
664.2K
Downloads
288
Episodes
Hello, I am a marital therapist, communications trainer and author. I have thirty-five years helping couples and individuals make better relationships. I have written twenty-plus self-help books which include the international best-sellers ‘I love you but I’m not in love with you’ and ‘How can I ever trust you again?’ My books have been translated into twenty languages. I trained with RELATE the UK’s largest counselling charity. Perhaps it has been turning sixty but I have become interested in spiritual as well as psychological questions. Who am I? What are my values – as opposed to my parents, my teachers and the wider society? What makes my life meaningful? What do I believe about life, the universe and everything? Although my clients might come to me because of destructive arguments, falling out of love and infidelity, they are also interested in having more meaningful relationships and a more meaningful life. So what is the meaningful life? Why do we so easily lose our way and get lost in depression, anxiety, doubt, addictions and obsessions: the swamplands of the soul? One thing I know for sure is that there is not one answer. Each of us has to find out for ourselves what makes our life meaningful. But we can learn from each other, share our experiences of how to navigate the journey, how to endure and learn from the swamp, and finally how to find solid ground. I have decided to use my original training in radio and journalism to interview witnesses for what makes life meaningful. Each week, I invite someone who is a therapist, academic, self-help coach or who has an enlightening personal story to share their knowledge or experiences. I hope our discussions will help you discover what makes your life meaningful and find more purpose and contentment.
Hello, I am a marital therapist, communications trainer and author. I have thirty-five years helping couples and individuals make better relationships. I have written twenty-plus self-help books which include the international best-sellers ‘I love you but I’m not in love with you’ and ‘How can I ever trust you again?’ My books have been translated into twenty languages. I trained with RELATE the UK’s largest counselling charity. Perhaps it has been turning sixty but I have become interested in spiritual as well as psychological questions. Who am I? What are my values – as opposed to my parents, my teachers and the wider society? What makes my life meaningful? What do I believe about life, the universe and everything? Although my clients might come to me because of destructive arguments, falling out of love and infidelity, they are also interested in having more meaningful relationships and a more meaningful life. So what is the meaningful life? Why do we so easily lose our way and get lost in depression, anxiety, doubt, addictions and obsessions: the swamplands of the soul? One thing I know for sure is that there is not one answer. Each of us has to find out for ourselves what makes our life meaningful. But we can learn from each other, share our experiences of how to navigate the journey, how to endure and learn from the swamp, and finally how to find solid ground. I have decided to use my original training in radio and journalism to interview witnesses for what makes life meaningful. Each week, I invite someone who is a therapist, academic, self-help coach or who has an enlightening personal story to share their knowledge or experiences. I hope our discussions will help you discover what makes your life meaningful and find more purpose and contentment.
Episodes

3 hours ago
3 hours ago
Is society setting you up to fail in your marriage? World-renowned relationship therapist Terry Real sees a toxic culture of individualism troubling society at every level.
We are told to strive for personal productivity and perfection, ignoring the fact that we exist in a web of crucial relationships.
In this episode, Terry describes research showing that the mind exists in a social context, and that couples in fact co-regulate each other’s nervous systems.
Getting this right is very tricky, though, if you grew up without enough emotional support. The survival strategies that got you through childhood may, in fact, “torch your personal relationships”.
Andrew and Terry discuss the five most common traps that can undermine your relationship:
🚩 Needing to be right
🚩 Controlling your partner
🚩 Unbridled self-expression
🚩 Retaliation
🚩 Shutting down
We can overcome these, however, by tapping into our wiser, more collaborative self. If we can find the “us” rather than the “I”, we can achieve the warmer, more intimate relationships many of us long for.
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:
⭐️Three things Terry Real 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 mens’s retreat near Berlin in June 2026: details here
Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things
Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools
Read Andrew’s new Substack newsletter The Meaningful Life, and join the community there.
Buy Terry Real’s book Us: Getting Past You & Me to Build a More Loving Relationship
Take a look at Terry Real’s other books, including The New Rules of Marriage and How Can I Get Through to You?
Visit Terry Real’s website https://terryreal.com
Follow Terry Real on Facebook and YouTube @TerryRealRLI
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

