Life brings to all of us long periods where we feel lost or confused. We don't know how to get what we want, or even what it is that we want. The struggle to articulate the thing that might really make us “come alive” can be profound, even if we enter therapy.

Charlotte Fox Weber is a psychotherapist, author and the founding head of The School of Life Psychotherapy. Her bestselling book, Tell Me What You Want, explores how to identify and navigate our deepest longings.

In this classic episode, Andrew and Charlotte discuss the idea that we have 12 fundamental desires: to love and be loved; understanding, power, attention, freedom; to create, to belong, to win, to connect, to control; and to want what we shouldn't.

Identifying how these desires play out in your life can be liberating and beautiful, even if you also realise that acting on them is impossible.

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 Charlotte Fox Weber 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

Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things

Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools

Read Charlotte Fox Weber’s new book, Tell Me What You Want

Follow Charlotte Fox Weber on Instagram @charlottefoxweberpsychotherapy and on Facebook @charlottefoxweber

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

If you’re feeling anxious, meditation and mindfulness may not be the answer. Instead, author KARLA McLAREN would advise us to sit with the feelings of anxiety and hear the useful messages they’re bringing to help us cope with a tricky situation.

In this episode, Andrew and Karla discuss:

• How anger, shame and sadness can be the bearers of crucial information.
• “Negative” emotions and the skills and energy they can provide.
• Why understanding our emotions is so hard.
• How to engage with challenging emotions, when society has taught many of us it’s better to repress them.

Karla McLaren, M.Ed. is an award-winning author, educator, workplace consultant, and social science researcher. Her work revalues even the most “negative” emotions and opens startling new pathways into self-awareness, effective communication, and healthy empathy. She is the founder and CEO of Emotion Dynamics Inc.

She is also the author of many books, including The Language of Emotions, The Power of Emotions at Work, and Embracing Anxiety, and she is the developer of the online learning site Empathy Academy.

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 Deal With Confusion
• Three Things Karla McLaren 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

Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things

Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools

Read Karla McLaren’s new book The Language of Emotions Workbook

Read Karla McLaren’s other books

Visit Karla McLaren’s website

Find out about upcoming courses at the online learning site developed by Karla McLaren, Empathy Academy

Follow Karla McLaren @KarlaMcLarenAuthor on Facebook, @karlamclaren.m.ed on Instagram, @EmotionDynamics on YouTube and on LinkedIn.

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

Have you ever felt so defeated and frustrated that you want to just throw in the towel and run away? Author KAY HUTCHISON did exactly that, fleeing her annual holiday to the Cote d’Azur, moving out of her home, and leaving behind her marriage and a well-established career.

In seeking to understand what forced this huge rupture in a previously smooth existence, Kay tried a range of mainstream and alternative therapies. In the end, she took part in 37 different forms of therapy to explore her particular midlife crisis and experience of the menopause. From colonic irrigation through to Shamanic therapy, Kay found solace and insight that she was able to share in her powerful book, My Life in 37 Therapies.

In this reissued classic episode, Kay and Andrew explore the many different ways in which therapy can help us cope with midlife, and its tendency to throw at us so many of the unresolved issues of early life.

Subscriber Content This Week

If you’re a subscriber to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Patreon), this week you’ll be hearing:

• Three Things Kay Hutchison 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

Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things

Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools

Buy My Life in 37 Therapies by Kay Hutchison

Find out more about dealing with midlife and the relationship issues it can cause in Andrew’s book It’s Not a Midlife Crisis, It’s an Opportunity.

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

Society teaches men that strength lies in ignoring their feelings and “soldiering on”. Author and relationship coach BRYAN REEVES has seen the costs of this approach both in his own personal life and those of his clients.

This week Andrew and Bryan discuss:

• Bryan’s story of finding direction after leaving the US Air Force.
• The reasons why men resist unwanted feelings
• The damage this causes to their relationships with family and friends.

A former US Air Force Captain, Bryan is an internationally renowned author, relationship coach and men’s coach. His blog, videos, courses, and books have been consumed by 50+ million people. Bryan co-hosts the popular podcast, “Men, This Way,” and his newest book, Choose Her Every Day (Or Leave Her) has so far sold over 10,000 copies as a self-published edition.

Subscriber Content This Week

If you’re a subscriber to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Patreon), this week you’ll be hearing:

• Three Things Bryan Reeves knows to be true.
• Walk Away Man Syndrome
• 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

Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things

Read Bryan Reeves’ new book, Choose Her Every Day (Or Leave Her)

Listen to Bryan Reeves’ podcast Men, This Way.

Visit Bryan Reeves’ website

Follow Bryan Reeves on Instagram @bryanreevesinsight and on Facebook and TikTok @bryanreevesofficial.

Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools

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

Do you think about drinking alcohol more than you think about eating sandwiches? Do you spend significant amounts of time thinking about NOT drinking? Or are you one of the many with an uneasy feeling that alcohol is no longer bringing anything good into your life, and may well be holding you back?

