What is a Good Life?

On the 149th episode of What is a Good Life?, I welcome Adam Mastroianni. Adam is an experimental psychologist and author of the popular science newsletter Experimental History. His work has been featured in Nature, The New York Times, and Jimmy Kimmel Live. He has escaped from over 170 escape rooms.

In this conversation, Adam discusses the nature of questions and curiosity as driving forces in life. He explores the concept of being possessed by ideas, the role of suffering in personal growth, and the shift from academia to independent thought. 

This episode highlights the impact that finding your unique role—and contributing meaningfully to the world from that place—can have on your life.

For more of Adam's work:
Newsletter: https://www.experimental-history.com/
Website: https://www.adammastroianni.com/

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

- The 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 – Possessed By Big Questions
04:06 – Enjoying The Friction
07:48 – Why Toilets Took Millennia
13:13 – First Day Being Curious
18:16 – Internet Praise Vs Real Life
23:51 – Freedom Without A Boss
28:07 – Choosing Productive Fear
31:07 – Leaving A “Good” Career
36:52 – What’s Worth Suffering For
45:46 – The Cost Of Pretending
48:00 – The Ideas Graveyard
52:15 – What Is A Good Life?

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. It’s an invitations to slow down, to listen deeply, and to bring you into conversation with your own life.
New episodes weekly.