You Are One Question Away From a Completely Different Life with Marc Champagne
02/05/25 • 82 min
In this episode, I'm speaking with Marc Champagne — who after building a journaling app that reached nearly 90 million users and then having to shut it down, emerged with profound insights about the power of transformative questions and the Socratic Method.
In this conversation, we explored:
❓ What it means to ask better quality questions, some of the specific questions that have altered the trajectory of Marc’s life — like “How can I be the most curious person in the room?” or “Whom haven't I thanked lately?”
🧠 And how his research led him to explore practices of Mental Fitness, with many practical experiments that you can run in your own life
I hope you find this conversation as fascinating as I did, and if these ideas resonate, please share them with others who might benefit from learning how to ask better questions of themselves and life.
Official Links
👋 Follow Marc on Instagram
🙏 Learn more about Marc's offerings here
📚 Get yourself a physical copy of Personal Socrates
🎙️ Listen to Marc's Podcast Behind the Human
Connect + Follow Jonny:
🐦 Follow on Twitter/X @jonnym1ller
💌 Subscribe to the Curious Humans Newsletter
🫁 Learn more about Nervous System Mastery
🙋♂️ Join Five to Thrive — a zero-cost educational email series.
📝 Take the Nervous System Quotient (NSQ) Self-Assessment (totally free)
🫁 Episode Sponsor — Nervous System Mastery
This is my flagship 5-week bootcamp designed to equip you with evidence-backed protocols to cultivate calm and emotional regulation. Our seventh cohort will run in Spring 2025 ~ and applications are currently open. My sense is that if this conversation resonates with you, then you'd likely be a great fit for our upcoming cohort. This curriculum represents my attempt to distill everything I've learned in recent years about creating the conditions for our nervous system's flourishing. It's run in an intensive cohort-based way since this is, in my experience, the most efficient way to embody and practice the protocols.
Previous students have shared how partaking improved their sleep and quality of relationships and tapped into deeper states of joy, clarity, and confidence in their lives. We've had over 1000 students have completed this training, and many have said that it has been the most impactful thing they've ever done for their personal growth — so if you're intrigued at all, you can find more details and apply to join this year's cohort over at nsmastery.com
Further Ways to Support the Podcast:
🎙️ I use Riverside to record all of my podcast conversations (it's so much better than zoom for podcasting!)
🎧 I also use Transistor to host this podcast, it's fricking awesome, and I would highly recommend.
😎 RaOptics make the world's best Blue Blockers – I wear these anytime I'm out of the house after dark, and it makes a huge difference!
🤖 I use AI wizardry from Castmagic to help with each episode's show-notes + timestamps
📝 Test out my favourite journaling app using journal prompts that have made a huge impact in my life.
In this episode, I'm speaking with Marc Champagne — who after building a journaling app that reached nearly 90 million users and then having to shut it down, emerged with profound insights about the power of transformative questions and the Socratic Method.
In this conversation, we explored:
❓ What it means to ask better quality questions, some of the specific questions that have altered the trajectory of Marc’s life — like “How can I be the most curious person in the room?” or “Whom haven't I thanked lately?”
🧠 And how his research led him to explore practices of Mental Fitness, with many practical experiments that you can run in your own life
I hope you find this conversation as fascinating as I did, and if these ideas resonate, please share them with others who might benefit from learning how to ask better questions of themselves and life.
Official Links
👋 Follow Marc on Instagram
🙏 Learn more about Marc's offerings here
📚 Get yourself a physical copy of Personal Socrates
🎙️ Listen to Marc's Podcast Behind the Human
Connect + Follow Jonny:
🐦 Follow on Twitter/X @jonnym1ller
💌 Subscribe to the Curious Humans Newsletter
🫁 Learn more about Nervous System Mastery
🙋♂️ Join Five to Thrive — a zero-cost educational email series.
📝 Take the Nervous System Quotient (NSQ) Self-Assessment (totally free)
🫁 Episode Sponsor — Nervous System Mastery
This is my flagship 5-week bootcamp designed to equip you with evidence-backed protocols to cultivate calm and emotional regulation. Our seventh cohort will run in Spring 2025 ~ and applications are currently open. My sense is that if this conversation resonates with you, then you'd likely be a great fit for our upcoming cohort. This curriculum represents my attempt to distill everything I've learned in recent years about creating the conditions for our nervous system's flourishing. It's run in an intensive cohort-based way since this is, in my experience, the most efficient way to embody and practice the protocols.
Previous students have shared how partaking improved their sleep and quality of relationships and tapped into deeper states of joy, clarity, and confidence in their lives. We've had over 1000 students have completed this training, and many have said that it has been the most impactful thing they've ever done for their personal growth — so if you're intrigued at all, you can find more details and apply to join this year's cohort over at nsmastery.com
Further Ways to Support the Podcast:
🎙️ I use Riverside to record all of my podcast conversations (it's so much better than zoom for podcasting!)
🎧 I also use Transistor to host this podcast, it's fricking awesome, and I would highly recommend.
😎 RaOptics make the world's best Blue Blockers – I wear these anytime I'm out of the house after dark, and it makes a huge difference!
🤖 I use AI wizardry from Castmagic to help with each episode's show-notes + timestamps
📝 Test out my favourite journaling app using journal prompts that have made a huge impact in my life.
