What is a Good Life?

On the 140th episode of What is a Good Life?, I’m delighted to welcome Robert Poynton. Rob is the author of Do Conversation, Do Pause, and Do Improvise. He divides his time between an off-grid home in rural Spain and Oxford, where he is an Associate Fellow at the Saïd Business School and convenor of the Oxford Praxis Forum at Green Templeton College. Rob is a designer, host, and facilitator of learning experiences; an amateur practical philosopher; a keeper of hens; and the founder of Yellow Learning.

In this conversation, Rob shares his sense of living with more aliveness. We explore following the energy rather than the “shoulds”, noticing visceral signals of “deathly” work, practising curiosity and softness in everyday tasks, infinite games versus fixed goals, and how trusting life’s unfolding leads to a life of joy.

This episode is an invitation to soften, to follow what feels alive, and to let life reveal itself through experience and energy rather than theory.

For more of Rob's work:
Website: https://robertpoynton.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-poynton-169402/

Contact me at mark@whatisagood.life if you'd like to explore your own lines of self-inquiry through 1-on-1 coaching, my 5-week group courses, or to discuss team coaching to stimulate greater trust, communication, and connection, amongst your leadership teams.

- 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/

00:00 How can we make life more joyful?
04:20 Paying attention to that sinking feeling
06:40 Making decisions others found unusual
10:50 Following the breadcrumbs and energy
18:11 Noticing when we contract and soften
24:30 Noticing, allowing, and becoming
32:00 Life wants to happen
39:15 Collaboration more present than competition
42:30 The allure of drama and conflict
48:20 Holding two conflicting ideas at once
51:15 The surprises that bring us alive
57:50 Summary and is a good life for Rob?

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.