Living A Life In Full

Dr Chris Stout; Best Selling Author | Adventurer | Angel Advisor | (Acciden
Living A Life In Full

“Living a Life in Full” is the conversation you always wanted to have with that person who gave an amazing TED talk, or the author of one your favorite books, or that inspirational Olympian you always wanted to know more about. This show is for the intellectually curious. You want to not just know more about the interesting and the innovative, but also what makes them tick, and maybe even what makes them laugh. It’s graduate-level conversations with those making a difference in the world and the lives of others. This show brings you new ideas and approaches so you can live a life in full. The show is equal parts information and inspiration, but without the aphorisms and pablum. We cover a wide range of topics in an engaging way—from Burning Man to The Renaissance Weekend, from the United Nations to top universities, Nobel Laureates to astronauts—we have an amazing Rolodex. Interviewees are a who’s who of high performance athletes, bestselling authors, high-caliber leaders, world changing humanitarians, innovative researchers, amazing start-up founders, clever life-hackers, paradigm busting thought-leaders and global innovators. Cheers, and thanks, Chris http://www.alifeinfull.org/

  1. DEC 1

    Scott Young on Mastering How to Get Better at Anything

    Life depends on learning. We spend decades in school acquiring an education. We take pride in mastering a craft, or a sport, or a game. The things we do in our careers or even just for fun are enjoyed to a large extent because we feel we are capable of getting better at them.  We yearn for mastery. But learning can be elusive. We may spend hours studying and still not do well on an exam.  Improvement can be fickle - if it comes at all. Sometimes we improve effortlessly, and other times it can be a slog. Many of us can spend years hitting a tennis ball, playing chess, or working at our jobs, and not reliably get better at any of them. Why is that and more importantly, what can be done?  In Scott Young’s new book, Get Better at Anything: 12 Maxims for Mastery, he explores the science of skill acquisition, illustrating the basic principles that can help us get better at the things that matter most. Scott was a prior guest on the show in episode 37 when we discussed his Wall Street Journal bestseller Ultralearning. He is also a podcast host and, a computer programmer. Since 2006, he has published weekly essays to help people learn and think better. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Pocket, and Business Insider, on the BBC, and at TEDx. While he doesn’t promise to have all the answers, he does give us a good place to start.  Scott is a wellspring of knowledge about learning and provides a way for us all to be able to live our lives more fully.

    1h 29m
  2. NOV 1

    John Marks’ Journey from Provocateur to Peacemaker

    It seems that almost everywhere in the world, there is conflict, distrust, and unrest – Gaza, Ukraine, Syria, and even here in the US. Oftentimes, any kind of diplomacy, cooperation, agreement, detente or finding a common ground seems impossible. But what if there was a different way? What if there was an organization that holds as its mission, “to transform the way the world deals with conflict, away from adversarial approaches and toward cooperative solutions?” What if those tactics included dialogue training, joint development projects, public art projects, sports leagues, and social impact entertainment via radio, TV, film, and print? Well, these are all accomplishments that John Marks has achieved in his work as President of Search for Common Ground, a peacebuilding NGO he founded in 1982 and built with his wife Susan Collin Marks, predicated on social entrepreneurship.  He is the coauthor of the controversial New York Times best-seller The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, the award-winning Search for the “Manchurian Candidate,”  and we’ll be doing a deep dive into his latest book, From Vision to Action: Remaking the World Through Social Entrepreneurship, just recently published by Columbia University Press.  John is also a Skoll Awardee in Social Entrepreneurship and an Ashoka Senior Fellow. The UN’s University of Peace awarded him an honorary doctorate for is work, and in 2018, Search for Common Ground was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. I found From Vision to Action to be both a memoir and somewhat of a practitioner’s guide to the underlying principles of social entrepreneurship. It offers a master class in effective negotiation and conflict resolution. It builds on a core strategy of understanding differences and acting on commonalities. John uses his own experiences of creating real-life breakthroughs during his time leading Search for Common Ground.  John’s pioneering work has genuinely made the world a safer and better place for us all – he is an inspiration.