Previous Episode
Minimum Viable Woo, Trusting Curiosity & Navigating a Dark Night of the Soul with Tom Morgan
In this episode, I'm speaking with Tom Morgan — who after 15 years on Wall Street and experiencing what he describes as a "hellish midlife transition" (which is putting it mildly) has emerged with profound insights about human development and — especially relevant for this podcast – the nature of curiosity itself.
In this conversation, we explored:
🧠 How we might navigate the delicate balance between intellectual understanding and embodied wisdom, especially for high-achieving individuals seeking deeper meaning in their lives
🏔️ An insight about what he calls "intellectual recapture " — which is the tendency, especially among highly educated or successful people, to turn spiritual or embodied practices into yet another achievement to conquer.
⚡ Practical insights about designing personal experiments and the importance of what he calls "minimum viable woo" — finding ways to engage with transformative practices that don't require abandoning our critical thinking.
Official Links
👋 Follow Tom on Twitter/X @tomowenmorgan
📝 Read Tom's Writing at The Leading Edge
✏️ Apply to join the Leading Edge Community
Connect + Follow Jonny:
🐦 Follow on Twitter/X @jonnym1ller
💌 Subscribe to the Curious Humans Newsletter
🫁 Learn more about Nervous System Mastery
🙋♂️ Join Five to Thrive — a zero-cost educational email series.
📝 Take the Nervous System Quotient (NSQ) Self-Assessment (totally free)
🫁 Episode Sponsor — Nervous System Mastery
This is my flagship 5-week bootcamp designed to equip you with evidence-backed protocols to cultivate calm and emotional regulation. Our seventh cohort will run in Spring 2025 ~ and applications are currently open. My sense is that if this conversation resonates with you, then you'd likely be a great fit for our upcoming cohort. This curriculum represents my attempt to distill everything I've learned in recent years about creating the conditions for our nervous system's flourishing. It's run in an intensive cohort-based way since this is, in my experience, the most efficient way to embody and practice the protocols.
Previous students have shared how partaking improved their sleep and quality of relationships and tapped into deeper states of joy, clarity, and confidence in their lives. We've had over 1000 students have completed this training, and many have said that it has been the most impactful thing they've ever done for their personal growth — so if you're intrigued at all, you can find more details and apply to join this year's cohort over at nsmastery.com
Further Ways to Support the Podcast:
🎙️ I use Riverside to record all of my podcast conversations (it's so much better than zoom for podcasting!)
🎧 I also use Transistor to host this podcast, it's fricking awesome, and I would highly recommend.
😎 RaOptics make the world's best Blue Blockers – I wear these anytime I'm out of the house after dark, and it makes a huge difference!
🤖 I use AI wizardry from Castmagic to help with each episode show-notes + timestamps
📹 Want to create a Hollywood-quality home studio? Get in touch with Kevin Shen here & save $500 with code JONNYSENT500OFF
📝 Test out my favourite journaling app using journal prompts that have made a huge impact in my life.
Next Episode
Embracing Twilight Zones, Self-Exploration & Living with OCD with Dan Shipper
In this episode, I'm speaking with Dan Shipper — Dan is a friend, the founder of Every, and someone who I consider to be a philosopher founder.
This conversation didn’t go the direction that I thought it would, I had prepared questions exploring the future of AI and technology, but I’m glad we listened to the thread that was most alive — which ended up being exploring Dan’s personal journey with OCD and recent deep dive into Jungian archetypal perspectives — and living on the borders of things — the Twilight Zone that he poetically described. Dan did manage to save me towards the end and loop the conversation back towards AI with a super interesting thesis around how it might allow us to make our intuitions more visible and reproducible in the world.
Official Links
👋 Follow Dan on Twitter
💌 Learn more about Every
Connect + Follow Jonny:
🐦 Follow on Twitter/X @jonnym1ller
🫁 Learn more about Nervous System Mastery
🙋♂️ Join Five to Thrive — a zero-cost educational email series.
📱 Check out Stateshift — our brand new iOS + Android app
📝 Take the Nervous System Quotient (NSQ) Self-Assessment (totally free)
🫁 Episode Sponsor — Nervous System Mastery
This is my flagship 5-week bootcamp designed to equip you with evidence-backed protocols to cultivate calm and emotional regulation. Our seventh cohort will run in Spring 2025 ~ and applications are currently open. My sense is that if this conversation resonates with you, then you'd likely be a great fit for our upcoming cohort. This curriculum represents my attempt to distill everything I've learned in recent years about creating the conditions for our nervous system's flourishing. It's run in an intensive cohort-based way since this is, in my experience, the most efficient way to embody and practice the protocols.
Previous students have shared how partaking improved their sleep and quality of relationships and tapped into deeper states of joy, clarity, and confidence in their lives. We've had over 1000 students have completed this training, and many have said that it has been the most impactful thing they've ever done for their personal growth — so if you're intrigued at all, you can find more details and apply to join this year's cohort over at nsmastery.com
Further Ways to Support the Podcast:
🎙️ I use Riverside to record all of my podcast conversations (it's so much better than zoom for podcasting!)
🎧 I also use Transistor to host this podcast, it's fricking awesome, and I would highly recommend.
😎 RaOptics make the world's best Blue Blockers – I wear these anytime I'm out of the house after dark, and it makes a huge difference!
🤖 I use AI wizardry from Castmagic to help with each episode's show-notes + timestamps
📝 Test out my favourite journaling app using journal prompts that have made a huge impact in my life.
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