Modern Meditations - Stoicism For The Real World

Send us Fan Mail Your favorite Stoic podcast is back, as we work our way through Meditations Book 6 which is all about the unself. Marcus makes quite the claim in this chapter that “The only rewards of our existence here are an unstained character and unselfish acts..." But what does it mean to be unselfish? And why is it a reward?  To answer these questions we explore some Buddhist tenants a...

Send us Fan Mail Book 6 of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius focuses on Stoic themes like living in harmony with nature, accepting the impermanence of life, and the importance of rationality.  Marcus emphasizes the interconnectedness of all things, urging a life of virtue and inner tranquility despite external circumstances. He advocates for focusing on the present moment, maintaining humility, and v...

Send us Fan Mail In Book 5 Marcus deals wrestles with the ideas of failure, imperfection and the love of a craft. To helps us deepen our understanding of how to view mistakes not as problems but as information and what it means to harmonize with nature we brought on Composer and friend of the podcast Matt Lees.  In this episode we bring back the Lightening round, deeply go through the troubled yet...

Send us Fan Mail In Book 5 of Meditations, Marcus Aurelius reflects on themes of duty, self-discipline, and the transience of life. He emphasizes the importance of rising each day with purpose, fulfilling one's responsibilities with a sense of duty, and aligning actions with nature and reason. The book encourages focusing on the present moment, controlling impulses, and finding contentment in...

Send us Fan Mail Woah. This is quite the episode exploring themes from the Meditations Book 4. We deep dive into both Marcus's advice to be like a blazing fire, and Bruce Lee's advice to be water my friend. And a big part of both is working with the experiences that we're given to become, new vocab alert "Anti Fragile."  We also have a brief therapy session with Justin abo...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we delve into Book 4 of Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations," a cornerstone of Stoic philosophy. Join us as we explore themes of self-discipline, the transient nature of life, and the importance of inner peace. Marcus reflects on the impermanence of the material world, urging us to focus on our inner virtues and live in harmony with nature. Through his in...

Send us Fan Mail Diogenes the Cynic a predecessor to Stoicism and Alexander the Great were cut from very different cloths, but when Alexander the Great came to Diogenes their supposed meeting gave us one of the most legendary favors ever asked for of a king. Bruce recaps his time in his hammock and in nature. We discuss the shocking revelations that Bruce unearthed during Bruce-Con, his annual con...

Send us Fan Mail Join us in this episode as we present a reading of Book 3 from Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations." This chapter offers profound insights into the fleeting nature of life, the importance of living according to reason and nature, and the virtues of self-discipline and simplicity. Marcus reflects on the inevitability of death and encourages embracing the present moment. He...

Send us Fan Mail This week we dive into Book 2 of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, we begin with Justin’s current sparing partner for equanimity, namely his Kia catching on fire. Then we move into the acronym: M.O.M.A which breaks down the four main ways that Marcus discusses that the soul can do violence to itself.  But, because we don’t dwell on the negative, we then move into B.E.T.R. Which is t...

Send us Fan Mail As part of our Meditations Series we are reading George Long's translation of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius in an Audiobook format.  In Book 2 of "Meditations," Marcus Aurelius delves into Stoic philosophy, emphasizing acceptance of death, the impermanence of life, and the pursuit of inner peace through rationality and virtue. He discusses the importance of mindful...

Send us Fan Mail How do you go from getting a knee surgery to qualify to going to the Olympics in less than 12 months?  In honor of Book 1 of Meditations this week we are talking about some of the heroes in our lives and what we've learned from them. Bruce chronicles the story of watching his friend become an Olympian and Justin recounts an authority figure he actually respects (who would&apo...

Send us Fan Mail This week we explore the Meditations by Marcus Aurelius Book 1, and in the words that Justin says at the book club that Bruce wasn't invited to, "What a Chapter!" We pull apart 11 different phrases from the first chapter of what we would like to be.  We discuss the forgotten art of learning from the best in other people, and how to find joy in learning from other pe...