Monday May 25, 2026
Helen Tower & Lisa Arends: Infidelity: Lessons from My Recovery
Monday May 25, 2026
Monday May 25, 2026
My guests this week - Lisa Arends and Helen Tower - know just about everything there is to know about the painful subject of infidelity, because they have lived it through it themselves. Both have written extensively about their experiences.
Lisa’s is a story of the most extreme and dramatic betrayal: ten years ago her husband ended their 16-year marriage with a text message, after which she never saw him again. Lisa rebuilt her life and has a new partner.
Helen’s experience involved her partner’s lengthy affair with a co-worker. After initially separating from her husband, Helen came to the decision to try and rebuild the relationship. She and her husband recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary, and the journey toward recovery continues.
Both Helen and Lisa agree that recovering from infidelity is all about strengthening the self. The journey to a new life and a new relationship (whether that’s with the unfaithful partner or someone new) hinges on doing the work to achieve self-knowledge and personal strength.
This week’s episode is a fascinating three-way conversation featuring two totally different experiences of infidelity. It is essential listening if infidelity has been a part of your experience, but it also has much to offer if you’d like to feel stronger and more empowered in your relationship.
Lisa Arends is a data scientist, former middle school math teacher and accidental expert on divorce. She is passionate about empowering, motivating and inspiring people as they move through difficult transitions and life situations. Lisa blogs at Lessons from the End of a Marriage. She lives outside of Atlanta with her husband and two adorable pit bulls.
Helen Tower writes and blogs about infidelity (Helen Tower is the pen name she uses to protect her family). In 2018 Helen discovered her husband of twenty-two years was having an affair, and eight months later published her story as Sailing Through Infidelity: A Story of Love and Forgiveness.
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:
⭐️Three things Helen and Lisa 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 mens’s retreat near Berlin in June 2026: details here
Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things
Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools
Read Andrew’s new Substack newsletter The Meaningful Life, and join the community there.
Read Lisa Arends’ blog Lessons from the End of a Marriage
Follow Lisa Arends on Facebook @LESSONSFROMTHEENDOFAMARRIAGE, on Twitter and Instagram @stilllearning2b and on YouTube.
Helen Tower blogs at Sailing Through Infidelity
Read Helen Tower’s books, including Sailing through Infidelity: A story of love and forgiveness.
Listen to Helen Tower's podcast Sail Through and Beyond Infidelity https://open.spotify.com/show/0191IgpffJkLcxebwTm5S5?si=DYMn9S--QPOi5LT2HxRZag&dl_branch=1&nd=1
Follow Helen on Facebook @HelenTowerAuthor, on Instagram @helentowerstaycalm and on Twitter @sailinginfidel1
Read Andrew’s books on infidelity recovery:
Why Did I Ever Cheat? Help Your Partner (and Yourself) Recover From Your Affair
How Can I Ever Trust You Again? Infidelity: From Discovery to Recovery in Seven Steps
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

