The What Is Stoicism? Podcast
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The What Is Stoicism? Podcast
Using Stoic philosophy to help you (and me): LEARN from the past, PLAN for the future, LIVE in the present. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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256 episodi
Kindness: The Most Powerful Drug in the World
This episode explores conversation and kindness as forms of care for the soul.
Socrates saw dialogue as essential to self-knowledge, a way of b...
How to Live When Life Is Short
This episode reflects on the shortness of life without turning it into panic.
Oliver Burkeman’s “four thousand weeks” gives us a blunt measure...
See Clearly, Act Well, Accept the Rest
This episode explains Epictetus’s three disciplines as a practical way of returning to the present moment.
The Discipline of Assent helps us jud...
Live Your Philosophy Before Time Runs Out
This episode uses the thought of a “last day” to test the distance between our values and our actions.
Montaigne, Seneca, and Lucretius show how...
When More Becomes Too Much
This episode looks at how the chase for novelty and the habit of overextension both unsettle the mind.
Cicero reminds us that possessions and t...
Don’t Pray for Easier Homework
This episode treats life’s difficulties as assignments rather than interruptions.
Epictetus reminds us that we don’t get to choose every task F...
How to Bend Without Breaking
This episode explores the Stoic partnership between foresight and acceptance.
Preparing for setbacks doesn’t mean expecting misery—it means bui...
Your Bonus Life Begins Now
This episode explores gratitude as a Stoic practice, emphasizing the transformative power of attention.
By imagining what we might have already...
Live Like a Philosopher
This episode returns philosophy to its ancient meaning: not something merely studied, but something lived.
Pierre Hadot shows that figures like...
Your Attention Is Your Life
This episode examines the attention we surrender to screens, busyness, and distraction.
Eric Pickersgill’s phone-free photographs reveal how str...
You’ve Survived More Than You Think
This episode reflects on the quiet evidence of resilience we carry with us: the fact that we have survived every difficult moment that once seemed unb...
The Only Thing You Need to Be
This episode explores Stoicism as a love of wisdom and a daily practice of character.
By understanding virtue as human excellence—thinking clear...
How to Stop Missing Your Life
This episode turns Seneca’s call to “hold every hour in our grasp” into something more concrete.
Through Montaigne’s habits of writing and walki...
The Stoic Case Against Anger
This episode examines anger through the lens of Seneca and Epictetus.
Seneca warns that anger harms us first, clouding reason and undermining se...
You Don’t Have to Form an Opinion
This episode explores how much of our distress comes not from events themselves, but from the interpretations we layer on top of them.
Marcus A...
Stoic Instructions For Acting Wisely
This episode explores Cicero’s three-part guide to living well: let reason govern impulse, see things as they truly are, and practice moderation.
The Slow Work of Healing the Soul
This episode is a gentle return to practice for anyone who’s drifted or struggled to begin.
Seneca and the Stoics remind us that growth starts w...
Guarding Your Soul in an Unpredictable World
This episode reflects on the Stoic call to care for your own soul.
Marcus Aurelius warns that misery comes not from ignoring others, but from ne...
How Strange It Is, What People Do
This episode looks at how Stoicism handles insults without turning us into “unfeeling statues.”
Epictetus suggests taking a cue from a stone: i...
Aphorisms for Action: Making Stoicism Stick
This episode explores how Stoicism moves from theory to instinct.
The ancients distilled complex teachings into sharp, portable aphorisms—short...
Why Genuine Kindness Is Irresistible
This episode reflects on the power of everyday kindness—the remembered question, the use of someone’s name, the simple act of inclusion that makes a p...
What Is There to Fear? What Is There to Do?
This episode centres on a question from Epictetus: what is there to fear?
By focusing only on what’s truly within our control—our choices and ch...
What Stoicism Looks Like in Public and in Private
This episode follows Epictetus’s vivid portrait of Diogenes the Cynic—a philosopher who lived as a “spy” on false values, exposing how little we truly...
Why Good People Suffer
This episode tackles one of life’s most enduring questions: why do misfortunes so often strike those who seem least deserving of them?
Drawing o...
Don’t Lose Today in the Trap of Tomorrow
This episode explores how expectation quietly robs us of the only time we ever truly have: today.
Through a wry story from John O’Donohue and S...
The Stoic Morning: Poems To Wake Up To
This episode is a quiet pause at the start of the day—a meditation on mornings as gifts rather than obligations.
Drawing on Stoic gratitude and...
When Escape Isn't Possible, Acceptance Is The Way
This episode examines a quietly radical insight: that much of our suffering comes not from pain itself, but from our attempt to escape it.
Draw...
You'll Never Be Perfect, And That's Just Fine
This episode reframes Stoicism not as a quest for unreachable perfection, but as a practice of steady progress.
Drawing on the ancient idea of...
People Over Things: The Urgency of Today
This episode reflects on how awareness of mortality sharpens our sense of what truly matters, through the unforgettable lesson Randy Pausch taught wit...
We Suffer Most in Our Imagination
This episode explores the Stoic art of decatastrophizing—learning to meet fear by stripping events down to what they really are, rather than what our...
Why Relaxation Is Absolutely Necessary
This episode explores an often-overlooked Stoic lesson: that even wisdom, effort, and reflection must be practiced in moderation.
Through David...
How Stoics Tamed Their Strongest Emotions
This episode dives into the Stoic idea of the “passions”—those powerful storms of anger, fear, envy, and grief that arise not from events themselves b...
The Discipline of Listening: How to Hear Wisely
This episode explores listening as a form of courage and clarity—an active practice that shapes how we understand the world and ourselves.
From...
Practical Ways to Find Joy in the Present
This episode brings haiku and Stoicism into conversation, showing how both traditions teach us to savor fleeting moments while also meeting life with...
What Tyrants Get Wrong About Power and Wealth
This episode turns the Stoic lens toward the illusions of power and wealth, as Epictetus and Cicero expose the tyranny of desire and the poverty of ex...
Why The World Needs Stoic Empathy (Interview with Shermin Kruse)
In this episode, I talk to Shermin Kruse, a globally recognized negotiation consultant, law professor, author, and TEDx producer.
In her latest...
Don’t Fear Death, Fear a Life Unlived
This episode weaves together the wisdom of Michel de Montaigne and Seneca—two thinkers separated by centuries yet united in their answer to life’s old...
The Poetry of Simple Stoic Living
In this episode, we look at the beauty of balance through Seneca’s counsel on plain living and Max Ehrmann’s Desiderata.
Seneca reminds us that...
How a Stoic Becomes Invincible
This episode explores Epictetus’s radical vision of strength—one rooted not in anger or domination, but in mastery of the self. Through his reflection...
Do You Know What Things Are Good And Evil?
This episode traces the Stoic lineage back to Socrates, whose probing questions revealed that health, wealth, and reputation are not inherently good o...