The Weekend University

Professor Jeremy Holmes, a British psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and leading attachment scholar, explores how attachment shapes therapy and relationships across the lifespan. They discuss the secure base, early caregiving, the “dodo bird” verdict in psychotherapy, mentalizing, therapeutic alliance, addiction as substitute attachment, and how therapy can foster autonomy, exploration, and resilience.

Dr. Gay Hendricks is a psychologist, relationship expert, and the best selling author of several books, including the "The Big Leap." With decades of experience helping people transform their lives, Dr. Hendricks has pioneered concepts like the "Zone of Genius" and the "Upper Limit Problem" that have revolutionized how we think about personal growth and fulfillment. In this conversation, we explore: — How setting "deathbed goals" at age 34 transformed Dr. Hendricks’ life and set him on a path of purpose — Why the "Zone of Genius" is essential for living a fulfilled life and practical ways to expand time spent there — The power of "wondering" as a creative practice that invites solutions and insights — How to overcome the fear of standing out and shining in your unique gifts — The importance of commitment in creating lasting transformation in relationships and work And more. You can learn more about Dr. Hendricks’ work, books, and coaching programs at https://hendricks.com. --- Gay Hendricks is a psychologist, teacher, and writer known for his work in personal growth, relationships, and body-mind integration. After earning his PhD in psychology from Stanford University, he taught for over two decades at the University of Colorado, founded The Hendricks Institute with his wife Kathlyn, and has authored over 30 books including The Big Leap, Conscious Loving, and Five Wishes. His work emphasizes conscious breathing, emotional awareness, and transforming relationships. You can learn more about his work at https://hendricks.com. --- Interview Links: — Dr. Hendricks' website: https://hendricks.com/ — Dr. Hendricks' book: https://amzn.to/4iwhP6A

Sign up for a Positive Acorn course today and join their upcoming live courses in September 2026 — https://positiveacorn.com/courses Robert Biswas-Diener is a coach, author, and researcher known for his original thinking and willingness to challenge conventional wisdom in the coaching field. His books include "Positive Provocation" and "The Upside of Your Dark Side," both of which explore nuanced perspectives on coaching and human psychology. In this conversation, we explore: — Why coaching is "easy to learn but hard to master" and the patience required to develop true expertise — How observing other coaches (especially those with different approaches) accelerated Robert's growth as a coach — The value of short coaching sessions for developing efficiency and precision — Why Robert believes we should question coaching "fortune cookie wisdom" and think more deeply about our practice — The nuanced approach to giving advice and challenging clients in coaching relationships And more. You can learn more about Robert's work and training programs at https://positiveacorn.com. --- Robert Biswas-Diener is a psychologist, author, and “Positive Provocation” thought-leader who asks provocative questions that challenge conventional wisdom in coaching. Co-author of Radical Listening and author of Positive Provocation: 25 Questions to Elevate Your Coaching Practice, his work helps coaches deepen their practice through curiosity, experimentation, and reflection. You can check more about his work at https://robertdiener.com/. --- Interview Links: — Dr. Biswas-Diener’s website - https://positiveacorn.com — Dr. Biswas-Diener’s book - https://amzn.to/3KmcVN0 — Positive Acorn's courses - https://positiveacorn.com/courses/

Michael Bungay Stanier is one of the world’s most respected voices in coaching. He’s the author of multiple bestselling books—including The Coaching Habit and How to Begin—and a master of distilling big ideas into simple, practical tools that help people do work that matters. In 2019, he was named the world’s #1 thought leader in coaching. In this conversation, we explore: — Why “we unlock our greatness by working on the hard things” — How Michael “zigs” when everyone else is zagging — His unique approach for finding the goals that truly light you up — The importance of finding simplicity on the other side of complexity. And more. You can learn more about Michael’s work and books at https://www.mbs.works. --- “My name is Michael. I can hop. Do you want to see me hop?” That’s how I introduced myself to bemused strangers at the supermarket when I was three. Honestly, not much has changed. Here’s the formal bio, with the best bits at the end. Michael Bungay Stanier is at the forefront of shaping how organizations around the world make being coach-like an essential leadership competency. His book The Coaching Habit “unweirds coaching”. It is the best-selling coaching book of this century, with over a million copies sold and more than ten thousand five-star reviews on Amazon. In 2019, he was named the #1 thought leader in coaching. Michael was the first Canadian Coach of the Year, has been named a Global Coaching Guru since 2014, and was a Rhodes Scholar. His most recent book, How to Work with (Almost) Anyone, shows how to build the Best Possible Relationship with the key people at work. Michael founded Box of Crayons, a learning and development company that had helped hundreds of organizations transform from advice-driven to curiosity-led. (Learn more at BoxOfCrayons.com.) Michael is a compelling speaker and facilitator, combining practicality, humour, and an unprecedented degree of engagement with the audience. He’s spoken on stages and screens around the world in front of crowds ranging from ten to ten thousand. His TEDx talk has been watched by a million and a half people. (Learn more at MBS.works.) En route to today—and these are essential parts of his origin story—Michael knocked himself unconscious as a labourer by hitting himself in the head with a shovel, mastered stagecraft at law school by appearing in a skit called Synchronized Nude Male Modelling, and his first paid piece of writing was a Harlequin Romance-esque story involving a misdelivered letter ... and called The Male Delivery. --- Interview Links: — Michael Bungay Stanier’s website - https://www.mbs.works — Michael’s book - https://amzn.to/4c0Fjij

