The What Is Stoicism? Podcast

“To live a good life: We have the potential for it,” writes Marcus Aurelius in his Meditations. “If we can learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference.”This good life is exactly what the ancient Stoics believed the practice of philosophy would allow us to pursue.In this episode, we look at how Stoicism can bring us internal clarity, the value of which far outweighs the pursuit of externals like material gain, wealth, reputation, and status.👇 👇 👇📻 FOR MORE STOIC AUDIO CONTENTCheck out one of my latest daily Micro Morning Meditations here on Substack:Amongst Friends All Things In Commonhttps://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-amongst

There's an old Spanish proverb that says: "Don't speak unless you can improve on the silence."With such restraint comes a question: what should we redirect our attention toward at times when we judge that externalizing our thoughts isn’t necessary?In this episode, we look at how self-reflection can be a worthy alternative.👇 👇 👇📻 FOR MORE STOIC AUDIO CONTENTCheck out one of my latest daily Micro Morning Meditations here on Substack:Amongst Friends All Things In Commonhttps://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-amongst

In this episode I talk to Benny Voncken, a writer, speaker, and practicing Stoic who's originally from the Netherlands.He's also the co-founder of an online Stoicism platform called Via Stoica, which offers personalized Stoic coaching services, an online Stoic community, live conversations on X, and their own Via Stoica podcast.I really enjoyed talking with Benny. In the conversation, he shares some of the difficulties he's been through that led to him taking Stoicism seriously as a philosophy of life and how he now uses that experience to help others in his work as a Stoic coach. I hope you enjoy the episode.----☀️ Start your next 10 days like a Stoic with morning routines that take only 10 minutes to complete.Free Stoic 10-day series: https://whatisstoicism.com/10days

The most common misunderstanding about Stoicism is that it’s all about suppressing or burying our emotions.This tends to come from the confusion between Stoicism (upper case ‘S’) and stoicism (lower case ‘s’); the former is the ancient Greek philosophy that we learn about and practice, the latter is simply a “stiff-upper-lip” coping style.In this episode, we look at why it's better to understand and process our emotions rather than dismiss and suppress them.----☀️ Start your next 10 days like a Stoic with morning routines that take only 10 minutes to complete.Free Stoic 10-day series: https://whatisstoicism.com/10days

It can be useful to find parallels between our philosophical pursuits that are inspired by ancient practices and the more modern messages we’re exposed to in our daily lives.Relating things like art, sport, and entertainment to Stoic principles often helps us to remember the concepts and perhaps even better understand how they pertain to modern life.In this episode, we look at two such examples.----☀️ Start your next 10 days like a Stoic with morning routines that take only 10 minutes to complete.Free Stoic 10-day series: https://whatisstoicism.com/10days

The more we do, the Stoic philosopher Seneca tells us in his book On Tranquility of Mind, the more we put ourselves in Fortune's power, the more we tempt her.In other words, the more tasks we take on, the more journeys we make, the more objectives we pursue, the more things there are that can go wrong.In this episode, we look at why that doesn't mean we should limit our ambitions or give up altogether.----☀️ Start your next 10 days like a Stoic with morning routines that take only 10 minutes to complete.Free Stoic 10-day series: https://whatisstoicism.com/10days

If we practice philosophy, it’s up to us to get to know ourselves. It’s up to us to know the principles by which we live and, by extension, what we find reasonable and unreasonable.In this episode, we look at what Epictetus had to say about this responsibility and how our efforts each day can help us live an examined life.----☀️ Start your next 10 days like a Stoic with morning routines that take only 10 minutes to complete.Free Stoic 10-day series: https://whatisstoicism.com/10days

When those unfamiliar with Stoicism learn about the four cardinal virtues of Wisdom, Justice, Temperance, and Courage, they are sometimes disturbed that kindness isn’t among them.Kindness, however, is indeed a huge part of Stoicism. In this episode, we look at how it is essentially a subdivision of the virtue of Justice, which governs how we should treat others.----☀️ Start your next 10 days like a Stoic with morning routines that take only 10 minutes to complete.Free Stoic 10-day series: https://whatisstoicism.com/10days