Episodes

  • Designing a Life of Purpose: Creativity, Courage, and Compassion with Debbie Millman

    Designing a Life of Purpose: Creativity, Courage, and Compassion with Debbie Millman
    Jul 3 2025
    Dr. Dan sits down with the incomparable Debbie Millman – acclaimed designer, illustrator, author of Love Letter to a Garden (foreword by Roxane Gay), and host of the groundbreaking podcast Design Matters. This moving episode is a conversation about creativity and a profound reflection on resilience, self-awareness, and the courage to heal and grow. Debbie shares the story of her nonlinear journey into design, the trauma that shaped her early years, and how creativity and advocacy became paths to her empowerment. From working alongside Mariska Hargitay at the Joyful Heart Foundation to exploring the intersections of art, activism, and authenticity, Debbie opens up to Dr. Dan and listeners with vulnerability and wisdom. Dr. Dan and Debbie also discuss the healing power of purpose and design; gardening as a metaphor for creativity, resilience, and existence; and embracing imperfection and aging. Whether you're a creative, a leader, or someone on a path of growth and healing, this conversation offers insight, inspiration, and hope. For more information debbiemillman.com and designmattersmedia.com, and follow @debbiemillman on Instagram. Please listen, follow, rate, and review Make It a Great One on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow @drdanpeters on social media. Visit www.drdanpeters.com and send your questions or guest pitches to podcast@drdanpeters.com. We have this moment, this day, and this life—let’s make it a great one. – Dr. Dan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • Time to Pivot: Redefining Leadership, Success, and Family with Cathy Cassani Adams

    Time to Pivot: Redefining Leadership, Success, and Family with Cathy Cassani Adams
    Jun 26 2025
    Dr. Dan interviews parenting expert, author, co-host of the Zen Pop Parenting podcast, and longtime friend Cathy Cassani Adams about self-awareness, life transitions, and the evolving journey of parenting. On today’s episode, Dr. Dan and Cathy explore parental self-understanding, ways to raise resilient kids, how to listen to your body’s cues (your “dashboard”), and ending the myth of perfection in parenting, leadership, and life. Dr. Dan and Cathy also share why authenticity and vulnerability matter and how Cathy’s own experiences with grief, family, and creativity led her to redefine success, joy, and contentment – and inspired the evolution of Zen Parenting Radio to the new Zen Pop Parenting podcast. Whether you’re a parent, educator, leader, or simply someone navigating life’s transitions, this episode will inspire you to lead with compassion, stay grounded in your truth, and embrace the beautiful messiness of the human journey. Today’s heartfelt and deeply reflective conversation is a perfect companion to Dan and Cathy’s previous podcast discussion about parenting and mental health. For more information zenpopparenting.com and follow @zenparentingradio on Instagram. Please listen, follow, rate, and review Make It a Great One on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow @drdanpeters on social media. Visit www.drdanpeters.com and send your questions or guest pitches to podcast@drdanpeters.com. We have this moment, this day, and this life—let’s make it a great one. – Dr. Dan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 13 mins
  • How to Break Up with Perfection: Redefining Success, Love, and Self-Worth with Claire Berger

    How to Break Up with Perfection: Redefining Success, Love, and Self-Worth with Claire Berger
    Jun 19 2025
    In this inspiring episode, Dr. Dan interviews comedian, improv actor, speaker, and author Claire Berger about her thought-provoking book How Much Is Enough? Getting More by Living with Less. Claire challenges us to embrace the concept of “enoughness” and to live more authentically. Drawing from her multifaceted career—stand-up comic, warm-up artist for sitcoms, and HGTV host—Claire shares powerful insights on how to redefine success on our own terms. On this episode, Claire and Dr. Dan explore the universal question: How much is enough? – and their answers redefine success, self-worth, perfectionism, and growth. Filled with humor, heart, and provocative questions, Dr. Dan and Claire encourage listeners to appreciate who they are, what they have, and to recognize that they are already more than enough. This conversation will shift your mindset and inspire you to embrace your perfectly imperfect, purpose-filled life. Learn more at www.claireberger.com and follow Claire on Instagram @4claireb. Please listen, follow, rate, and review Make It a Great One on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow @drdanpeters on social media. Visit www.drdanpeters.com and send your questions or guest pitches to podcast@drdanpeters.com. We have this moment, this day, and this life—let’s make it a great one. – Dr. Dan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • The End is the Beginning: The Story of a Mother, From End to Beginning with Jill Bialosky

