The What Is Stoicism? Podcast

This episode explores character through two Stoic questions: can you be trusted, and can you act with dignity regardless of your position?

Epictetus argues that every dishonest act damages the person we are trying to become, while Epaminondas shows that dignity comes from how we perform a role, not from the status attached to it.

The Stoic lesson is to judge ourselves less by what we are given and more by how reliably, justly, and honorably we use it.

If you’d like to practice these principles, this Micro Morning Meditation will be helpful:

☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: You Can Give Dignity to Any Office

https://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-you-can-1db

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode explores the pressure to find identity and fulfillment through work.

Derren Brown and the Stoics suggest a different approach: your job can matter without defining who you are, and dissatisfaction does not automatically mean your life is going wrong.

Seneca’s reminder that “it does not matter what you bear, but how you bear it” shifts attention toward what remains within our control—our judgment, effort, boundaries, and character.

If you’d like to practice these principles, this Micro Morning Meditation will be helpful:

☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: Where Do You Find Your Sense of Worth?

https://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-where-do

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode reflects on Seneca’s question of whether life is still worth choosing when its beauty and suffering come as a package.

In Consolation to Marcia, he sets the marvels of existence—stars, mountains, rivers, forests, love—beside illness, grief, danger, and death, then asks whether we would still agree to enter such a life.

His answer is simple: we would.

If you’d like to practice these principles, this Micro Morning Meditation will be helpful:

☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: You Will Marvel At These Things

https://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-you-will

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode explores Marcus Aurelius’s ten reminders for keeping anger from taking control.

His advice centres on perspective: remember that people act from their own beliefs, that we make mistakes too, that we rarely know the full story, and that anger often harms us more than the original offence.

If you’d like to practice these principles, this Micro Morning Meditation will be helpful:

☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: The Attributes of a Calm and Gentle Person

https://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-the-attributes

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode explores the balance between solitude, good company, and independent judgment.

Hume and Seneca both saw value in stepping away to think clearly, then returning to relationships that strengthen character and enrich life.

The danger is not society itself, but surrendering our judgment to the crowd and mistaking popularity for wisdom.

If you’d like to practice these principles, this Micro Morning Meditation will be helpful:

☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: Do You Value Both Solitude and Company?

https://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-do-you-value

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode explores how remembering mortality can sharpen both attention and freedom.

Oliver Burkeman and Alan Watts show why the present matters precisely because it cannot be repeated, while John O’Donohue and Epictetus use the same awareness to put fear, status, and authority into perspective.

Life’s brevity asks us to be more present with the people we love and less willing to surrender our inner freedom to temporary pressures. Remembering death, in this sense, is not about withdrawing from life, but entering it more fully.

If you’d like to practice these principles, this Micro Morning Meditation will be helpful:

☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: Focus on the Joy, Not the Poignancy

https://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-focus-on

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode explores the ancient instruction to “know thyself” as the foundation of a philosophical life. Julian, Pigliucci, and Epictetus show that self-knowledge helps us decide what kind of person we want to be—and what must be protected when circumstances become difficult. And Socrates offers the clearest example: his preparation for adversity was simply a lifetime spent safeguarding what was truly up to him.

If you’d like to continue the practice, this Micro Morning Meditation will be helpful:

☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: This is The Main Point of Philosophy

https://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-this-is-6fe

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode examines the habit of complaining and the power we retain over our response.

Seneca and Epictetus remind us that while frustrations are unavoidable, resentment often adds a second layer of suffering that is largely our own.

A simple practice—pause, assess, and reframe—helps turn irritation into clearer judgment and, where possible, constructive action.

If you’d like to continue the practice, you might also find this Micro Morning Meditation helpful:

☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: How to Stop Complaining

https://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-how-to-stop

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode examines wealth, desire, and the freedom that comes from needing less.

Seneca warns that fortune’s gifts often become traps, because external success can deepen dependence rather than satisfy the soul.

Anthony de Mello sharpens the same insight: many of our chains are imaginary, formed by false ideas about what we need before we can truly live.

If you’d like to continue the practice, you might also find this Micro Morning Meditation helpful:

☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: You're Free Already

https://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-youre-free

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode reflects on what happens when life interrupts our carefully arranged plans.

The Stoic reserve clause—“if nothing prevents me”—helps us plan without pretending the future belongs to us.

Shakespeare, Seneca, and Suzuki Shōsan deepen the point by bringing death into view, not as a morbid fixation, but as a reminder that even ordinary days are not guaranteed.

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Check out one of my latest daily Micro Morning Meditations here on Substack:

☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: When Others Judge You

https://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-when-others

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode uses Seneca’s image of the road to ask whether we are moving with purpose or merely following the crowd.

A clear destination helps us resist distraction, while Epictetus shows where our attention truly belongs: on our judgments, choices, desires, and actions.