Therapist and sobriety expert VERONICA VALLI had a problematic relationship with alcohol for twelve years. She has now been sober for twenty years, and has helped countless others give up drinking.

In this classic reissued episode Andrew and Veronica discuss:

⭐️How giving up alcohol can give you the energy and freedom to be your true self.

⭐️Why your friends may not always be your cheerleaders if you give up drinking.

⭐️Why a drinking problem is really a symptom of another, underlying problem.

⭐️What to do if your partner has an alcohol problem.

⭐️Extreme social pressure to drink and how to deal with it.

Veronica Valli has worked in the field of alcohol recovery for almost two decades. She is an author, podcaster and former clinical psychotherapist.

Subscriber Content This Week

If you’re a subscriber to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Patreon), this week you’ll be hearing:

• Three Things Veronica Valli 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

Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things

Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools

Read Veronica Valli’s new book Soberful: Uncover a Sustainable, Fulfilling Life Free of Alcohol

Take a look at Veronica Valli’s website

Listen to Soberful: the Podcast

Find out about the Soberful private group on Facebook

Follow Veronica Valli on Instagram @veronicajvalli and on Facebook @soberfulpage

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

Where did you find inspiration and meaning in 2024? This week sex therapist and friend of the podcast TRACEY COX joins Andrew to reflect on another year of The Meaningful Life, and to discuss the episodes that meant the most to them.

They share highlights from episodes with:

• Samantha Rodman Whiten (Dr Psych Mom) on Being an Adult Child of Dysfunctional Parents.
• Jessica Baum on Anxious Attachment.
• Douglas Thomas on What You Can Learn About Yourself from Your Sexual Fantasies.
• Robert Glover on People Pleasing
• Robert Neimeyer on the Six Tasks of Grief
• Joseph Lee on Jungian Dream Analysis (bonus material)
• Alan Pearce on Comas and Near-Death Experiences (bonus material).

Subscriber Content This Week

If you’re a subscriber to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Patreon), this week you’ll be hearing:

• More things we learned last year and first news on exciting new projects for 2025
• 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

Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things

Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools

Buy Great Sex Starts at 50: How to Age-Proof Your Libido by Tracey Cox

Get the advice you need on your sex life from Tracey Cox

Listen to Tracey Cox and Kelsey Chittick’s SexTok podcast

Follow Tracey Cox on social media: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter/X.

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

It’s hard to move on social media these days without bumping into a post on gratitude. If you’re wondering what all the fuss is about, this week’s classic interview with Chester Elton, “the apostle of appreciation”, is for you.

According to Chester, gratitude cuts to the heart of who we really are. Gratitude exists at an emotional level and is about WHO is in our lives, WHAT we find meaningful and HOW we live. If we make time for gratitude, we can find a way to live that makes everything less stressful.

Chester and Andrew also discuss the ways we can build gratitude into everyday life, adding meaning and lightness to our daily routines.

Chester Elton has carried out extensive research into how gratitude can help us lead in the workplace. His books, co-authored with Adrian Gostick, include Leading With Gratitude and All In: How the Best Managers Create a Culture of Belief and Drive Big Results.

Subscriber Content This Week

If you’re a subscriber to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Patreon), this week you’ll be hearing:

• Three things Chester Elton 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

Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things

Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools

Read Chester Elton’s Leading with Gratitude Book

Sign up for Chester Elton’s free LinkedIn newsletter, The Gratitude Journal

Read Chester Elton’s article on Why We Should be Grateful for Hard Times

Read Jay Shetty’s book Think Like A Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day

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

Christmas is a time of heightened emotions: lots of fun, lots of food, plenty of arguments. This year Andrew invites friend of the podcast and love coach CATE MACKENZIE to explore what Christmas means to each of them.

Cate and Andrew discuss:

• Their best and worst Christmas experiences.
• Christmas traditions that work.
• Most evocative Christmas songs
• Cultivating the right mindset to make the most of Christmas
• Accepting pain and disappointment if they arise.

Cate Mackenzie is a COSRT Accredited Sex and Relationship Therapist, Love Coach and Artist. Her passion is supporting people to fall in love with themselves, with life and with others. Cate was the dating coach for Channel 4’s 'The Undateables', a flirting coach on Channel 5's 'The Jeremy Vine Show' and a Sex Therapist on Channel 4's 'Kinky Britain'. Her heart paintings have been sold in 80 countries worldwide through IKEA.

Subscriber Content This Week

If you’re a subscriber to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Patreon), this week you’ll be hearing:

• Different Christmases for Different Times in Your Life
• Three things Cate Mackenzie 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

Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things

Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools

Visit Cate Mackenzie’s website

Listen to Cate Mackenzie’s podcast, Love, Pleasure and Joy with Cate Mackenzie

Follow Cate Mackenzie on LinkedIn and Twitter @CateMackenzie and Instagram @Catemmackenzie

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