Good Life Project

Latest Episodes:

Salacious Soundbites, Online Con-artists and Legacy Work May 04, 2016

Show notes

Today's Good Life Project Roundtable™ features guests-in-residence Daniel Lerner and Gabra Zackman. This is session 2 in their three-week residency.

Dan Lerner is a leading expert on elite performance, excellence and the realization of unique potential, working with musicians, athletes, and numerous Fortune 500 companies and executives. He's on the faculty at both New York University (where he teaches the always waitlisted “The Science of Happiness”) and the University of Pennsylvania, where he works with the graduate program in Applied Positive Psychology. He is currently writing a book about the process and mindset that leads to healthy, uniquely individual excellence.

Gabra Zackman is an actress, writer and voice over artist, frequent traveler and lover of adventure. She works regularly in theater, has a parallel and sustaining career in audiobook narration, having recorded over 300 audiobooks to date, and has had great success with her first writing contract, the humorous, romantic, spy-centered BOD SQUAD series. Her life philosophy is 'Say yes...and rock what you got'.

Our three topics in this episode:

The soundbite culture, how we take things as gospel, without validation.
Online, how do you tell the difference between con-artists and real deals?
If you knew you were soon to die, what would your legacy work be?

It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy! And let us know if you like this format, over on social media.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amy Koppelman: On Writing, Darkness, Love and Life May 02, 2016

Show notes

Today's guest, Amy Koppelman, is a three-time novelist (so far), mom and an incredibly insightful human being. Her latest novel is Hesitation Wounds.

Amy's second book, I SMILE BACK, was turned into a movie starring Sarah Silverman that premiered at the 2015 Sundance, Toronto and Deauville Film Festivals.

I wanted to sit down with Amy, because I was drawn in by her immediate, visceral writing voice, her willingness to explore places that might scare off many others and also because of her lens on the writing journey and on life.

In this conversation, not only does Amy share a bundle of unfiltered advice on the creative writing process, she also takes us, very transparently, into her personal journey and her lifelong dance with depression, becoming a mom and wife and author and how each affected the other.

Listen in for some insightful thoughts on traversing the creative writing process to write your best work.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

Why every creative writer’s process has to be their own.
Amy’s Tip: Assume that no one will read your writing. Your honesty will flow more freely to weave a more compelling story.
The six-word story Hemingway wrote to win a bet.
How using writing prompts can jumpstart your creative process when nothing else will.
How Amy uses writing as a “toilet bowl” to therapeutically express emotions.
Her method of expressing inner turmoil and using truth in her novel characters,
Her view on mental health, depression, medication and therapy.
Why comparing your work with that of professional artists isn’t a comparison at all and can lead to self-defeating tendencies.
Amy’s take on “giving yourself permission” to do something that impacts others.
Why personal suffering is NOT a core requirement for artists as many people believe.
Confronting “Imposter Syndrome” when people ask “What do you do?”
What it was like to be interviewed on air by the love of her life.

Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

Amy’s Website: AmyKoppelman.com
Amy’s Books: Hesitation Wounds, I Smile Back, A Mouthful Of Air
Amy’s Interview on Her Husband’s Podcast
J.D. Salinger
Philip Roth - American Pastoral
Chris ‘Daze’ Ellis (check back as we're airing an episode with him in July 2016)
Michael Stewart
Raymond Carver - A fantastic grammatical writer
Toronto Film Festival

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Loving-Kindness and Compassion in Business? Really?! Apr 29, 2016

Show notes

In Buddhism as well as in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, you'll find a conversation about four virtues known as the four immeasurables.

These are qualities that we might seek to both cultivate and then embody in the name of service. But, they're also known to have a profound affect on the way we experience challenge, stress, relationships, work and pretty much all of life.

Wondering what they are?

Loving-kindness

Compassion

Appreciative Joy

Equanimity

These are four virtues that I try to explore and cultivate in life. But, I was also curious, what might happen if you worked to cultivate the four immeasurables specifically in the quest to craft a meaningful business or career?

Exploring this question is what today's GLP Riff is all about.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alec Ross: Middle School Teacher Turned Global Innovator Apr 27, 2016

Show notes

Alec Ross is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Johns Hopkins University and the author of The New York Times bestseller The Industries of the Future.

He recently served for four years as Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Prior to his service in government, Alec was a social entrepreneur and served as convener from technology, media & telecommunications policy on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008.

Much of his interest in tapping technology and innovation to make a better world comes from his career as a sixth-grade teacher through Teach for America in inner-city Baltimore, during one of the most challenging times in the city's history, and also his upbringing in a small mining-turned-chemical town where opportunity was not always easily found.

In his book, The Industries of the Future, he explores what he believes will be the major growth industries and also career opportunities for the next few decades, while also shining the light on some of the most fascinating innovations of our time and offers a lens into where they're headed (and why we might want to get on board).

