What is a Good Life?

On the 95th episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast, I am delighted to introduce our guest, Madelaine Ley. Madelaine is a philosopher, spiritual ecologist, and contemplative artist. Her varied work includes lecturing at Delft University of Technology and Lassonde Engineering School in Canada on digital citizenship, responsible AI, intersectional approaches to tech, and robot-ethics; hosting Sacred Sessions, non-religious gatherings that blend philosophy, art, science, contemplative practice and collective reflection; writing and podcasting for Beauty in the Mire; and experimenting with contemplative art. She was named one of the “100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics” by Lighthouse3 in 2022 and has been featured by the BBC, Leidsch Dagblad, Yes! Magazine, and Life Itself, as well as funded by The European Pavilion, Horizon 2020 and the Social Science Research Council of Canada.

In this glorious conversation, Madelaine shares how she is deepening her awareness of her embodied experience of life. We discuss how the birth of her daughter revealed an inner bravery, while also exploring the importance of embracing grief, along with the profound grounding and lessons she received from her spiritual mentor in embodying agenda-free presence and resisting the urge to fix or give advice.

This whole conversation is a wonderful invitation to pay attention to your felt experience of life and to recognise the wisdom our bodies can offer.

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

For further content and information check out the following:

Madelaine's Website: https://www.madelaineley.com/
Madelaine's Newsletter: https://madelaineley.substack.com/
Contemplative Art: https://liquidbecomings.eu/28th-september-in-utrecht-liquid-becomings-x-sonnenborgh-museum/

- 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/

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 weekly free silent conversations, discuss experiences I create to stimulate greater trust, communication, and connection, amongst your leadership teams, or you simply want to get in touch.

00:00 Introduction
02:50 Intuition & living at the edges of our skin
08:10 Breakthroughs from motherhood and meltdowns
13:50 The significance of breakdowns and ruptures
16:35 Listening to energies that visit our bodies
22:08 The value of an awareness of death
27:05 The importance of embracing grief
32:20 Agenda free presence
37:55 The influence of a spiritual mentor
42:12 What is beyond measurement
45:07 The experience of silence
49:20 The feeling of bravery from childbirth
56:50 What is a good life for Madelaine?

What is What is a Good Life??

Over the last three years I've interviewed over 200 people around the question of "what is a good life?". I am not trying to find or prescribe universal answers to this question, instead to prompt your own inquiry into what constitutes a good life for you. While I am also trying to share more genuine expressions of the human experience, beyond the masks that we wear.