What is a Good Life?
What is a Good Life?

What is a Good Life?

Mark McCartney

Overview
Episodes

Details

A project exploring the big questions around how we live, who we are and what actually matters. Over the past four years, I’ve sat with more than 300 people — artists, parents, executives, wanderers, therapists, and strangers and invited them into a simple but profound inquiry, "What is a good life for you?" The conversations explore presence, paradox, uncertainty, and the moments that shape a life - love and loss, trust and fear, clarity and not knowing. It’s an invitations to slow down, to listen deeply, and to bring you into conversation with your own life. There are new episodes every Tuesday.

Recent Episodes

What is a Good Life? #177 - Complicated Locks, Simple Keys with Sam Smith
JUN 2, 2026
What is a Good Life? #177 - Complicated Locks, Simple Keys with Sam Smith
This week Mark McCartney sits down with Sam Smith. Sam sees life as a big old experiment. He used to play professional rugby, before starting a few businesses. Now he spends his time speaking to people, writing and loving his family. Last year he wrote his first book, The Door Was Never Locked. His latest project with his friend Garth, Conscious Soup launches soon, it's a Living Experiment. They aren't sure what that means yet.In this conversation, Sam opens up about the moment he retired from rugby at 26 and collapsed on a bathroom floor crying, escaping this transition with work and alcohol, and how a simple repeated gesture from a coach changed the entire direction of his life.We explore identity, the stories we carry without questioning, what it really means to lead as a human, and why a good life for him is wanting all of it - even the hard parts. If you are navigating any big life transitions right now, this conversation may be particularly helpful.For more from Sam Smith: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conscious-soup-studio/You can grab a copy of his book: https://amzn.eu/d/07QwCqFQAnd he'd love to hear from you: [email protected] out Sam’s next project with Conscious Soup here: www.conscioussoup.comFor more from Mark McCartney: Newsletter: https://www.whatisagoodlife.com/ Website: https://www.mmcleadership.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife3875
play-circle icon
56 MIN
What is a Good Life? #176 - What Is It About Dogs? with Doug Skoke
MAY 26, 2026
What is a Good Life? #176 - What Is It About Dogs? with Doug Skoke
What is it about dogs?It's the question Doug Skoke has been sitting with and it turns out, trying to understand what makes his golden doodle Harley tick has become one of his most impactful explorations of how to actually live well.Doug is the Founder & CEO of LFG NOW!, a boutique executive search firm, and a Gallup-certified CliftonStrengths Coach - but what defines him more than any title is a lifelong obsession with people, energy, and what it means to show up fully in your own life. A daily meditator and firm believer in the Platinum Rule - treat others as they prefer to be treated - Doug has spent over a decade exploring practical and spiritual approaches to growth, resilience, and presence.What begins as a question about why dogs are so emotionally regulating opens into one covering grief, crisis, dialectical behavioural therapy, the self-love pendulum, radical acceptance, and what it actually means to lift others up.Whether you're drawn to mindfulness, emotional intelligence, personal growth, or just an honest human conversation - this episode is for you.For more from Doug Skoke:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougskoke/For more from Mark McCartney:Newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/Website: https://www.mmcleadership.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/ ⁨@whatisagoodlife3875⁩  00:00  Five Years In The Making01:15  What Is It About Dogs?03:30  The Thought Bubble Cartoon06:00  What Dogs Know About Presence09:09  When His Brother Died11:14  Alma's Unwavering Welcome13:20  Angels In Disguise18:50  Unconditional, Every Single Moment24:20  The Dog He Almost Gave Away30:53  Learning To Regulate40:15  The Self-Love Pendulum1:01:08  What Is A Good Life for Doug?
play-circle icon
64 MIN
What is a Good Life? #175 - Closing the Gap Between Values & Life with Jennifer Garvey Berger
MAY 19, 2026
What is a Good Life? #175 - Closing the Gap Between Values & Life with Jennifer Garvey Berger
In this episode of What is a Good Life?, Mark McCartney sits down with Jennifer Garvey Berger - author, global leadership coach, and co-founder and CEO of Cultivating Leadership - to explore one of the most honest questions a person can ask: am I actually living in alignment with what I say matters most?Jennifer has spent decades helping leaders untangle big questions and find more courageous, compassionate ways to lead. All four of her books are Stanford University Press top sellers of the last decade. But here, she turns that same rigorous curiosity on herself.She shares the moment she realised her deepest values - generosity and curiosity - have their own shadows. She unpacks the concept of values as polarities, why rigid adherence to a single value leaves the whole system weak, and how she learned to hold temporary certainty without pretending to have all the answers.If you're interested in personal growth, leadership, values, conscious living, philosophy of life, intentional community, or a good life, this episode is for you.For more from Jennifer Garvey Berger:Company Website: www.cultivatingleadership.comBooks: Unleash Your Complexity Genius: https://www.sup.org/books/business/unleash-your-complexity-geniusChanging on the Job: https://www.sup.org/books/business/changing-job-second-editionLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-garvey-berger-7b4a264/ For more from Mark McCartney:Newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/Website: https://www.mmcleadership.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/ ⁨@whatisagoodlife3875⁩  00:02  A Question Worth Following01:31  Closing the Values Gap04:01  When Values Cast Shadows08:53  Generosity and Curiosity's Dark Side13:02  Shame and the Human Condition16:29  Learning to Take Stands18:49  Standing for Love23:19  Certainty at Sea26:21  Time, Physics and Reality33:39  Rising to Love38:05  The Intentional Community50:28  What Is A Good Life for Jennifer?
play-circle icon
58 MIN
What is a Good Life? #174 - Being In The Pulse Of Life with Laura Beckingham
MAY 12, 2026
What is a Good Life? #174 - Being In The Pulse Of Life with Laura Beckingham
In this episode of What is a Good Life?, Mark McCartney sits down with Laura Beckingham - a modern mystic for turbulent times. It's a conversation that remains as grounded in the bread and butter of life as it ascends into the spiritual.We move from asking what existence is all about through radical inclusion, Family Constellations, ancestral wisdom, the right size in relationships, grief and death, the energy of birth - and why a good life for Laura is about staying in contact with the pulse of life.It will leave you with plenty to sit with.Laura works one-to-one with senior execs who are dismantling the system from the inside, and with people practitioners and creatives who are doing something of the same in their own way. You can also join her in community online, for ritual and reflective practice in The Sanctum, and at The Loom.For more from Laura Beckingham:Website: https://spacewith-in.com/ The Sanctum: https://spacewith-in.com/category/the-sanctum/The Loom: https://spacewith-in.com/the-loom-2026/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-beckingham-109bb625/For more from Mark McCartney:Newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/Website: https://www.mmcleadership.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/ ⁨@whatisagoodlife3875⁩  00:00  What Is All of This?02:15  Born Curious07:10  Knowing and Not Knowing10:25  Old Wisdom, New Ways14:50  Radical Inclusion18:30  Do No Harm20:45  The Right Size25:10  Life as Attunement28:30  Opening and Closing34:00  In Motion and Still40:40  The Witch and the Field55:35  Grief, death, birth1:01:00 What Is a Good Life?
play-circle icon
66 MIN