What is a Good Life?

On the 113th episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast, I am delighted to introduce our guest, Minna Salami. Minna is an author and social critic, and currently senior fellow and research chair at The New Institute. She is the author of Sensuous Knowledge and Can Feminism Be African?, and her work appears in the Guardian, Project Syndicate, Al Jazeera, and other outlets.

In this incredibly captivating conversation, Minna shares her sense of living an extraordinary life, emphasising the importance of attentiveness and curiosity. We explore childhood and mystical experiences and their impact on her understanding of life. 

This conversation is an invitation to notice, to really pay attention to life, and to live your own full expression of life.

For more of Minna's work, check out the following:
Newsletter: https://msafropolitan.com/
The New Institute: https://thenew.institute/en/people/minna-salami
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/minnasalami_/?hl=en

Contact me at mark@whatisagood.life if you'd like to explore your own lines of self-inquiry through 1-on-1 coaching, take part in my 5-week Silent Conversation group courses, discuss experiences I create to stimulate greater trust, communication, and connection, amongst your leadership teams, or you simply want to get in touch.

- For the What is a Good Life? 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/
- Exploring this question for yourself: https://www.whatisagood.life/p/your-personal-interview
- The Silent Conversations: https://www.whatisagood.life/p/the-silent-conversations


00:00 Introduction
01:25 Living An Extraordinary Life
04:21 Attentiveness and Curiosity
07:32 Childhood Reflections and Early Experiences
10:22 The Nature of Mystical Experiences
13:21 Appreciating Life's Continuity
19:15 Reflections on near-death experiences
26:00 A Groundedness of Being
29:10 The Range of Human Experience
32:10 The Intersection of Spiritual and Political Journeys
37:43 Navigating Obstacles: The Tension of Growth
41:10 Embracing Paradox: Grace and Anger
48:55 Spirituality and Feminism: A Symbiotic Relationship
58:10 What is a Good Life for Minna?

What is What is a Good Life??

This isn’t a podcast about fixing you. It’s about living 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?

These conversations aren’t about advice, formulas, or self-improvement. They explore presence, paradox, uncertainty, and the moments that quietly shape a life — love and loss, trust and fear, clarity and not knowing.

This podcast isn’t here to give you answers.
It’s here to slow you down, to listen deeply, and to invite you into conversation with your own life.

New episodes weekly.