    1h 6m
  3. OCT 1

    Ben Guttmann on the Power of Simplicity

    We are not as smart as we think we are.  We're busy and distracted in a world that is incentivized to continually make us more of both. The only things that work, the only messages that cut through the noise, are sharp, clear, and direct. We’ve all been advised to “not judge a book by its cover,” to “not count your chickens before they hatch,” and that “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Maybe for you, what comes to mind is something political, like Patrick Henry’s revolutionary “Give me liberty, or give me death!” or more recently, Barack Obama’s “Yes We Can.” Now think for a second about the other few thousand messages you heard in the past 24 hours –things told to you, like ads, warnings, instructions, or even things you’ve sought out, like articles, social media posts, or stories.  How many of them do you actually remember? How many of the things that you’ve said, do other people remember? Do they actually even hear what you’re saying? The answer is simple. Literally. Simple. Regardless if these messages are trying to get your dollars, your votes, or just your thoughts, the most effective messages all share one thing. They-are-simple. Ben Guttmann is interested in the things and ideas that move people - why we make the decisions we make; why we vote for who we vote for; why we buy the products we buy, and ultimately, why we do what we do. We did a deep dive into his new book, Simply Put: Why Clear Messages Win-and How to Design Them. It emphasizes the importance of clear communication, and we discussed why he believes clarity is such a critical skill, both personally and professionally. Simply Put offers strategies for simplifying complex ideas and messages. Ben stepped me through the key principles and techniques listeners can use to streamline their communication effectively. It was a fun and informative conversation with one of the best. Ben’s work is a gift to not only his students, but to all of us who want to communicate more clearly, and simply.

    1h 18m
  4. SEP 1

    Daniel Goleman, PhD, on Emotional Intelligence and Optimal Performance on

    You have likely seen moments of peak performance—perhaps an athlete plays a perfect game or a business that has a quarter with once-in-a-lifetime profits. Perhaps you have experienced something similar – playing a musical piece perfectly, making a faultless shot, or perhaps acing a final. But these moments are often elusive, and for every amazing day, we may have a hundred ordinary or even unsatisfying days.  Now, imagine your best day at work - you exceed the goals set for you, your interactions with coworkers are productive and bristle-free, the new system you implemented has boosted productivity company-wide, and you leave the office feeling on top of the world rather than crushed under the weight of it.  What if your best day could be every day?  This is something that Dr. Daniel Goleman knows a lot about. Along with Dr. Cary Cherniss, they have written Optimal: How to Sustain Personal and Organizational Excellence Every Day, which discusses how emotional intelligence can help us have a great day, any day, or said another way, to consistently work at our “optimal” level. Daniel Goleman is a renowned psychologist, author, and science journalist. For twelve years, he wrote for The New York Times, reporting on the brain and behavioral sciences. His 1995 book Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ was on The New York Times Best Seller list for a year-and-a-half, was a bestseller in numerous countries, is in print worldwide in 40 languages, and has sold over six million copies. A frequent speaker on campuses and to businesses, he has worked with organizations around the globe, examining the way social and emotional competencies impact the bottom-line. Daniel is ranked as one of the 10 most influential business thinkers by the Wall Street Journal, and his articles in the Harvard Business Review are among the most frequently requested reprints.  We covered topics of ways for a person to attain better self-awareness, organizational citizenship and becoming a “good organizational citizen” along with ways to become one. And research has found that, emotional intelligence can improve productivity and engagement, career advancement, job satisfaction, and better health.  As I noted at the beginning, Daniel and his work have served as an inspiration and role model for me in my career as a psychologist, and I am deeply indebted. He shares his gifts with the world at large via living with purpose and fulfillment in order to live our lives in full.