Monday May 18, 2026
JJ Bola: Men: How to Take the Mask Off
Monday May 18, 2026
Monday May 18, 2026
How often have you heard masculinity described as “toxic”, “fragile”, or “in a crisis”? JJ Bola - writer, former youth worker, and UNHCR Ambassador - tries to go deeper in understanding how society is failing boys and men.
In this episode, JJ Bola describes masculinity as a performance that we require boys to learn; along the way stifling their individuality and emotional health. Different societies have different myths about masculinity, and JJ Bola is able to draw on his experiences as a Congolese man growing up in London to show how diverse these ideas are.
If we could discard the performance of masculinity and allow boys to grow up free and to be who they are, we are likely to see the benefits in love and sex, politics, competitive sports and mental health.
JJ Bola was born in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He grew up in London and has written two novels - No Place to Call Home and The Selfless Act Of Breathing - as well as three collections of poetry - Elevate, Daughter of the Sun and WORD - and a non-fiction book about masculinity and the patriarchy, Mask Off: Masculinity Redefined.
This week’s episode takes a slightly different format: Andrew interviews JJ Bola at the annual MANN SEIN conference in Berlin, an international gathering to talk about masculinity in today’s world.
Follow Up
Attend Andrew’s mens’s retreat near Berlin in June 2026: details here
Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things
Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools
Read Andrew’s new Substack newsletter The Meaningful Life, and join the community there.
Find out more about the MANN SEIN annual conference in Berlin/online.
Read JJ Bola’s books: Mask Off: Masculinity Redefined, No Place to Call Home, The Selfless Act Of Breathing and Refuge (which collates his 3 volumes of poetry).
Follow JJ Bola on Twitter and Instagram @JJ_Bola
Listen to Andrew’s other conversations on masculinity:
⭐️Jed Diamond PhD on “Your Personal Creation Story”
⭐️Joe Horton on “Men, Fathers and Meaning”
⭐️Matthew Fray on “How Good People Mess Up Their Marriages”
⭐️Warren Farrell PhD on “The Boy Crisis”
Get Andrew’s advice on creating real change in your life and relationships in his book Wake Up and Change Your Life: How to Survive a Crisis and Be Stronger, Wiser and Happier
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

Monday May 11, 2026
Viv Groskop: How to be Heard, Really Heard
Monday May 11, 2026
Monday May 11, 2026
Many of us, particularly women, experience endless frustration because we don’t feel heard. At work and at home, it seems like we are constantly interrupted and rarely feel in control of a conversation.
This week Viv Groskop, journalist, podcaster, stand-up comedian and author of How to Own The Room and Lift As You Climb, talks with Andrew about how to speak so that people will listen. Diving into the world of stand-up taught Viv about pacing, pausing and gauging people’s reactions; but most importantly, about quieting your own ego and tuning into your audience.
Andrew and Viv discuss why exactly it is that many women struggle to be heard. At the practical level, it is crucial to enter the discussion assertively. We also need to make sure we are not self-sabotaging by pre-judging our own contribution as “not good enough”.
Viv Groskop hosts the chart-topping podcast How to Own The Room. She has written five books and this year will be a judge for the International Booker Prize. She is a regular guest presenter on BBC Radio 4 and has appeared on Woman’s Hour, Today and Front Row. Viv is also a fluent Russian speaker and is a trustee of Pushkin House, the independent centre for Russian culture in London.
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:
⭐️Three things Viv Groskop 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 mens’s retreat near Berlin in June 2026: details here
Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things
Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools
Read Andrew’s new Substack newsletter The Meaningful Life, and join the community there.
Listen to How to Own the Room, Viv Groskop’s podcast: https://vivgroskop.com/podcast/
Read How to Own the Room: Women and the Art of Brilliant Speaking, Lift As You Climb: Women, Ambition and How to Change the Story, Au Revoir Tristesse: Lessons in Happiness from French Literature and Viv Groskop’s other books
Visit Viv Groskop’s website: https://vivgroskop.com
Follow Viv on Instagram and Twitter @VivGroskop
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

Monday May 04, 2026
Monday May 04, 2026
Do you feel trapped, hopeless or broken in your relationship? Perhaps you hope by trying harder, being more empathetic or just plain knowledgeable, that everything will turn a corner. On one hand, that’s a great strategy and shows admirable tenacity but on the other, it can reach a point that’s bad for your well-being, your mental health and for your children too.
If you’re wondering whether your relationship has turned abusive, my witness on the Meaningful Life will provide lots to think about. Dr. Alina Kastner is a systemic family therapist and the author of ‘Break Up with Narcissism: How to break free and stay free.’
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:
⭐️How to deal with emotional exhaustion
⭐️Three things Dr. Alina Kastner 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 mens’s retreat near Berlin in June 2026: details here
Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things
Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools
Read Andrew’s new Substack newsletter The Meaningful Life, and join the community there.
Visit Dr. Alina Kastner's website
Follow Dr. Alina Kastner on Instagram (@dr.alinakastner) and TikTok (tiktok.com/@dr.alinakastner)
Read Dr. Alina Kastner's book Break Up With Narcissism
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

