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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.