Send us Fan Mail As part of our Meditations Series we are reading George Long's translation of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius in an Audiobook format. Next week we'll be back with our regular format to discuss themes from this chapter. 

Send us Fan Mail 30 episodes in and we are finally ready to officially introduce you to Marcus Aurelius himself. In this episode we give you a bio of Marcus's life from beginning to end so that you can have a better understanding of who he was and why he wrote the Meditations.  This episode kicks off "Meditations" series, where we will start by reading you a chapter from The Meditat...

Send us Fan Mail The Equanimity Series comes to a close as Justin and Bruce discuss the "Final Remedy" that Seneca teaches his friend about-- Confidence.  Marcus Aurelius' ascension to the throne and the tools he used to  build confidence within himself in preparation for ruling Rome. After all the tools we have talked about for building equanimity, we talk about how to build confid...

Send us Fan Mail We take a brief departure from our study of Equanimity to recap the celebration of the Stoic holiday (we invented) called "Aurelmas" and then introduce you to the world's (probably) first Stoic Rap. Special audio clips from Aurelmas are heard throughout to help feel what it would be like to throw a stone at a ship or to smash a mug into a bucket. The tantalizing sou...

Send us Fan Mail One of the most powerful tools in the Stoic arsenal for creating equanimity in our lives is understanding the difference between preferring something and being attached to it. In this episode we explore one of the great examples of this in history, namely Napoleon Bonaparte's temperament on his final exile to Saint Helena. (It will make you hear the song, "Viva La Vida&q...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we get personal... We read through the beautiful poem called "True Love" by David Whyte and talk about the struggle that humans have with overcoming both our desires (what we are drawn to) and aversions (what we are repelled from.) We talk about how literal meditation can help us to see our aversions and desires more clearly and detach from them. We also...

Send us Fan Mail Hercules (not the Disney version) is faced with the choice between 2 Goddesses, but one is misleading him on the nature of pleasure. This story sets up the important things to be wary of when dealing with pleasure. Bruce recounts his experience at hippy camp and a tempting offer to join "The Festival of Yes." Though extremely tempted, he turns down this experience that t...

Send us Fan Mail Fresh off of placing 6th at nationals in collegiate mountain biking athlete, coach and friend AJ Conover sat down with us to talk about his and Bruce's favorite subject and the object of their sport's lives: Pain. This episode is fun, informative and introduces our first lightening round where Justin and Bruce battle to get AJ to give them the answers they want, sincerel...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever seen Camelot? One of the most famous monologues from that play serves as a perfect backdrop for kicking off our series on Equanimity. In it King Arthur must wrestle with two parts of himself, the one that feels pain and outrage, and the other that demands justice. Which is a human struggle that we all go through as we travel through the ups and downs of life. In this...

Send us Fan Mail We're reading you the whole book! Last week we talked in depth about Seneca's "On The Shortness of Life" and we thought the book was so good and people were not likely to go read it themselves... So we decided to read it to you.  This book is a great annual reminder of a few important themes:  The time in life we have is precious  Time is passing every day  The...

Send us Fan Mail On this special edition of Modern Meditations we explore the book “On The Shortness of Life” which was practically made for New Year's day reflections.   We go through how the book can change your outlook on what a long or a short life is, and then we take an audit of our own year and give questions to think about when evaluating how we spend our time.  Then Seneca comes from...

Send us Fan Mail Episode #20! In this episode we discuss the Stoic idea of loving your fate or as Nietzsche (however you pronounce his name) would put it Amor Fati.  We dissect his quote: "My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity.” And ask the obvious question, is Pollyanna his idea of greatn...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode,  we explore life, death, and the beauty of existence. We start by introducing to audience to AI Justin, and then go into Justin's near-drowning experience. We tackle the concept of 'memento mori', reflecting on the temporariness of self and others, and how this awareness can inspire a life of purpose, dignity, and mindfulness. This episode promises...