What is a Good Life? #112
From Linear Paths to Experimental Journeys with Anne-Laure Le Cunff, PhD
Announcement 📣
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I am now offering this as a coaching session, discussion, exploration—call it what you will—as a one-off engagement:
A 90-minute session of introspection, reflection, and discovery. An experience designed to leave you with deep insights and new perspectives to carry forward. Click here to find out more.
The Newsletter
On the 112th episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast, I am delighted to introduce our guest, Anne-Laure Le Cunff, PhD. Anne-Laure is an award-winning neuroscientist and entrepreneur. She is the founder of Ness Labs, where her weekly newsletter is read by more than 100,000 curious minds. Her research at King’s College London focuses on the psychology and neuroscience of lifelong learning, curiosity, and adaptability. Her book, Tiny Experiments, is a transformative guide for living a more experimental life, turning uncertainty into curiosity, and carving a path of self-discovery. Her work has been featured in Rolling Stone, Forbes, Financial Times, WIRED, and more.
In this wonderful conversation, we explore the themes of curiosity, connection, and the journey from a linear to an experimental approach to life. Anne-Laure shares her personal experiences of feeling lost yet free and of embracing uncertainty and designing playful experiments in various aspects of life.
This conversation is an invitation to experiment more with our lives.
The weekly clip from the podcast (2 mins), my weekly reflection (2 mins), the full podcast (56 mins), and the weekly questions all follow below.
1. Weekly Clip from the Podcast
2. My weekly reflection
The more people I interview around this question, the clearer it becomes to me how important it is to be intimate with life itself.
A number of guests have, in various ways, expressed the sense of having a conversation with life. Life may sound too broad and vague, but it is as if life itself—all of it—is something that we build a relationship with.
In this conversation, Anne-Laure mentions the beautiful concept of Chronos and Kairos time. Chronos time refers to linear, measurable time—the kind we track with clocks and calendars, schedules and deadlines. Kairos time is qualitative, opportune time—the right moment for something meaningful to happen, often felt rather than measured, like a perfect moment of insight, connection, or transformation.
When reflecting on these concepts, she spoke about the shift in her felt experience—from the intensity of trying to be as productive as possible in every moment to perhaps instead asking, “What is this moment asking of me?” The response to that could simply be sitting still or looking out the window.
When I have encountered the idea of Kairos time before, it has felt almost like creating space for divine moments to occur—going with life, allowing it to surprise or inspire us, and trusting it.
For me, the more intimate I become with myself, my wife, my daughter, other relationships, and life itself, the less desperation I sense to do anything. It all comes down to simply noticing, and whatever action will unfold from there will unfold.
There is so much we miss in this life in our rush to get somewhere—whether that is a physical place, a journey, or a commute.
Whether it is in our desire to develop ourselves.
Whether it is in trying to get a relationship or a person in our lives to where we want them to be.
In all our rushing, we miss the moments.
When we really start to notice, when we truly pay attention, there is an overwhelming sense that life, yourself, or a loved one is already enough. There is just so damn much to notice right here and now.
To be clear, this doesn’t just lead to a constant sense of beauty and awe—it also means sitting with confusion, pain, and dismay. At times, holding all this in our attention can feel as if it is stretching our hearts to the limit of what they can handle.
However, what I am noticing more and more is that beyond simply noticing and paying attention, I don’t have to do much else other than sit with what is and know this life as intimately as I can. Problems and paradoxes cease to be something I have to force my way through solving. In truly being with a feeling, a tension, or a confusion, I am collecting, feeling, and absorbing as much information as I can for the most helpful action to follow.
And in asking life more questions rather than imposing answers on it, I can feel supported and aligned with whatever happens next. I feel more flexible and resilient.
I don’t mean this sense of being in a conversation or a relationship with life to sound too abstract, as the felt experience of it is very different - it feels very natural and intuitive. Nor do I suggest it as something to force or manufacture.
It is more of an invitation—to really pay attention and see what you observe between yourself and life. How you might organically begin to ask it questions, to share more of yourself with it and others.
How the more we notice and reveal—of ourselves and everything around us—an intimacy and connection with life itself develops. And I am coming to see this as increasingly significant when it comes to experiencing a good life.
Is there something you feel inclined to ask life right now?
3. Full Episode - From Linear Paths to Experimental Journeys with Anne-Laure Le Cunff, PhD - What is a Good Life? #112
4. This week’s Questions
Is there a present situation in your life that you could benefit from asking yourself - what would curiosity do?
Is there a small experiment - a course to take, a hobby to explore - that you have been curious about but are yet to engage with?
About Me
I am a coach, podcast host, and writer, based in Berlin, via Dublin, Ireland. I started this project in 2021, for which I’ve now interviewed over 250 people. I’m not looking to prescribe universal answers, more that the guests’ lines of inquiry, musings, experiences, and curiosities spark your own inquiry into what the question means to you. I am also trying to share more genuine expressions of the human experience and more meaningful conversations.
If you’re interested in exploring your own self-inquiry through one-on-one coaching, joining my 5-week Silent Conversations group courses, or fostering greater trust, communication, and connection within your leadership teams, or simply reaching out, feel free to contact me via email or LinkedIn.
Enjoyed the episode. I could relate so much with the idea of having a playground for some of the areas in life one would like explore while keeping up a daily job.