Good Life Project

Angela Duckworth on why grit is only half the story. Acclaimed researcher Professor Angela Duckworth returns to unpack a bigger idea behind grit: your environment matters as much, if not more, than your mindset. Jonathan and Angela Duckworth explore how situation, peers, mentors, and culture shape the thoughts you have, the effort you can sustain, and the kind of person you become.

They also dig into the practical question of change: if you want a different outcome, how do you stop blaming yourself and start redesigning the conditions around you?

Key topics:
Angela Duckworth reframes grit as part of a larger system, arguing that the "inside game" and the "outside game" are linked.
She explains why high achievers often think in more positive, productive ways, and why those thoughts are strongly influenced by the situation they are in.
The conversation breaks down the three-box model: situation, thoughts, response.
Angela and Jonathan discuss how emotions and behavior fit into that model, and how feedback loops can create either virtuous or vicious cycles.
Angela shares how trying harder during a difficult period in her marriage and career made things worse until she changed the situation.
They walk through four situational levers: personal space, peers, mentors, and culture.
Angela gives concrete examples of environmental design, from keeping her phone out of reach to using visible reminders like notes, rings, and calendar prompts.
The episode makes a strong case for noticing before changing, using situational awareness as the first step toward agency.
Angela distinguishes agency from blame, arguing that recognizing a harmful situation does not mean it was your fault.
The conversation closes with a broader definition of a good life: creating situations that bring out the best in other people.

You can find Angela at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript

Next week, we’re sitting down with Allison Aubrey to talk about why midlife can become a turning point for purpose, connection, and a deeper kind of self-trust. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss that or any upcoming episodes!

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Most of us think good decisions happen in the moment. Shane Parrish says they’re already decided before you sit down. And most of them end up being bad, because you waited too long to make them good.

Shane Parrish spent years inside Canadian intelligence, making real-time decisions where the stakes were other people's lives, long before he founded Farnam Street and The Knowledge Project podcast. He's the author of Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results, and has quietly become the person elite investors, athletes, and Silicon Valley leaders turn to when a single decision carries outsized weight.

In this conversation, you'll explore:
Why the position you're in before a decision matters more than the decision itself, and how Warren Buffett almost never finds himself in a bad one
The four hidden "defaults" that hijack your thinking before you notice
The three-word phrase Shane uses with his own kids to defuse an argument before it escalates
Why "doing your best" almost never happens in the hour it counts, and what actually determines the outcome
A simple night-before, morning-after trick for spotting the blind spots in any decision you're about to make

Whatever season of life you're in, this conversation will change how you see the ordinary moments that quietly decide everything else.

You can find Shane at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript

Next week, we're sitting down with Angela Duckworth to talk about why the advice to just make the best of your situation might be exactly backwards, and how the people and things within arm's reach are quietly shaping who you become before you ever get a say. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss any upcoming episodes!

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Priya Parker comes back to argue that the fights you're avoiding aren't threatening your closest relationships; they're the only thing that can save them.

Priya Parker is a facilitator and strategic advisor who has spent two decades helping churches, companies, and families fight better, not less. She's the acclaimed author of The Art of Gathering and her new book, The Art of Fighting, and she's spent her career inside the rooms where groups either fall apart or find their way back to each other.

What you'll explore:
Why "conflict is not sin," and how a moral hangover from that idea keeps good relationships stuck in surface-level peace
The concept of "relational longing," the pulse underneath a fight that tells you whether it's worth having
Priya's three-phase framework for a healthy fight, and the one question that unlocks the middle phase
The "we're not a" clause: a phrase to listen for that reveals what a group is actually trying to become
Why giant sequoias can't reproduce without fire, and what that means for families, teams, and marriages that go decades without a real disagreement

If you've been mistaking distance for peace, this conversation is an invitation to find out what's actually still alive underneath.

You can find Priya at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript

Next week, we're sitting down with Shane Parrish to talk about why the way most of us make big decisions is quietly working against us, and the small, repeatable shifts that can change that. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss any upcoming episodes!

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Most women don't hear about perimenopause until they're already deep into it, sometimes a decade in. This week, guest host Karen Walrond talks with OB/GYN and Generation M author Dr. Jessica Shepherd about the actual, gradual shape of that transition, the real math behind hormone therapy decisions, and why nearly 40% of a woman's life happens after menopause even begins. It's less a symptom checklist than a new starting point for the next several decades.

What you'll explore:
The gas-tank way to picture where you actually are between reproductive years and menopause
Why symptom severity has almost nothing to do with how "together" you otherwise are
The difference between the "symptom bucket" and the "longevity bucket" in deciding on hormone therapy
Why perimenopause itself splits into an early, mid, and late phase, and why the late phase is the window with the most protective upside for starting hormones
What the SWAN study found about how menopause symptoms differ by race, and why that matters long-term

If you've been treating menopause as a phase to survive rather than a stage to prepare for, this resets the starting point.

You can find Jessica at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript

Next week, we're sitting down with Priya Parker to talk about why conflict, handled well, might be one of the things that makes your closest relationships stronger instead of weaker, and what most of us get backwards about the moment right before it happens. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss any upcoming episodes!

Check out our sponsors and resources: Visit Our Sponsor Page
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Your brain does not have to decline with age. Recent research reveals that for most people, staving off cognitive decline or dementia is more about lifestyle, especially in your 30s to 50s, than age or genetics. And, amazingly, retirement might be the single biggest danger zone for your brain health.

Neuroscientist Dr. Tommy Wood has spent his career studying what actually predicts a declining brain, and the answer has almost nothing to do with age. It's what happens the day you stop being challenged, especially the day you retire. This week: why the smartest, most accomplished people you know may be the ones most at risk, and the two-part check you can run at your next doctor's visit that sets the stage for the next fifty years.

What you'll explore:
Why age-specific dementia rates have quietly been falling for decades, even as headlines warn of a coming epidemic
The real difference between forgetting a name (a retrieval problem) and never actually experiencing it in the first place (an encoding problem), and why only one of those predicts dementia
Tommy's 3S model: stimulus, supply, and support, the framework he uses to make sense of everything that keeps a brain sharp
The truth about brain games, and what really works to keep your brain primed with age
Why the most educated, highest-achieving people often face the steepest cognitive drop right after they stop working
The exact numbers to get checked at your next doctor's visit if you're in your 40s or 50s

If you're standing at the edge of any major life transition, or supporting a parent who is, this conversation will change how you think about what actually protects your mind.

You can find Tommy at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript

Next week, we're sitting down with Dr. Jessica Shepherd, alongside guest host Karen Walrond, to talk about why so much of what we've been told about menopause is either outdated or flat wrong, and what personalized care for this stage of life can actually look like. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss any upcoming episodes!

Check out our sponsors and resources: Visit Our Sponsor Page
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.