If the past few years have taught us anything it is this: don’t get too attached to your plans. Or as Patricia Ryan Madson might put it, “Life is something we all make up as we go along.” For many of us, the improvisational life can feel awkward, uncomfortable, and even frightening. But with some practice, reflection, and a slight shift in attitude, it can lead us to a life filled with YES! One where opportunities and adventures flow naturally into our lives—ones that we willingly embrace and fo...
Jun 21, 2022•55 min
In this special rewind episode, we re-air one of our most popular interviews that guests on the show have often cited as a favorite. In it Brad Stulberg shares practical guidance to get out of the grind and build a more grounded life. Hustle culture keeps us grinding, busy, overcommitted, rushed, and subsequently ungrounded. It’s a phenomenon Brad Stulberg calls “heroic individualism” and it’s something he knows all too well from his own life and his performance coaching work with people doing t...
Jun 07, 2022•59 min
At some point we all struggle with stress, anxiety, and incessant overthinking. Meredith Arthur, author of Get Out of My Head, is on a mission to help us find strategies for defusing these emotional bombs. Meredith founded Beautiful Voyager, an online community where people discuss mental health challenges and support one another on their journey. In this episode we talk with Meredith about her own struggles with mental health and how to muster the courage to admit to our own limitations so we c...
May 24, 2022•43 min
In his New York Times bestselling book Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman writes, “The average human lifespan is absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short. But that isn’t a reason for unremitting despair, or for living in an anxiety-fueled panic about making the most of your limited time. It’s a cause for relief. You get to give up on something that was always impossible – the quest to become the optimized, infinitely capable, emotionally invincible, fully independent person you’re officially ...
May 11, 2022•57 min
Though most people pass through a midlife malaise or crisis, few have studied the phenomenon as closely as M.I.T Philosophy Professor Kieran Setiya. As Kieran shares in his book Midlife: A Philosophical Guide, people as far back as ancient Greece have written about midlife crises and searched for answers to life's big questions. In this episode, Kieran Setiya boils down what happens to us at midlife and exposes the wisdom of those who have come before us and found satisfaction as they entered th...
Apr 26, 2022•49 min
Living in isolation for two years without the support of community clarified for many of us just how nourishing and essential relationships are to us. Now that we’re starting to re-enter the world, how might we be more intentional about cultivating community? Tina Roth-Eisenberg—Swissmiss to her hundreds of thousands of followers on the web—has thought about this deeply. She’s the founder of Creative Mornings, a global creative community in 224 cities and 67 countries that welcomes thousands of ...
Apr 12, 2022•1 hr
Too often we’ve been told that the workplace is an arena of competition, a zero-sum game where the strong thrive and the rest barely survive. If we’re going to reconsider anything, it’s hard to imagine a better place to start than this outdated, outmoded, and destructive model of the workplace. In this episode, Scott Shute, the former Head of Mindfulness and Compassion at LinkedIn and the author of the book, “The Full Body Yes”, shares stories and insights from his experience leading a large-sca...
Mar 29, 2022•1 hr
It’s no secret that many of us feel pushed to the limit, rushed, overwhelmed, and perennially behind. We keep our heads down, focused on an endless to-do list without a moment to breathe. How can we break out of this vicious cycle of short-term thinking and create the kind of interesting, meaningful lives we all seek? Dori Clark, Duke University professor and author of The Long Game, wants to help us reorient ourselves towards big picture thinking that will help us make small changes today that ...
Mar 15, 2022•1 hr 9 min
Now that season 1 is wrapped, we're bringing you a special mini-episode to tide you over while we work on season 2. The tables are turned as Bob Baxley and Meredith Black interview their co-host Aarron Walter to uncover his origin story and why the themes of Reconsidering are important to his personal journey. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/12
Feb 02, 2022•26 min
Now that season 1 is wrapped, we're bringing you a special mini-episode to tide you over while we work on season 2. The tables are turned as Bob Baxley and Aarron Walter interview their co-host Meredith Black to uncover her origin story and why the themes of Reconsidering are important to her personal journey. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/11
Jan 25, 2022•28 min
Now that season 1 is wrapped, we're bringing you a special mini-episode to tide you over while we work on season 2. The tables are turned as Meredith Black and Aarron Walter interview their co-host Bob Baxley to uncover his origin story and why the themes of Reconsidering are important to his personal journey. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/10
Jan 18, 2022•24 min
Shanti Brien received a phone call from her husband that changed everything. Authorities started a criminal investigation into her own husband’s company and he needed a lawyer to defend him. As a criminal defense attorney, Shanti knew how to navigate these situations but not when it was her own husband facing jail time that could tear her family apart. In this episode, Shanti shares how this moment of crisis and reflection helped her rethink her career as an attorney and inspired her to start a ...
