Flourish FM

Episode#12: How to progress through life from one strength to another

In this episode, we talked to Professor Arthur Brooks about happiness, wisdom, love, relationships, religion and spirituality, and why these are important for our flourishing, particularly as we move into the latter half of our lives. 
 
Arthur C. Brooks is the William Henry Bloomberg Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School. Before joining Harvard in July 2019, he served for ten years as president of the Washington, D.C.-based American Enterprise Institute, one of the world’s leading think tanks. Brooks is the author of 12 books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller “From Strength to Strength,” and national bestsellers “Love Your Enemies” and “The Conservative Heart”. He has also published dozens of academic journal articles and the textbook “Social Entrepreneurship”. He is a columnist for The Atlantic, host of the podcast “How to Build a Happy Life,” and subject of the 2019 documentary film “The Pursuit,” which Variety named as one of the “Best Documentaries on Netflix” in August 2019. He gives more than 100 speeches per year around the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Prior to his work in academia and public policy, Brooks spent 12 years as a professional French hornist in the United States and Spain. 
 
Key conversation points:
The kinds of relationships that are most important to cultivate and how to cultivate them.
The distinction between “real” and “deal friends”: why focusing on the former is vital for happiness but focusing on the latter leads to loneliness. 
How to ensure you have sufficient “real relationships” in your life.  
Why love is so important for happiness and flourishing.
The importance of developing a vision of what you love and do.
The two intelligence “curves” in life: moving from fluid to crystallized intelligence.
Why religion, spirituality, philosophy or a connection with something higher are important for flourishing. 
Arthur’s most recent book, From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life and the seven words he uses to sum it up: “use things, love people, worship the divine”.
 
Joining us to interview Arthur is Matthew T. Lee, Professor of the Social Sciences and Humanities at the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University. He is also a Research Associate and Director of the Flourishing Network at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University; a member of the Global Study of Human Flourishing research team; a Distinguished Visiting Scholar of Health, Flourishing, and Positive Psychology at Stony Brook University’s Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics; and Visiting Scholar at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. 
 
arthurbrooks.com 
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Episode# 11: Flow & Flourishing Part 2: Flow in your work

This is the second in a two-part series on the relationship between flourishing and flow - the psychological state of optimal experience and performance. Research suggests that experiencing flow significantly enhances our well-being.
 
In this episode, we talk to Dr Jared Weintraub and Dr Gerrit McGowan about the role of flow in work and how to get more into flow in your work.
 
Dr Jared Weintraub is the founder of The Flow Group, LLC., an organizational and business development firm that works with individuals and companies to create and maintain happy, healthy, and productive workplaces. Jared holds a Ph.D. from Hofstra University, a Master’s degree from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, and a certification as a Senior Professional of Human Resources (SPHR). He has worked with start-ups, Fortune 500 companies, and organizations across various industries, providing internal and external consulting, coaching, and managing marketing and sales teams. He recently received his Ph.D. in Applied Org
anizational Psychology from Hofstra University, where he researched Flow Theory - how, when, and why individuals, teams, and organizations can get into “the Zone.” Most recently, this research has explored how we can use technology-based solutions to "nudge" behavior change in order to develop key competencies for flourishing at work. His over ten years of experience include: teaching undergraduate and graduate courses, designing and implementing training programs, employee engagement, performance management, needs assessment, employment law compliance, administration of benefits, and so on.
 
Dr Gerrit McGowan is a 4x startup founder, angel investor, and peak performance coach. He is the founder of the Syntegrity Group, Kula.com, Effectuate Apps, ICELab, the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, the WHU Accelerator, and numerous other short-lived ventures. But he is perhaps most recognised for inventing the concept of Cause-Related Loyalty Marketing and its SaaS implementations such as MyCoke Rewards Donate to Schools, Kellogg’s Points with Purpose, Red Robin Eat Up-Give Back Rewards, and JetBlue’s TrueGiving. When not building ventures, Gerrit is helping others build theirs - having coached over 1000 founders and nascent entrepreneurs across five continents. He is a All-Star Mentor for Techstars, CEO Coach for Alchemist Accelerator, mentor for APX, Founder Institute, Earlybird VisionLab, and advisor/investor/shareholder in numerous high-growth ventures. Throughout his career, Gerrit has led the development of over a dozen technology products; raised over $10m in funding; and supported startups that have raised over $100m in venture capital. His work has been honoured with two Canadian Institute of Planners Awards for Excellence; as a finalist for the Guardian’s Social Enterprise of the Year Award; and a SXSW Startup Showcase selection.
 
