The Good Life Podcast with Sean Murray

My guest today is Bob Cancalosi, the author of several books about journaling, most recently, Four Loops Learning: Reflection Points. Bob has been journaling for over 20 years. I talk with him about why he got started, what kept him going through the years and how it's enhanced his life. He also talks about getting diagnosed, three years ago, with a rare head and neck cancer, and how journaling has helped him through ...

In today's episode I talk with John Garrett, investment manager at MA Financial and the author of the popular blog, Investment Master Class. John talks about how being a successful investor requires continuous learning, and how the practice of writing has helped him become a better investor.

What You'll Learn

• Why some companies "fight the fade"
• What Garrett learned by reading Nick Sleep's investment letters
• The importance ...

My guest today is Ron Friedman, author of Decoding Greatness: How the Best in the World Reverse Engineer Success. In this episode Ron applies the principles of reverse engineering to creative fields like writing and investing. We talk about how to study people who are the best in the world at what they do by breaking down what it is they’re doing that is contributing to their success, and then then working backwa...

Today's guest is Bob Pozen, the former president of Fidelity Investments. He teaches a course at MIT Sloan called "Maximizing your own Productivity" and he recently authored a book with Alexendra Samuel titled, "Remote, Inc.: How to Thrive at Work...Wherever You Are"

Topics

• Why we shouldn't think of ourselves as a "remote worker," rather we should think of ourselves as "Remote, Inc."
• Why the mindset of becoming a "bu...

Mike Horne is the author of "Integrity by Design: Working and Living Authentically." Mike consults with organizations to help them build authentic cultures and he works directly with executives as a leadership coach.

In this episode we explore what it means to live an authentic life. We look to Warren Buffett as as an example in the business community as someone who leads with integrity and has built a company, in Berkshire...

Today’s guest is a former designer from Apple who is now the Executive Director of the Stanford Design Program, and he teaches a hugely popular course at Stanford called Designing Your Life. His name is Bill Burnett and he’s the co-author of the book,Designing Your Life, How to Build a Well-Lived Joyful Life. Bill has taken the principles of design that he learned at Apple and he helps people apply them to design...

 My guest this week is Robert Cialdini, Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University and author of the New York Times best-selling book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion . A new and expanded version is being release this week.

Professor Cialdini's book has had an enormous impact on those of us in the Value Investing community. In fact, when Charlie Munger read the book he was so impressed, and h...

 In today’s episode we’re going to explore the writings of Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon. He recently announced he is stepping down from the role of CEO but will remain as Chairman. And he just published his 2020 Letter to Shareholders, which is the last letter he will write as CEO, I presume. 

Also, in the past year, a book of his Collected Writing was published by Harvard Business Review Pr...

Today's guest is William Green, author of Richer, Wiser, Happier: How the World's Greatest Investors Win in Markets and Life. This is an incredible book, profiling some of the greatest investors: Monish Pabrai, Charlie Munger, Bill Miller, Nick Sleep, and many more. Green reveals the principles and habits that contributed to their success in both investing and life.

We talk about how these investors spend their time. How th...

On today's show, I talk with Scott Hambrick, the founder of Online Great Books, an organization that hosts virtual seminars for people who want to read the Great Books of Western Civilization. Scott talks about what makes the Great Books great, why they are so important, and how they contribute to living the Good Life. We also do a deep dive into Aristotle’s famous work on how to achieve happiness and live the be...

Description

Our guest this week is Cal Newport, author of the book: A World Without email: Reimagining work in an Age of Digital Overload

Cal is a professor of computer science at Georgetown and he is the best selling author of two previous best-selling books on productivity and managing our time: Deep Work and Digital Minimalism.

Cal is at the forefront of figuring out how knowledge workers can thrive and be productive in th...

Episode #57: Learning from Marcus Aurelius with Donald Robertson (replay)

On today's show, I talk with Donald Robertson, the co-founder of Modern Stoicism and the author of How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius. Robertson is an expert on both ancient Stoicism and the modern psychotherapy that evolved from Stoicism called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Robertson goes in-dept...

My guest today is Scott Newstok, professor at Rhodes and author of “How to Think like Shakespeare: Lessons from a Renaissance Education." Scott’s book is ultimately about the craft of thinking and how to improve it. 

In our conversation we address a very interesting question. How is it that Shakespeare, and his renaissance contemporaries were able to produce such incredible works? What was their educatio...

This episode is a replay of one of the most popular episodes from last year. The guest is William B. Irvine, professor of philosophy at Wright State University and the author of A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy and more recently, The Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher’s Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer and More Resilient. Professor Irvine has taken the ancient philosophy of Stoicism out of the classroom...

The topic of this week’s episode is Warren Buffett’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. My guest is Jake Taylor, the Chief Executive Officer of Farnam Street Investments. Jake has been a previous guest on The Good Life as part of the Decision-Making Mastermind Group. Jake breaks down Warren Buffett's latest Letter to Berkshire Shareholders and helps us understand what we can learn. Jake i...

The topic of this week’s episode is walking, and my guest is Shane O’Mara, author of In Praise of Walking: A New Scientific Exploration. Shane is a professor of Experimental Brain Research at Trinity College Dublin and he’s an expert on the physical, psychological and social benefits of walking. We talk about why walking is the trait that makes us “uniquely human” and what that means for us personally. And g...

The topic this week is How to Keep Your Cool, and my guest is James Romm, a Professor of Classics at Bard and the author of the book, How to Keep your Cool: An Ancient Guide to Anger Management. This is James’ second appearance on The Good Life, he was a guest on episode #9 where he talked about Seneca. 

In this episode James talks about Seneca’s famous essay, On Anger. Seneca is a Stoic, and his advice on ho...

Today’s guest is Massimo Pigliucci, a professor of Philosophy at the city College of New York. He has written extensively about Stoicism, but today's topic is much broader than that. Massimo has a new book out titled " How to Live a Good Life: A Guide to Choosing Your Personal Philosophy." It’s a series of essays, each dedicated to a different philosophy of life, and written by a practitioner of that philosophy. Massimo ed...

Our topic this week is Claude Shannon, a mathematician and engineer known as the Father of Information theory for his landmark paper "A Mathematical Theory of Communication", which he published in 1948. Shannon's seminal work and discoveries ushered in the digital age, and for that alone, his life is worthy of study, but Shannon also had this other remarkable quality to his life – a very playful and creative mind. Shannon ...