143. Pam Mandel – The Same River Twice

Pam as worn many hats in her time, but above all she is a traveler and a writer. Pam has lived a very eventful life, starting with her senior year trip to Israel just as they entered a war. She has hiked across the Middle East, relying heavily on the help and kindness of strangers. She has survived abusive relationships and talks heavily to the value of being listened to. She shares all these lessons and more in her new book The Same River Twice.

Pam joins me today to discuss the various powerful experiences she has been through in her life, and the wide range of life lessons she gained along the way. We discuss the many amazing strangers she met along her journeys, and why she trusted them so much. She tells me about her history in writing, how she got started and why she still writes today, as well as how her writing has evolved over time. We also talk about what inspired her to write it these lessons and experiences down in her new book The Same River Twice.

“I know why you are silent. I know why you stayed. It is never too late to tell your story. You deserve so much better. I believe you.”

This week on the School For Good Living Podcast:

  • The power of breakfast
  • What it is like being a teenager in the middle of a war
  • Understanding and getting away from bad relationships
  • The influence of kind strangers
  • Friends have powerful influence
  • The evolution of a writer

Resources Mentioned:

The Same River Twice: A Memoir of Dirtbag Backpackers, Bomb Shelters, and Bad Travel

Connect with Pam:

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142. Jim Davidson – The Next Everest

Jim Davidson is a lifetime climber and expedition leader, spending over thirty years of his life pursuing the tallest peaks this Earth has to offer. Jim has summited Mount Everest, where he survived earthquakes, avalanches, and he’s even escaped alone from an 80 foot deep glacial crevasse. He was hiking Everest in 2015, when a record-setting earthquake shook the mountain, trapping dozens of hikers in the snow. After miraculously surviving that day, he returned in 2017 and summitted the mountain. This experience, and what he learned from it, has been the main inspiration for Jim’s recent book The Next Everest.

Jim joins me this week to talk about his life-long interest in hiking, and his endless search for “awe”. We also discuss Jim’s fascinating view on time and how he uses it help maintain a healthy lifestyle. We talk about the physical and mental strain that affected his body as he hiked Everest, and the methods he used to combat both. Jim is especially good at goal setting, which we dig into a little bit as well. I hope you enjoy my interview with my new friend, Jim Davidson, and appreciate his unique views on what it means to live a good life!

“Pick something that speaks to you and strive for it.”

This week on the School For Good Living Podcast:

  • Doing the best with what is handed to you
  • Surviving the deadliest day on Everest
  • Rebuilding Nepal
  • Making sacrifices to experience life while you’re young
  • The power of leading by example

Resources Mentioned:

The Next Everest: Surviving the Mountain’s Deadliest Day and Finding the Resilience to Climb Again

goodliving.com

Connect with Jim:

Professional Page

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Thank you for listening to this week’s episode of the School For Good Living Podcast, I hope you found it as insightful as I did! If you enjoyed this episode, then be sure to head over to goodliving.com and sign up for our email list to receive special reminders and exclusive content sent right to your inbox. Explore our website to learn more about the many services I offer, like my Transformation Coaching Program, Coach Training Program, and my catalog of quotations to help you live a good life!

141. Avi Loeb – Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth

As the TIME’s magazine “most influential person in space”, Avi Loeb is at the forefront of all things interstellar. Avi is the longest standing chairman over the Harvard Black Hole Initiative, and has served as the lead advisor for space at the White House. Avi has spent the vast majority of his life studying the stars and pioneered research into the first stars that came into existence in our universe. Avi’s latest efforts have been focused on the young people, trying to motivate them to pursue their interests in the field of science and continue the ongoing research into the mystery of space.

Avi joins me this week to discuss his latest book, Extraterrestrial, and the amazing interstellar discovery that formed the foundation for it’s climb to number one on the New York Times Bestseller list. We discuss the possibility of alien life, and the possible source of the remarkable space anomaly Avi and his team discovered in 2017. Avi shares with me his passion for the sciences and his disagreement with the current trend of the community. He hopes to reshape the future of science, and has been focusing his recent efforts on motivating youth to pursue an interest in the universe around us.

“The study of science is meant to be a discussion with nature, not a monologue.”

This week on the School For Good Living Podcast:

  • We should all be focusing on furthering the human race as a whole
  • How they first identified the asteroid Oumuamua
  • The vast array of implications of such a discovery
  • The future of the science community
  • Inspiring a love of science in children
  • The enlightening lighting round from an interstellar perspective

Resources Mentioned:

Connect with Avi Loeb:

Subscribe and sign up for more!

Thank you for listening to this week’s episode of the School For Good Living Podcast, I hope you found it as insightful as I did! If you enjoyed this episode, then be sure to head over to goodliving.com and sign up for our email list to receive special reminders and exclusive content sent right to your inbox. Explore our website to learn more about the many services I offer, like my Transformation Coaching Program, Coach Training Program, and my catalog of quotations to help you live a good life!

140. Roman Krznaric – The Good Ancestor: Long Term vs. Short Term Worlds

Roman Krznaric is the author of the book The Good Ancestor: A Radical Prescription for Long-Term Thinking, which shares six practical ways we can retrain our brains to be future-focused. He guides us on how we might shift our priorities to saving our planet and the quality of humanity beyond ourselves now. Roman is also the founder of the world’s first Empathy Museum, a founding faculty member at School of Life in London, and an empathy advisor to organizations including Oxfam and the United Nations. Both his book and life experiences offer advice on how to live in a way that impacts future generations for the better.

In this podcast, Roman shares his own life story and journey to discover the true importance of what it means to be a good ancestor and to think of future generations rather than only yourself. Listen as he shares his own personal experience and advice on how to live this out, how to set goals with the future in mind, and how to be a good ancestor.  

“We discover ourselves through looking outside ourselves; through outrospection as much as introspection.” –Roman Krznaric

This week on The School for Good Living Podcast:

  • The purpose of life and how to live to the fullest
  • How Roman’s role as a gardener has taught him new things
  • The most important question of our time
  • Thoughts on being a good ancestor and what it means to look to the future
  • The importance of asking yourself what legacy you are leaving  
  • The inspiration behind Roman’s book and what he wants people to get out of it
  • What it means and looks like to colonize the future
  • Different ways to think long-term
  • How one person can make a difference
  • Chalk festivals and cultivating important rituals
  • How to incorporate younger generations into politics and citizen assemblies
  • The role of empathy in looking to the future
  • The importance of being interested in others and not just yourself
  • Roman’s favorite books and biggest influences
  • Some of Roman’s best travel hacks
  • How to build relationships
  • How to connect with Roman
  • Roman’s journey into writing and his current writing routine
  • Challenging and rewarding aspects of writing
  • Advice and encouragement for other writers
  • Roman talks about his TED Talk
  • Roman Gives some of his best writing tips

Resources Mentioned:

Connect with Roman Krznaric:

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Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of the School for Good Living Podcast, with your host, Brilliant Miller. If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe and leave us a rating and review. 

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