Good Life Project

Garrard Conley is the author of the New York Times Best Selling memoir Boy Erased (https://amzn.to/2CioQ7k), now also a major motion picture (http://www.focusfeatures.com/boy-erased).Growing up in a small town, immersed in a faith-based community, Conley survived conversion therapy before becoming a writer, activist and speaker (http://garrardconley.com/). He lectures at schools and venues across the country on radical compassion, writing through trauma, and growing up gay in the complicated South. He works with other activists to help end conversion therapy in the United States and abroad. He is also a returned Peace Corps volunteer, having served in Ukraine as an ESL instructor and HIV/AIDS educator.Conley's writing can be found in The New York Times, TIME, VICE, CNN, BuzzFeed, Them, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Huffington Post, among other places, and he is currently at work on a novel about queer 18th century lives.In today's conversation, we explore Garrard's personal journey, his career as a writer and advocate, and how it feels having your story told in a major motion picture featuring Nicole Kidman, Lucas Hedges and Russell Crowe.-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.Check out our offerings & partners: Beam Dream Powder: Visit https://shopbeam.com/GOODLIFE and use code GOODLIFE to get our exclusive discount of up to 40% off. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Samin Nosrat is writer, teacher, and chef (http://ciaosamin.com/).Her New York Times bestselling book, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat (https://amzn.to/2BsSc2x), received the James Beard award for Best General Cookbook and was named Cookbook of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Samin's recent Netflix series of the same name (https://www.saltfatacidheat.com/) is a stunning exploration of food, culture, travel and life.Called “the next Julia Child” by NPR’s All Things Considered, Samin has been cooking professionally since 2000, when she first stumbled into the kitchen at Chez Panisse restaurant. An EAT columnist for The New York Times Magazine, Samin lives, cooks, reads, and gardens in Berkeley, California.In today's conversation, we explore her journey, growing up the child of first-generation immigrant parents in southern California and feeling like the outsider. We dive into her lifelong love of writing and books, her experience with anxiety and depression and work to be present and joyful in her life. And, we track her "strange left turn" into the world of food and, now, with the massive success of her book and Netflix series, how she's navigating the pace, exposure and opportunities coming her way.-------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.Check out our offerings & partners: Beam Dream Powder: Visit https://shopbeam.com/GOODLIFE and use code GOODLIFE to get our exclusive discount of up to 40% off. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Success is not just about knowing what to do. It's about doing it.Information, plans and goals will not get you where you want to go. Nor will willpower. Success is about something bigger.To succeed at anything worth doing, you must make key shifts in your environment, mindset and community that "turn on" the actions needed for game-changing results.I call this "Success Scaffolding." It applies to everything, from weight loss to business, and relationships to careers.In today's episode, instead of our traditional guest conversation, I'm sharing and in-depth walk-through of my "8P Success Scaffolding™" framework.Every element, every step, nothing held back. Why? Because it is that time of year when millions commit to big, new, deeply-meaningful goals, only to walk away or fail by the time we hit February. Not because we don't want it badly enough. Not because we're not smart enough. But, because we do not have our Success Scaffolding in place.This is my New Year's offering. I shared it for the first time in 2017, but have continued to research and develop it since then. And, this year, you'll discover a new, greatly expanded version. It is about helping you make this year different, bridging the gap between hope and reality.You can find the 1-page worksheet HERE.Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKED: We’re looking for special guest “wisdom-seekers” to share the moment you’re in, then pose questions to Jonathan and the Sparked Braintrust to be answered, “on air.” To submit your “moment & question” for consideration to be on the show go to sparketype.com/submit. Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount CodesCheck out our offerings & partners: Beam Dream Powder: Visit https://shopbeam.com/GOODLIFE and use code GOODLIFE to get our exclusive discount of up to 40% off. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tim Ferris has been on a mission (http://tim.blog/podcast/) to deconstruct excellence his entire adult life. It began with his own relentless experimentation and documentation, which yielded #1 New York Times bestsellers The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body and The 4-Hour Chef.In more recent years, this yearning has led him to sit down with hundreds of elite-performers and share the conversations on his award-winning podcast (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tim-ferriss-show/id863897795?mt=2). Tim and I recorded a Good Life Project conversation back in 2016 which you can listen to here (http://www.goodlifeproject.com/tim-ferriss/).Today, we go in a very different direction. After the loss a number of close friends and mentors and passing the 40-year mark, Tim found himself in a contemplative and emotional space. In this week's conversation, we drop into the deep end of the pool quickly. When we sat down, he'd recently returned from an intensive 10-day silent meditation retreat. While gone, he lost yet another close friend. He was, in his own words, in an incredibly "porous" place, leading more from the heart than the head, which is a bit of a major turnaround for him.We spent time deconstructing Tim's 10-day silent meditation experience, his struggles and awakenings and contrasted it with his earlier psychedelic experiences. We also talked about his experience with death, his decision to append audio of his most recently departed friend, Terry Laughlin, which was recorded by Terry's daughters in the hospital during his final days of life to the end of Tim's recent podcast interview with Terry (https://tim.blog/2017/10/29/terry-laughlin/).We explore why he "threw out" the TED talk he'd prepared minutes before stepping onto the stage and, instead, talk about something deeply painful and personal from the heart. And, we explored Tim's awakening to a "softer" set of metrics to measure a life well-lived and his evolving definition of what it truly means to live a good life.I'm so excited to share this final "Best Of" episode of 2018, as a powerful prompt to explore ways to be more intentional and proactive in the year that awaits us.-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.Check out our offerings & partners: Beam Dream Powder: Visit https://shopbeam.com/GOODLIFE and use code GOODLIFE to get our exclusive discount of up to 40% off. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In November 2009, Bronnie Ware (http://bronnieware.com/) published a short essay entitled Regrets of the Dying (http://bronnieware.com/regrets-of-the-dying/) It revealed the top 5 regrets people had shared with her in the final days of their lives, when she worked in palliative care.That short essay went massively viral, leading to an international bestselling book, The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying (https://goo.gl/eWJr2t) along with a frenzy of attention, travel and the start of a new career as a writer.But, what about Bronnie? Who was this Australian artist turned banker turned palliative care-worker? What led her to do such soulful work, in a field so many others could never imagine embracing? What were the deeper drivers, hidden passions, big dreams and, also, profound and dark struggles? What happened to her after the global phenomenon took hold, shaking her existence in a powerful way, both for the better and for the worse? And, what is she up to now?I asked Ware these questions and more when she came to the Good Life Project studios in NYC during a monthlong trip from Australia. The conversation got very real and deeply truthful. She was incredibly generous with both her inner thoughts and beautiful lens on life.I'm so excited to share this timeless "Best Of" episode with you now, as we reflect on the year that is winding down and explore how we want to create the year to come.--------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.Check out our offerings & partners: Beam Dream Powder: Visit https://shopbeam.com/GOODLIFE and use code GOODLIFE to get our exclusive discount of up to 40% off. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the surface, Casey Gerald (http://www.caseygerald.com/), was living the dream.Growing up in Oak Cliff, Texas, he broke from the binds of an addicted, imprisoned dad and mentally-ill mom to become a star athlete, scholar, then a student at Yale, where he majored in political science and played varsity football.Heading next to Harvard Business School, while pursuing his MBA, he co-founded a foundation, MBAs Across America, that landed him on MSNBC, at TED and SXSW, on the cover of Fast Company, and in The New York Times, Financial Times, and The Guardian, among others.But, when you scratch the surface, things weren't as they seemed. As he shared in this week's conversation, everyone wants to make you into a nugget, a simplified soundbite. Gerald was anything but. Struggling with everything from his sexuality and faith, to his fierce desire to carve his own unique path, to live his own life, Casey, decided to walk away from it all, begin to write, and follow a path of self-discovery and revelation. His journey is laid bare in a stirring new memoir, There Will Be No Miracles Here (https://amzn.to/2QHjyvE)-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.Check out our offerings & partners: Beam Dream Powder: Visit https://shopbeam.com/GOODLIFE and use code GOODLIFE to get our exclusive discount of up to 40% off. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ever wonder if it’s possible to build a flourishing career and global brand, without going to college?Growing up in San Diego and Tampa, Rebecca Minkoff (http://www.rebeccaminkoff.com/) learned at a young age, if she wanted something, she’d have to work for it, or make it herself. That work ethic led her to begin making her own clothes in her early teens, then designing and creating costumes for theater in high-school.Desperate to leave Tampa behind as soon as she could, but not feeling college, she headed to New York at 18 years old and began to work in the world of fashion and design, learning everything from design to all aspects of business. She began making her own designs and, working tirelessly, created a single t-shirt that would seed the launch of a business that would grow to produce an iconic line of handbags, apparel, accessories, footwear, jewelry and build a global brand.And, more recently, she’s headed into entirely new territory with the launch of her own podcast, Superwomen (https://www.rebeccaminkoff.com/pages/superwomen) which celebrates the multidimensionality of women, from CEOs to chefs, entrepreneurs to instructors who shape culture, change the world, and lift each other up along the way.We talk about all of this and much more in today’s Good Life Project episode.