Modern Meditations - Stoicism For The Real World

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever mourned about the death of a white blood cell in your body? No? Well in this episode we discuss why the universe feels much the same way about you, and how that is not actually sad.  A few thousand years ago Marcus said:  Take a view from above — look at the thousands of flocks and herds, the thousands of human ceremonies, every sort of voyage in storm or calm, the r...

Send us Fan Mail In this thought-provoking episode, the podcast delves into various themes, juxtaposing seemingly unrelated topics like Subway and Jimmy Johns sandwiches, historical references to Hitler and the Luftwaffe, and the joy and challenges of romantic comedies. The central theme revolves around the teachings of Marcus Aurelius and Seneca, emphasizing the importance of logical and accurate...

Send us Fan Mail How do you deal with "bad" events that happen to you in life with tranquility and poise? That's what we seek to answer in our new season of episodes. This is the first in our Stoic fundamentals series where for the next few months we will tackle a fundamental concept of Stoicism and then give you some Stoic tools to master it. Today we talk about Judgement which is...

Send us Fan Mail Woah. This episode has everything. Explore the final Stoic virtue in our series, perhaps the crowning virtue which is wisdom. We explore the questions what does it mean to be wise?  Do you have to be old to be wise? We also have some very entertaining stories of a Mexican village who is given the choice between indoor plumbing and a Mariachi band, what they chose may surprise you....

Send us Fan Mail Today we take on the root of all philosophy: Wisdom.  That word gets thrown around a lot in our daily lives but what does it actually mean to be wise? The answer may surprise you. We also take some time to explore if dogs really love you, what it means to accept reality, why trade offs are a necessity and Justin/Bruce's only non-stoic moments... Or at least a brief sampling o...

Send us Fan Mail We continue our exploration of justice through Justin's shocking experience at a Walmart where a Karen is the one who shows justice. Witness a beautiful moment of community at Walmart. What is the origin of lines?? We don't know either, but it will come up!  We bring in a 5-pronged approach to understanding justice by Cicero which helps us explore more thoughts on justic...

Send us Fan Mail Justice is a word that is thrown around... A lot. But what does it mean to be just? In this installment of the Stoic Virtues Series we explore what is justice through the experience Bruce had with a show down with his land lord that led to a notice to vacate posted on his door...  We discuss how Stoicism influenced founding fathers like John Adams and their thoughts on justice and...

Send us Fan Mail There are demons that keep us awake... Which scary TV show has kept Justin awake? We continue the discussion on Temperance through Justin's lens. A more under-disciplined spot than Bruce's over-disciplined nature. We go through the things that impede his sleep schedule and the "Why?" behind why he wants to improve it, and the next practical step  he will take o...

Send us Fan Mail How does one become worthy to feast with the gods?  We continue our journey through the Stoic virtues with a discussion on temperance, from a slightly different angle than you might be accustomed to. We begin by showing where Bruce has strayed towards intemperance through his rigidness with  discipline and how he has relaxed a  bit. We explore the virtue through this lens of someo...

Send us Fan Mail This week we continue our exploration of the major Stoic Virtues by taking a look at a major decision that Justin had to make in college, whether to drop out and pursue a pro tennis career or to stay in school and give up his aspirations for Wimbledon. We explore courage from the lens of how to make good decisions even when other people will judge you no matter what choice you mak...

Send us Fan Mail We begin the first episode in our series on the four Stoic Virtues by tackling Courage. For each virtue we are doing two episodes, one with Bruce's take and another with Justin's. This week we dive into what Bruce learned by starting a white glove cleaning business with his friend at college that lead them to try to overcome the impossible task of doing 70 apartment clea...

Send us Fan Mail If you were to get a job that would give you fame, fortune and prestige in your town vs a job that would only put food on your table, which one should you pick?  From a Stoic perspective, that would not be enough information to make a good decision. In this episode we discuss the Stoic angle on job selection, which is much more focused on the internal reasons for selecting the job...

Send us Fan Mail In the late nineties Desmond Tutu started a controversial program in post apartheid, anyone who would come forward to admit their crimes, including murder, would be forgiven. Many asked was this taking forgiveness too far?  In this episode we discuss what forgiveness is, and what it isn't. We analyze the story of Marcus Aurelius and how he handled a civil war justly through f...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we explore how Stoic principles like the dichotomy of control can improve mental toughness in sports performance. We discuss one of our favorite quotes:  Take the case of one whose task it is to shoot a spear or arrow straight at some target. One’s ultimate aim is to do all in one’s power to shoot straight, and the same applies with our ultimate goal… To actually h...

Send us Fan Mail In episode 3 we discuss the idea of cleaning out your soul of unnecessary attachments, but now that we've emptied the soul, what should we fill it up with? We discuss how it is not enough to just rid ourself of vice, but to actively pursue virtue. This discussion leads us through Bruce's struggle and then eventual triumph with not eating dessert and whether or not it is...

Send us Fan Mail What do the Stoic's mean when they advise us to, "live in accordance with nature"? In this episode we discuss how Justin's experience with Croup can show us exactly what that means. We then go through the difference between motion and action in our daily lives and what the difference is between saying that you are a good person and actually being a good person...

Send us Fan Mail If you could get rid of any pattern in your life, what would it be? Spring is a time of new beginnings, and many of us take the spring time to clean out things that we don't need in our houses, today we're taking a look through Bruce's soul, using this quote from Marcus Aurelius as our guide: Wash yourself clean. With simplicity, with humility, with indifference to...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Modern Meditations, listen to this teaser of many of the fun and inspiring moments from the episode!