Synopsis
Can you imagine beyond our current relationship with work and life? Boundless is a podcast hosted by Paul Millerd that explores this question and goes deep into our understanding of the future of work. The podcast features conversations with philosophers, freelancers, self-employed entrepreneurs, thinkers and generous humans as well as reflections from Paul as he carves his own path. Algorithms and robots make for great article headlines, but our current reality of work is still distinctly human. How can we imagine a better relationship built on generosity, creativity and curiosity. Join Pau
Episodes
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#167 Wandering in the Wilderness — Dom Francks on confronting fragility, his love of nature, the disconnect from nature, working as a software engineer, viewing yourself as a piece of poetry, how we're always embedded in nature and being guided by intuiti
20/02/2024 Duration: 01h09minDom is the lead guide at the VIVIFY Regerative Leadership Program. He helps leaders develop by taking them on an 8-day backpacking expedition in the Sierra mountains. Dom is passionate about preserving the natural world, staying connected to it and practicing aliveness.
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#166 Breaking Free of the Rules — Rick Lewis on being a child actor, dropping out of college, being a professional juggler, street performing and a clowning, the corporate world as an outsider, breaking rules, parenting and how to reinvent yourself
13/02/2024 Duration: 01h19minRick Lewis could be succinctly described as "a speaker, author & professional consultant", but such technical labelling wouldn't paint a fair picture of who he really is. He describes what he's doing as "intelligent misbehavior". He's public appearances have a much deeper goal than just pure entertainment. Rick is passionate about discovering and breaking the hidden rules that rule our behavior and stifle our growth as people.
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#165 Gardening in the Digital Ecosystem — Kevin Espiritu on his fascination with the early Internet, how Poker broke his brain on money, starting his YouTube channel, Epic Gardening, taking a long term perspective, how to structure a video, transforming h
05/02/2024 Duration: 01h13minKevin is the man behind the Epic Gardening channel. Although he had not read the Pathless Path at the time of the recording of this episode, he seems to be living it with every breath he takes. The only constant thing in his life seems to be that is constatly reinventing himself. From professional poker, gaming, web design, indie consulting, blogging to running a huge YouTube channel about gardening with almost 3 mil. subscribers, we meet at his next crossroads, after he's decided to take a step back from running the show personally day to day.
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[Repost] My Nervous System Guru & Friend - Jonny Miller on His Own Pathless Path, Grief, Friendship, David Whyte & More
30/01/2024 Duration: 01h57minEnroll In The 5th Cohort of Nervous System Mastery: You can get $250 OFF using the code PATHLESS => nsmastery.comJonny Miller is a dear friend and I've had the privilege to get to know him closely over the past four years on our own journeys. We've lived in Japan, Indonesia, and Mexico together. When we met we were both single but now are both married in cross-country relationships and have navigated finding work that matters, getting married, and living in foreign countries together.
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#164 Transformation For High Achievers — Joe Hudson on growing up with an alcoholic father, living around the world, transformation and self-discovery, becoming comfortable with yourself, emotional fluidity, expressing emotions, and the art of parenting
11/12/2023 Duration: 01h13minJoe is an executive coach and the founder of the Art of Accomplishment. Having worked as a venture capitalist, a consultant and an international banker, Joe discovered meditation on a trip to Asia and has practiced it since for over 25 years since then. Meditating as well as a deep study of various spiritual, psychological and neurological traditions allowed him develop his unique ability to help others with personal transformation.
