Why is the sky blue? Why do only birds get to fly? Why do people die? It’s natural for children to ask questions, big and small. But too often, adults brush off such questions as an annoyance, or scold kids for being rude, or even respond to their asking with punishment. When that happens, many children stop asking and grow up to become adults who believe it’s safer to stay quiet and squelch their inherent, and essential, sense of wonder.

Author LAURA MUNSON joins Andrew this week to discuss:

• Naming and inhabiting our own creativity
• Rediscovering our sense of wonder
• The power of surrendering to life’s mysteries.
• Finding your calling
• Finding meaning through slowing down.

Laura Munson is the New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author of the novel Willa’s Grove and the memoir This Is Not The Story You Think It Is. Her latest book is The Wild Why. Laura also founded and continues to offer the top-ranked Haven Writing Retreats. Laura has been featured or published in Vanity Fair, Elle, Redbook, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times' “Modern Love” column, The New York Times Magazine, O, The Oprah Magazine, and many others. She has appeared on Good Morning America, The Early Show, WGN, NPR, London’s This Morning, Australia’s Sunrise, and other global media outlets.

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:

• How to Cope Better with Criticism Again
• Three Things Laura Munson 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 https://andrewgmarshall.com/mens-retreat/

Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things https://andrewgmarshall.com/download/

Connect With Laura Munson:

Website: https://lauramunson.com/

Book: The Wild Why

Writing Programs and Retreats

Modern Love Essay in the New York Times.

Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools https://courses.andrewgmarshall.com/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

Forgiveness is a powerful spiritual tool that can bring profound relief and unleash feelings of love blocked for years by personal resentments.

In this classic reissued episode, Andrew discusses forgiveness with author and forgiveness expert Olivier Clerc. They cover:

⭐4 essential steps to forgiveness

⭐Obstacles to forgiveness

⭐The importance of spending time deciding what exactly forgiveness means to you.

Olivier Clerc is a writer, lecturer and workshop-leader, specialising in self-help and spirituality. He is also the creator of Circles of Forgiveness, of which there are now 250, in 15 different countries. Olivier is the author of 22 books, the latest of which is Healing the Wounds of the Heart: 15 Obstacles to Forgiveness and How to Overcome Them.

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:

• How taking things personally is an obstacle to forgiveness
• Three Things Olivier Clerc 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

Read Olivier Clerc’s books, Healing the Wounds of the Heart: 15 Obstacles to Forgiveness and How to Overcome Them and The Gift of Forgiveness: A Magical Encounter with don Miguel Ruiz

Follow Olivier Clerc on Instagram @olivier_clerc_auteur

Visit The Forgiveness Project's website

Read The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, by Don Miguel Ruiz

Read Radical Self-Forgiveness: The Direct Path to True Self-Acceptance by Colin Tipping

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you could write a letter to your own anxiety, what would it say? This is just one of the ways therapist Dr Kathleen Smith befriends her anxiety and in the process, moves it into the back seat of her life.

If you can’t sleep, can’t focus and are constantly pushing down the frustrations you experience in your relationships, you will know that you probably need to deal with your anxiety. In this classic reissued episode, Andrew and Kathleen discuss how to go about doing this, and the paramount importance of observing and understanding before leaping into action.

Kathleen Smith is a therapist and author from Washington D.C. She writes the Anxious Overachiever newsletter on Substack, and is the author of Everything Isn’t Terrible, a book about anxiety She is a graduate of Harvard and George Washington Universities, and has written for publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post and Psychology Today. Kathleen has a private therapy practice in Washington, DC, and is the host of the TV show Family Matters, produced by the University of the District of Columbia.

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:

• Three Things Kathleen Smith 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 Kathleen Smith’s book Everything Isn’t Terrible: Conquer Your Insecurities, Interrupt Your Anxieties and Finally Calm Down

Take a look at Kathleen Smith’s website https://kathleensmith.net

Read Kathleen Smith’s Substack newsletter The Anxious Overachiever

Follow Kathleen Smith on Twitter @fangirltherapy and on Facebook @kathleensmithwrites

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