What is a Good Life?

On the 42nd episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast, I am delighted to welcome Pranay Sanklecha as our guest. Pranay is a philosopher, the founder of The Philosophy Practice, and a former philosophy professor at The University of Graz.

In this episode, Pranay looks to explore my own perspectives as well as sharing his own. We discuss the motives I had for starting this project, our realisations of the pitfalls of striving for particular states or experiences, and that real change may appear slow in the moment but can be considerable when viewed over time.

He also breaks down bigger concepts or questions into more relatable and applicable chunks, like a good life into a good day, and notions of oneness and loving everyone to focussing on truly loving your partner in the more trying moments of life.

Much of what Pranay is pointing to in this conversation is that if love, beauty, or God, are to be found anywhere, or if there is a good life to be experienced, it is right here in the mess of daily life, and not from escaping it.

This episode will give you plenty to consider in terms of where, and how, you are looking to experience a good life!

Subscribe for weekly episodes, every Tuesday, and check out my YouTube channel (link below) for clips and shorts.

Contact me at mark@whatisagood.life to book a free 30 minute consultation for one-on-one coaching programs or to hear about corporate workshops I am offering around this question.

Running Order:

02:34 Mixing the profound questions and the necessities

05:14 Why did I start this What is a Good Life? Project

12:16 Seeking a feeling rather than an outcome

15:16 Not taking ourselves seriously but being committed

20:39 Making peace with our commitments

25:54 Dissolving a gap between daily life and enlightenment

31:06 Mystical experiences and chasing states

38:14 Just caring about my present day

41:07 Feeling at home in your life

45:36 Attachment and aversion and freedom

50:10 What if everything was God?

59:43 The effect of getting comfortable with who we are

1:08:54 What is a good life for Pranay?

For further content and information check out the following: 

- For the podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos

- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/

- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/

- Pranay's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pranay-sanklecha/

- Pranay's Website: https://www.thenewphilosophy.com/

What is What is a Good Life??

A project to help you realise you are enough, by noticing and inhabiting life more fully.
What Is a Good Life? is a long-form conversation project exploring how people actually live, feel, and make meaning of their lives. Over the past four years, I’ve sat with more than 300 people — artists, parents, executives, wanderers, therapists, and strangers and invited them into a simple but profound inquiry, "What is a good life for you?"
The conversations explore presence, paradox, uncertainty, and the moments that shape a life - love and loss, trust and fear, clarity and not knowing. It’s an invitations to slow down, to listen deeply, and to bring you into conversation with your own life. There are new episodes every Tuesday.