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[Replay] Reinventing After Quitting A Top Job At Amazon - Christine Bader
27/11/2023 Duration: 45minChristine Bader is currently living in Bali, Indonesia, where she is spending time focused on her family and self. She is the author of The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil and the former head of CSR for Amazon before leaving in 2017, a journey she details in an amazing essay titled “The year I learned to quit.” She talks about leaving the corporate world and shifting her focus from building a career to building a life.Topics Discussed:Corporate social responsibilityTaking a sabbatical in BaliBuilding a lifeThe greek concept of KairosWorking in AsiaWorking at AmazonRecommended ReadingCan a business of any size be good?The Year I Learned To Quit (New York Times)
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[Replay] Taking a "structured sabbatical" & Calm Companies - Jacqueline Jensen
20/11/2023 Duration: 44minJacqueline Jensen has been a digital nomad for 3.5 years, living and working globally. It might surprise you to find out then, that she's written a book called "Travel Isn't The Answer." While counter-intuitive, she argues for a return to awe and wonder with what is already around us. She talks about different moments of wonder she has experienced (including a breathtaking view in Montenegro) and different techniques for how people can "Live With a Sense of Curiosity, Passion, and Awe Anywhere and Everywhere" (the subtitle of the book).Last year, in a planned sabbatical she came face-to-face with the fact that work was the center of her world. While she almost "quit" the sabbatical, she pushed herself to redefine her day and time to claim back some of herself from a sole focus on work. She provides many actionable tips and perspectives that can help people question the role of work in their lives, take steps to increase the amount of awe in their lives and connect with people that matter to them.More About J
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[Replay] Starting a "tribe" and living on an island with three kids - Ben Keene
13/11/2023 Duration: 01h24sAfter attending a few corporate recruiting sessions, he didn't take for granted that his path was to enter the corporate world. Twenty years later, he is still carving his own path and has recently returned from Koh Lanta, where he lived with his three children in Thailand for the last six months. We Talked AboutBen starting a "tribe" in FijiEarly internet adventuresHis experiences coaching people with career transitionThe decision to move to Thailand with his three kids for six monthsUsing "no code" tools to start things like Rebel Book ClubHow to think about a career in today's worldHow finding a friend is one of the most important things to head in a new directionLinks Mentioned:Ben Keene's siteRebel Book ClubTribe Wanted FijiRight to DreamEscape The CityMoving to Koh Lanta with three kidsHis experience after the six-months in ThailandThe 100 year life (book)
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[Replay] How "total work" took over the world - Andrew Taggart
06/11/2023 Duration: 01h09minAndrew is a Practical Philosopher who believes that "there may be no greater vexation in our time than the question of how to make a living in a manner that accords with leading a good life." We dive deep into the questions of "what is the good life?" and what he means by "sustaining life." He also shares his perspective on the concept of "Total Work," a phrase first put forth in 1947 by the German Philosopher Josef Pieper, and shares how that phrase became central to his current writing on the topic and conversations he has with business leaders and executives.We also dive into his dichotomy of the three modes people could think about to make a living:Use what you've gotExchange what's in handOffer what you canHe reflects on our modern culture's over-reliance on exchanging our time for money while ignoring how we can live off the land and operate within the gift economy. Next, we talk about some of the different modes of living (whether it be a "settler", nomad or somewhere in between) and the implications f
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[Replay] We Adopted a 4-Day Workweek - Tash Walker
30/10/2023 Duration: 45minTash Walker is the founder of a firm and spends her Fridays making marmalade.Before instituting a four-day workweek at her firm, The Mix, she barely had time for her relationships. She decided to start doing research about different ways of working. There had to be a better way than the default options of "Summer Fridays" and "flexible work," that never seem to make less anxiety or stress-ridden.In her research, she discovered many examples of Swedish companies embracing 4-day workweeks and also found that when they instituted it, they often helped improve productivity. After bringing the option to her team at The Mix, they decided to do a three-month trial. They didn't even tell their clients.The funny thing? The clients didn't even notice. Even better, when they shared it with their clients - they weren't offended. They were curious to learn more and impressed that they had prioritized their people. While many quickly reflex to "well that can't work here," Tash and her team went forward anyway and have show
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[Replay] Living On A Boat for 1.5 Years - John Zeratsky
23/10/2023 Duration: 01h06minJohn Zeratsky was a designer in the tech industry has worked with hundreds of startups in his time at Google Ventures. He’s also obsessed with redesigning time and thinking about what matters in life. Earlier this year he just got back from 18 months living on his boat "Pineapple" with his wife sailing around Central America, which he wrote about in an article titled “What quitting my job to sail around central america taught me about fulfillment.” In this conversation we talk about:Growing up in a small lake communityHis love of sailing growing upWhy him and his wife change their mind on taking the trip in 2015Rethinking convenience and comfortWhat comforts are worth paying forBelonging and communityHow his relationship with money has changedHow him and his wife are structuring their life to work how they wantThe one change that helps people be less addicted to their phonesLinks Mentioned:Designing Your LifeSprint: How To Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas In Just Five DaysMake Time: How To Focus On Wha
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[Replay] Packy McCormick on Injecting Fun To Newsletters
16/10/2023 Duration: 44minPacky says that his differentiation "is that I’m going to be having more fun than most people”I've been a big fan of the energy he's brought to his writing over the past couple of years. But he didn't set out to have a popular newsletter. His real plan was to launch an in-person community. We chat about how the pandemic helped him figure out why that wasn't a good idea and how he's thinking about his solopreneur journey.The reason I asked him on the podcast is to talk about his recent newsletter on the future of work. He argues that “Employees will ultimately make the decision” about what work looks like post-pandemic. I think he is mostly right and we talk about what that might mean for people's lives.
