Make It a Great One with Dr. Dan: #1 Podcast for Inspiring Conversations to Live and Lead On Purpose

Make It a Great One with Dr. Dan is your weekly dose of inspiration, purpose, and practical wisdom for living a life aligned with your true self. Hosted by renowned psychologist and executive coach Dr. Dan Peters, this podcast helps you break free from autopilot and step fully into the life you’re meant to live. If you’ve ever wondered if you’re living up to your potential—or how to navigate challenges with more resilience and clarity—this show is for you. Dr. Dan combines expert insights, powerful interviews, and real-life tools to help you deepen your self-awareness, strengthen your mindset, and make a positive impact. With decades of experience guiding individuals and leaders toward lasting transformation, Dr. Dan brings heart, humor, and honesty to every episode—so you walk away feeling motivated and equipped to make each day count. Tune in to new episodes every Thursday to unlock your potential, ignite your purpose, and—most of all—make it a great one.

Episodes

The Questions We Don’t Always Know How to Ask: A Raw and Real Conversation

September 24, 2026 • 50 mins

Life rarely hands us a clear roadmap. Sometimes everything looks good on the outside, yet something still feels missing. Sometimes the people we love make choices we don’t understand. And sometimes the hardest part of connection is knowing when to speak, when to listen, and when simply to be present. In this special Sitting Down with Dr. Dan episode, producer Amber Miller joins Dr. Dan to bring listener questions directly to...

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Rewriting the Family Story: Healing What Was Handed Down to You with J.S. Park

September 17, 2026 • 59 mins

Healing is rarely clean, linear, or complete and our worth is not determined by how perfectly we overcome the difficult parts of our story. Hospital chaplain and author Joon “J.S.” Park joins Dr. Dan for a powerful conversation about generational trauma, grief, family dynamics, faith, resilience, and what it means to remain deeply human in the middle of life’s hardest moments. Drawing from more than a decade of ...

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Lead With Love: How Great Leaders Transform People, Teams, and Families

September 10, 2026 • 54 mins

Leadership reaches far beyond a job title. The choices leaders make shape teams, relationships, families, organizations, and ultimately the lives of the people around them. In this episode of Make It a Great One with Dr. Dan, Dr. Dan welcomes Dr. Garland Vance and Dorothy Wood Vance, co-founders of AdVance Leadership and co-authors of Unleashed Leadership: How to Solve the 7 Issues Holding You Back from Your Greatest Impact. Garl...

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From Untouched to Connected: How Platonic Touch Can Transform Men’s Lives with Aaron Johnson

September 3, 2026 • 57 mins

Touch is one of our most basic human needs, yet for many men, meaningful platonic touch can disappear from their lives for years, sometimes even decades. In this deeply moving conversation, Dr. Dan welcomes Aaron Johnson, public speaker, facilitator, filmmaker, touch activist, founder of the Chronically Untouched Project, and co-founder of Holistic Resistance and Grief to Action. Aaron’s work explores the emotional an...

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When Everything Falls Apart: How to Rebuild With Gratitude, Courage & Faith with Ken Berenger

August 27, 2026 • 59 mins

Ken Berenger has lost everything… twice. And each time, he found a way to rebuild not only his career and finances, but also his understanding of success, purpose, faith, and who he wanted to become. In this deeply personal conversation, Dr. Dan and Ken explore the experiences that shaped Ken’s extraordinary resilience. Ken shares how a young singer with a mullet unexpectedly found himself on Wall Street, how financia...

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From Paralysis to Purpose: The Mindset That Turns Adversity Into Strength with Marcus Aurelius Anderson

August 20, 2026 • 59 mins

Adversity has a way of stripping away the masks, excuses, and illusions we carry and revealing what truly matters. In this episode, Dr. Dan speaks with leadership catalyst, bestselling author, speaker, U.S. Army veteran, and lifelong martial artist Marcus Aurelius Anderson about transforming adversity from something we simply endure into something we can use. While preparing to deploy with the U.S. Army, Marcus suffered a catastr...

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Train Your Mind Muscle: A Practical Path to Calm, Clarity, and Resilience with Miriam Putnam

August 13, 2026 • 58 mins

Profound loss can break us… but it can also awaken a purpose powerful enough to transform our lives and the lives of others. Certified wellness coach and holistic mental health advocate Miriam Putnam joins Dr. Dan for a deeply personal conversation about resilience, stress, self-advocacy, and caring for the whole person: body, mind, and soul. Drawing from her family’s pioneering legacy and her painful experience of lo...

