Everyday Better with Leah Smart

Even though our personal growth depends on it, we don’t always prioritize reflecting back on where we’ve been in order to move forward. But we can’t make a change unless we know where we’ve started. So today Leah offers a tool, the Lifeline, that can help you take stock of the positive, negative, and neutral events of your year, and focus in on how you can change the narrative you have around the negative emotions, and start moving beyond the negatives – because that’s where all the good stuff happens.Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

As the old year winds down, we’re sharing a favorite episode from the archives: influencer, artist, poet, and author Morgan Harper Nichols. Morgan shares how she got comfortable being creative, why your dream matters and the ways her community and curiosity drive her work.Follow Morgan on LinkedIn and check out her beautiful art on Instagram.Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn🚨 Great News! 🚨 In the Arena has been nominated for a Signal Listener’s Choice Award, for Most Inspirational Podcast. And we need your help! If you’ve gotten something out of In the Arena this year, please vote and share with your friends! Click the link above, or go to vote.signalaward.com and search for “In the Arena.” The deadline to vote is Thurs. December 22. Thank you, thank you for helping us grow the show. We couldn’t do it without you.

Katherine May’s moving memoir Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times resonated deeply with the audience who found it when it was published in 2020. It’s about her own journey through a personal “winter”: a period of time when she had to retreat into herself in order to cope with the world. Drawing on research about how Northern cultures have weathered the inevitable cold season, and interspersed with wisdom about moving through your own winter, Wintering is a balm. Leah and Katherine sit down to talk about how to make a better self-help genre, slowing down, and embracing the seasons of your life.🚨 Great News! 🚨 In the Arena has been nominated for a Signal Listener’s Choice Award, for Most Inspirational Podcast. And we need your help! If you’ve gotten something out of In the Arena this year, please vote and share with your friends! Click the link above, or go to vote.signalaward.com and search for “In the Arena.” Thank you, thank you for helping us grow the show. We couldn’t do it without you.Follow Katherine on InstagramFollow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

The Danish prepare for their cold, dark winters by leaning into hygge, which loosely translates to “coziness.” To understand how hygge and happiness are linked, Leah sits down with Meik Wiking, founder and CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen – and author of the books The Little Book of Hygge and the new My Hygge Home. They dive into the art of hygge and how connection – and simple pleasures – are key to happiness.Follow Meik on LinkedInFollow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

In a favorite episode from the archives, Leah talks with bestselling author and podcast host Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project to get to the bottom of happiness – and why who you truly are may be your most important clue to how to be happier.Follow Gretchen on LinkedIn and check out her work at https://gretchenrubin.com/Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

Manifesto can be a charged word, but Charlotte Burgess-Auburn, Stanford d.school professor and author of the new book You Need a Manifesto: How to Craft Your Convictions and Put Them to Work, says it’s time to reclaim it. In this interview, she walks Leah through what putting your own values and priorities on paper can do to clarify your path, and the 5 C’s of manifesto creation.Follow Charlotte on LinkedInFollow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

Huma Abedin’s incredible career – as advisor to former Senator, Secretary of State, and Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton – and challenging personal life – her ex-husband, former Representative Anthony Weiner, was caught sending suggestive photos to women online – can’t be separated from one another. And Huma doesn’t want them to be. Her memoir Both/And tells both stories, along with many others, and allows space for the complexity we all carry. She joined Leah in studio for a rousing and inspiring conversation on mental health, family, and doing the thing that scares you.Follow Huma on LinkedInFollow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

Let Leah guide you through a meditation meant to renew your connection with your self and your breath.Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

Mike Evans couldn’t have predicted his success: he founded Grubhub because he wanted a snack and to pay off his student loans, and stayed with the company through a wildly successful IPO. But it’s what he’s done since that’s differentiated him from other startup founders: first, leaving Grubhub to take a transcontinental bike trip, and also his new company, Fixer, which aims to do social good even as it turns a profit. Leah and Mike get into all of that - and the story told in Mike’s new memoir, Hangry: A Startup Journey - in this rousing conversation in the arena.Follow Mike on LinkedInFollow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

We spend a lot of time going inward on In the Arena… but we rarely actually talk about internal organs like the brain or the heart. Today, that changes, with guest Dr. Marc Milstein, author of The Age-Proof Brain: New Strategies to Improve Memory, Protect Immunity, and Fight Off Dementia. Marc and Leah get into what you can do now to keep your brain younger and healthier to increase longevity. One of the key tricks? Start now, no matter your age.Follow Marc on LinkedInFollow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn