Podcast: Oprah Super Soul Conversations
Episode: David Brooks: The Quest for a Moral Life

David explains there are two metaphorical mountains we must climb to live a moral life. He describes the “first mountain” life, which is self-centered, vs. the “second mountain” life, which is others-centered.

Inside St James’s Park Cafe we warmed up over a hot drink and chatted about David Brooks’s idea of the Second Mountain. We discussed his ideas of society norms; suffering and setbacks; happiness; joy; communities; being and doing for others; desire; failure; vulnerability; finding your why.

It got us thinking about:

• Social problems that capture our attention

• Whether you have to lose yourself to find yourself

• If we have weekday friends, weekend friends or both?

• Which mountain we are on?

• What we think about marriage being a 50yr long conversation

All this sparked from one little podcast on a beautiful Saturday morning.

Podcast: ‘How to fail’ with Elizabeth Day
Episode: S6, Ep2, How to fail: Alain De Botton

Elizabeth Day beautifully describes her interview with Alain, where he talked about three philosophical 'failure concepts'. He discussed the idea that we can be good people and yet fail, that failure is the norm, and that we should find contentment in the average rather than constantly expecting the exceptional.

He has brilliant insights into why romantic break-ups are not, in and of themselves, tragic, because each relationship teaches you something you need to know, and when the time is right, it is ok to move on.

In our POD in the Park chat as we devoured cake, we talked about Alain De Botton’s ideas of being a “good enough” parent and not a perfect parent, how we edit ourselves for others, is the goal to find the perfect person or better yet, someone who can talk about their flaws, there is generosity in being vulnerable and sharing our failings, as it will help others share and learn.

In just a few hours at POD in the Park on a Saturday morning... which flew into the afternoon, we left having lots of belly laughs, learning a little more about each other, a new perspective and with new questions that we could ask our friends, family and even first our dates!
- What do you want to do before you die?
- How are you crazy?!

Podcast: ‘The Ted Interview’
Episode: Daniel Gilbert on the surprising science of happiness

Happiness, worry, climate change, world indicators of success, conversations filled with information or conversations filled with words we use for the purpose of connection, that couple in the restaurant not speaking, significant life events that shape our future actions and SO much more… an insightful conversation had by those of us who shared our thoughts, sparked by the Psychologist Daniel Gilbert, for our biggest POD in the Park yet.

Podcast: ‘The Ted Interview’
Episode: ‘Monica Lewinsky argues for a bully-free world’

Monica Lewinsky reveals the very personal price to public humiliation and explores how we can all do better. What was your view of this story when it broke in the late 90’s? We’ve all made mistakes? What would it feel like for the biggest mistake we’ve made be opened up and pulled apart on the world’s media stage? Monika Lewinsky’s podcast interview made for a great conversation in POD in the Park, touching on so many areas of life... - Shame. - Regret. - Abuse of power. - Vulnerability. - Humiliation to death. - Social media. - Judgement. We left a beautiful morning of great conversation, coffee and cake, with Monika showing us “you can insist on a different ending to your story.”

"Thank you so much for arranging this POD in the Park, inspirational morning, still thinking about the conversation today"

"omg SUCH a wicked time! My face hurts from laughing so much!"