Key conversation points:
How Gerrit and Jared both came into research and work around the flow state
How flow takes various points along a spectrum of focused attention
How flow and flourishing at work are connected with important work outcomes
The interesting relationship between flow, stress and anxiety
The appropriate role of stress and challenge in flourishing and flow
Gerrit’s study of flow and burnout among entrepreneurs
The difference between work-life balance and work-life synergy 
How to create more flow at in your team or organization
 
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Episode # 10: Flow & Flourishing Part 1: The Flow State

This is the first of a two-part series on the relationship between flourishing and flow - the psychological state of optimal experience and performance. Research suggests that experiencing flow significantly enhances our well-being.
 
In this episode, we talk to Dr Carol Grojean and Dr Brent Hogarth about the flow state and its relationship to flourishing.
As a Leadership professional in the areas of Organizational Effectiveness, Project Management, and Transformational Change, Dr Carol Grojean has spent the past 20 years’ guiding large, complex, strategic initiatives. Carol is adept at designing and implementing programs which drive strategic business and organizational culture shifts through building trust and delivering results. With extensive business process, project, and program management skillset built on 3 Masters degrees and a Ph.D. in organizational systems psychology: leadership and social transformation as well as wilderness rite of passage guiding, council facilitating, and peace mediation training. Carol brings a unique and much-needed perspective on the human behavior in human systems, focused on building cultures where individuals at all levels can bring their distinct, creative talents to their roles while providing the necessary skills to the whole system values and vision.
 
Dr. Brent Hogarth is a Sport and Clinical Psychologist from Vancouver, Canada. He is an expert in training flow-state, mindfulness, and self-control for both sport and corporate athletes. Brent has significant training and experience providing performance enhancement and mental health counseling. This includes, but is not limited to, working with Olympic and professional athletes, serial entrepreneurs, members of the USA military, computer engineers, authors, hedge fund managers and more. Brent's clinical counseling experience is vast, and he sees everyone as having the ability to be a high-performer. He completed his Doctoral fellowships at the University of Texas, at El Paso, and Lehigh University, in Bethlehem, PA. After a short stint as a fitness trainer, he traveled to India where he lived in a Buddhist Monastery and completed a Yoga Teacher training Course. It was at this moment - sitting in meditation on the hills of McLeod Ganj, India - that Brent committed to becoming a psychologist. Dr. Hogarth is a Humanistic-Existential psychologist. His theoretical orientation is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies, together with commitment and behavior change strategies, to increase psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility means contacting the present moment fully, and based on what the situation affords, changing or persisting in behavior in the service of clients’ chosen values.
 
Key conversation points:
The place of flow in human flourishing
Why focusing on integration of the self and experience is important for flow: “doing” vs. “being”, and integrating the “me” with the “we”
Why it’s important for getting into flow to not try to get into flow, but rather to “let go”
The importance of embracing and engaging in a process of struggle to get into flow
The importance of being aware of the potential dark side of flow
 
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Episode#9: Pathways to Visible Well-being and Executing Strengths-Based Parenting

In this episode we talked to Professor Lea Waters about the pathways towards well-being and why ‘strengths-based parenting’ is important.
 
Lea is Founding Director of and Inaugural Gerry Higgins Chair in Positive Psychology at the Centre for Positive Psychology (now the Centre for Wellbeing Science), University of Melbourne. Lea holds affiliate positions at Cambridge University and the University of Michigan and serves on the Scientific Board at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. Lea is the Past President of the International Positive Psychology Association, serves on the Council of Happiness and Education for the World Happiness Council, is the Patron of Flourishing Education Japan and Ambassador for the Positive Education Schools Association. She is a registered psychologist and a full member of the Australian Psychological Society.
 