Jan 04, 2022•47 min
Katherine May is a mother, nature lover, writing teacher, and a New York Times best selling author. She’s also been knocked down many times in her life and found a way forward by embracing the coldest passages of life. Katherine’s personal struggle is the subject of her most recent book Wintering, which has influenced many with wisdom about the power of rest and retreat to help us through difficult times. On this episode of Reconsidering, we talk with Katherine about work addiction, illness, gui...
Dec 21, 2021•54 min
Hustle culture keeps us grinding, busy, overcommitted, rushed, and subsequently ungrounded. It’s a phenomenon Brad Stulberg calls “heroic individualism” and it’s something he knows all too well from his own life and his performance coaching work with people doing their best to reach their peak. Brad wants to shake us out of the hustle mindset and help us find a more grounded, sustainable existence. His book The Practice of Groundedness provides the framework. In our conversation with Brad he sho...
Dec 07, 2021•59 min
We all have those moments of uncertainty where we don’t know if we should stay put at our careers or jump ship. And sometimes we don’t have a choice and are forced to jump. It can lead to an existential crisis. Who am I now? Do I have anything left to offer? What’s next? These are all questions pop up in our conversation with our guest, Maria Giudice, who has navigated career change many times with grace. Maria Giudice is a design executive who has had quite the career in Silicon Valley. She had...
Nov 23, 2021•57 min
Listening. It’s a skill that is hard to perfect in a world filled with distractions. But cultivating a satisfying life filled with rich relationships, growth, and connection requires this foundational skill. Getting good at listening to others can also help you tune into your own inner dialogue and emotional state. In this episode, Ximena Vengeochea, author of “Listen like you mean it” explains the art of listening and why it makes us better thought partners at work and at home, provide us with ...
Nov 09, 2021•1 hr 1 min
For many of us, time slips by mysteriously. It’s gobbled up by email, social media infinity pools, and the flotsum and jetsum of life. At the end of the day we’re left wondering, “uh, what did I do today?” John Zertasky, co-author of Make Time, wants us to be more aware of and intentional about how we spend our most precious resource—our time. John spent years working at Google and GV, the venture capital arm of Google. With that sort of background you might think John’s perspective on time mana...
Oct 26, 2021•41 min
Careers, careers, is there anything else so central to our lives that is so ill-defined and largely misunderstood? Academic career, sports careers, college careers. It seems we're awash in careers, and yet when it comes to our professional career, the one that really matters, many of us feel somewhere between uncertain and confused. Unable to see or appreciate the common patterns or longer arcs that might allow us to understand, process, and position our own ambitions, successes, and disappointm...
Oct 12, 2021•44 min
Nearly 50% of the US workforce is reconsidering their career and thinking about leaving their current job. Was the pandemic the driving force behind this? What does this mean for employees right now? We dive into this with Vipula Gandhi, Head of US Enterprise and Managing Partner at Gallup Inc and the author of a very popular article that some of you may have read called The 'Great Resignation' Is Really the 'Great Discontent'. We talk in detail with Vipula about why people are re-evaluating the...
Sep 28, 2021•1 hr 1 min
For most people the ingredients that go into a satisfying life are mysterious. Certainly career and relationships play a big role but they don’t always go as planned which makes satisfaction and happiness mercurial. Bill Burnett, Executive Director of the Design Program at Stanford, founder of Stanford’s Life Design Lab, and co-author of two best selling books Designing Your Life and Designing Your Work Life, thinks of life as a design problem that can be prototyped and iterated upon using desig...
Sep 14, 2021•55 min
Reconsidering explores how to navigate your career, relationships, and the values that guide you through the inevitable changes of life. Co-hosts Bob Baxley, Meredith Black, and Aarron Walter talk with deep thinkers who’ve figured a few things out about living a satisfying life filled with meaning and show you how you can too.
Aug 30, 2021•2 min
