The What Is Stoicism? Podcast

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 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 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?

👇 👇 👇

📻 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 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 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 acast.com/privacy for more information.