What is a Good Life?

On the 100th episode of What is a Good Life? podcast, I am delighted to introduce our guest, Cormac Russell. Cormac is a social explorer, an author and a much sought-after speaker. He is the Founding Director of Nurture Development and a member of the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute, at DePaul University, Chicago. Over the last 25 years, Cormac’s work has demonstrated an enduring impact in 35 countries around the world. He has trained communities, agencies, NGOs and governments in ABCD and other community-based approaches in Africa, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe and North America.

His most recent books are The Connected Community- Discovering the Health, Wealth, and Power of Neighborhoods (Coauthor John McKnight) and Rekindling Democracy – A Professional’s Guide to Working in Citizen Space. Cormac’s TEDx talk is really beautiful and can be viewed here. 

In this glorious conversation, Cormac shares his journey into community development, marked by a focus on being over doing. We discuss the thresholds and limits of self-help, the problem with trying to fix others, and ways of making sense of the world. Cormac suggests that the world is not getting worse, but becoming clearer, and emphasises how to channel our emotions into meaningful action.

I found Cormac to be deeply insightful and rooted in his being. This conversation offers perspectives to help make sense of the world while encouraging us to reflect on our roles—not just in relation to humans, but as members of an interconnected, living, breathing Earth.

For further content and information check out the following:
- Cormac's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cormacrussell/
- Nurture Development website: https://www.nurturedevelopment.org/who-we-are/cormac-russell/
- His most recent book: https://wipfandstock.com/9781725253636/rekindling-democracy/

- 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
03:45 Exploring vocations
08:25 Focus on being rather than doing
15:18 Being both rooted and free
18:35 Attraction to people helping others
22:25 What is help?
26:45 Thresholds within self-help and helping
31:32 Hidden persuaders
37:06 The path of making sense in the world
42:15 Doing life together in mutual solidarity
47:35 The problem with trying to help or fix
52:45 Getting a sense of our intentions
57:45 The world is getting clearer not worse
1:06:45 What is a good life for Cormac?


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.