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

How growing up in a coal-turned-chemical town profoundly shaped his lens of work and life.
His path from inner city teacher to the founder of an NGO to the tech and media policy director for the Obama campaign to working in the State Department under Hilary Clinton.
Why he fears 'the gray twilight'.
How he hacked solutions to foreign policy problems.
How he got abuelas in Mexico to take down cartel leadership through texting.
Why his name was a banned search term in China for 2 years.
Why he believes that the next trillion dollar industry will be created from genetic code and personalized medicine.

Mentioned in This Episode:

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Caroline Paul: Fighting Fires, Writing Books and Gutsy Girls Apr 25, 2016

Show notes

Caroline Paul is the New York Times best-selling author of four books, including her memoir about being a San Francisco firefighter, called Fighting Fire, and the illustrated Lost Cat, A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology.

In her latest book, The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure, she shares her greatest escapades—as well as those of other girls and women from throughout history. The Gutsy Girl encourages a new generation to conquer fears, face challenges and pursue the lives they want—lives of confidence, self-reliance, friendship and fun.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

Her unlikely path to becoming one of the first women in the San Francisco Fire Department.
How she learned that her brother was a secret animal liberation leader for 20 years.
Is there such a thing a 'girl books' and 'boy books'?
The writing collective that kept her sane.
Why she loves flying experimental planes, but not all the fancy gadgets and gear.

Mentioned in This Episode:

No Boys Allowed: School visits as a woman writer by Shannon Hale
Why Do We Teach Girls That It’s Cute to Be Scared? by Caroline Paul
Celia Slater's work with True North Sports
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Fighting Fire by Caroline Paul

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Surfer’s Guide to Entrepreneurship Apr 22, 2016

Show notes

I'm not a big surfer, but I grew up on the water and around the water.

Over the years, I've noticed a number of powerful parallels between surfing and entrepreneurship. And, sitting at the beach one day, I started to think about what surfing might teach you about launching and growing a venture.

I distilled these ideas into a short essay, which I'm sharing as spoken word in today's short and sweet Good Life Project Riff.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Roundtable: Gabra Zackman & Daniel Lerner Apr 20, 2016

Show notes

Today's Good Life Project Roundtable™ features guests-in-residence Daniel Lerner and Gabra Zackman. This is session 1 in their three-week residency.

Gabra Zackman is an actress, writer and voice over artist, frequent traveler and lover of adventure. She works regularly in theater, has a parallel and sustaining career in audiobook narration, having recorded over 300 audiobooks to date, and has had great success with her first writing contract,the humorous, romantic, spy-centered BOD SQUAD series. Her life philosophy is 'Say yes...and rock what you got'. They'll be our guests-in-residence for the next three weeks, so buckle up.

Our three topics in this episode:

Is there a double-standard for male Romance book models?
Who are the musicians creating real social commentary today?
How is technology interacting with conversation soft signals?

It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy! And let us know if you like this format, over on social media.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John O’Leary: Forged By Fire Apr 18, 2016

Show notes

Today's guest, John O'Leary, has lived through worse than most can imagine.

At age nine, a fire burned 100% of his body. He spent five months in the hospital, underwent dozens of surgeries, lost all of his fingers to amputation and had to relearn to walk, write, and feed himself.

He endured, persevered, and survived – largely because others emerged, served and inspired. He now lives to share the life-giving lessons from his story in a new book, On Fire: The 7 Choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life.

In This episode, You’ll Learn:

+How the fire that burned him affected his siblings.
What it was like to date and eventually find love and marry
Why the great goal of his life for so many years was just to be ordinary
How he was called from carpenter and roof layer, to international inspirational speaker.
How a book his parents wrote to say thank you to their community altered the course of his life forever.
Four questions that you can ask yourself every day that will allow you to live an awesome mindset.

Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

Overwhelming Odds

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Katie Dalebout: Why Journal? Apr 15, 2016

Show notes

Today's Guest Riff is brought to you by Katie Dalebout.

She’s the author of the book Let It Out: A Journey Through Journaling.

Katie helps people develop a positive image of their bodies by embracing their creativity and personality outside of their physicality. She’s on a mission to share journaling tools that invoke deeper authenticity and self-awareness.

And, today's short and sweet GLP Riff is all about, you guessed it, journaling, what it is, what it isn't, what it does for you, why you should never edit when journaling and she even offers some tips and prompts to get you started.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Roundtable: Susan Piver & Lodro Rinzler – Part 3 Apr 13, 2016

Show notes

Today's Good Life Project Roundtable™ features guests-in-residence Susan Piver and Lodro Rinzler. This is the last session in their three-week residency.

Susan is a New York Times bestselling author, teacher, and founder of the international mindfulness community, The Open Heart Project. Working to create a good human world, one breath at a time.

Lodro is a teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage, the author of five books on meditation, and the founder of M N D F L, a new studio making meditation accessible to all New Yorkers, and the Institute for Compassionate Leadership. They'll be our guests-in-residence for the next three weeks, so buckle up.

Our three topics in this episode:

Who do you idolize and why?
What does the future of meditation look like?
There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes.

It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy! And let us know if you like this format, over on social media.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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