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Stillness Is the Way: Finding Purpose, Compassion, and Your Higher Self with Tom Cronin

August 6, 2026 • 56 mins

Success can look complete on the outside and still feel painfully empty within. Tom Cronin spent years immersed in the high-pressure world of finance, surrounded by money, achievement, pleasure, and external validation. Beneath that success, however, he was struggling with severe anxiety, depression, substance use, and a growing sense that his life was moving further away from who he truly was. In this episode, Tom joins Dr. Dan ...

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Be Bold: How an Unplanned Life Unlocks Your Potential with Kevin Michael Kirwan

July 30, 2026 • 52 mins

Life rarely unfolds according to plan… and Kevin Michael Kirwan believes that may be one of its greatest gifts. In this episode of Make It a Great One with Dr. Dan, Dr. Dan welcomes writer and debut novelist Kevin Michael Kirwan for an inspiring conversation about purpose, authenticity, creativity, family, and the courage to follow an unexpected path. Kevin’s life has included delivering pizzas, playing music, flying...

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Create Without Burnout: Success Without Losing Who You Are with Melinda Cohan

July 23, 2026 • 55 mins

Success should not require sacrificing your energy, well-being, or joy. Speaker, coach, business mentor, sound healing practitioner, and three-time author Melinda Cohan joins Dr. Dan to redefine what achievement can look and feel like. After building The Coaches Console into a multimillion-dollar company, Melinda realized that sustainable success requires more than strategy, productivity, and constant action… it begins with...

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Beyond Achievement: Ian Edwards on Presence, Performance, and Living Authentically

July 16, 2026 • 72 mins

British figurative sculptor, world champion longbow archer, and deep thinker Ian Edwards joins Dr. Dan on this latest episode about presence, self-awareness, creativity, dyslexia, purpose, and what it means to live a fulfilled life. Ian shares his extraordinary journey from leaving school at 16 with no formal qualifications and severe dyslexia to becoming an internationally collected sculptor and world-class archer. Along the way,...

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From Autopilot to Purpose: Jay Abbasi on Growth, Grief, and High-Performance Living

July 9, 2026 • 57 mins

In this latest episode, Dr. Dan sits down with Jay Abbasi, a keynote speaker, TEDx speaker, coach, and host of the podcast Unstuck. In 2014, the sudden loss of Jay's father stopped him cold. He was successful on paper, climbing the ranks at Tesla and running on autopilot, and that loss became the wake-up call that moved him toward a life built around purpose, presence, and service instead of just achievement. Jay and Dr. Dan get i...

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The Hidden Cost of Being Gifted: Finding Worth Beyond Achievement with Eric Jessen

July 2, 2026 • 56 mins

Achievement, intelligence, and success are often celebrated as the ultimate markers of a life well-lived. But what happens when reaching every milestone still leaves you feeling empty, exhausted, or disconnected from yourself? In this episode, Dr. Dan sits down with author, business executive, and former gifted child Eric Jessen to explore the hidden challenges that can accompany early success. Drawing from his own life exp...

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What Mount Kilimanjaro Taught Me About Resilience, Leadership, and Courage with Jeff Harmon

June 25, 2026 • 56 mins

Leadership isn’t about looking strong… it’s about becoming who you’re meant to be. In this inspiring conversation, Dr. Dan sits down with executive leadership coach, speaker, and founder of My Impossible, Jeff Harmon, to explore a remarkable journey of resilience, vulnerability, and transformation. After being diagnosed with a rare neurological condition, Jeff found himself facing challenges that wo...

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Why Overthinking Keeps You Stuck and How Embodiment Sets You Free

June 18, 2026 • 57 mins

What if the path out of anxiety isn't through your mind… but through your body? In this episode of Make It a Great One, Dr. Dan sits down with Chelsea Horton, somatic coach, educator, and founder of Healing Embodied, who shares the profound difference between living from our heads versus living from our bodies. Together they explore why so many of us become trapped in overthinking, perfectionism, and performance, and...

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Who Are You Without the Title? Identity, Purpose, and Peak Performance with Matt Young

June 11, 2026 • 57 mins

Together, Matt and Dr. Dan explore the relationship between identity, achievement, resilience, and personal growth. They discuss the dangers of attaching self-worth to performance, how pain can become a catalyst for transformation, and why true peak performance begins with becoming a healthy, grounded human being first. Matt shares the life-changing five-day period that altered the trajectory of his life, the unexpected book that ...

