The Meaningful Life with Andrew G. Marshall

Women often spend many hours considering their relationship with their mothers; but far less attention goes to the impact of fathers. For some, the reason for this is that their mothers were there, making wrong and right decisions (which they remember in the starkest possible light) whilst their fathers were absent. Jungian psychotherapist Dr Susan Schwartz has spent many hours guiding her women c...

Do you think about drinking alcohol more than you think about eating sandwiches? Do you spend significant amounts of time thinking about NOT drinking (Dry January, for example)? Or are you one of the many with an uneasy feeling that alcohol is no longer bringing anything good into your life, and may well be holding you back? Therapist and sobriety expert Veronica Valli had a problematic relationsh...

How do you survive the loss of your life’s partner? How does grief relate to love? And how do you navigate the sometimes clumsy responses to grief from those around you? Writer, activist and speaker Catherine Mayer has spent the years since 2020 charting the depths of loss and grief. In early 2020 her husband, renowned guitarist and producer Andy Gill, died after returning from his band Gang of Fo...

Many older people, particularly women, are “divorce-curious”. They wonder about life on the other side of a tired marriage, and feel that perhaps it isn’t too late. Could a divorce be the route to rediscovering passion, stimulation and new experiences? Others are in the position of having a divorce thrust upon them, and are left to work through the pain and upheaval a split can cause in later life...

Christina Patterson found herself in the heartbreaking position of being the last one left in a loving and beloved family. She took on the task of writing the story of her family and her place in it. In the process, Christina explored the ways in which our personal history can cause us to “get in our way”, self-sabotaging as we work through the suffering experienced both by ourselves and others in...

Doing a lot of things won’t get you where you want to go. According to “Digital Dale Carnegie” and best-selling author Erik Qualman, it’s become increasingly hard to achieve the things that mean the most to us. Modern life splinters our attention span and makes it extremely challenging to hone in on what matters.  Erik Qualman interviewed hundreds of people for his book, The Focus Project , includ...

Sometimes things feel way too complicated. You’re working hard, taking care of your family, you have enough money - but things still just don’t feel right. You push on, looking forward to your next holiday or a night out with friends, but the day to day is grey and exhausting.  Wellness practitioner, CEO, yoga instructor and clinical social worker Julie Wald specialises in working with people who...

David Kessler is one of the world’s best-known experts on grief, yet nothing could prepare him for the loss of his beloved son at the age of 21. Just as he’d advised his clients for decades, David attended grief groups, saw a therapist and sat with his pain.  In this episode, Andrew and David discuss how society wants us to grieve versus the reality of loss. We will likely never “get over” the los...

Shame is one of the emotions we find hardest to talk about. It can feel paralysing, and is linked to despair, imposter syndrome, fear and the sense of an impending doom.  This week’s guest, psychologist and author Dr Stephan Poulter, is the author of Shame Factor: Heal Your Deepest Fears and Set Yourself Free.  Andrew and Dr Poulter discuss how shame makes us feel - paralysed, unclean, not good en...

Teenagers have a big reputation for being hard to talk to. How can you find that spark of connection with your teen? Is there a way to set up a channel of communication so that you can help them through the rough patches? In this episode Andrew talks to Australian teacher and author Daisy Turnbull about her new book, 50 Questions to Ask Your Teens . Daisy shares insights from her work as a teacher...

Finding meaning and fulfillment in the second half of life requires us to make a conscious transition. We must explore “the unconscious denial and resistance that erupts around key thresholds of later life” if we are to be happy as elders.  In this episode, psychotherapist and author Connie Zweig, PhD talks with Andrew about how to become an elder who is filled with purpose and vitality. She expla...

Everything is always changing, and nothing is ever the same. If we think about it, we all know that. But we tend to live differently, as though we can hang onto the same fixed self, the same ways of doing things, and the same people around us. Alan Lessik, author and Zen practitioner, is an expert in change. He is known by his friends as someone who takes fearless leaps into new jobs, new countrie...