    The End is the Beginning: The Story of a Mother, From End to Beginning with Jill Bialosky
    Jun 12 2025
    Dr. Dan invites back a favorite guest, author and poet Jill Bialosky, to talk about her new memoir The End Is the Beginning: A Personal History of My Mother. Jill shares with Dr. Dan how the pandemic, the isolation of grief, and her mother’s decline due to Alzheimer’s inspired her to write this book as a way to preserve her mother’s life and legacy. Dan and Jill explore the complexities of parenthood and daughterhood, the weight of generational trauma, and much more. Their conversation reveals that healing can come through storytelling and sharing. Today’s conversation inspires us to consider the full lives our parents lived before we ever knew them. More than a literary conversation, today’s episode is a universal one about family, memory, loss, grief, and ultimately love. For more information www.jillbialosky.com and follow @jillbialosky on Instagram. Please listen to Dr. Dan’s previous interview with Jill about her extraordinary memoir History of a Suicide: My Sister’s Unfinished Life. Please listen, follow, rate, and review Make It a Great One on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow @drdanpeters on social media. Visit www.drdanpeters.com and send your questions or guest pitches to podcast@drdanpeters.com. We have this moment, this day, and this life—let’s make it a great one. – Dr. Dan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • Building More Inclusive Communities Through Collaborative Art with Patty Mitchell

    Building More Inclusive Communities Through Collaborative Art with Patty Mitchell
    Jun 5 2025
    In our new episode, Dr. Dan sits down with artist, social entrepreneur, and joy-spreader Patty Mitchell—founder of Passion Works Studio and Creative Director at Creative Abundance Consulting–to discuss how radical inclusion and acceptance of all differences and abilities in the artmaking process is redefining community worldwide. Patty explains to Dr. Dan how her bold question “What if inclusion, economic empowerment, and community transformation could all begin with a paintbrush?” started a movement that keeps growing and today is a successful global model for inclusive, empathy-driven social enterprise. Dr. Dan discusses Patty’s personal story and how through Passion Works Studio, Patty has created a vibrant space where people of all abilities come together to make art, build connections, and generate real economic value—over $8 million annually for her hometown of Athens, Ohio. In today’s conversation, Patty shares with Dr. Dan how art can serve as a vehicle for liberation, independence, and belonging, and why following the aesthetic lead of people with developmental differences creates magic—both for individuals and for entire communities. This episode is about art, joy, possibility, and the power of believing in people of all abilities. Patty’s vision of how we build community—and what’s truly possible–will fill your heart and inspire listeners. For more information passionworks.org/ and follow @passionworksstudio on Instagram. Please listen, follow, rate, and review Make It a Great One on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow @drdanpeters on social media. Visit www.drdanpeters.com and send your questions or guest pitches to podcast@drdanpeters.com. We have this moment, this day, and this life—let’s make it a great one. – Dr. Dan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 13 mins
  • AI, Digital Justice, and Creating a Fair and Just World with Avriel Epps