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Why Women Get Sick Trying to Be Good: A Conversation on Autoimmunity & Authenticity Sara Hirsh Bordo

June 4, 2026 • 61 mins

What if the pressure to be “good” is making women physically sick? In this eye-opening episode, Dr. Dan sits down with award-winning filmmaker, entrepreneur, and author Sara Hirsh Bordo to explore the powerful connection between autoimmune disease, trauma, people-pleasing, and self-abandonment as well as to discuss Sara’s powerful new book Autoimmunity and the Good Girls: How Permission to Put Ourselves First Has...

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Building a Business That Matters: Purpose, Courage, and Environmental Leadership with Tom Szaky

May 28, 2026 • 59 mins

In this interesting episode, Dr. Dan interviews Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, to explore purpose-driven leadership. Tom is the author of four books, Revolution in a Bottle, Outsmart Waste, Make Garbage Great and The Future of Packaging. His work has made TerraCycle an award-winning international leader in innovative sustainability solutions, creating and operating first-of-their-kind platforms in recycling, recycled mat...

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Stop Blaming, Start Growing: The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything in Love and Relationships with EJ and Tarah Kerwin

May 21, 2026 • 55 mins

In this authentic conversation, Dr. Dan sits down with EJ and Tarah Kerwin, founders of Relationship Renovation and hosts of the Relationship Renovation Podcast, to explore what it truly takes to build emotional safety, trust, and lasting connection in our relationships. Drawing from both their professional expertise and personal journey as a couple, EJ and Tarah open up about the challenges, breakthroughs, and courage required to ...

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DIY Spirituality: How to Find Purpose, Connection, and Inner Peace on Your Own Terms with Faith Freed

May 14, 2026 • 62 mins

On this new episode, Dr. Dan sits down with Faith Freed, licensed psychotherapist and author of DIY Spirituality, to explore how self-awareness, mindset, and intentional living can help you create a deeper sense of purpose and connection. Faith shares her journey from high-pressure creative work to a life rooted in meaning, sparked by a profound shift into motherhood. What followed was a path toward integrating psychology and spir...

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Make It a Great One with Dr. Dan: #1 Podcast for Inspiring Conversations to Live and Lead On Purpose

Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Questions We Don’t Always Know How to Ask: A Raw and Real Conversation

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Rewriting the Family Story: Healing What Was Handed Down to You with J.S. Park

Lead With Love: How Great Leaders Transform People, Teams, and Families

From Untouched to Connected: How Platonic Touch Can Transform Men’s Lives with Aaron Johnson

When Everything Falls Apart: How to Rebuild With Gratitude, Courage & Faith with Ken Berenger

From Paralysis to Purpose: The Mindset That Turns Adversity Into Strength with Marcus Aurelius Anderson

Train Your Mind Muscle: A Practical Path to Calm, Clarity, and Resilience with Miriam Putnam

Stillness Is the Way: Finding Purpose, Compassion, and Your Higher Self with Tom Cronin

Be Bold: How an Unplanned Life Unlocks Your Potential with Kevin Michael Kirwan

Create Without Burnout: Success Without Losing Who You Are with Melinda Cohan

Beyond Achievement: Ian Edwards on Presence, Performance, and Living Authentically

From Autopilot to Purpose: Jay Abbasi on Growth, Grief, and High-Performance Living

The Hidden Cost of Being Gifted: Finding Worth Beyond Achievement with Eric Jessen

What Mount Kilimanjaro Taught Me About Resilience, Leadership, and Courage with Jeff Harmon

Why Overthinking Keeps You Stuck and How Embodiment Sets You Free

Who Are You Without the Title? Identity, Purpose, and Peak Performance with Matt Young

Why Women Get Sick Trying to Be Good: A Conversation on Autoimmunity & Authenticity Sara Hirsh Bordo

Building a Business That Matters: Purpose, Courage, and Environmental Leadership with Tom Szaky

Stop Blaming, Start Growing: The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything in Love and Relationships with EJ and Tarah Kerwin

DIY Spirituality: How to Find Purpose, Connection, and Inner Peace on Your Own Terms with Faith Freed

Popular Podcasts

The Questions We Don’t Always Know How to Ask: A Raw and Real Conversation

Rewriting the Family Story: Healing What Was Handed Down to You with J.S. Park