If you dread parties, can’t face job interviews, or won’t start scary conversations with your partner, this is the episode for you.  Dr Wendy Suzuki is a neuroscientist and an international expert on anxiety and the brain. Her new book, Good Anxiety , unpacks the science of everyday anxiety in a way that helps us manage it. In this episode, Andrew and Wendy discuss:  ⚡️What “good anxiety” is, and...

“Within your mind, body and soul YOU have an untapped potential that wants to be unleashed. It calls to you in your dreams and whispers to you when your mind goes silent. It is relentless because it knows you are capable of more than you give yourself credit for” (George Mumford) George Mumford used his insights into pain, mindfulness and performance to enrich the careers of athletes including Mic...

Some of us try our best never to think about death, while some of us “live in death’s basement”. Composer, academic and psychoanalyst Paul Attinello lived through the suffering and loss of the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. After testing positive for HIV, he built a creative and achievement-filled life, over which death nevertheless always loomed.  Then, the advent of lifesaving medications changed e...

Is society setting you up to fail in your marriage? World-renowned relationship therapist Terry Real sees a toxic culture of individualism troubling society at every level. We are told to strive for personal productivity and perfection, ignoring the fact that we exist in a web of crucial relationships. In this episode, Terry describes research showing that the mind exists in a social context, and...

Lots of us are afraid of the very word: fear. We’d rather say anxiety, or worry, or panic.  Yet according to Thom Rutledge, fear underlies most difficult emotions, and is a close companion to shame. Fear plays into just about every decision we ever make in our lives. To defeat fear, according to Thom, is neither possible nor desirable. Instead we need to live beyond its control, and to understand...

“So he’s become the real love of my life. But if I’d been following my old ways of looking for men I wouldn’t have noticed him”. If you’re following your heart and trusting to the universe in your search for midlife love, you may need to take a step back and rethink your approach.  This week’s guest, Dr Mairi Macleod, is the founder of Dating Evolved , a science-based dating consultancy. Mairi hel...

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation” (Henry Thoreau).  Therapist Simon Roe has based his life’s work on helping men live an authentic life. After himself going through a period of quiet desperation in his mid-thirties, Simon went on to help men break the silence, find “the song inside” and overcome their experiences of depression, v...

How can we help our children understand grief and loss? How can we recover as adults, if no-one helped us make sense of grief and loss as a child? Amanda Seyderhelm is an expert in innovative creative play therapy for children, and the author of a book called  Helping Children Cope with Loss and Change. Amanda changed careers to work in play therapy after a life-threatening illness changed everyth...

If you could write a letter to your own anxiety, what would it say? This is just one of the ways therapist Dr Kathleen Smith befriends her anxiety and in the process, moves it into the back seat of her life.  If you can’t sleep, can’t focus and are constantly pushing down the frustrations you experience in your relationships, you will know that you probably need to deal with your anxiety. In this...

“Don’t look for a match - light one”: being single needs to stop being seen as failure, and start being viewed as a fulfilling, meaningful, loving life choice. Shani Silver’s new book, The Single Revolution, is all about changing your mindset and embracing the single existence.  In this episode Shani and Andrew discuss the emotionally exhausting and often dangerous world of online dating. After re...

Many of us are brought up to see sacrifice and exhaustion as the route to success. Julia Paulette Hollenbery’s mission is to help us all realise that in fact “pleasure is the essential nourishment you need for productive work, happy relationships and vibrant health”.  Julia also believes that pleasure is not hard to find. There is an abundance of pleasure available to us all, in every moment and w...

What does it mean to be wise? Do we grow in wisdom as we age? Pioneering neuropsychiatric researcher Dr Dilip Jeste has spent years investigating the biological and cognitive roots of wisdom.  In this episode, Andrew and Dilip discuss what we mean when we talk about wisdom, and whether we can, in fact, grow wiser. Dilip describes what he has established as the key components of the wise individual...

My guests this week - Lisa Arends and Helen Tower - know just about everything there is to know about the painful subject of infidelity, because they have lived it through it themselves. Both have written extensively about their experiences. Lisa’s is a story of the most extreme and dramatic betrayal: ten years ago her husband ended their 16-year marriage with a text message, after which she never...