Marjorie Woollacott, Emeritus Professor of Human Physiology and neuroscientist who studies movement, meditation, and consciousness. She discusses synchronicities and a playful, interconnected reality. She describes meditation awakenings, evidence for reincarnation and after-death communications, studies with nonverbal autistic children suggesting telepathic access, and the idea of the brain as a filter on a larger awareness.

In this episode, Niall speaks with Liam McClintock, a Yale graduate, former Buddhist monk, and founder of FitMind, a meditation training platform that helps people move beyond stress reduction into deeper states of awareness and well-being. After leaving a career in finance, Liam spent three years training in monasteries across Asia, studying under Bhante Vimalaramsi and learning advanced meditation practices, including jhana states and forgiveness meditation. He recently published his first book, “FitMind”, which brings together neuroscience and contemplative practice in practical tools for everyday life. In this conversation, they explore: — Why happiness supports meditation, not the other way around — How predictive processing theory helps explain why meditation reduces suffering — The neuroscience of jhana states and their role in reshaping the mind — A forgiveness practice for letting go of emotional baggage — The four-step framework for training attention: recognize, release, relish, and remain You can learn more about Liam's work at fitmind.org. --- Liam is the founder of FitMind, a mental fitness training platform that provides evidence-based programmes for individuals and organisations, including Uber. After studying history at Yale University and briefly working in finance, he left his career in 2018 to become a certified yoga and meditation teacher in Bali. His interest in the mind grew from a childhood diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), leading him to explore psychology, lucid dreaming, and a wide range of contemplative traditions. His training has included Theravada Buddhism in India, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia; Indigenous shamanism in Peru and Mexico; Boabom, an ancient Tibetan martial art, in Chile; Hatha and Ashtanga Yoga in Indonesia and Nepal; Tibetan Buddhist practices in Bhutan; and Dzogchen, Mahamudra, Qi Gong, and other contemplative disciplines in the United States. Liam later completed a Master of Science in Applied Neuroscience at King's College London, where his dissertation examined the neural correlates of advanced nondual meditation. Liam has since become a Buddhist monk to deepen his meditation practice and has participated in consciousness research at Harvard University. He has also advised on advanced meditation training for Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Drawing on both scientific research and first-hand contemplative experience, Liam's work bridges neuroscience and ancient wisdom traditions to help people cultivate greater mental fitness, resilience, and wellbeing. He believes that making mental fitness an accessible and enjoyable part of everyday life has the potential to improve both individual lives and society as a whole. --- Interview Links: — Liam’s website: https://fitmind.org — Liam’s book: https://amzn.to/3RJGOum — Fitmind Courses: https://fitmind.org/module — Fitmind Podcast: https://fitmind.org/learn