The Stoic task is to be cautious with what depends on us and confident toward what does not

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Check out one of my latest daily Micro Morning Meditations here on Substack:

☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: The Stories of Insecurity

https://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-the-stories

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode uses animals as a reminder to return to the present moment.

Hadot and Marcus Aurelius show that life is lived only in the now, where we can think clearly, act justly, and avoid adding needless disturbance to events.

Animals offer a simple model of presence: they don't argue with the past or rehearse the future, but inhabit what's directly before them.

👇 👇 👇

📻 FOR MORE STOIC AUDIO CONTENT

Check out one of my latest daily Micro Morning Meditations here on Substack:

☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: The Stories of Insecurity

https://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-the-stories

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode explores conversation and kindness as forms of care for the soul.

Socrates saw dialogue as essential to self-knowledge, a way of bringing hidden thoughts into the open and examining them honestly.

Phil Hammond’s story of kindness as “the most powerful drug” adds a practical modern echo: when we don’t know what to do, kindness nearly always improves the situation.

👇 👇 👇

📻 FOR MORE STOIC AUDIO CONTENT

Check out one of my latest daily Micro Morning Meditations here on Substack:

☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: The Stories of Insecurity

https://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-the-stories

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode reflects on the shortness of life without turning it into panic.

Oliver Burkeman’s “four thousand weeks” gives us a blunt measure of our limits, while Seneca’s story of Julius Canus shows how calm can survive even under the shadow of death.

The Stoic point isn't to master time or escape mortality, but to stop wasting what remains on denial, anxiety, or impossible self-optimization.

Since we can't know how many weeks are left, the task is to inhabit the present with attention, courage, and dignity.

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📻 FOR MORE STOIC AUDIO CONTENT

Check out one of my latest daily Micro Morning Meditations here on Substack:

☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: Allow Yourself To Live

https://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-allow-yourself

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode explains Epictetus’s three disciplines as a practical way of returning to the present moment.

The Discipline of Assent helps us judge clearly, the Discipline of Desire teaches us to want only what is within our power, and the Discipline of Action directs us toward justice and the common good.

Hadot’s account of the reserve clause adds an important final step: act with firm intention, but accept that outcomes are not fully yours to command.

👇 👇 👇

📻 FOR MORE STOIC AUDIO CONTENT

Check out one of my latest daily Micro Morning Meditations here on Substack:

☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: Allow Yourself To Live

https://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-allow-yourself

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 reflecting on death can sharpen our sense of what matters now, not later. Simone Weil then offers a modern example of philosophy lived with unusual seriousness and conviction.

The question is simple but demanding: are we merely admiring good ideas, or are we becoming the kind of person who lives them?

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📻 FOR MORE STOIC AUDIO CONTENT

Check out one of my latest daily Micro Morning Meditations here on Substack:

☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: When Emotion Clouds Judgment

https://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-when-emotion

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode looks at how the chase for novelty and the habit of overextension both unsettle the mind.

Cicero reminds us that possessions and technologies are not good in themselves—their value depends on how we use them.

Seneca adds that taking on too much leaves us primed for frustration and anger.

👇 👇 👇

📻 FOR MORE STOIC AUDIO CONTENT

Check out one of my latest daily Micro Morning Meditations here on Substack:

☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: When Emotion Clouds Judgment

https://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-when-emotion

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode treats life’s difficulties as assignments rather than interruptions.

Epictetus reminds us that we don’t get to choose every task Fortune sets, but we do choose how well we meet it.

Each challenge becomes a chance to practice courage, patience, justice, or self-control—and, when handled well, to encourage others by example.

👇 👇 👇

📻 FOR MORE STOIC AUDIO CONTENT

Check out one of my latest daily Micro Morning Meditations here on Substack:

☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: When Emotion Clouds Judgment

https://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-when-emotion

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode explores the Stoic partnership between foresight and acceptance.

Preparing for setbacks doesn’t mean expecting misery—it means building the resilience to meet difficulty without being overwhelmed.

With Philo’s calm readiness, Rumi’s guest house, and Marcus Aurelius’s reminder that obstacles can become part of the path, we can meet whatever arrives with confidence and imagination.

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Check out one of my latest daily Micro Morning Meditations here on Substack:

☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: Let Us Cherish Old Age

https://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-let-us-cherish

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode explores gratitude as a Stoic practice, emphasizing the transformative power of attention.

By imagining what we might have already lost—or even our own death—we can reawaken appreciation for ordinary moments: a conversation, a child’s question, a walk with a pet.

Marcus Aurelius calls this the “bonus” life, a reminder that presence and awareness turn the everyday into something precious.

👇 👇 👇

📻 FOR MORE STOIC AUDIO CONTENT

Check out one of my latest daily Micro Morning Meditations here on Substack:

☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: Let Us Cherish Old Age

https://whatisstoicism.substack.com/p/micro-morning-meditation-let-us-cherish

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.