Natural Genius: Deep Conversations. Meaningful Lives.
Natural Genius is a podcast of thoughtful conversations with people shaping meaningful lives, useful work and uncommon paths.
Hosted by Sam Bell, the show listens for the hidden clever in each guest: the instinct, inner knowing, craft, courage and lived wisdom that shape how they build, lead, create, care and contribute.
Guests include founders, operators, makers, artists, elders, wisdom holders and people whose lives carry practical insight.
The conversations trace what becomes possible through close listening, trusted instinct, and a life organised around what matters.
Listen for the thread. Notice what feels true. Take what’s useful into your own life and work.
More at naturalgenius.com.au
Episodes
73 episodes
#73 Tina Köstler: Women’s Pleasure, Menstruation and the Collective Feminine
In this second Natural Genius conversation, Sam Bell and Tina Köstler go deeper into women’s sexuality, menstruation, embodied consent, pleasure and women speaking openly with other women.Tina is an intimacy and embodiment coach, tantra ...
#72 Julie Jungalwala: Beyond the Certainty Trap: The Courage to Do the Work That Is Yours to Do
Sometimes the clearest signal is short.Julie Jungalwala describes intuition as a quiet, non-insistent invitation. She describes today’s technological environment as “compression”, making space to hear your own signal a more deliberate pr...
#71 Tanner Gesek: What Comes After Freedom? Community, Depth and the Stories We Choose
What comes after a life designed for freedom?Tanner Gesek builds across startups, venture investing, writing and music. He is founder of Copilot, Venture Partner at WAGMI Ventures, and a pianist and composer whose music has passed 750,00...
#70 - Rachel McIver: Leading Through Paradox, Grace and Grit, and Savouring Sweetness
Rachel McIver has spent more than 30 years in HR, corporate leadership and leadership development, including senior roles at Coles and almost five years as Chief People & Culture Officer at Nando’s Australia & New Zealand. Today she is ...
#69 - Waris Hussain: Alternative Education, Curiosity and Building Your Own Path
Waris Hussain is a growth marketer and builder focused on alternative education. He works in growth at Praxis, a college alternative focused on practical skills and careers, and also has his agency, Catalyst Creatives. His path has moved throug...
#68 - Sarah Harrison: Identity, Personal Branding and Who You Are Beneath the Labels
Sarah Lynn Harrison works at the intersection of identity, brand, business and human potential. A brand and content strategist for more than a decade, she first became known through Little Miss Melbourne, the successful Melbourne lifestyle blog...
#67 - Maggie Doyne: Everybody’s the CEO and Building What Seems Impossible
For more than 20 years, Maggie Doyne and the people around her have been building something that once seemed impossible.Maggie is Co-founder and CEO of BlinkNow, author of Between the Mountain and the Sky and the subject of Jere...
#66 - Anna Beuselinck: Joy, Impact, Ease and the Art of Locating Yourself
Anna Beuselinck has spent decades paying close attention to people: how they behave, what helps them grow, and what allows more joy, impact and ease into work and life.She is an ICF-certified executive coach and organisation strategist w...
#65 - Carl Rausch: Delivering Oxygen Without Blood and Keeping Breakthrough Science Alive
What happens when someone urgently needs oxygen delivered to their tissues and compatible blood is not immediately available?Carl Rausch has spent much of his working life trying to solve versions of that problem.Carl Rausch is a ...
#64 - Victoria Jones: Building Trust, Situational Leadership and Growing Happy
People have a radar. They sense when a leader’s words, behaviour and genuine intent do not align. Trust is built less through grand gestures than through the small, consistent signals people experience over time.Victoria Jones is Senior...
#63 - Sarah Jade Green: Creative Leadership, Human Taste and Small Business Brand Efficiency
Sarah Jade Green makes ambitious creative work feel more possible. She calms pressure, sees patterns, builds practical systems and helps people move before everything is perfect.Sarah is Head of Creative at Village Cinemas, where she is...
