What is personality? Can it change over time? How does our personality influence the ways we find meaning in our lives? DR RALPH PIEDMONT has spent decades answering these questions; training under the original developers of the Big Five personality model, and focusing also on the spiritual and transcendent dimensions that give life deeper meaning.

This week Andrew and Dr Piedmont discuss:

• The Big Five personality model
• How understanding our own personality can help us create deeper, more authentic relationships.
• How spirituality fits into our understanding of personality.

Dr. Piedmont received his Ph.D. in Personality Psychology from Boston University. He was a full professor in the Department of Pastoral Counseling at Loyola University Maryland and is now the Managing Director of the Center for Professional Studies. His current research interests focus on the measurement of Spiritual Transcendence, a construct that represents a broad, nondenominational, motivational measure of spirituality. Dr Piedmont is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and a member of the American Counseling Association (ACA).

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:

• Hope: What it is, why we need it, and how to find it in dark times.
• Three Things Ralph Piedmont 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

Attend Andrew’s men’s retreat near Berlin in April 2026: details here

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

Visit the website of the Center for Professional Studies, where Dr Piedmont is Managing Director

Read Dr Piedmont’s book, Understanding the Psychological Soul of Spirituality: A Guidebook for Research and Practice

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

Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.

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 often feel depressed, anxious, victimised or disappointed, you may be carrying a heavy load of unresolved emotional pain.

Psychotherapist and author Robert Jackman suggests that this pain, and associated patterns of behaviour, often stem from our lost inner child. This inner child brings with him or her a false narrative; played on repeat.

Painful childhood experiences can show up in adulthood as explosive anger, isolation, bad relationship choices, negative self-talk, feelings of being overwhelmed, being a people pleaser, and keeping others at arm's length.

In this week’s classic reissued episode, Andrew and Robert talk about identifying your lost inner child, how to talk to them, and how to heal some of this emotional pain in order to embrace a more authentic life.

Robert Jackman is an author and psychotherapist who also teaches on mindfulness, hypnotherapy, codependency, and the role of spirituality in healing. Robert is also a Reiki master who uses energy psychology in his practice and considers himself a codependent in recovery, always working on boundary setting, discernment and connecting with his authentic self.

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:

• Healing Your Wounded Relationship.
• Three Things Robert Jackman 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

Buy Robert Jackman’s books Healing Your Lost Inner Child, The Tender Path of Grief and Loss and Healing Your Wounded Relationship

Visit Robert Jackman’s website

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

Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.

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

Are narcissists capable of love? Is it possible for them to achieve emotional transformation through therapy? And what does it mean to be the partner of a narcissist? Jungian psychoanalyst and friend of the podcast DR SUSAN SCHWARTZ joins Andrew this week to discuss her new book, An Analytical Exploration of Love and Narcissism: The Tragedy of Isolation and Intimacy.

Drawing on Jungian concepts and the myth of Narcissus and Echo, Susan explains:

• How we misunderstand narcissism
• The creative energy of the narcissist
• The ways narcissists can be deeply vulnerable
• How narcissists can learn to be emotionally intimate.

Dr Susan Schwartz is a Jungian analyst who trained in Switzerland and lives in the USA. She teaches in numerous Jungian programs, workshops, and lectures in the USA and worldwide. She is also a clinical psychologist and member of the International Association of Analytical Psychology. Her other books include:The Absent Father Effect on Daughters, A Jungian Exploration of the Puella Archetype and Imposter Syndrome and The ‘As-If’ Personality in Analytical Psychology.

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:

• Why are narcissists so compelling?
• Three Things Susan Schwartz 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

Read Dr Susan Schwartz’s new book, An Analytical Exploration of Love and Narcissism: The Tragedy of Isolation and Intimacy

Visit Dr Susan Schwartz’s website

Follow Dr Susan Schwartz on Facebook and Instagram

Listen to Andrew’s previous interviews with Dr Susan Schwartz: Daughters and Fathers, and Imposter Syndrome.

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