Society would grind to a halt without the work done by unpaid carers - yet they are too often left to feel invisible, unsupported and alone.
In this episode, Andrew talks to PENNY WINCER, the author of Tender: The Imperfect Art of Caring, about how to provide care for loved ones without burning out yourself.
Penny shares her deeply personal story of caring for her mother, who lived with mental illness, and later for her autistic son. She sheds light on the complexity of care—the beauty, the exhaustion, and the personal costs.
Andrew and Penny discuss:
Asking for help
Dealing with isolation
How being a “young carer” can shape adult relationships
The importance of self-compassion.
Penny Wincer is a Melbourne born, London dwelling, author and non-fiction writing coach. She has written for Red Magazine, iPaper, BBC Radio 4 and The Telegraph. Penny’s first book Tender was published by Coronet Books in 2020. Her second non-fiction book, Home Matters, was published in August 2024.
If You’re Looking for More…
You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions.
This week supporters will hear:
Three Things Penny Wincer knows to be true.
How to balance what YOU want to do with the pressures of life.
Subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content—a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees.
Follow Up
Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin
Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things
Read Penny Wincer’s book Tender: The Imperfect Art of Caring, and her latest book, Home Matters
Follow Penny Wincer on Instagram @pennywincer
Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools
Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.
Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall
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48:04
Tom Vanderbilt: The Beginner's Mind
When did you last learn to do something totally and utterly new? Tom Vanderbilt, author of Beginners: the Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning, was awestruck by his young daughter’s insatiable need to know how to do almost everything. He was inspired by her to embark on a year of learning purely for its own sake.
Tom had a truly unique year - a circuitous journey of learning, in which he attempted to learn chess, singing, surfing, drawing and juggling. These skills were chosen on the basis of difficulty and lack of marketability.
Tom found that his new sense of curiosity opened him up to a profound happiness and a deeper connection to the people around him. By reinventing himself in small ways, life began to seem more magical.
In this classic episode Andrew and Tom talk about just why it is that so many of us stop learning new skills as adults. While we’re encouraging our children to be adventurous and to try new things, are we ourselves afraid of failure? Have we forgotten the pleasure and rewards of starting from scratch?
If You’re Looking for More….
You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.
This week supporters will hear:
Three Things Tom Vanderbilt knows to be true.
AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees.
Follow Up
Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin https://andrewgmarshall.com/mens-retreat/
Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things https://andrewgmarshall.com/download/
Learn more about Tom Vanderbilt’s book Beginners: the Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning
Follow Tom Vanderbilt on Instagram @tomvanderbilt
Andrew and Tom also discuss Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein.
Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools https://courses.andrewgmarshall.com/relationship-tools
Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.
Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall
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43:18
Judith Orloff: How To Be More Empathetic
In a world that often rewards toughness and detachment, could empathy actually be a hidden superpower?
This week, Andrew speaks with psychiatrist and bestselling author Dr. Judith Orloff about how empathy can become one of the most powerful tools for healing, personal growth and connection.
Drawing on neuroscience, psychology, and energy medicine, Judith explains how anyone can deepen their empathic abilities, protect themselves from burnout, and create stronger, more authentic relationships.
Andrew and Judith discuss:
⭐ What it really means to be an empath (and how to tell if you are one)
⭐ Strategies to prevent empathy overload
⭐ The importance of boundaries for empaths.
Dr. Judith Orloff is the New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Empathy and The Empath’s Survival Guide. Her upcoming children’s book The Highly Sensitive Rabbit, helps sensitive kids embrace their empathic gifts as a strength. Dr. Orloff is a psychiatrist, an empath and intuitive healer, and is on the UCLA Psychiatric Clinical Faculty.
If You’re Looking for More…
You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50: Join here.
This week, supporters will hear:
⭐ What is Healthy Giving?
⭐ Three things Judith Orloff knows to be true
⭐️AND access to all our previous bonus content—a rich archive of insight and inspiration
Follow Up
Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin.
Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things
Read The Genius of Empathy: Practical Skills to Heal Your Sensitive Self, Your Relationships, and the World by Judith Orloff.
Preorder Judith Orloff’s new book for children, The Highly Sensitive Rabbit
Visit Judith Orloff’s website: www.drjudithorloff.com
Follow Judith Orloff on social media:
Instagram: @judith.orloff.md
Facebook: @DrJudithOrloff
Twitter/X: @JudithOrloffMD
Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall
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50:18
William Ayot: Healing Men's Souls
Today, the “four pale horsemen” of war, famine, pestilence and death have broken into our comfortable lives once again.