Jennifer Garvey Berger is a leadership coach, developmental psychologist, and the author of several books, including: Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps, Changing on the Job, and Unleash Your Complexity Genius. In 2023, she was shortlisted as one of the top 8 coaches in the world by Thinkers 50. In this conversation, we explore: — Daniel Gilbert’s idea that human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished - and the implications this has for growth and development — The 4 minds: self sovereign, socialized, self authoring, and self transforming - and how to know which stage you are at — What it means to become a ‘complexity genius’ — The importance of continuously upgrading our mental models all throughout life - and how best to do this. And more. You can explore Jennifer’s work and books at https://www.cultivatingleadership.com. --- Jennifer Garvey Berger believes that leadership is one of the most vital renewable resources in the world. At a time when organisations are often forging the path rather than following the path of others, leadership is about creating the conditions for people to be their most creative, connected, intelligent selves. She is a founding partner and CEO of Cultivating Leadership, a consultancy that serves executives and executive teams in the private, non-profit, and government sectors around the world. Her clients include Google, Microsoft, Novartis, Wikipedia, and Oxfam International. Jennifer designs and teaches leadership programs, coaches senior teams, and supports new ways of thinking about strategy and people with clients facing these dramatic shifts in complexity, volatility, and change in their workplaces and markets. She blends deep theoretical knowledge with a driving quest for practical ways to make leaders’ lives better. Jennifer also supports leaders one-on-one as a leadership coach. She supports clients to find their current growing edge and then make choices about how they want to grow, and she teaches coaches around the world transformational and developmental coaching approaches in her Growth Edge Coaching certification series. Jennifer speaks at leadership and coaching conferences, and she offers occasional courses for coaches at universities all over the world like Harvard University, the University of Sydney, and Oxford Brookes University. Jennifer holds a doctorate in adult development from Harvard University, where she studied under and worked with acclaimed developmental psychologist Robert Kegan. She was an Associate Professor at George Mason University before she left the academy on a mission to connect powerful research and the people doing real work in the world. Jennifer is an American by birth, a Kiwi by choice, and finds herself living now in London, far from her beach house on the Tasman Sea. Wherever she might call home, she loves laughing with her two nearly-grown children, rolling on the floor with her dog, and writing about leading, coaching, and living. --- Interview Link: — Jennifer’s website - https://www.cultivatingleadership.com

This episode features a conversation between Dr. Mark Vernon and Professor Peter Hawkins. This discussion is part of a series that Peter will be doing with some of the major thinkers and writers of our time, focusing on the necessary evolution of human consciousness, for humans to be future-fit to live on this planet in a way that makes a net-positive contribution to the wider ecology. The series is being done jointly with: The Weekend University and the Renewal Foundation. Dr. Vernon is a writer and psychotherapist whose work explores figures including William Blake, Dante, and Owen Barfield, making their insights accessible to contemporary readers seeking deeper understanding of consciousness and meaning. His recent book “Awake” examines how poetic imagination can reconnect us with dimensions of reality that modern culture has obscured. Peter is Emeritus Professor of Leadership at Henley Business School, founder of the Academy of Executive Coaching, and a leading authority on systemic leadership, coaching, and organizational transformation. His work integrates insights from psychology, systems thinking, ecology, and philosophy to help leaders navigate an increasingly complex world. His most recent book was: Beauty in Leadership and Coaching, which was published by Routeledge in 2025. In this conversation, they explore: — Why imagination is not just private fantasy, but a way of engaging with a deeper reality — How Owen Barfield's study of language reveals the evolution of human awareness across centuries — The distinction between original participation, separation, and final participation in the development of consciousness — Why addiction can be understood as a spiritual crisis rooted in misunderstanding what truly satisfies — How transforming human desire may help address the ecological and social challenges of our time — The difference between becoming "someone" and becoming "no one" in the spiritual journey And more. You can learn more about Mark's work and writings at markvernon.com and Peter's work at renewalassociates.co.uk. --- Interview links: — Prof. Hawkins’ website - https://renewalassociates.co.uk — Dr Vernon’s website: https://www.markvernon.com/ — Dr Vernon’s book: https://amzn.to/4vD4Mp3

Rich Litvin is a master coach with over 20 years experience, an entrepreneur, and the bestselling author of the Prosperous Coach - a book he co-wrote with Steve Chandler in 2013. In this conversation, we explore: — Why creating value should be your focus rather than "making a name for yourself" — The power of "scaling intimacy" rather than scaling your business — Why Rich coaches for insight rather than remedial problem-solving — The counterintuitive approach of raising your prices during economic downturns And more. You can learn more about Rich's work at https://richlitvin.com. --- Rich Litvin is a globally renowned leadership and high-performance coach, author, and founder of 4PC — an elite community for the top 4% of coaches and leaders worldwide. He helps exceptional individuals achieve exponential growth in impact, income, and influence through deep, transformative coaching. Co-author of The Prosperous Coach, Rich has built a global network of over 60,000 coaches and leaders dedicated to mastering the art of powerful client creation. You can check his work at https://richlitvin.com. --- Interview Link: — Rich’s website: https://richlitvin.com

Rachel Lewis-Marlow, somatically integrative psychotherapist and director of The Embodied Recovery Institute, reframes eating disorders as the body signaling belonging and safety needs. She discusses attachment-based, somatic approaches, the Embodied Recovery model and action cycle, how COVID and modern life disrupt co-regulation, and why therapist embodiment and relational nourishment matter in treatment.