The 5 Types of Overthinking and How to Turn Each One Off | Emiliya Zhivotovskaya [Best of]

You Spent Years Acting Normal Inside a Life That Never Fit | Sari Botton

Gotta love a good midlife reinvention story, and today we’ve got a great one! Sari Botton built her career editing some of the most celebrated voices in American literary nonfiction.  Then, in her mid-50s, she watched doors close in her face, turned down for jobs she was overqualified for, told by interviewers in their 30s that she had "done enough."  Out of that experience, she launched Oldster Magazine on Substack, a publication dedicated to aging honestly, at every age. It became a global phenomenon, and led to a book deal. She turned 60 and called it the best moment of her career. In this conversation, Jonathan and Sari explore: * Why the most painful thing about midlife is not getting older but realizing how long you spent performing a version of yourself that never quite fit * What it costs to live at the intersection of "should" and "whatever," and what becomes possible when you stop * The Gen X inheritance: latchkey-kid freedom, zero parenting bandwidth, and a generation that had to figure out what normal even meant * Why the best memoir illuminates the mundane, and why women claiming that territory is a quietly radical act * What it means to be "found-ish": knowing the truest part of yourself while staying open to how life keeps changing you Sari arrived at the conversation we are having right now by surviving the wrong relationships, the wrong careers, and a deep reluctance to let herself want what she actually wanted. If any of that sounds familiar, this conversation is for you. You can find Sari at: Website [https://www.saribotton.com/] | Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/saribotton/] | Oldster Substack [https://oldster.substack.com/] | Episode Transcript [https://www.goodlifeproject.com/podcast/late-bloomer-midlife-identity-sari-botton] Next week, I am doing a solo episode on something I have been sitting with for a long time: the hidden resentment you are probably carrying right now, and why it might be one of the most honest things about you. If you think you are not carrying any, that is especially worth your time. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you do not miss it. Check out our offerings & partners:  * Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel [https://jonathanfields.substack.com/about] * Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes [https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sponsors/] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Midlife Muscle Loss Lie: How to Stay Strong at Any Age | Dr. Vonda Wright

According to Dr. Vonda Wright, almost everything we believe about aging and muscle loss is wrong. The research that told you to expect decline was built on populations where 70 percent of participants barely moved. Which means the trajectory most of us are bracing for is not biology. It is behavior. You do not have to be a statistic. Dr. Vonda Wright is an orthopedic surgeon, researcher, and the founder of PRIMA, the Performance and Research Initiative for Masters Athletes at the University of Pittsburgh. She has spent her career studying what happens to the body when people stay active, not what happens when they don't. Her book, Unbreakable: A Woman's Guide to Aging with Power [https://amzn.to/4vLv8FT], distills what that research actually shows about muscle, bone, hormones, and aging in midlife. What you will explore in this conversation: * The three MRI images that upended what we thought we knew about aging muscle, a visual comparison between a sedentary 74-year-old, an active 70-year-old, and a 40-year-old, that has become widely shared because of what it shows about what is actually possible. * Menalescence, Dr. Wright's term for the hormonal, physiological, psychological, and social upheaval of perimenopause and menopause, and why naming it the way we named adolescence changes how women advocate for themselves in the doctor's office. * The musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause, a connection between estrogen loss and total-body joint pain that has been documented in medical literature since 1925, is still not taught in most medical schools. * The critical decade from 35 to 45, why this window is the highest-leverage moment for building the physical body you will have for the rest of your life, and exactly what to do if you are past it. * Why lifting heavy is not optional for women in midlife, and what four reps, four sets actually does for strength and power that lighter lifting cannot. * How much protein you actually need, why the math most people do is probably too low, and the leucine argument for animal protein. If you have been told that your MRI findings, your arthritis, your bulging disc, or your bone density numbers mean you cannot or should not lift, this conversation is for you. You can find Vonda at: Website [https://www.drvondawright.com/] | Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/drvondawright] | Episode Transcript [https://www.goodlifeproject.com/podcast/musculoskeletal-longevity-menopause-aging-vonda-wright] Next week, I am sitting down with Sari Botton to talk about why the life you keep putting off might be the most honest thing about you — and what it actually takes to stop waiting for permission to live it. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts, so you don't miss it. Check out our offerings & partners:  * Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel [https://jonathanfields.substack.com/about] * Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes [https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sponsors/] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The 4 Chemicals That Run Your Brain…and Your Life | Tj Power

