What is a Good Life? #63 - Being A Good Ancestor with Adah Parris

Mar 26, 2024

Adah Parris, a renowned futurist and artist, dives into her transformative journey towards authenticity and self-acceptance. She discusses the importance of seeing life as a series of experiments and emphasizes the role of curiosity in relationships. Adah reflects on what it means to be a good ancestor, urging a deeper kinship with both humanity and nature. She advocates for radical honesty and the power of presence in connections, urging listeners to embrace diversity and prioritize meaningful interactions over the chaos of modern life.

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INSIGHT

Ancestral Question

Adah Parris's guiding question is "What type of ancestor do you want to be?"
She believes this question is crucial, especially during current global challenges.

ANECDOTE

Waterfall Analogy

Adah's childhood activities, like ballet and nature exploration, shaped her values.
Her career path, from teaching to tech, reflects a consistent focus on learning and communication.

ANECDOTE

Finding Herself

Adah struggled with feeling like she didn't fit in, exacerbated by masking due to neurodivergence.
Through therapy and self-discovery, including diverse experiences like sculpture and pole dancing, she reclaimed her identity.

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On the 63rd episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast, I am delighted to introduce our guest, Adah Parris. Adah is a futurist, artist, keynote speaker, and a visionary in the fields of technology, ecology, innovation, and art. She chairs Mental Health First Aid England and is a Fellow at The Royal Society of the Arts. She is recognised as a TED Talks Global Emerging Innovator and celebrated by Forbes Brazil as one of the top futurists in the world.

In this episode, Adah shares with us her journey to being herself, how curiosity and not following convention influence her life, the lessons she has learned about honesty and transparency in relationships, and meeting the human in each other before anything else. She notes the significance of seeing life as a series of experiments and shares what contributes to being both a good ancestor and being in kinship with the world around us.

If you find yourself stuck in life and are unsure of what to do next, or feel your present ways of relating to others are causing you difficulty, Adah’s perspectives will give you so much to contemplate across a wide breadth of themes and topics that may help you see the world a little differently.

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

For further content and information check out the following:

- Adah's leadership program: https://www.weareseeds.xyz/

- Adah's Website: https://www.adahparris.art/

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

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

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

Contact me at mark@whatisagood.life to book a free consultation (30 minutes) for one-on-one coaching programs or click here to read about a leadership coaching program to build trust and connection amongst executive teams.

Running Order:
03:00 What type of ancestor do you want to be?

08:00 How values and curiosity shape Adah’s life

12:30 The journey to Adah being herself

18:40 Seeing life as a series of experiments

25:15 Letting go of how life should be

30:30 Lessons from authentic relating

36:15 The value and importance of difference

42:25 The importance of presence

49:30 Technology, busyness, and relating

54:48 Distorting Time

1:02:10 Being a good ancestor and kinship

1:07:52 Summary and what is a good life for Adah?