Flourishing Leaders Podcast
The Flourishing Leaders Podcast Character. Leadership. Human Flourishing. Join Dr. Scott Parsons—retired Army officer, character development leader, and founder of The Flourishing Leaders Academy—for inspiring weekly conversations with influential thinkers, leaders, and changemakers psychology, philosophy, sports, business, and the arts—united by one goal: exploring how we can all lead with character and live flourishing lives. Each episode explores how to lead with character, make ethical decisions, build antifragile teams, and live a flourishing life. Guests share actionable insights on leadership development, emotional intelligence, growth mindset, moral courage, and practical wisdom—essential traits for today’s purpose-driven professionals. Join us as we dive into timeless wisdom and cutting-edge science to uncover strategies for ethical leadership, virtue cultivation, and living with purpose. Guests include Brian Johnson, Tal Ben-Shahar, Sean Casey, Caroline Adams Miller, Kristján Kristjánsson, and many more. Perfect for coaches, educators, executives, healthcare leaders, and lifelong learners, The Flourishing Leaders Podcast is your go-to resource for cultivating strong values, navigating complexity, and unlocking human potential. Listen every week to grow as a leader—and help others flourish too. #Leadership #LeaderDevelopment #CharacterDevelopment #CharacterEducation #PositivePsychology #Flourishing #VirtueEthics #Virtue #Areté #Arete #Phronesis #PracticalWisdom #Wisdom #Coaching #EthicalLeadership #EmotionalIntelligence #Heroic #Antifragile #Antifragility #Purpose #GrowthMindset #WellBeing #Well-Being
Episodes
What if the next generation of leaders doesn't need to wait until tomorrow to start changing the world?
In this episode of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons welcomes Jonathan Harper, FRSA, an award-winning social entrepreneur and co-founder of Global Social Leaders, for an inspiring conversation about youth leadership, character development, service learning, community belonging, and human flourishing.
With more than...
What happens when fear makes our differences louder than our shared humanity?
In Episode #70 of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons and co-host Jason Viyar sit down with Angela McIllece, Co-Founder, President, and COO of Human Flourishing, for a deeply personal conversation about agency, identity, authenticity, disagreement, and what it takes to build relationships and communities in which people can truly flourish.
An...
How do we create institutions where people do more than survive or avoid burnout—where they can genuinely flourish?
In the Season 3 premiere of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons welcomes Dr. Cheryl Maurana, Provost at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Founding Executive Director of the Kern National Network for Flourishing in Health.
Cheryl has spent much of her career asking how institutions can honor human...
What actually makes a flourishing life?
Love?
Purpose?
Character?
Wisdom?
Relationships?
Challenge?
Service?
Perhaps the answer is not one ingredient at all—but the way these things come together.
In the Season 2 finale of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons introduces a new recurring series:
Flourishing Conversations: A Quarterly Roundtable.
Four times during Season 3, the podcast will bring together scholars, practition...
What is education ultimately for?
Is it simply about knowledge, examinations, and preparation for employment—or should education also help us become good people capable of contributing to the common good?
In Episode #67 of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons welcomes his longtime mentor and friend Professor James Arthur OBE, one of the world’s leading scholars of character education and the founding directo...
Episode 66: “Seeing Clearly: Empathy, Accountability, and the Courage to Connect” with Dr. Ben Freer
What if empathy isn't a soft skill at all—but one of the most strategic capacities a leader can develop?
And what if genuine empathy requires not only understanding others, but understanding ourselves?
In Episode #66 of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons and Jason Viyar welcome Dr. Ben Freer, Dean of the Marion Turpan College of Psychology and Counseling at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Professor of Psychology...
How do our experiences become sources of wisdom, character, and human flourishing?
In this inspiring episode of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons welcomes Professor Pete Allison, Associate Professor of Values and Experiential Learning at Penn State University, for a wide-ranging conversation about leadership, education, service, adventure, compassion, and the winding paths through which people grow.
Pete shares his r...
What if thinking about death could actually help us live more meaningful lives?
In this deeply moving episode of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons sits down with physician, medical ethicist, and Columbia University professor Dr. Lydia Dugdale to explore one of life's most universal—and often avoided—topics.
