On the 130th episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast, I’m delighted to welcome our guest, Ella Fryer-Smith. Ella is the founder of Do You Research, an agency established with the intention of drawing on over 15 years of research experience, collaborating with the amazing researchers she has met along the way, and maintaining a clear focus on inclusion to deliver exceptional research, consultancy, and training. Specialising in qualitative research methods, particularly film ethnography, her work has taken her around the world—observing people’s everyday lives and exploring everything from toilet roll and white goods to how people manage their money. She has also helped policymakers navigate the future of health services and travel. Ella is the Vice Chair of the Association of Qualitative Researchers (AQR) board and sits on the Market Research Society (MRS) Social Inclusion Group.
In this engaging conversation, Ella shares her journey of embracing uncertainty and the paradox of confidence in admitting what we don't know. We explore the importance of presence in parenting, the significance of her parents as role models, freedom within constraints, and the need for research to reflect the voices of the unheard.
05:15 Arriving into confidence
09:55 Embracing of the unknown
12:15 Constraints within freedom and creativity
16:00 Prioritising presence with children
21:30 The importance of parental role models
28:10 We may have more flexibility than we think
32:00 We are inundated with messaging
35:00 Research for social issues
39:30 The significance of meeting people
42:00 Making sense of people’s lives
44:30 Engaging with unheard voices
52:30 Foregrounding lived experience more
1:00:50 What is a good life for Ella?
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.