What is a Good Life?
Mark McCartney
Recent Episodes
On the 152nd episode of What is a Good Life?, I welcome Tim Leberecht, one of the most original and passionate voices on creating a more humane future of business. Tim is a German-American entrepreneur, curator, and author, and the co-founder and co-CEO of the House of Beautiful Business, a global community for those who seek more from work and from one another. A sought-after keynote speaker, his two TED Talks have been viewed more than 3 million times. He is the author of The Business Romantic (Harper Business, 2015), translated into ten languages, The End of Winning (Droemer, 2020), and the forthcoming Supercurator (Basic/Hachette, 2027). Tim is also a BMW Foundation Responsible Leader.
In this conversation, Tim reflects on belonging, intimacy, and what it means to live a good life amidst the pressures of performance and an increasingly AI-shaped world. He speaks to the value of sensitivity, connection, and community — and how creating spaces for presence and honest conversation can reshape how we experience ourselves and each other.
This is a conversation for anyone longing for deeper connection — with themselves, with others, and with a world becoming ever more synthetic.
For more of Tim's work:
Website: https://houseofbeautifulbusiness.com/
Books: http://timleberecht.com/books/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tleberecht/
HoBB newsletter: https://houseofbeautifulbusiness.substack.com/
For more of my work:
Contact me at [email protected] if you'd like to explore your own good life through 1-on-1 coaching and group online courses.
- The podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos
- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/p/individual-coaching
00:00 — The question of belonging
04:15 — Morning reconstruction of self
07:42 — Performance and authenticity tension
11:18 — Limits of self-optimisation
15:03 — Beauty and the good life
19:27 — Connection in a synthetic world
23:54 — Silence as shared intimacy
28:31 — Intimacy beyond human relationships
33:45 — AI as conversational partner
38:12 — Being changed by dialogue
44:08 — Sensitivity as core value
51:36 — Conditions for belonging
On the 151st episode of What is a Good Life?, I welcome Olaf Lewitz. Olaf is the Trust Artist, a leadership thinker and coach who’s endlessly curious about our similarities and differences, and how context shapes the quality of attention we give each other. He’s learning how to change systems so that they support life rather than extract or exploit it, sourcing wisdom and insight from unexpected places. He does this through his TrustTemenos Academy and his work with Dark Matter Labs.
In this conversation, we explore the question “What am I missing?” as a way into anger, boundaries, and the stories we tell ourselves – and how much of our “drama” is created by our interpretations rather than reality.
Olaf shares how an unshakeable sense of worth and hope help him live with paradox: enjoying a good life while staying awake to harm, responsibility, and the future of our children – and what that invites us to examine in our own lives.
For more of Olaf's work:
Website: https://www.trusttemenos.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olaflewitz/
Contact me at [email protected] if you'd like to explore your own good life through 1-on-1 coaching and group online courses.
- The podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos
- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/
00:00 — “What Am I Missing?”
06:00 — Discovering Anger & Boundaries
11:20 — How We Create Drama
15:45 — Interpreting vs. Experiencing Reality
20:50 — Laughing at Ourselves
24:45 — Balancing Care and Boundaries
29:35 — Childhood Patterns & Self-Worth
35:55 — Hope Without Optimism
41:50 — Paradox of a Good Life
47:40 — Future, Responsibility & Children
53:50 — What is a good life for Olaf?
On the 150th episode of What is a Good Life?, I welcome Claire Goodey. Claire is an artist, writer, and humanistic psychotherapist. After a decade in private practice—alongside a new autism diagnosis, perimenopause, and a shifting social landscape—she’s returning to her creative roots to cultivate a slower, more analogue way of living. From this liminal space, Claire blends therapeutic insight with artistic expression, offering presence, vulnerability, and play to others feeling the squeeze of modern life.
In this conversation, Claire and I explore what it means to stay part of a world that often feels overwhelming, especially while navigating major life transitions. We discuss the gap between knowing something intellectually and living it, the challenge of discerning fear from genuine bodily wisdom, and the importance of presence, rest, and connection.