#62 - Marisa Hallsted: Beyond Spiritual Bypassing, Reality Architecture™ and Feeling Fully Alive
Marisa Hallsted brings brightness, candour and contagious energy to a conversation about what it takes to feel fully alive.Marisa is the founder of Reality Architecture™, a philosophy exploring how the invisible architecture beneath our ...
#61 - Lucas Z.: Pay Yourself First, Financially and in Life
Money can be coming in and financial stability can still feel out of reach.Lucas Z. spent three decades following his passions for photography and music. His event photography business became financially successful, yet his money problem...
#60 - Ludovic Bodin: AI, Art and the People We Meet Along the Way
What happens when a global investor begins painting the future of AI and humanity?Ludovic Bodin has spent decades building and investing across Europe, Asia, Latin America and Silicon Valley. He is founder and CEO of BOBIC Generational W...
#59 - Fiona Smolenaars: How to Ask, Connect and Create Opportunity
Fiona Smolenaars can meet someone looking for work, meet an employer who needs exactly that person hours later, make one introduction and help create a job. She has spent more than thirty years turning that instinct into work that strengthens p...
#58 - Michelle Crawford: A Creative Life, The Bowmont, and Becoming More Yourself
In this episode, Sam Bell speaks with Michelle Crawford about building a creative life across photography, styling, writing, food, hospitality and community, and becoming more fully yourself through decades of practice.Michelle is a Tasm...
#57 - Daniel Epstein: Developing Faith Through Portraits, Stories and Sacred Listening
In this episode, Sam Bell speaks with Daniel Epstein about Portraits in Faith, developing faith through listening, sacred stories, photography, Uncle Bob and Aunty Barbara Randall, Mutitjulu, behaviour change, gratitude, love and becoming more ...
#56 - Kelly Wendorf: Horses, Belonging, Leadership as a Living System and Corporate Shamanism
In this episode, Sam Bell speaks with Kelly Wendorf about horses, belonging, corporate shamanism, and what leadership can become when we start recognising organisations as living systems.Kelly is the founder and CEO of EQUUS, an ICF Mast...
#55 - Lucas Maddy: Practical Wisdom, Bitcoin, and Life Beyond the Screen
In this episode, Sam Bell speaks with Lucas Maddy about practical wisdom, Bitcoin, AI, music, self-reliance, focus, friendship, and designing a life that stays connected to the real world.Lucas brings a rare mix of farm practicality, tec...
#54 - Jake Randall: Poetry, Optimism, and the Most Ambitious Good Life
In this episode, Sam Bell speaks with Jake Randall about philosophy, poetry, entrepreneurship, investing, community, travel, Network School, AI, and the question that keeps shaping his life: what makes a good life?Jake is a wanderer, ent...
#53 - Rodolfo Carone & Francesca Tuzzi: Water, Unity, and the Responsibility to Grow
In this episode, Sam Bell speaks with Rodolfo Carone and Francesca Tuzzi about water, unity, Uncle Bob Randall, the Kanyini philosophy, responsibility, poetry, and the small seeds of connection that can help humanity grow.Thank you to Ba...
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#52 - John Paul Fischbach (EagleHeart): Art, Shamanism and Putting Love Into the World
In this episode, Sam Bell speaks with John Paul Fischbach, also known as EagleHeart, about art, shamanism, business, sacred sites, and the practical wisdom that helps people find their way.John Paul is a theatre and film director, author...
#51 - Jelena Blajer: The Nervous System of the Family Starts with You
Jelena Blajer has spent 25 years working with bodies (babies, children, pregnant women, whole families) and what she has learned is this: when the parent's nervous system is dysregulated, the child's is too. Presence is not a nice-to-have. It i...
#50 - Matt Hart: Humanware and Becoming Yourself in the Age of AI
In this episode, Sam Bell speaks with Matt Hart about Humanware, creativity, fandom, AI, sleep, belonging and becoming more fully yourself.Matt has spent 25+ years building systems that develop human capability across brand strategy, en...
#49 - Sarah Lewis: Following the Signals in a Creative Life
Creative ideas can arrive as whispers through life experience.Sarah Lewis is a London-based filmmaker, artist and designer whose work moves across documentary, moving image, installation, craft, handbags, curation, teaching and embodied...