As the climate emergency and shortage become normalised, how do we live through crisis after crisis without falling into fear and anxiety on the one hand, or agitated reaction and rage on the other?
Do we face the horsemen, go into denial or settle for the dull throb of numbness? And how do we maintain contact with the heart, with soul, with love and compassion?
In this week's classic episode, Andrew speaks with award-winning poet, author and teacher William Ayot about:
⭐️The burdens men carry
⭐️The healing power of ritual
⭐️Male loneliness and how men’s groups help
⭐️Confronting shame and anger
As well as his writing and poetry, William Ayot leads workshops and seminars on personal development topics and creates and conducts private rituals and ceremonies. William is also the co-founding director of Olivier Mythodrama and worked around the world for ten years, teaching leadership through story, theatre practice and ritual. He founded NaCOT- The National Centre for the Oral Tradition, and hosts the poetry series On the Border.
If You’re Looking for More….
You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.
This week supporters will hear:
Creating a daily ritual for a deeper connection to life.
Three Things William Ayot knows to be true.
AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees.
Follow Up
Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin
Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things
Visit William Ayot’s website for information on bespoke rituals, poetry etc
Visit William Ayot and Juliet Grayson’s online library of poetry and talks on shame, men’s issues and relationships
Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.
Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall
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53:47
Michele Weiner-Davis: When is it Time to Stop Working on Your Marriage?
Have you tried everything to fix your relationship, but nothing seems to work? Are you torn between staying and giving it one more try, or finally walking away?
This week, Andrew talks with renowned couples therapist MICHELE WEINER-DAVIS about how to navigate one of the hardest decisions in a relationship: When is it time to stop trying?
Michele is the creator of the “Divorce Busting” approach, which aims to empowers individual to make concrete, positive changes in their relationships—even when their partner isn’t on board. Her work is deeply hopeful, but she also understands that sometimes, despite our best efforts, it may be time to let go.
Together, Andrew and Michele explore:
Coping with different levels of sexual desire in your relationship
Why one partner often wants change more than the other
Common differences in how men and women communicate
Working together in therapy to make the "final call".
Michele Weiner-Davis is an internationally renowned relationship expert, best-selling author, marriage therapist, and professional speaker who specializes in helping people change their lives and improve important relationships. She is the author of eight books including Healing from Infidelity: The Divorce Busting Guide to Rebuilding Your Marriage After an Affair, and The Sex-Starved Marriage: A Couple's Guide to Boosting Their Marriage Libido. Michele’s work has also been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and on the BBC.
If You’re Looking for More….
You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.
This week supporters will hear:
How to Get Through to the Man You Love - Without Nagging.
Three Things Michele Weiner-Davis knows to be true.
AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees.
Follow Up
Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin
Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things
Visit Michele Weiner Davis’s website: Divorce Busting
Read some of Michele Weiner Davis’s books:
Divorce Busting: A Revolutionary and Rapid Program for Staying Together
Healing from Infidelity: The Divorce Busting Guide to Rebuilding Your Marriage After an Affair
The Sex-Starved Marriage: Boosting Your Marriage Libido
Follow Michele Weiner Davis on social media:
Facebook: Michele Weiner-Davis
X (formerly Twitter): @DivorceBusting
Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.
Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall
Hello, I am a marital therapist, communications trainer and author. I have thirty-five years helping couples and individuals make better relationships. I have written twenty-plus self-help books which include the international best-sellers ‘I love you but I’m not in love with you’ and ‘How can I ever trust you again?’ My books have been translated into twenty languages. I trained with RELATE the UK’s largest counselling charity.
Perhaps it has been turning sixty but I have become interested in spiritual as well as psychological questions. Who am I? What are my values – as opposed to my parents, my teachers and the wider society? What makes my life meaningful? What do I believe about life, the universe and everything? Although my clients might come to me because of destructive arguments, falling out of love and infidelity, they are also interested in having more meaningful relationships and a more meaningful life.
So what is the meaningful life? Why do we so easily lose our way and get lost in depression, anxiety, doubt, addictions and obsessions: the swamplands of the soul? One thing I know for sure is that there is not one answer. Each of us has to find out for ourselves what makes our life meaningful. But we can learn from each other, share our experiences of how to navigate the journey, how to endure and learn from the swamp, and finally how to find solid ground.
I have decided to use my original training in radio and journalism to interview witnesses for what makes life meaningful. Each week, I invite someone who is a therapist, academic, self-help coach or who has an enlightening personal story to share their knowledge or experiences. I hope our discussions will help you discover what makes your life meaningful and find more purpose and contentment.
New Zealand