On the 117th episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast, I’m delighted to welcome Jamie Bristow. Jamie is a writer and policy advisor known for his leadership within the emerging field of inner-led systems transformation. He has deepened the dialectic between ancient wisdom, modern science, politics and public policy through a string of influential reports and collaborations with intergovernmental organisations, government agencies and politicians around the world. He currently leads on public narrative and policy development for the Inner Development Goals, and from 2015 to 2023 played an instrumental role in the UK's All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mindfulness, acting as its clerk and serving as Director of the associated policy institute, The Mindfulness Initiative. Jamie is a Senior Fellow at Life Itself, Research Associate at the Climate Majority Project, Honorary Associate at Bangor University and a Fellow of Mind & Life. He has also taught on programmes connecting inner and outer transformation at the Universities of California and Oxford.
In this enlightening conversation, we explore the question of what we are truly practising—merging mindful practices with our livelihood, the significance of our informal practice, and moving towards greater wholesomeness in our lives.
It serves as a wonderful invitation to fully integrate our mindful inquiries with the way we live.
04:55 Realising we want to show up differently
07:48 A cause for hope - it just feels good
13:00 The merging of livelihood and inquiry
19:20 The significance of formal and informal practice
23:20 Showing up to life of intention
28:00 Mindfulness in public policy
31:00 Synchronicity and letting go
34:35 The balance between agency and unfolding
47:30 Bringing compassion to our reflections
50:30 Bringing more wholesomeness to the collective
59:00 What is a good life for Jamie?
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.