    AI, Digital Justice, and Creating a Fair and Just World with Avriel Epps
    May 29 2025
    Dr. Dan interviews Dr. Avriel Epps, a dynamic scholar, author, and strategist whose work sits at the crossroads of transformative justice and artificial intelligence. With a PhD in Human Development and a masters in Data Science from Harvard University, Dr. Epps brings a fresh and critical perspective to conversations about technology, equity, and social justice. On today’s episode, Dr. Dan and Dr. Epps explore her work around how bias in predictive technologies affects racial, gender, and sociopolitical identity development. She aims to understand the complex ways that algorithm design and computer-mediated social expectations—often communicated through artificial intelligence systems—impact the beliefs, behaviors, and health of developing humans. On today’s episode, listeners will hear explanations and examples about how AI can sometimes reinforce unfairness. Dr. Dan and Dr. Epps urge us to be part of the solution by demanding technology that works for everyone, not just a few. Dr. Avriel Epps is a former child actor and an R&B artist turned algorithmic justice expert. Her work shows us that AI is not neutral, reminds us algorithmic bias impacts are real, and urges us to question technology. In the Fall of 2025, she will begin her tenure as Assistant Professor of Fair and Responsible Data Science at Rutgers University. For more information www.avrielepps.com and follow @kingavriel on Instagram. Please listen, follow, rate, and review Make It a Great One on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow @drdanpeters on social media. Visit www.drdanpeters.com and send your questions or guest pitches to podcast@drdanpeters.com. We have this moment, this day, and this life—let’s make it a great one. – Dr. Dan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 15 mins
  • Climbing the Walls: The Rise of ADHD in Women with Danielle Elliot

    Climbing the Walls: The Rise of ADHD in Women with Danielle Elliot
    May 22 2025
    On today’s episode, Dr. Dan interviews Danielle Elliot – a health and science journalist, documentarian, and host of Climbing the Walls, a new limited-series investigative podcast about ADHD in women. Danielle was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 36. On this critical episode, Dr. Dan and Danielle discuss the rising tide of ADHD diagnoses in women, Danielle’s journey from diagnosis to the podcast, why women historically weren’t diagnosed with ADHD (and what’s led to new ADHD diagnoses nearly doubling among women ages 20–49 between 2020-2022 according to CDC) and finally, why it’s essential to break the silence around this misunderstood topic. Dr. Dan and Danielle dive into a deep discussion about how Climbing the Walls, created in partnership with Understood.org, gives life to the stories of the many women who have lived experiences with ADHD and explores big questions around the surge in ADHD diagnoses, and much more. Today’s episode will shift the perspective on neurodiversity and transform lives. For more information www.danielliot.com and follow @danielle.elliot on Instagram. For additional resources visit www.summitcenter.us. Please listen, follow, rate, and review Make It a Great One on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow @drdanpeters on social media. Visit www.drdanpeters.com and send your questions or guest pitches to podcast@drdanpeters.com. We have this moment, this day, and this life—let’s make it a great one. – Dr. Dan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 19 mins
  • Ordinary Magic Unleashes Extraordinary Change with Dr. Greg Walton

    Ordinary Magic Unleashes Extraordinary Change with Dr. Greg Walton
    May 15 2025
    Dr. Dan and Dr. Greg Walton discuss Greg’s new book Ordinary Magic: The Science of How We Can Achieve Big Change with Small Acts. On today’s episode, Dr. Walton explains his vision of what is possible for our relationships, communities, institutions, and the world. The interview reveals that even when we feel trapped, we have vast opportunities for change and we can free ourselves. In his literally “life-changing” work and book, Greg reveals how through “ordinary magic” we can create ordinary experiences that help us set aside the ordinary worries of life to unleash extraordinary change. Dr. Walton and Dr. Dan dig into how and why these “wise interventions” can help us chart new trajectories for our lives. Listeners will leave this episode with the knowledge that we all have more power to improve our lives than we realize - and that we can become psychologically wiser humans by using Ordinary Magic. Greg Walton, Ph.D. developed the concept of “wise interventions” and has led much of the groundbreaking research. Dr. Walton is the co-­ director of the Dweck-­ Walton Lab, the Michael Forman University Fellow in Undergraduate Education, and a professor of psychology at Stanford University. For more information gregorywalton.com and follow @stanford on Instagram. Please listen, follow, rate, and review Make It a Great One on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow @drdanpeters on social media. Visit www.drdanpeters.com and send your questions or guest pitches to podcast@drdanpeters.com. We have this moment, this day, and this life—let’s make it a great one. – Dr. Dan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 9 mins