What Did Stoics Think About Exercise? w/ Donald Robertson
The Stoics talked about training the body as well as the mind, but it rarely comes up in modern Stoicism. So I asked Donald Robertson what the ancient Stoics actually thought about exercise, and how t...
8 Sep 20227min
Epictetus On Wisdom: Stop Trying To Look Wise
A lot of us get into philosophy and self-improvement not to actually become wiser, but to be seen as wise. Epictetus spotted how badly that backfires. In this lesson I sit with one of his sharper pass...
1 Sep 20227min
How To Break The Cycle Of Stress | Epictetus
Most of us run a quiet stress loop without noticing it. We tell ourselves we have to worry, or something bad will happen. In this episode I look at that game first, then offer the Stoic alternative Ep...
25 Aug 202213min
Donald Robertson on Illusion of Mastery, The View from Above, and Time Travelling Stoics
It is easy to read a lot about Stoicism and mistake that for actually practising it. I put this to Donald Robertson, and we get into the gap between knowing the ideas and living them, what he calls th...
7 Aug 202225min
Stoic Superhero Diogenes the Cynic: Be Prepared for Every Fortune
Asked what philosophy had taught him, Diogenes the Cynic said it taught him “to be prepared for every fortune.” I think he is one of the strangest, most useful figures in this whole tradition. The Cyn...
2 Aug 20226min
The "What If Technique" to Untangle the Source of Your Anxiety
When you are anxious, the fear is usually hiding underneath a vaguer worry. The What If technique is a way of following the thread down to whatever you are actually afraid of, so you can deal with the...
27 Jul 202213min
Can Stoicism Make You Happier? | Donald Robertson
Modern Stoicism gets sold mostly as resilience and acceptance. But I wanted to ask the obvious follow-up: can it actually make life more joyful? Not just calmer, but richer in awe, laughter, the good ...
18 Jul 202210min
Donald Robertson Writes The World’s First Stoic Graphic Novel
Donald Robertson spent nearly three years making VERISSIMUS, a graphic novel about the life and philosophy of Marcus Aurelius. It might be the most ambitious philosophy project I have come across: his...
12 Jul 202258min