Drawing from her acclaimed books Dying in the Twenty-First Century and The Lost Art of Dying, Lydia...
What does it really mean to live a good life?
Is flourishing simply about happiness, achievement, or well-being… or is it something much deeper?
In this episode of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons and Jason Viyar welcome Professor Blaine Fowers, one of the world's leading scholars on virtue, practical wisdom (phronesis), courage, and flourishing.
Together they explore why modern life often emphasizes technique...
What if the greatest barrier to flourishing isn't a lack of talent...
...but believing you need to become someone else?
In this inspiring episode of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons and Jason Viyar welcome Liz Walker and Dr. Alison Maitland, co-founders of Becoming International, for a conversation about leadership, identity, courage, and authentic human growth.
Together they explore why flourishing begins not by fix...
What does it truly mean to live a flourishing life?
In this thought-provoking episode of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons and Jason Viyar sit down with internationally renowned philosopher Professor Massimo Pigliucci to explore timeless questions about wisdom, character, leadership, and the pursuit of a life well lived.
Drawing from Stoicism, Aristotelian virtue ethics, and modern philosophy, Massimo explains why ph...
What if leadership isn't primarily about influence, but about becoming the kind of person who helps others flourish?
In this thought-provoking episode of the Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons and Jason Viyar welcome Professor Garrett W. Potts for a rich conversation exploring virtue ethics, meaningful work, moral injury, and what it truly means to flourish.
Drawing on the philosophy of Aristotle and Alasdair MacIntyre, G...
What does it mean to become a better person?
And what responsibility do colleges and universities have in helping students develop not only knowledge and skills, but character?
In this episode of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons and Jason Viyar welcome Dr. Jennifer Rothschild, Executive Director of the Educating Character Initiative (ECI), philosopher, virtue ethicist, and leading voice in character education.
Jennif...
What does it mean to lead a flourishing life rooted in character, purpose, and service?
In this powerful conversation, Dr. Scott Parsons and Jason Viyar sit down with Professor Marvin Berkowitz, one of the world's foremost scholars in character education and moral development.
Drawing on more than forty years of research and leadership, Marvin shares insights from his groundbreaking work on the PRIMED framework, the role leaders play...
What does it mean to flourish as a leader in professions where lives hang in the balance?
In this powerful episode of the Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons and Jason Viyar sit down with Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, U.S. Army (Ret.) to explore leadership, character, reflection, healthcare, resilience, and the enduring responsibility to develop others.
A retired three-star general who commanded from platoon to field a...
What does it really mean to "be yourself" at work?
In this thought-provoking episode of the Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons and Jason Viyar sit down with leadership strategist, author, and organizational alignment expert Elaine Chung to explore a surprising question: What if authenticity isn't simply about being yourself?
Drawing from positive psychology, organizational behavior, neuroscience, and her groundbreaking bo...
What does it mean to become a flourishing leader?
In this uplifting and deeply inspiring episode of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons and Jason Viyar sit down with Angela Lewis — former professional basketball player, leadership coach, speaker, author, and Founder of Lewis Consulting Group.
Angela shares her remarkable journey from growing up in St. Louis to competing at the NCAA Division I and professional lev...
What does it mean to cultivate moral courage in a world increasingly shaped by polarization, fear, and distraction?
In this powerful episode of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons sits down with Dr. Arthur Schwartz — Former President of Character.org and one of the key architects behind the modern character development and positive psychology movements.
Arthur shares remarkable stories from his journey:
- Collab...
Welcome to Season 2 of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast!
In this powerful season premiere, Dr. Scott Parsons and Jason Viyar are joined by Professor Christian Miller… one of the world’s leading scholars on moral character, virtue ethics, and honesty.
Christian is the A. C. Reid Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University and the former director of both The Character Project and The Honesty Project, two of the ...
What if the greatest challenge facing leaders today isn’t strategy, performance, or even innovation, but the loss of our humanity?
In this powerful Season One finale of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, Dr. Scott Parsons and Jason Viyar sit down with Professor Elena Antonacopoulou, a globally recognized expert in organizational learning, leadership development, and systemic transformation.
Elena introduces a bold and timely idea...
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