    45 min
  5. AUG 1

    Topaz Adizes on How a Single Conversation Can Change a Relationship Forever

    Have you ever found yourself in the presence of someone you love dearly and had nothing to say? The silence, not indicative of your care for the other, nor of your desire to connect with them, and yet there were no words you could grasp to articulate the depth or quality of your connection to them. Or, have you found yourself in the same looped pattern of conversation with someone you love? Feeling as though you were treading the same path repeatedly, and it was simply exhausting? Or, even worse, it was deteriorating your connection. We all crave connection. But sometimes we need help getting there. Topaz Adizes offers a guide to having the conversations that can lead to that connection in his latest book, 12 Questions for Love: A Guide to Intimate Conversations and Deeper Relationships. After a decade of exploring human emotions and intimacy through more than 1200 conversations in his Emmy Award-winning experience design studio, The Skin Deep, Topaz has been studying and watching humans of all types, and in all kinds of relationships, simply talk. And it’s resonating, having over 1.2 million followers on TikTok and 900,000 on YouTube. Topaz is a writer, director, and experience design architect. He is an Edmund Hillary Fellow and Sundance/Skoll Stories of Change Fellow. His works have been selected to Cannes, Sundance, IDFA, and SXSW; featured in New Yorker magazine, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times; and have garnered an Emmy for New Approaches to Documentary, along with Two World Press photo awards for Immersive Storytelling and Interactive Documentary.  He is currently the Founder and Executive Director of The Skin Deep. Topaz studied philosophy at UC Berkeley and Oxford University. He speaks four languages, and currently lives in Mexico with his wife and two children.  In this episode, Topaz shares what he has learned from witnessing over 1200 conversations and the lessons from his own first-hand experiences.  Topaz’s creativity, like his humanity, seems boundless. His work on relationship developments is a useful approach to helping us all have deeper and more intimate relationships that helps each us live our lives in full.

    1h 4m
  6. JUL 1

    Rob Schwartz on Life's Greatest Lesson

    Over 20 million copies of one of the most famous memoirs of all-time, “Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson” written by Mitch Albom, have been sold since its 1997 publication, and to this day it remains on many a college’s required reading list.  Twenty-eight years after Morrie Schwartz passed away, his son Rob Schwartz, has edited his father’s last work, and posthumously published what has become a bestselling new book, “The Wisdom of Morrie: Living and Aging Creatively and Joyfully.”  Rob is a journalist and entrepreneur, having founded a number of companies, both in Japan and the US, and held executive positions in others. He’s produced numerous film and music projects with international teams. His areas of expertise include the entertainment industries in Asia, the US, and Europe. His projects often have a special emphasis on music, film, online business development, and developing musical artists’ careers, as well as working for Billboard in Asia.  He has appeared on Good Morning America, Nightline, PBS NewsHour, NBC10 Boston, and in WebMD, Psychology Today, Reader’s Digest, and People magazine. Rob is currently one of the producers of Onetopia, a benefit music festival. I asked Rob what it was like growing-up in the in the Schwartz household along with his work and background, and what took him to Asia and his work there as a founder, journalist, and in production.  The book’s been described as a profound, poetic, and poignant masterpiece of living and aging joyfully and creatively, but he first starts off examining ageism and explaining how poisonous it is and how wrong it is. In his reflections he confronts the false notion that people are somehow made less by the aging process, and his coining the term “age casting,” as an aspect of ageism and diminishing a person’s value solely based on their age. We wrapped-up our conversation with him sharing a bit about his efforts in producing a global benefit festival dedicated to mental health and has a playlist on Spotify. He’s also working on the development of Holocaust survivors’ story as a documentary as well.  Rob’s perspectives, work and life serve as an inspiration to us all to live our lives in full.

