Series 2 | STRIVING

12 extraordinary conversations.

1. Success

Is the idea of success in reality an illusion?

This conversation reaches beyond money and power to closely examine this slippery substance, why it disappears the moment you get it, and what follows in its wake.

Inspired by Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius.

2. Family

Is your family your destiny?

This conversation looks at the attitudes, behaviours, beliefs, and identity of your family and uncovers what you have chosen to perpetuate or reject.

Inspired by neurologist Sigmund Freud.

3. Values

What motivates you more than anything?

Using a Personal Values test developed at Stanford University, this conversation unearths the values that compel and concern you — and how they determine what you strive for.

Inspired by psychiatrist Viktor Frankl.

4. Death

Does death make you braver?

This conversation considers when you will die — and explores how this thought can liberate you from the fears and obstacles that prevent you from pursuing your dreams.

Inspired by existentialist Irvin Yalom.

5. Hope

When is something hope-full and when is it hope-less?

This conversation explores the concept of unrealistic hope — how your mind can convince you to pursue a project that you believe promises success when in reality it only delivers disappointment.

Inspired by philosopher Baruch de Spinoza.

6. Fear

Do you need fear to thrive?

This conversation examines how you think of fear — as a psychological state, spiritual condition, cultural phenomenon, evolutionary survival mechanism, or medical disorder — and gives you space to consider your own fears and their power over you.

Inspired by novelist George Orwell.

7. Commitment

Do you struggle to keep your commitments?

This conversation explores how intensity of affection, fear of loss and sense of obligation determines your commitment to improve your health, family, job and relationships.

Inspired by transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson.

8. Ideology

What system are you in?

This conversation invites you to choose any ideology such as capitalism, individualism, liberalism, technological utopianism — and then explore its effects on your most important endeavours.

Inspired by writer and philosopher Ayn Rand.

9. Limits

When have you met your breaking point?

This conversation analyses three inescapable limits — your body at exhaustion, the edge of your mind’s faculties, society’s laws and customs — and how they influence what you aim for.

Inspired by activist Rosa Parks.

10. Risk

When have you taken a big risk?

This conversation questions the distinction between calculated and dangerous risks — across your career, money, health and relationships — and explores the forces that dictate your appetite for uncertainty.

Inspired by entrepreneur Elon Musk.

11. Failure

Have your failures stifled you or spurred you on?

This conversation examines why your mistakes have changed how you see yourself, altered what's possible in your mind, and shaped how you will embrace your next failure.

Inspired by French queen Marie Antoinette.

12. Progress

Does all your hard work propel you to a better place?

This final conversation fundamentally questions the narrative of progress, how easily it can all be swept away, and wonders what consoling alternatives might exist.

Inspired by political philosopher John Gray.