Claire shares her evolving relationship with retreat—what she calls “getting into the slipper”—and how love, openness, and honest self-attunement can shape a more humane way of being.
For more of Claire's work:
Website: https://www.clairegoodey.com/
Contact me at [email protected] if you'd like to explore your own good life through 1-on-1 coaching, group online courses, or to discuss team coaching to stimulate greater trust, communication, and connection, amongst your leadership teams.
- The podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos
- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/
- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/
00:00 Being a part of the world
05:01 Pendulum of growth
06:45 Late autism diagnosis
11:51 Base needs
12:15 Embodiment vs thinking
17:51 Trust the process
19:30 Fear driving so much of the culture
26:22 Sound sensitivity outside
35:33 “Into the slipper”
39:10 Intentional resting
52:28 What is good life?
On the 149th episode of What is a Good Life?, I welcome Adam Mastroianni. Adam is an experimental psychologist and author of the popular science newsletter Experimental History. His work has been featured in Nature, The New York Times, and Jimmy Kimmel Live. He has escaped from over 170 escape rooms.
In this conversation, Adam discusses the nature of questions and curiosity as driving forces in life. He explores the concept of being possessed by ideas, the role of suffering in personal growth, and the shift from academia to independent thought.
This episode highlights the impact that finding your unique role—and contributing meaningfully to the world from that place—can have on your life.
For more of Adam's work:
Newsletter: https://www.experimental-history.com/
Website: https://www.adammastroianni.com/
Contact me at [email protected] if you'd like to explore your own good life through 1-on-1 coaching, group online courses, or to discuss team coaching to stimulate greater trust, communication, and connection, amongst your leadership teams.
- The podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos
- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/
- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/
00:00 – Possessed By Big Questions
04:06 – Enjoying The Friction
07:48 – Why Toilets Took Millennia
13:13 – First Day Being Curious
18:16 – Internet Praise Vs Real Life
23:51 – Freedom Without A Boss
28:07 – Choosing Productive Fear
31:07 – Leaving A “Good” Career
36:52 – What’s Worth Suffering For
45:46 – The Cost Of Pretending
48:00 – The Ideas Graveyard
52:15 – What Is A Good Life?
On the 148th episode of What is a Good Life?, I welcome Leigh Marz, a collaboration and leadership coach for major universities, corporations, and federal agencies. She has led training programs to promote an experimental mindset among teams at NASA and a decade-long cross-sector collaboration to reduce toxic chemicals in products, in partnership with Green Science Policy Institute, Harvard University, IKEA, Google, and Kaiser Permanente. Leigh coauthored Golden: The Power of Silence in a World of Noise and cofounded Astrea Strategies, helping leaders bridge contemplation and action.
In this conversation we explore silence as a living presence—how inquiry, pauses, and shared quiet unlock better thinking, connection, and wellbeing. We cover mapping noise (auditory, informational, internal), flow states, and why slowing down in groups (even at work) sparks novel solutions.
This episode invites listeners to rediscover silence as a living teacher — one that reveals what truly matters when we’re quiet enough to hear it.
For more of Leigh's work:
Link to the book: Golden: The Power of Silence in a World of Noise
Astrea Strategies: https://astreastrategies.com/
Her website: https://leighmarz.com/
Contact me at [email protected] if you'd like to explore your own lines of self-inquiry through 1-on-1 coaching, my 5-week group courses, or to discuss team coaching to stimulate greater trust, communication, and connection, amongst your leadership teams.
- For the What is a Good Life? podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos
- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/
- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/
00:03 – Intro & why start with questions
04:03 – Origins of the silence inquiry & HBR article
09:00 – “What’s the deepest silence you’ve known?”
12:41 – Freedom moment: “Silence teems with life”
16:41 – Quiet together: practices beyond meditation
24:44 – Mapping noise: auditory, informational, internal
29:33 – Antidote: signals you need silence & “positive distractions”
35:00 – Designing retreats for novel thinking
38:21 – “Slow down, there isn’t much time.”
46:13 – Silence & the nervous system
52:00 - How the inquiry into silence has shaped Leigh
58:12 – Leigh’s response to “What is a good life?”