-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.Check out our offerings & partners: Beam Dream Powder: Visit https://shopbeam.com/GOODLIFE and use code GOODLIFE to get our exclusive discount of up to 40% off. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Nepo (http://marknepo.com/) has been immersed in a path of spiritual inquiry for more than forty years. He is the author of twenty books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller The Book of Awakening and his newest book, More Together Than Alone (https://amzn.to/2AFBGgm).His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. In 2014, Mark traveled the country with Oprah Winfrey on her sold-out The Life You Want Tour and has appeared several times on her Super Soul Sunday program.In this conversation we catch up with Mark (he's been a guest twice before) and dive into his decades-long inquiry around how we are wired to live in community, what happens when the bonds that connect us fail and how to rediscover community at a time when we seem more divided than ever.Want more of Mark Nepo? You can listen here to our 2015 conversation (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/podcast/mark-nepo/) and our 2016 conversation (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/podcast/mark-nepo-2/).---------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.Check out our offerings & partners: Beam Dream Powder: Visit https://shopbeam.com/GOODLIFE and use code GOODLIFE to get our exclusive discount of up to 40% off. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jennifer Marshall's (https://www.jennifermarshall.me/) life was going exactly as planned. Then, she turned 26 and everything changed.Marshall found herself unable to control her thoughts, spinning and struggling with reality. She was hospitalized and sent home to take some time and get some sleep. But, it would take yet a second hospitalization shortly after to reveal the fact that this was not about being overtired. It was about mental illness and how it would redefine Marshall's world in a profound way, from that moment forward.She was soon after diagnosed with bipolar. It was a lot for her and her family to take in, but instead of burying the conversation, she embraced it and even began to share her experiences publicly, first anonymously, then under her own name at Jennifermarshall.me (http://jennifermarshall.me/), and then widely on the front page of The Washington Post, Oprah Magazine, national TV and from the TEDx stage.Realizing the power of sharing her story, she co-founded and is now Executive Director of This Is My Brave, Inc., (http://thisismybrave.org/) a global storytelling initiative for people to share their stories of overcoming mental illness through creative expression at live events around the world, and online.We explore this powerful journey, along with how she and her husband explored the decision to become parents, build a family and work to remove the stigma from mental illness in this week's episode.--------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.Check out our offerings & partners: Beam Dream Powder: Visit https://shopbeam.com/GOODLIFE and use code GOODLIFE to get our exclusive discount of up to 40% off. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Seth Godin is the author of 18 books that have been bestsellers around the world and have been translated into more than 35 languages. He’s also the founder of the altMBA and The Marketing Seminar, online workshops that have transformed the work of thousands of people.He writes about (https://www.sethgodin.com/) the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything. You might be familiar with his books Linchpin, Tribes, The Dip and Purple Cow. His latest book is This Is Marketing (https://amzn.to/2JzNkMD).In addition to his writing and speaking, Seth has founded several companies, including Yoyodyne and Squidoo. His blog is one of the most popular in the world and in 2018, he was inducted into the Marketing Hall of Fame.Beyond all of this, Seth is just a straight up good human with wise things to share about everything from education, work, meaning and craft to chocolate, creativity, curiosity and so much more. In this wide-ranging conversation, we touch on all of this and more.In addition to this week's podcast, we filmed an episode of Good Life Project TV with Seth as a few years back, which you can check out here (http://www.goodlifeproject.com/podcast/the-best-of-seth-godin/)QUICK CORRECTION: Early in the conversation, Seth mentioned that John Scharffenberger had passed away. It was actually his former business partner, Dr. Robert Steinberg, who is no longer with us. In the speed and joy of the conversation, Seth conjoined them and neither of us picked it up until after the final edit. Apologies for any confusion. We appreciate your kind understanding.--------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.Check out our offerings & partners: Beam Dream Powder: Visit https://shopbeam.com/GOODLIFE and use code GOODLIFE to get our exclusive discount of up to 40% off. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.