Key convo points are:
Lea’s tripartite account of flourishing as feeling good, functioning well and doing good.
The connection Lea draws between her account of flourishing and positive psychology - the scientific study of the conditions and processes leading to human flourishing.
Lea’s ‘SEARCH’ framework on the six pathways to well-being: Strengths, Emotional management, Attention & Awareness, Relationships, Coping, and Habits & goals.
Lea’s view that flourishing is the aim of education, and her research on how improving well-being in education supports the fulfillment of students’ learning.
Lea’s argument that to build well-being, we need to make well-being more visible, in similar ways to how we try to make thinking visible.
The age at which humans gain a sense of purpose in life.
What strengths-based parenting is and why parents should consider employing it. 
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Episode # 8: On growing roses in concrete, student well-being and a different vision for education

In this episode we are talking to Jeff Duncan-Andrade, Ph.D., a Professor of Latina/o Studies and Race and Resistance Studies at San Francisco State University. He is also a founder of the Roses in Concrete Community School, a community responsive lab school in East Oakland (rosesinconcrete.org) and the Community Responsive Education Group (communityresponsive.org). As a classroom teacher and school leader in East Oakland (CA) for the past 28 years, his pedagogy has been widely studied and acclaimed for producing uncommon levels of social and academic success for students. Duncan-Andrade lectures around the world and has authored numerous journal articles and book chapters on effective practices in schools.  He has written two books and his third book with Harvard University Press is due for publication in spring 2022. In 2016, Duncan-Andrade was part of the great educators invited to the White House on National Teacher Appreciation Day by President Obama, and in 2019 he was chosen as the Laureate for the prestigious Brock International Prize in Education. In 2021, he was selected to join the Board of Prevent Child Abuse America. Duncan-Andrade has also been ranked as one of the nation’s most influential scholars by EdWeek’s Public Influence Rankings.
 
Key points we talked about: 
Hear about how he’s navigating COVID as a father, professor and educational leader. 
The childhood experiences that built him into the person he is today and field the things he cares. 
The way unearned suffering cuts across so many groups. People are situated on the margins of society. 
Consistent pursuit to keep his thumb of the heartbeat of research and narratives around educational reform and building a different type of educational experience. One that would eventually put well-being at the center of that educational experience.
Mention his school Roses in Concrete a different kind of school
Mention their definition of well-being for their students: ‘Youth Wellness’
The act of giving one’s child over to a school or teacher every morning
We’re measuring the wrong stuff
Keeping both individual and collective wellness in mind: ‘community-responsive youth wellness’
Tips from our expert as a part of the flourishing question

Epsiode #7: Applying the Ancient Greek philosophy of flourishing to our lives today

In this episode we talked to Professor Angie Hobbs about how we can apply the ancient Greek philosophy of flourishing to our lives today. 
 
Angie gained a degree in Classics and a PhD in Ancient Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. After a Research Fellowship at Christ’s College, Cambridge, she moved to the Philosophy Department at the University of Warwick; in 2012 she was appointed Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield, a position created for her.  She now holds a position with this title at the University of Warwick. Her chief interests are in ancient philosophy and literature, and ethics and political theory from classical thought to the present, and she has published widely in these areas, including Plato and the Hero (C.U.P).  Her most recent publication for the general public is Plato’s Republic: a Ladybird Expert Book.  She contributes regularly to radio and TV programmes and other media around the world, including 24 appearances on In Our Time on BBC Radio 4.  She has spoken at the World Economic Forum at Davos, the Athens Democracy Forum, the Houses of Parliament, the Scottish Parliament and Westminster Abbey and been the guest on Desert Island Discs, Private Passions and Test Match Special.   
Angie was a judge of the Man Booker International Prize 2019 and was on the World Economic Forum Global Future Council 2018-9 for Values, Ethics and Innovation.
www.angiehobbs.com
Twitter @drangiehobbs 
Key conversation points:
Why flourishing is about the best actualization and fulfillment of all our faculties.
Why flourishing means living the best life, both individually and as communities. 
The values and virtues that best help us fulfill our faculties.
The relevance and importance of Plato’s and Aristotle’s accounts of flourishing to the world today and how we live.
Flourishing and the wholeness of our lives, in terms of lifespan, our characters, and our relations with others.
Why flourishing gives you a secure framework of what it means to live a full, rich human life, both for yourself and your community.
The role and importance of social connection in flourishing, particularly friendships and community connection.
The dark side of flourishing.
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Episode #6: The importance of critical thinking for flourishing in an age of technology