Four chemicals, produced by your brain, serve as a master switch for nearly everything you think, do, and feel. In no small way, they also control our lives. But, all too often, instead of harnessing them to fuel amazing experiences and outcomes, we are controlled by them. Today, we learn how to take back control and harness them for good. Our guide is TJ Power, lead neuroscientist at the DOSE Lab and the author of The DOSE Effect [https://amzn.to/3HJv7yu]. His research investigates how modern sedentary, digitally saturated lifestyles are reshaping the brain chemicals that govern how we feel, connect, focus, and recover from stress. He has delivered live experiences to over 75,000 people at institutions including Oxford University, Amazon, and the NHS. His DOSE framework centers on four chemicals: Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, and Endorphins. These chemicals evolved over hundreds of thousands of years for a very different experience of life. One with more movement, more connection, more sunlight, more sustained effort, and far less of what TJ calls dopamine land, the scroll-and-reward loop that phones have engineered into our days. In this conversation, you will explore: * Why dopamine is not the reward chemical you were taught it was, and why the phone has hijacked the system that was supposed to motivate you * The difference between dopamine and oxytocin, and why TJ believes we are pursuing the wrong chemical as a species * How 90% of your serotonin is manufactured in your gut, and what ultra-processed food is actually doing to your mood * Why stress evolved to be released through physical movement, and why sitting still with your problems makes them worse * The 20 free behaviors from The DOSE Effect that recalibrate all four chemicals without cost, pills, or a major life overhaul If you have been wondering why certain things that used to feel easy now feel effortful, this conversation gives you a biological explanation and a practical path forward. You can find Tj at: Website [https://thedoselab.com/] | Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/tjpower/] | Episode Transcript [https://www.goodlifeproject.com/podcast/dopamine-neurochemistry-focus-tj-power] Next week, we are sitting down with Dr. Vonda Wright to talk about why most of what you have been told about aging is actually data about people who did nothing. The decline curve, it turns out, is negotiable, and ages 35 to 45 are the highest-leverage window. But she also makes the case that the door never closes. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss it. Check out our offerings & partners:  * Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel [https://jonathanfields.substack.com/about] * Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes [https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sponsors/] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

What Lucky People Do Differently, According to Science | Tina Seelig

Luck is not a personality trait you either have or you don't. It is something you build, and science tells us there are specific, learnable skills behind why some people consistently seem to be in the right place at the right time while others walk right past the same opportunities. Tina Seelig has spent over 25 years at Stanford teaching and studying exactly this. As Executive Director of the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program and a longtime faculty member at the Stanford d.school, she has watched thousands of students move through the world, and the differences between those who generate luck and those who don't are far more concrete and actionable than most people realize. Her new book is What I Wish I Knew About Luck: A Crash Course on Turning Aspirations into Achievements [https://amzn.to/4nGhEIF]. In this conversation, you will explore: * What separates fortune from luck, and why that distinction changes everything about where you actually have agency in your life * The ship, crew, and sail framework for understanding what it really takes to become luckier, and where most people skip a step * Why your mental model of failure, whether it feels like a trampoline or a black hole, may be the single most powerful predictor of how much luck you create * The hidden social behaviors that consistently show up in the luckiest people, from thank-you notes to a very specific way of asking for help * Why luck is a long game, and the story of how behavior at a disastrous Costa Rica resort determined the outcome of a job interview fifteen years later If you have ever looked at someone who seems consistently lucky and wondered what they are doing differently, this conversation will give you some clear answers. You can find Tina at: LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tinaseelig/] | Episode Transcript [https://www.goodlifeproject.com/podcast/luck-agency-resilience-tina-seelig] Next week, we are featuring one of our most talked-about conversations from the archive, Tj Power on the four brain chemicals that are quietly running your life and why the modern environment is throwing them out of balance in ways that make everything from motivation to genuine connection harder than it should be. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss any upcoming episodes! Check out our offerings & partners:  * Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel [https://jonathanfields.substack.com/about] * Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes [https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sponsors/] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Why Rituals Matter More Than You Know, And How to Design Your Own | Bruce Feiler

There is a particular kind of loneliness that hits in the middle of a full life.  Not because you are isolated. Because the relationships that used to hold you steady are all being renegotiated at once. Your kids have left. A parent has died. A marriage needs new terms. A friendship has frayed. And the cultural rituals that once helped people move through moments like this are mostly gone. Bruce Feiler has spent the last three years traveling to 26 countries, attending over 100 ceremonies, and interviewing hundreds of people to understand what happens when we stop gathering in intentional ways. He's a seven-time New York Times bestselling author and the creator of the LifeQuakes framework. His new book, A Time to Gather [https://amzn.to/4onfWMN], makes the case that we are living through both a celebration recession and a ritual renaissance at the same time. In this conversation, Bruce and Jonathan explore what it actually means to feel homesick in your own home, why the four traditional life rituals no longer match the lives most of us are actually living, and what it looks like to design a ritual from scratch when the ones you inherited don't fit. What you'll explore in this conversation: * Why 5,000 Civil War soldiers were officially diagnosed as dying of homesickness, and what that history reveals about the longing you feel now * The five building blocks of any ritual, from drawing the circle to creating a web of hope, and how to use them to mark a moment that matters * Why Bruce calls this a celebration recession: what we stopped doing, when, and what's quietly replacing it * The live ritual Bruce helps Jonathan design in real time, walking through every step from welcome to close * Why rituals are not just for grief and weddings, and the new ceremonies people are creating for divorce, mastectomies, miscarriages, sobriety, and career endings If you have ever felt the ground shift under you and not known how to steady yourself with the people you love most, this is the conversation for it. You can find Bruce at: Website [https://www.brucefeiler.com/] | Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/brucefeiler/] | Episode Transcript [https://www.goodlifeproject.com/podcast/ritual-midlife-transition-bruce-feiler] Next week, we're sharing our conversation with Stanford professor Tina Seelig to talk about something most of us have completely backwards: how luck actually works, and why most of what we call luck is the result of deliberate actions hiding in plain sight. If you have ever wondered why some people seem to catch every break while others keep missing them, this is going to change the way you see that. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss any upcoming episodes! Check out our offerings & partners:  * Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the Wheel [https://jonathanfields.substack.com/about] * Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes [https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sponsors/] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.