    1h 39m
  7. JUN 1

    Alex Tapscott on the Promise of Digital Disruption

    When you think of modern technologies that aren’t gadgets and gizmos, you probably think of the Web, and with it, the Internet.  If so, you aren’t really thinking of modern technologies. We are entering a new age. We’ve moved from the “Read-only Web,” which had little functionality for interacting with content, to the “Read-Write Web,” which offered seemingly endless collaborative opportunities, from sharing things with friends and family to shopping at your favorite brands. But the profusion of cyberattacks, data hacks, and online profiling have left many of us to view digital life as a Faustian bargain in need of a major rethink. It brings with it a new lexicon and vocabulary for concepts and tools like blockchains, the metaverse, NFTs, DAOs, decentralized finance, and self-sovereign identity. In this episode, Alex Tapscott will serve as our guide and interpreter of this brave new world.  Alex is the author of the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail Bestseller Web3: Charting the Internet’s Next Economic and Cultural Frontier. He is also an entrepreneur and seasoned capital markets professional focused on the impact of emerging technologies, such as Web3, AI, VR/AR, the Metaverse, blockchain and cryptocurrencies, on business, government, and society. Alex is masterful in communicating via both the written and spoken word as to complex topics that are critically important to our future and living fuller lives. As he wrote “In the Read-Write-Own Web of Web3, we are not merely spectators; we are authors of our digital destiny, reclaiming control over our identities and assets.” This episode is not to be missed if you want to better understand what the future holds and how it will impact us all and society.

    1h 29m
  8. MAY 1

    Mountaineer, Entrepreneur, Guinness World Record Holder, and Mom: Jenn Drummond on Becoming BreakProof

    We all have an Everest.  Even if you are not an alpinist or mountaineer, we are all on individual journeys, facing ascents and descents as we strive toward our personal and professional peaks. Whether yours is to achieve a big, audacious goal, or to find a way to coexist better with your mother-in-law, how you navigate the journey is up to you. You can choose to stop, to turn around, or to keep going. And you can choose to find meaning in the challenges along the way and embrace the joy in the journey.  And what if you could transform challenges into triumphs? Well, Jenn Drummond has a lot to say about how to do that through resilience, determination, and mindset. Jenn is a Guinness World Record holder for being the first woman to climb all of the 7 Second Summits, and she’s also a successful business owner, international speaker, author, host of the Seek Your Summit podcast, and the mother of 7 remarkable children. She also helps others create thriving businesses and lasting legacies of their own through her speaking and writing; in fact we’ll do a deep dive into her new book, BreakProof: 7 Strategies to Build Resilience and Achieve Your Life Goals. Listen and embark on a journey of personal growth and learn actionable strategies and exercises to build resilience and handle life's challenges. We discuss the importance of goal setting, continuous self-improvement and personal growth, along with ways to troubleshoot seemingly insurmountable obstacles.  I think Jenn’s life and adventures can serve as a blueprint for becoming breakproof. Jenn has a wonderful set of amazing accomplishments in all aspects of life that are models of empowerment and inspiration on how to live a life in full.

    1h 24m
4.8
out of 5
24 Ratings

About

“Living a Life in Full” is the conversation you always wanted to have with that person who gave an amazing TED talk, or the author of one your favorite books, or that inspirational Olympian you always wanted to know more about. This show is for the intellectually curious. You want to not just know more about the interesting and the innovative, but also what makes them tick, and maybe even what makes them laugh. It’s graduate-level conversations with those making a difference in the world and the lives of others. This show brings you new ideas and approaches so you can live a life in full. The show is equal parts information and inspiration, but without the aphorisms and pablum. We cover a wide range of topics in an engaging way—from Burning Man to The Renaissance Weekend, from the United Nations to top universities, Nobel Laureates to astronauts—we have an amazing Rolodex. Interviewees are a who’s who of high performance athletes, bestselling authors, high-caliber leaders, world changing humanitarians, innovative researchers, amazing start-up founders, clever life-hackers, paradigm busting thought-leaders and global innovators. Cheers, and thanks, Chris http://www.alifeinfull.org/

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