Monday Apr 27, 2026
Sarah Swenson: Are you in a neurodiverse relationship?
Monday Apr 27, 2026
Monday Apr 27, 2026
If you’re in relationship with a partner who is on the autism spectrum, the following may feel familiar:
- My partner seems to lack empathy and doesn’t care how I feel
- My partner misjudges me all the time - I can’t do anything right
- I can’t seem to find a way to communicate with my partner
- My partner feels attacked and criticised if I disagree
- We argue all the time and never resolve anything
- My partner just walks away when things get emotional
- We've been together for a long time and I am lonelier than I have ever been in my life
This week Sarah Swenson, a counselor specialising in working with neurodiverse couples, highlights some of challenges these couples face, and shares her ideas on how to build a happy relationship that can work for both partners.
Andrew and Sarah also discuss several listener letters on challenges faced by neurodiverse couples.
Sarah Swenson is a licensed mental health counselor based in Seattle, Washington. Her practice is focused on supporting the needs of neurodiverse couples in which one partner is or may be autistic.
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:
⭐️The problems with being highly intelligent.
⭐️Three things Sarah Swenson 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 mens’s retreat near Berlin in June 2026: details here
Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things
Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools
Read Andrew’s new Substack newsletter The Meaningful Life, and join the community there.
Visit Sarah Swenson’s website
Find out about Sarah Swenson’s online courses for neurodiverse couples.
Read Sarah Swenson’s Substack newsletter for neurotypical individuals whose partners are or may be autistic.
Find out about Sarah Swenson’s work counselling highly intelligent individuals.
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

Monday Apr 20, 2026
Silva Neves: Heal compulsive sexual behaviours
Monday Apr 20, 2026
Monday Apr 20, 2026
Have you found the freedom to explore the rich landscape of your erotic self? Or did your childhood leave you feeling restricted and repressed by a sex negative mindset?
In this week’s episode Andrew talks to Silva Neves, a psychosexual psychotherapist, about:
- Why people DON’T fully explore their sexual selves
- Why labelling people “sex addicts” is unhelpful, and
- The liberating mindset of sex positivity.
Silva Neves works with couples experiencing a wide range of sex and relationship issues, including sexual trauma, infidelity, and compulsive sexual behaviours. He regularly appears in the British media and was featured on the BBC Three’s television series, Sex On The Couch.
Silva is a COSRT-accredited and UKCP-registered psychosexual and relationship psychotherapist, and a trauma psychotherapist. His private practice is based in Central London and online.
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:
⭐️Three things Sarah Swenson 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 June 2026: details here
Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things
Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools
Read Andrew’s new Substack newsletter The Meaningful Life, and join the community there.
Visit Silva Neves’ website
Visit Silva Neves’ site on sex positivity
Get advice from Silva Neves via his Psychology Today blog
Read Silva Neves’ book Compulsive Sexual Behaviours, A Psycho-Sexual Treatment Guide for Clinicians
Learn about the course Silva Neves teaches at CICS - an Online Diploma in in Compulsive Sexual Behaviour
Follow Silva Neves on social media: Twitter @SilvaNeves3; and Instagram and Facebook @silvanevespsychotherapy
Read The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity by Esther Perel
Read The Men On My Couch: True Stories of Sex, Love and Psychotherapy by David Rensin and Brandy Engler
Read Andrew’s book Have the Sex You Want: A Couple’s Guide to Getting Back the Spark
Read Andrew’s blog How To Have the Sex You Want
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

