietly been falling for decades, even as headlines warn of a coming epidemic The real difference between forgetting a name (a retrieval problem) and never actually experiencing it in the first place (an encoding problem), and why only one of those predicts dementia Tommy's 3S model: stimulus, supply, and support, the framework he uses to make sense of everything that keeps a brain sharp The truth about brain games, and what really works to keep your brain primed with age Why the most educated, highest-achieving people often face the steepest cognitive drop right after they stop working The exact numbers to get checked at your next doctor's visit if you're in your 40s or 50s If you're standing at the edge of any major life transition, or supporting a parent who is, this conversation will change how you think about what actually protects your mind. You can find Tommy at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript Next week, we're sitting down with Dr. Jessica Shepherd, alongside guest host Karen Walrond, to talk about why so much of what we've been told about menopause is either outdated or flat wrong, and what personalized care for this stage of life can actually look like. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss any upcoming episodes! Midlife Design Lab: I'm opening up an intimate retreat with me and a small, curated group in Boulder, CO (Oct 24-25, 2026), followed by 3 months of virtual group coaching. A few weeks back, I shared something I'd been building for myself, and the response blew me away, so spots are limited and I expect them to fill fast. If this calls to you, apply here. Check out our sponsors and resources: Visit Our Sponsor Page Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
August 17 · 55 min
Sleep Doesn't Have to Get Worse With Age | Dr. Rebecca Robbins
Every night, while you're asleep, your brain runs a cleaning cycle that clears out the kind of toxic buildup linked to Alzheimer's and dementia. And, with age, most of us sleep less. We are shortchanging the benefits without ever realizing how much control we actually have over sleeping longer, and better. Dr. Rebecca Robbins is an Assistant Professor in Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Sleep Scientist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, where her research spans sleep's relationship to cognitive function, cardiometabolic health, and long-term brain health. She's published more than 100 peer-reviewed studies, co-authored Sleep for Success!, and her work is exactly the kind of research most of us never hear about until someone frames it the way she does here. In this conversation, you'll explore: Why sleep really does shift around age 38 to 40, and what that shift does and doesn't mean for you The neuroscience discovery of the brain's overnight "wash cycle," and what Dr. Robbins's own eight-year study found about sleep complaints and dementia risk Why jumping your bedtime back an hour almost never works, and the fifteen-minute method that does The at-home test Jonathan didn't realize he'd already run on himself The "sleep divorce" reframe one of Dr. Robbins's patients calls a "sleep marriage," and what it means for couples If you've quietly decided your sleep is just what it is at this stage of life, this conversation will change what you think is actually possible tonight. You can find Rebecca at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript Next week, we're sitting down with Tommy Wood to talk about what the research actually shows about keeping your brain sharp across decades, including which levers matter most, what's mostly noise, and what you can realistically start tomorrow, whether you're 45 or 65. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss any upcoming episodes! Midlife Design Lab: I'm opening up an intimate retreat with me and a small, curated group in Boulder, CO (Oct 24-25, 2026), followed by 3 months of virtual group coaching. A few weeks back, I shared something I'd been building for myself, and the response blew me away, so spots are limited and I expect them to fill fast. If this calls to you, apply here. Check out our sponsors and resources: Visit Our Sponsor Page Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
August 13 · 56 min
The Self-Care Trap: Why Doing Everything Right Often Isn’t Enough | Jonathan Fields
You can have a genuinely excellent self-care practice, the meditation, the training, the tracked sleep, the nutrition, and still be using every bit of it to avoid the one question that actually needed asking. In this episode, I turn the mic on myself. After 14 years and thousands of conversations about what it takes to live well, I trace the year my own "robust" wellness practice, meditation, training, nutrition, connection, everything, ended in a stress-induced medical diagnosis at the exact moment I'd have called myself the most dialed-in version of my life. Turns out, you cannot self-care your way out of a fundamental misalignment in a core area of your life. So, today, we’re exploring: The real distinction between self-care that restores you and self-care that just makes a misaligned life more bearable, or worse, hides what actually needs your true attention. Three 90-second tests, duration, imagination, intensity, that tell you honestly which one you're running The five places structural misalignment hides in midlife, including the "cumulative weight" version almost nobody names Why subtraction, not another practice, is usually the actual fix A six-move menu for making one concrete structural change in the next 30 days If your practice has been working harder for smaller returns lately, this conversation will tell you whether that's a regulation problem or a fit problem, and what to do about either one. Episode Transcript If you LOVED this episode, you can find the 1-page worksheet HERE. Mentioned in this episode: How to Finally Have the Talk You’ve Been Avoiding. Next week, next week we're sitting down with Dr. Rebecca Robbins to talk about why the sleep advice most of us are following was built for a body and a schedule most of us don't actually have anymore. 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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
August 10 · 1 hr 8 min
What 10-Year-Olds Know About Mental Health That the Rest of Us Forgot | Dr. Niobe Way
We've been calling it a loneliness epidemic and treating it like a mental health problem. NYU developmental psychologist Niobe Way says that's the wrong diagnosis, and she has almost 40 years of data on teenage boys to make her case. Niobe Way has spent nearly four decades running longitudinal studies with teenagers, tracking the same kids from middle school into adulthood. Her research on boys, friendship, and masculinity has made her one of the go-to voices on loneliness, connection, and what's actually driving rising rates of depression, anxiety, and violence among young men, along with similar struggles with girls. And, these all tend to follow us well into adulthood. Her latest book is Rebels with a Cause: Reimagining Boys, Ourselves, and Our Culture. In this conversation, you'll explore: Why mental health is a symptom, not the root problem, and what Way calls "social health" instead The moment, around age 15, when boys start hiding their feelings in public Why boys learn to sacrifice the relationship to protect themselves, and girls learn to sacrifice themselves to protect the relationship The dinner-table questions that build real closeness instead of shutting kids down A simple, almost embarrassingly doable practice Way uses with total strangers to rebuild a sense of belonging Whether you're raising a teenager, trying to figure out why your own friendships have gone thin, or just wondering why everyone feels so alone lately, this conversation reframes the whole question. You can find Niobe at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript Next week, it's just me, flying solo, to talk about the self-care trap: the difference between practices that actually help you thrive, and ones that just help you tolerate a life that no longer fits. 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 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.

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