The Meaning Movement: Rediscover your Passion, Avoid Burnout, and Do Work You Love.

Catherine Ricafort and Scott McCreary are artists who have seen the top of their fields. And when they did, they saw how difficult of a life it was — even for the best of the best. So they made a change. And that change lead them to help others make similar changes. Catherine and Scott founded Artists Who Code — a volunteer-run organization whose mission is to empower artists through tech, and adv...

Gladys Holliday is a collage artist. When the COVID pandemic caused her to be furloughed, Gladys took the opportunity to explore her creativity. She threw herself into making without expectation of what would come out the other side. I'll let her tell her story, but ultimately she found something that feels more like what she was made to do than anything else she's experienced. In this episode you...

Holly Ojalvo has had a long career in both digital media and education. Over the past dozen years, she has been an editorial leader at outlets including The New York Times, Quartz, and USA TODAY, developing and executing content strategy, streamlining processes, launching and running initiatives, and mentoring, coaching, hiring, and training journalists. She also founded and ran Kicker, a digital...

Laura Huang is a researcher and professor at Harvard Business School. She researches and teaches on concepts of perception and bias in work and business.   Her work has been featured in all kinds of impressive places: The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and a whole bunch of others.   Through her work Laura helps people come to understand how others see them, take control of that narrative, and use it...

Our guest today has had a fascinating career path. I could say that about all our guest, really. Who hasn't had a fascinating career path?   But that's some of what makes these conversations so important! It's rarely linear. It never looks the way you think it will.   But I digress.   When Ximena Vengoechea realized that the path she was on wasn't going to take her where she wanted to go, she star...

Over the years of working with people through questions of work, meaning, and what's next, I've worked with a few former dancers. Ballet dancers specifically. If you pursue ballet at a high level — much like professional sports — you know that there's a timeline. Your body can only sustain that level of athletics for so long. This is not to mention the all-in commitment required of your time, ener...

Steven Homestead is an artist, poet, composer, and collaborator. He structures his work around his life and art — often keeping them as separate parallel streams.   Steven is also one of my oldest friends, so I've been able to witness his intentional choices over the years in what he pursues and does next.   We discuss how he approaches creative projects, work, and the relationship between the two...

Nicole Antoinette is honest — with herself, with the world, and in her work.  She's built a job for herself out of creating and curating real conversations about the real things in life — the kinds of things that a lot of people don't talk about, things like money, sex, sobriety, therapy, etc. Nicole was really fun to talk to.  She's so comfortable and open.  She really embodies her values. She's...

Therese Huston is a researcher, writer, cognitive therapist and professor. She's done a lot and had her work featured in all kinds of places. Therese found that the right feedback at the right time made all the difference in her career. In many ways it could make or break things for you. In this conversation we dig into her career journey, some of the key ways that feedback was important to her al...

As I (Dan) put together the next batch of content, I'm hoping to fill a gap in our guest demographic.  In this short episode I talk about what that gap is, why it exists, and how YOU can help. If you're interested on being on the show apply at https://themeaningmovement.com/apply

Nick Cox has done some deep work around calling and vocation in his life. I loved this interview because we were able to go places that many guests just aren't ready to go. Which is to say, you can tell Nick has done his work. He's also a good friend and long time listener of the Meaning Movement and member of the Calling Course, so I've had the privilege of getting glimpses of his process along t...

Allen O'Brien helps people with transitions. Faith transitions. Identity transitions. And recovery from religious trauma. He's a minister, a student, a listener, and podcaster. We got to talk about how challenging it can be when parts of your identity change and how to navigate those transitions. We also dig religious trauma and high control religious environment and how they impact us. Allen is a...

Have you ever needed and even wanted to do something, but struggled to get into action to get it done? When I look at the way my energy for activities shifts— it can seem so illogical. There are things that I can't wait to get out of bed to do, and there are other things that I can't get myself out of bed to do. Why is that? Today on the podcast, we get to dig in and attempt to answer that questio...

Time is a strange thing. Though it always continues on, it sometimes feels as though it moves quickly and other times slowly. In work, sometimes it's easy to manage our time and what we can fit into a few hours or a day. Other times it gets away from us — leaving us frustrated and unsatisfied. These are some of the attributes of time that fascinate Laura Vanderkam and drew her to build a career ou...

Sara Easterly is a writer, but it's taken some time for her to own that as her work identity. As with many of us, there are traces of it all the way back to her younger years. But it took some time for that part of herself to identity to emerge. One of the turning points in her process came when she realized, she was giving so much to everything else she was doing and "giving herself the left-over...

I know work can be a tough part of life for some. I've had it lucky in many ways, in spite of the many struggles I've had over the years. Our guest today had to overcome more than most, and his story is incredible. Diego came to the United States at 9 years old, undocumented. He was a great student — top of his class. And spent his time outside of school volunteering. When he was offered a job he...

Stephen Warley wants you to take control of your work and career and become a free agent. He believes that your best work is done when you're working for yourself, and not for someone else. Stephen runs Life Skills that Matter - a business, blog, and podcast that helps people start businesse that fit who you are. He believes that work is changing for the better and that it's time to adapt and embr...

Barrett Brooks believes that business, when done right, can be one of the most powerful forces for good in the world. His career took a sharp turn when the path he planned ended up feeling empty. This sent him on a journey toward discovering what makes meaningful work. I'll let him tell his story. But needless to say, Barett has thought long and hard about work and meaning, both for himself as wel...

Wendy Conrad has been where many of our listeners and I have also been at some point: a job that didn't fit, feeling frustrated and needing a change. I'll let her tell her story, and it's a good one. Her negative work experience lead her started asking the question: can work be a happy place? Can it actually be fun? which lead her to what she does now. Today she's a Work Culture Developer and Foun...

Dr. Benjamin Hardy is challenging head on the notion that personality tests can tell you who you are. In fact, his research shows that they may actually be counter-productive to growing, learning, and becoming who you want to be. He is an organizational psychologist, successful entrepreneur and bestselling author of Willpower Doesn't Work and Personality Isn't Permanent, on sale 6/16. His blog is...

Chase Purdy is a journalist who has found himself in a very specific but surprisingly fun and fascinating corner of journalism: cell-cultured meat. Whether or not you even know what that is or have any judgments about it, I invite you to put them aside and come along on a captivating journey with us as we dive deep into food, sustainability, and what might be the future of food. We get to hear som...

Mike Michalowicz is an author and entreprenuer. As you'll hear in the show, he's an author first and foremost. He's written six business books and counting. Personally, he's one of my favorite voices in the world of business. His books are practical and incredibly helpful.   Whether or not you're an entrepreneur, I think you'll find this interview really fun. Mike has thought long and deep about c...

I've been following Buster Benson for years. His journaling platform, 750words.com, has been a part of my writing process since the inception of the Meaning Movement. Something that's always spoken to me about Buster's work is first, how he works to create tools to help people improve, and second, how he's always working on projects. He's not one to sit around, and I really resonate with that. His...

AY Musik is a musician, sustainability activist, and budding social entrepreneur. He set an audacious the goal of performing live every single day, which created a problem: how can he power amps, mics, and instruments anywhere in the world so he could achieve this goal? That question lead him on a deep dive into electricity, batteries, and ultimately product design, as he built a power box to make...

Brant Pinvidic pitched ideas for a living. As a highly successful TV and film producer, his projects were born and died via his ability to communicate the concept simply, quickly, and effectively. Over time he discovered a simple format that all strong pitches shared. We got to dig into his 3 Minute Pitch format, his journey into and out of Hollywood, and how to apply his format to your life, care...