Ant Williams knows what it means to perform under pressure.

A world-record freediver, he has held his breath for more than eight minutes, dived 100 metres on a single breath, and swum 182 metres beneath solid Arctic ice.

In this episode of The Good Life, Ant talks about learning from discomfort, building mental toughness, training for pain, facing risk, and why he believes courage can be practised. From freediving and ice diving to fatherhood and psychology, this is a conversation about what happens when we stop running from failure and start treating it as information.

Mark Fabian is associate professor of public policy at the University of Warwick, UK. He is also an affiliate researcher at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at Cambridge University, and an associate at the Institute for Social Change at the University of Tasmania.

In his latest book he challenges our ideas of happiness. From the hedonic treadmill to self-actualisation, he explains why frustration can be part of a meaningful life, why integrity matters more than productivity, and how to align who you are with who you want to be. A thoughtful guide to living with pleasure, fulfillment, and purpose.

On 11 June 2025, I joined UNSW Professor Toby Walsh on stage in Canberra at an ANU-Canberra Times Meet the Author event, to discuss Toby’s new book “The Shortest History of AI”.