Dr. Ralph Piedmont: The Big 5 Personality Types and how they Affect Your Behaviour
What is personality? Can it change over time? How does our personality influence the ways we find meaning in our lives? DR RALPH PIEDMONT has spent decades answering these questions; training under the original developers of the Big Five personality model, and focusing also on the spiritual and transcendent dimensions that give life deeper meaning.
This week Andrew and Dr Piedmont discuss:
The Big Five personality model
How understanding our own personality can help us create deeper, more authentic relationships.
How spirituality fits into our understanding of personality.
Dr. Piedmont received his Ph.D. in Personality Psychology from Boston University. He was a full professor in the Department of Pastoral Counseling at Loyola University Maryland and is now the Managing Director of the Center for Professional Studies. His current research interests focus on the measurement of Spiritual Transcendence, a construct that represents a broad, nondenominational, motivational measure of spirituality. Dr Piedmont is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and a member of the American Counseling Association (ACA).
If You’re Looking for More….
You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50
This week supporters will hear:
Hope: What it is, why we need it, and how to find it in dark times.
Three Things Ralph Piedmont knows to be true.
AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees.
Follow Up
Attend Andrew’s men’s retreat near Berlin in April 2026: details here
Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things
Visit the website of the Center for Professional Studies, where Dr Piedmont is Managing Director
Read Dr Piedmont’s book, Understanding the Psychological Soul of Spirituality: A Guidebook for Research and Practice
Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools
Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.
Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall
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Robert Jackman: Healing Your Lost Inner Child
If you often feel depressed, anxious, victimised or disappointed, you may be carrying a heavy load of unresolved emotional pain.
Psychotherapist and author Robert Jackman suggests that this pain, and associated patterns of behaviour, often stem from our lost inner child. This inner child brings with him or her a false narrative; played on repeat.
Painful childhood experiences can show up in adulthood as explosive anger, isolation, bad relationship choices, negative self-talk, feelings of being overwhelmed, being a people pleaser, and keeping others at arm's length.
In this week’s classic reissued episode, Andrew and Robert talk about identifying your lost inner child, how to talk to them, and how to heal some of this emotional pain in order to embrace a more authentic life.
Robert Jackman is an author and psychotherapist who also teaches on mindfulness, hypnotherapy, codependency, and the role of spirituality in healing. Robert is also a Reiki master who uses energy psychology in his practice and considers himself a codependent in recovery, always working on boundary setting, discernment and connecting with his authentic self.
If You’re Looking for More….
You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50
This week supporters will hear:
Healing Your Wounded Relationship.
Three Things Robert Jackman knows to be true.
AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees.
Follow Up
Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things
Buy Robert Jackman’s books Healing Your Lost Inner Child, The Tender Path of Grief and Loss and Healing Your Wounded Relationship
Visit Robert Jackman’s website
Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools
Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.
Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall
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Susan Schwartz: Can Narcissists Find Love?
Are narcissists capable of love? Is it possible for them to achieve emotional transformation through therapy? And what does it mean to be the partner of a narcissist? Jungian psychoanalyst and friend of the podcast DR SUSAN SCHWARTZ joins Andrew this week to discuss her new book, An Analytical Exploration of Love and Narcissism: The Tragedy of Isolation and Intimacy.
Drawing on Jungian concepts and the myth of Narcissus and Echo, Susan explains:
How we misunderstand narcissism
The creative energy of the narcissist
The ways narcissists can be deeply vulnerable
How narcissists can learn to be emotionally intimate.
Dr Susan Schwartz is a Jungian analyst who trained in Switzerland and lives in the USA. She teaches in numerous Jungian programs, workshops, and lectures in the USA and worldwide. She is also a clinical psychologist and member of the International Association of Analytical Psychology. Her other books include:The Absent Father Effect on Daughters, A Jungian Exploration of the Puella Archetype and Imposter Syndrome and The ‘As-If’ Personality in Analytical Psychology.
If You’re Looking for More….
You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50
This week supporters will hear:
Why are narcissists so compelling?
Three Things Susan Schwartz knows to be true.
AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees.
Follow Up
Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things
Read Dr Susan Schwartz’s new book, An Analytical Exploration of Love and Narcissism: The Tragedy of Isolation and Intimacy
Visit Dr Susan Schwartz’s website
Follow Dr Susan Schwartz on Facebook and Instagram
Listen to Andrew’s previous interviews with Dr Susan Schwartz: Daughters and Fathers, and Imposter Syndrome.
Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools
Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall
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Jan Day: Tantra: How to Make Your Lovemaking More Connected
How can we have more meaningful, connected sex? Many couples today are stuck in a low-sex or no-sex dynamic, while others struggle to break a routine that feels unbearably dull.
In this classic reissued episode, Jan Day, a relationship expert and psycho-spirital teacher, discusses “Living Tantra”. Andrew and Jan cover how to “resensitise” in a world where there is not enough touch. Coming off autopilot and being open to depth and mystery can lead to a richer connection with the world and with our partners.
Jan Day has been teaching and leading workshops in Europe and Hawaii since 1999. Her life and work have been influenced by both Eastern and Western spiritual teachers. She was a sanyassin of Osho for 15 years. Over a period of 20 years Jan trained and then taught with Alan Lowen, founder of _The Art of Being®. The Living Tantra series of workshops that she offers is based on the Body, Heart & Soul®_ series created by Alan. She has also been influenced by and/or worked with Jack Kornfield, David Deida, Ron Kurtz, Ken Wilber, Genpo Roshi, Thomas Hübl and Ammachi.
If You’re Looking for More….
You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50
This week supporters will hear:
Andrew's favourite exercises from Jan's book to try yourself
Three things Jan Day knows to be true.
AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees.
Follow Up
Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things
Read Jan Day’s book Living Tantra: A Journey into Sex, Spirit and Relationship
Visit Jan Day’s website to learn more about the courses and workshops she offers.
Read Andrew’s book Have the Sex You Want: A Couple’s Guide to Getting the Spark Back
Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools
Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50 https://www.patreon.com/andrewgmarshall
Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall
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Diana Hill: Stuck? How To Get Yourself Unstuck
If you’re feeling exhausted and unmotivated, clinical psychologist and author Dr Diana Hill suggests that you may be channelling your energy in the wrong direction. Many of us feel that we do too much, and yet get nowhere - this is because we are misdirecting the precious resource of our energy.
In this episode, Andrew and Diana discuss:
The high-achiever at work whose patterns backfire in relationships.
Running away from discomfort and how this keeps us stuck.
“Genius energy” - our unique, inherent strengths that show up in our talents and gifts.
How to reclaim and better direct your energy
Diana Hill, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and a leading expert on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Drawing from the most current psychological research and contemplative wisdom, Diana bridges science with real-life practices to help people grow fulfilling and impactful lives. She is the author of four books including I Know I Should Exercise, But..., The Self-Compassion Daily Journal, ACT Daily Journal, and her latest, Wise Effort: How to Focus Your Genius Energy on What Matters Most (September 2025). She's the host of the Wise Effort Podcast and her insights have been featured by NPR, Wall Street Journal, and Psychology Today.
If You’re Looking for More….
You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50
This week supporters will hear:
Wise effort at work.
Three things Diana Hill knows to be true.
AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees.
Follow Up
Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things
Learn more about Diana Hill:
Read her book: Wise Effort: How to Focus Your Genius Energy on What Matters Most.
Listen to her podcast: The Wise Effort Show
Visit her website: www.drdianahill.com
Follow her on social media: @drdianahill on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
InsightTimer: https://insighttimer.com/drdianahill
Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools
Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50 https://www.patreon.com/andrewgmarshall
Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall
Hello, I am a marital therapist, communications trainer and author. I have thirty-five years helping couples and individuals make better relationships. I have written twenty-plus self-help books which include the international best-sellers ‘I love you but I’m not in love with you’ and ‘How can I ever trust you again?’ My books have been translated into twenty languages. I trained with RELATE the UK’s largest counselling charity.
Perhaps it has been turning sixty but I have become interested in spiritual as well as psychological questions. Who am I? What are my values – as opposed to my parents, my teachers and the wider society? What makes my life meaningful? What do I believe about life, the universe and everything? Although my clients might come to me because of destructive arguments, falling out of love and infidelity, they are also interested in having more meaningful relationships and a more meaningful life.
So what is the meaningful life? Why do we so easily lose our way and get lost in depression, anxiety, doubt, addictions and obsessions: the swamplands of the soul? One thing I know for sure is that there is not one answer. Each of us has to find out for ourselves what makes our life meaningful. But we can learn from each other, share our experiences of how to navigate the journey, how to endure and learn from the swamp, and finally how to find solid ground.
I have decided to use my original training in radio and journalism to interview witnesses for what makes life meaningful. Each week, I invite someone who is a therapist, academic, self-help coach or who has an enlightening personal story to share their knowledge or experiences. I hope our discussions will help you discover what makes your life meaningful and find more purpose and contentment.
UK