Monday Apr 13, 2026
Pippa Evans: Harnessing the power of yes and no
Monday Apr 13, 2026
Monday Apr 13, 2026
We spend a lot of time feeling very serious about seeking meaning in our lives; but is it possible that the secret lies in making the search more fun? Can we say a creative, mutually affirming “yes” more often? And when do we need a self-protective “no”?
This week Andrew and improv comedy star Pippa Evans have lots of fun together as they compare the strategies of improvisational comedy with those of therapy. Perhaps the most interesting lesson from improv: “be in the moment that is, not the one you thought would come along”.
Pippa Evans is a comedian and writer known for her skills in improvisational comedy. She was a core member of the improv team behind the award-winning stage show Showstopper: The Improvised Musical which toured the UK and abroad, and has regularly appeared on BBC radio.
Pippa likes to “use jokes to find connection”, and teaches courses on improvisation and the ways it can help improve our relationships with ourselves and with others. She has recently written a book called Improv Your Life: An Improviser’s Guide To Working With Whatever Life Throws At You.
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:
- Three Things Pippa Evans 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 June 2026: details here
Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things
Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools
Read Pippa Evans’ book Improv Your Life: An Improviser’s Guide to Working With Whatever Life Throws At You
Take a look at Pippa’s website
Find out more about the Sunday Assembly, a church for non-believers co-founded by Pippa and fellow comedian Sanderson Jones.
Follow Pippa on Twitter and Instagram @IAmPippaEvans
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

Monday Apr 06, 2026
Toko-Pa Turner: How to read the secret map of your life
Monday Apr 06, 2026
Monday Apr 06, 2026
There is a coherent and meaningful map for our lives and we are given it one step at a time with the occasional glimpse into the whole picture. That’s the key idea of my witness today...
Sometimes the messages come from bodily instincts – you visit somewhere and you know it is going to be important for you – or your intuition telling something is true or resonates deeply within. At other times, the glimppses come from synchronicity (meaningful coincidences) But most importantly and most consistently the messages come, through our dreams.
Toko-pa Turner is the author of ‘The Dreaming Way: Courting the Wisdom of Dreams. She is a teacher and dreamworker who blends a Sufi Spiritual with a Jungian Psychological approach. In 2001, she founded Dream School from which thousands of students have graduated.
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:
⭐️Three things Toko-Pa Turner 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 couple’s retreat near Berlin in June 2026 or men's retreat in April 2026: details here
Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things
Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools
Read Andrew’s new Substack newsletter The Meaningful Life, and join the community there.
Toko-pa's website: toko-pa.com
Substack: tokopa.substack.com
Facebook: @TokopaTurner
Instagram: @tokopa
Dream Drops (self-study course): https://toko-pa.com/dream-drops/
Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home (belongingbook.com)
The Dreaming Way: Courting the Wisdom of Dreams (thedreamingway.com)
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

Monday Mar 30, 2026
Josh Cohen: How to live: What you can learn from literary characters
Monday Mar 30, 2026
Monday Mar 30, 2026
Who is your favourite literary character? According to Dr Josh Cohen, an academic working in literary theory and also a psychoanalyst, this can be a very important question.
Josh Cohen’s new book is How to Live. What To Do: In search of ourselves in life and literature. He believes that there are major similarities between psychoanalysis and great literature. For one thing, neither offers simple answers to complex questions.
With books, you have the opportunity to see the world through the eyes of someone else, understand what makes them click and why they do what they do. With analysis, which is generally over several years, you do something similar with your unconscious, and come to understand yourself better.
In this episode Josh and Andrew discuss the books that have stayed with them throughout their lives. They also touch on the essential quality of imagination in childhood, and why we all need to “be more Alice”.
Josh Cohen is a professor of modern literary theory at Goldsmiths, University of London, and a psychoanalyst in private practice. He is the author of many books on aspects of modern life.
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:
- Three Things Josh Cohen 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 couple’s retreat near Berlin in June 2026 or men's retreat in April 2026: details here
Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things
Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools
Read Josh Cohen’s new book How to Live. What To Do: In search of ourselves in life and literature
Read Josh Cohen’s book Not Working: Why We Have To Stop
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.
Read Andrew’s book reviews on Goodreads
Get Andrew’s advice on creating change in your life and relationships in his book Wake Up and Change Your Life: How to Survive a Crisis and Be Stronger, Wiser and Happier
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
