The Strong Stoic Podcast

Todd Leader is a social worker and community psychologist. He’s spent his over 20 year career  leading service development and transformation, particularly in the areas of mental health, addictions, health promotions, and primary health care. In this episode, we talk about how to care for people, addressing mental health with a holistic approach, building and maintaining relationships, and much mo...

Love is a word that we all know about and probably use regularly, but what does it really mean? Some think of it as the feeling of joy when you're with someone. Others think of it as a passion for their job. Despite having our own definitions of love, it seems that it is a rather difficult thing to do. So what is love in philosophical terms, and how do we apply it to our work, those in our li...

The term "natural Stoics" gets thrown around a lot, meaning someone who is "naturally Stoic".  It's commonly used to describe people who are cool, calm, & collected, but is this what being a Stoic really means? In this episode, I'll be summarising what Stoicism is at its fundamental level as well as defining what the term "natural Stoic" should mean. Lea...

Alex is an Olympic Weightlifter out of Quebec, Canada. He’s been on the senior national team for 6 years, he holds 5 senior Canadian national records, and he’s competed in the world championships. In this episode we talk about what it means to grow up and be one with something, the importance of criticism in training yet confidence in competition, how to stay focused on your goals, and much, much...

Human life is set up to make all of us mentors and role models in some way, from parents to bosses to coworkers to basic members of our community! Having someone to look up to is important for development. It's helpful to have something to aim at and virtues to try and live up to. But what about vices? Should we be teaching others about ONLY strength, courage, and success, or also weakness, c...

Human beings are not natural listeners, even though we have 2 ears and 1 mouth to remind us to listen more than we speak! However, like anything else, you can become better with time and practice. But why is listening even important in the first place? Isn't it by speaking that we show others who we are? And how does one even listen properly and get better over time? Listen up, and I'll...

Jacob Saunders is an Olympic sailor who grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada, which is my home province. He competed in sailing twice, first at Rio in 2016 and again at Tokyo in 2020. In this episode we talk about what it’s like to represent one’s country internationally, how to find meaning in life after a sports career, what lessons we can extract from sailing (i.e. boat analogy), and much more. Pleas...

One of the age-old lines of wisdom is "know thyself" or "to thyself be true". These maxims have stuck around for good reason but, like many maxims, it isn't always obvious what they mean or how to implement such wisdom in your daily life. Carl Rogers is a well-known clinical psychologist who talked about becoming a person - what it meant, how to achieve it, and what one co...

Can human beings do whatever they want? Can we just make up our own values or are there objective moral principles that we are forced to contend with? In other words, are we Gods? Some philosophers seemed to think so. Nietzsche famously stated that "God is dead", and although he was far from celebrating this fact, he still believed that we could formulate our own values and that that was...

Joe Bakhoutski is a cancer survivor and the author of two books – finding hope in times of uncertainty and simplify cancer, as well as the host of the Simplify Cancer Podcast. In this episode we talk about what it’s like to be confronted with your mortality, how to find meaning in life despite the suffering, communicating what you need from people in your life, and much more. Please welcome Joe Ba...

I've often said that intentions are everything, but why? One may think that the action is what ultimately matters, or maybe even the outcome. After all, if someone has bad intentions but it results in a positive outcome isn't that good? Actually... no. Intentions ARE everything, and in this episode I will explain why that is the case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/...

Harmony is a word that we don't use very often, but I think we need to use it more. In fact, one could argue that ancient philosophy, especially Stoicism, is all about harmony! What harmony means can be simplified as "fitting in with the world in a beautiful and orderly manner". The Stoics would say to "live according to nature". In this episode, I'll be discussing ha...

Chris Fisher is the host of the Stoicism On Fire Podcast and the owner of the website Traditional Stoicism where he writes articles on the traditional practice of Stoicism (as the ancient Stoics would have practiced). In this episode, we discuss the differences between traditional and modern Stoicism, spirituality, Stoic determinism, why Stoicism is gaining popularity, and much more. Enjoy! Find C...

Grief is one of the more challenging human emotions to deal with, as it is normally in response to a significant loss. Stoics are sometimes mistakenly seen as emotionless, yet there are historical accounts of Marcus Aurelius, for example, weeping in public at funerals. At the same time, externals are indifferent to Stoics, so why is it acceptable to grieve at all? In sum, what does Stoicism actual...

Relationships are tricky, and romantic ones are no exception. In any relationship, there is bound to be some tension around certain topics. Some may consider this to be bad - after all, how could tension possibly be good? However, I do not think that it necessarily is. All romantic relationships need to balance masculine and feminine energies. In a traditional relationship, for example, there is g...

David Fideler is a philosopher and author of Breakfast with Seneca, where he explains Seneca's ideas. In this episode, we discuss Seneca, and whether he was actually a Stoic, the importance of harmony in Stoicism and life, lessons from Seneca's life that we can apply to modern politics, and much more. Check out David at:https://www.davidfideler.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

We are faced with challenging times. We're two years into a pandemic and, as if that wasn't enough, there's conflict left, right, and center in regards to government overreach, mandates, and pretty much everything else under the sun. Though such times aren't a walk in the park, it's worth considering that every generation has its own challenges. And, no matter how wonderfu...

Giving up often gets a bad rep, but is that justified? Are there situations where giving up is not only acceptable but even virtuous? It's certainly not as simple as saying that it is inherently "good" or "bad". Throughout life, we give up a lot - on our goals, on bad habits, on good habits, on relationships - the list goes on and on. So how do we know if giving up is just...

Juliet Rose is a fiction author with a passion for helping people improve their lives and become happier through story-telling. Her work is deep, honest, and often brutally painful (kind of like life sometimes!), but offers hope to those who are struggling with modern problems. We had a wonderful talk about the differences between fiction and non-fiction, the therapeutic aspect of writing and read...

Aristotle defined three types of friendship: friends for pleasure, friends for benefit, and true friends. Each type of friends has a place in most people's lives, but what would the Stoics say about such friends? Is there a particular type of friend that appeals to Stoics more in general? And then there's personality: are some personality types drawn to particular types of friends? Final...

The Paleolithic Shamans believed that articulate language could literally perform magic. It held real religious signifigance as well, which is well demonstrated in religions such as Christianity which places a huge value on speech. The Stoics, as well, held dialogue to be of foundational importance which can be seen through their use of dialogue and journaling. The ability to use the word - to com...

Shane Trotter is an educator, writer, and high school Strength & Conditioning Coordinator who has been challenging youth development norms for over a decade. He recently released his new book - Setting the Bar: preparing Our Kids to Thrive in an Era of Distraction. In this episode we talk about the importance of challenge, strength, the importance of barbarian virtues, what it really means to...

Monopoly is notorious for destroying families and relationships. It's a game with many frustrations built right into it - the element of chance, for example. What's interesting is that many of the elements built into Monopoly are reflected by life itself. Perhaps that explains why it's so frustrating! In this episode, I talk about the nature of play and games, why it's importan...

I see many shy away from Stoicism because they feel that they can't enjoy life. They feel Stoicism is a philosophy is never enjoying anything. That simply isn't the case. The Stoics were very particular in how they viewed things, and it is no different with "externals", which were thought to be indifferent. That being said, how does Stoicism view the passionate areas of life, s...

Sean Lind is a strength and conditioning coach with a specialization in gymnastics. A former Competitive Gymnastics Coach and  Professional Circus Artist, in 2010 Sean became Crossfit coach & Athlete, who also has designations and experience in weight lifting practices. In this episode, myself and Sean discuss what it really means to make progress, the gift of injury and failure, and the impor...