In this episode, John sits down with Leigh Marz, collaboration consultant and co-author of Golden, a celebrated exploration of silence that began as a viral Harvard Business Review article and grew into a wide-ranging inquiry into one of the most essential — and endangered — dimensions of human experience.
Leigh brings her years of work with cross-sector organizations, NASA, and complex institutional challenges to a surprisingly simple but profound question: in a world growing relentlessly more restless and disruptive with change, what are we losing, and what becomes possible when we recover the capacity for silence, stillness, and slowness?
Together, John and Leigh explore silence not as mere absence of noise, but as a presence unto itself — a doorway to deeper consciousness, shared humanity, and the kind of inner spaciousness that makes genuine connection and conflict resolution possible. They touch on the three facets of noise (auditory, informational, and internal), the relationship between silence and flow states, neuroscience, mysticism, and wisdom traditions, and the inspiring story of Jarvis Masters, an innocent man on death row whose practice of silence became a matter of survival and ultimately of profound creative flourishing.
When we slow down enough to listen from that place, we find something shifts: people remember their connection to themselves and each other, and new possibilities open for the life we truly want.
A nourishing, rich, and timely conversation about slowing down, listening deeply, and the quiet at the heart of healing our world.
About Leigh Marz:
Leigh Marz is a collaboration and leadership coach for major universities, corporations, and federal agencies as well as a longtime student of pioneering researchers and practitioners of the ritualized use of psychedelic medicines in the West. She has led training programs to promote an experimental mindset among teams at NASA and a decade-long cross-sector collaboration to reduce toxic chemicals in products, in partnership with Green Science Policy Institute, Harvard University, IKEA, Google, and Kaiser Permanente. Leigh is the coauthor of Golden: The Power of Silence in a World of Noise, published by HarperCollins in the US, Penguin/Random House in the UK, and globally in 15 other languages. Leigh lives in Kensington, California, with her husband and daughter.
Some links and resources:
- Leigh's book, Golden: The Power of Silence in a World of Noise, can be purchased via our publisher, HarperCollins (orders can be made through independent book sellers, like Bookshop, as well as large outlets, like Amazon).
- Listeners can reach Leigh through her website, leighmarz.com, or through LinkedIn.
- For anyone who'd like to learn more about Jarvis Jay Masters, including where to find his best-selling books and updates on his appeal—you can visit his website at freejarvis.org.
Timestamps:
0:00 - John introduces Leigh Marz
2:12 - Leigh's Background
3:15 - Urgency and Intensity
4:02 - How Leigh Met her Co-Author Justin
4:50 - The Value of Silence & Publishing Deal
7:50 - Leaning Into Silence
8:24 - Noise
12:25 - Leigh Reads from the Book
14:27 - John Reflects on Silence in Childhood and Nature
17:05 - Silence and Human Nature - Good Clip Here
18:40 - Silence and Presence
20:30 - Slowing Down and Making Space
26:39 - Silence and Empathy/Understanding
27:30 - Gordon Hampton (check spelling) - good clip here
30:10 - Attention Economy and Silence for Fear
34:25 - Flow States - good clip here
35:42 - Self Transcendent Experiences
37:10 - Consciousness and Psychedellics
41:35 - Ancestral Wisdom vs New Insights
43:00 - Universal Needs
43:38 - Jay Masters on Death Row (check spelling)
46:20 - Systems, Cycles, and Scars
50:40 - Invitations to Find Silence
54:12 - Silence with Others
56:45 - Listening to Intention
58:15 - Bringing Silence to Difficult Situations