In this epsiode we talked to Dr Tom Chatfield. He is a British author, philosopher of technology, and educator. He is interested in improving our understanding of digital technology and its uses in policy, education and engagement. He’s particularly interested in the teaching and practice of critical thinking skills, and has worked with schools, universities and companies around their development, as well as creating award-winning online courses for both academic institutions and businesses.
Key conversation points were:
Our relationship with technology and how this impacts our flourishing
How to reduce technology blurring the lines between work and leisure
How to use technology well, rather than being used by technology
Attention: what it is; its importance for living a good life; and the dangers of monetizing attention
The importance of collaboration and humility as virtues for thinking and living well
The importance of critical thinking skills for leading flourishing lives - in particular, avoiding coercion, reaching effective collaborative decisions, and identifying misinformation and disinformation

Episode #5: Pathways to Global Flourishing

Dr David Johnson is Reader in Comparative and International Education and Fellow of St Antony’s College at the University of Oxford. He convenes Oxford’s Centre for Comparative and International Education and recently held the position of Chen Yiden Global Visiting Fellow at Harvard.
Dr. Matthew T. Lee is Director of Empirical Research at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, where he also leads the Program’s Community of Practice. He is also a Distinguished Visiting Scholar of Health, Flourishing, and Positive Psychology at Stony Brook University’s Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics.
Key Takeaways from this episode are:
Multidimensional nature of flourishing, being inter-systemic, involving multiple systems: connections between flourishing and (i) the natural environment; (ii) justice; (iii) religion & spirituality; (iv) suffering; (v) contentedness; (vi) belonging; (vii) service to others; (viii) the narrative you tell of your life; (vi) empathy; (x) love; (xi) secureness in who we are; (xi) inner and outer harmony
Flourishing as a process of growth and becoming
Pathways to flourishing, globally
The metaphor of discovering greater depth in oneself as a better metaphor for flourishing than growth. Connection with this and contentedness.
Matt and David’s work worldwide: David’s work in various nations, including Bhutan; Matt’s work with the Global Flourishing Study
The limits of physical and emotional load for human beings, in relation to flourishing (examples of low well-being for medical students and professionals in the US, and teachers)
Matt on the role of love in flourishing: ‘warm’ and ‘cold’ relationships

Episode #4: Addiction and flourishing: why our addiction to pleasure is making us unhappy

Today we are talking to Anna Lemke, MD about the relation between dopamine and fourishing. 
Overarching themes:
Dopamine, it’s role in pleasure and motivation 
The relation between dopamine and human flourishing
How to flourish while navigating addiction
 
Dr. Anna Lembke received her undergraduate degree in Humanities from Yale University and her medical degree from Stanford University. She is currently Professor and Medical Director of Addiction Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine. She is also Program Director of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Fellowship, and Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic.
 
Her latest book, Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence (Dutton/Penguin Random House, August 2021), was an instant New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller, and explores how to moderate compulsive overconsumption in a dopamine-overloaded world.

Episode #3: Should growth be the goal of human flourishing?

Our third episode guest is Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman. Key discussion points were:
- the sailboat metaphor and human flourishing
- education and flourishing
 
Scott Barry Kaufman is a cognitive scientist and humanistic psychologist exploring the mind, creativity, and the depths of human potential. He is founder and director of the Center for the Science of Human Potential and an Honorary Principal Fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Wellbeing Science. Dr. Kaufman has taught at Columbia University, Yale, NYU, the University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. Dr. Kaufman received a B.S. in psychology and human computer interaction from Carnegie Mellon, an M. Phil in experimental psychology from the University of Cambridge under a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, and a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Yale University. 
Dr. Kaufman hosts the #1 psychology podcast in the world— The Psychology Podcast— which has received over 20 million downloads and was included in Business Insider’s list of “9 podcasts that will change how you think about human behavior.”