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#163 Luck Maximization — Jovian Gautama on being Indonesian in Taiwan, learning English from MTV and Reddit, graduating from a tourism high school, selling steel, podcasting, learning "tech" online, becoming the CEO of Castro
12/10/2023 Duration: 01h27minJovian is an Indonesian living in Taiwan, who is deeply immersed in the American pop culture through the power of the internet. His background in tourism helps him with problem solving and talking too people, he has learnt English from watching MTV, got one of his first jobs because he was browsing Reddit and he is now the CEO of Castro, the podcast app. Jovian is a magnet for opportunities, which apparently come to him simply because he just assumes that people are nice.
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#162 Money, Work, Parenting & 1 Month In Taiwan - Angie & Paul on money scripts, cultural differences, being Taiwanese in the US, being American in Taiwan, perceptions of work in their families, life with a newborn, impostor syndrome, remote work and trav
18/09/2023 Duration: 01h18minAfter a month spent in Taiwan and 6 months into parenthood Angie & Paul share their thoughts and take some deep dives into various other topics.
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#161 9 Year Identity Crisis?! - Tom Critchlow on being stuck, indecisiveness, going to wander, taking every 7th week off, strategically dropping the ball, hiring an editor, and fear of finishing his book
23/08/2023 Duration: 49minTom and Paul talk through Tom's challenges at this inflection point in his indie career, a book he's planning on shipping and how to think through indie consultant identity crises
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#160 - Why Manifesting Works — Erin Doppelt on how living in Israel and India changed her life, "snapshot manifestation", why women should work aligned with their menstrual cycle, entrepreneurship as freedom for women, pregnancy, and her new book
14/08/2023 Duration: 01h10minErin is a spiritual psychology and meditation teacher, with a background in clinical psychology. She believes in experiencing rather than explaining and because of that she has been drawn to travel to places like India and Israel, which have helped her connect to her roots and to what matters. Erin is passionate about discovering her true self, meditation, snapshot manifestation, and taking aligned action. She is finishing up a new book and is about to have her first child — a new chapter for which she prepares herself with her partner.
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#159 Living Intentionally After "Enough" - Bilal Zaidi on leaving Google, emigrating to the US, video games, the intensity of New York, writing poetry and spoken word, travel vs vacations, and money and creativity
10/08/2023 Duration: 01h28minBilal was born in London to a family of Pakistani descent. A curious kid, with an interest in computers, he developed a successful website with over 500 000 readers in his teens. He ended up working at Google in the US. After a while Bilal has left the company to carve his own path. He has founded Creator Lab and discovered a passion for spoken word poetry, which enables him to better connect with his family
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#158 From Rugby to TikTok Influencer — Ben Mercer on navigating the transitional periods in his life, being a professional athlete with an English literature degree, the diversity of the rugby world, various motivations in sports, his passion for rugby, h
31/07/2023 Duration: 01h13minBen was a professional rugby player with an English literature degree — something not unheard of in the diverse rugby world, but also certainly not usual. After retiring from the sport, he was confronted with the task of redesigning his life. Although it was initially tough, he took the slow approach of focusing on the things he enjoys doing, which proved very beneficial in the long term. Ben has self-published 3 books so far, he is freelancing, running courses and he recently became a rising TikTok creator.
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#157 Parenting & Our Future - Paul & Angie Check-In on Five Months of Parenting, Unexpected Happiness, Parenting Scripts, and The Time Bucket Exercise from Die With Zero
28/07/2023 Duration: 01h06minI'm trying to convince Angie to do more episodes, so if you like it please let us know by e-mailing both of us here.(00:16) - - Introduction and agenda for the podcast (03:54) - - Balancing work, fitness, health, and parenthood (13:54) - - Growth of their child and the emotional journey of parenthood (15:54) - - Financial situation and the concept of abundance (26:54) - - Sharing a parenting mistake they made and how they learned from it (37:56) - - Learning new skills and therapies (48:55) - - Angie's art business and the importance of a positive mindset (53:57) - - Future plans and dreams, including travel and education (55:56) - - Upcoming trip to Taiwan and the cultural differences they anticipate (01:03:55) - - Conclusion and plans for future podcast episodes
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#156 Saying "no" to something good — Jenny Blake on the inner CFO, spending every penny just to try, working at Google, running towards something vs. running away, creating assets for yourself, making yourself discoverable, and seeking advice from "friend
24/07/2023 Duration: 01h02minJenny is an author, international speaker, career and business strategist and executive coach. She has worked in a start up during her college years and then she worked at Google. At some point she decided to follow her passions and left her job. She has already written three books, she runs a business on intuition and she continues discovering her own path.