4 days ago

What is Ikigai with Nicholas Kemp - Part 1

This is part one of a two-part episode.

Today’s guest is Nicholas Kemp—an author, podcaster, coach and lifelong student of ikigai who’s challenging one of the most common misunderstandings of the concept.

Nick’s work exists to gently—but clearly—push back on the idea that Ikigai is a neat intersection of what you love, what you’re good at, what you can get paid for and what the world needs. That framework may be familiar in Western culture, but it isn’t the heart of Ikigai.

For Nick, ikigai is something far more personal, lived and human. It isn’t dependent on a career, productivity or monetizing passion—though it can include those things. At its core, Ikigai is about what gives life meaning now: the small moments, the daily practices, the relationships, the movement, the struggle, the joy and the quiet reasons we choose to keep going.

In this conversation, Nick shares his own journey into ikigai—how curiosity, challenge and lived experience led him to explore purpose beyond achievement, and why simplifying ikigai into a formula can actually move us further away from it.

This episode is an invitation to step away from chasing purpose and instead listen more closely to the life you’re already living.