The Strong Stoic Podcast

Josh is the host of the In Search of Wisdom Podcast and the Perennial Podcast where he talks about all kinds of ancient wisdom and engages in meaningful conversations with modern thinkers. He also manages the Perennial Leader Project, which includes these podcasts along with a weekly newsletter and blog posts. Myself and Josh connected a while ago and we’ve done several collaborations together. In...

In episode 244, I discussed the equivalent of grace in Stoicism (if it exists at all). I defined it as: Stoic grace is the state of flourishing achieved through virtue by practicing Amor Fati, which is the use of the rational mind to completely love one’s fate, including when Providence gives you either preferred indifferents or dispreferred indifferents, never asking for more or less of either, b...

Grace has been a concept that I’ve personally struggled to understand for quite some time, in no small part because it’s a religious term which has a supernatural element to it. In Christianity, grace is often viewed as some kind of connection with God. However, I’ve come to realize that we can understand grace from a Stoic perspective, and I believe that there is much benefit in doing so. So: wha...

Santara Gonzales is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Wisdom Unlocked, which has programs designed to introduce Stoic principles to those facing difficult circumstances. A huge part of this is aimed at incarcerated individuals who have found their way into the prison system. Santara’s work is tremendously important in the world, and I was very happy to get to discuss these topics in depth....

This episode is the audio version of a YouTube video I did discussing how a Stoic would react to Kanye 'Ye' West praising Hitler and the Nazis. Ye's words have stirred controversy and emotions. A Stoic, of course, has to stay rational and really dissect the best way for us to deal with such declarations. Should Ye be cancelled and ostracized, or should we deem him a truth-teller and...

It seems the political divide – left vs. right – is only getting bigger and bigger. I’ve been doing a lot of pondering on why we seem to disagree so much to the point where debates can often disintegrate into violence, name-calling, or (in one word), hatred. I’m going to propose a way that many of us that disagree can actually debate with cooler heads by agreeing on what our fundamental goals actu...

This episode is a compilation of the top 10 Strong Stoic episodes of 2022! Enjoy, and happy holidays! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many people will give the advice to “be positive”. What this means, in a sense, is to be optimistic, to focus on the good things, and to imagine your future success. Certainly, there’s a place for this in life. However, is there a place for negative visualization? Should we incorporate some regular focusing on the bad things? On our potential future failures? Learn more about your ad choices. Visi...

There’s a presupposition to all self-help, self-improvement, and philosophy as a way of life topics: that growth is good. Self-help and self-improvement, after all, is improvement OF the self, though not necessarily just FOR the self. Even the philosophy of Stoicism presupposes that growth is a good thing. Their eudaemonic state is often described as “flourishing”, which is often imagined as a blo...

I have a very special and exciting announcement. Hopefully, most of you by now know my good friend and fellow philosopher, Joshua W. Bertolotti. We’ve done several collaborations together over the last year and a half or so, but we also talk regularly about philosophical ideas, current pop culture, and so on. Josh and I have decided to record these conversations and release them as a separate paid...

Redemption is a word that is most often used in religious circles, such as Christianity. It’s used to explain the action of being saved by God from sin. However, redemption is part of any philosophical journey. It doesn’t need to be in relation to a supernatural God. It could entirely be between you and your own conscience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The cosmos has a way of making us succumb to “fate”. This word gets tangly sometimes – does this mean we have no free will? Of course, we do! However, that doesn’t mean that we have complete control over everything. We cannot choose which way life pushes us, but we can choose how we fall. Meaning: we can choose how we react to such a situation. Sometimes, these “pushes” take the form of accidents,...

Will Johncock studies how an individual’s thoughts and actions, as well as an individual thing’s attributes, are the effects of social and physical environments. He works within the fields of continental philosophy, ancient and modern Stoic philosophy, social theory, and sociology. He is also an author, and his newest book Beyond the Individual: Stoic Philosophy on Community and Connection is comi...

In Buddhism, it’s said that “life is suffering”. Though some Stoics may argue that this is not the Stoic view on life, it does seem to be unequivocally true that the philosophy of Stoicism exists because of that very fact – that life is suffering. Stoicism, like all philosophies, only exists because we must contend with that fact. Suffering, then, they seem like the most real thing, and that posit...

Vulnerability is a bit of a buzzword these days. It’s often said that you need to “be vulnerable” in relationships to become closer to the person. Hence, it is seen as a virtue. But what does it really mean to be vulnerable? Does it tie in with any of the cardinal virtues? In other words: is it Stoic to be vulnerable? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Alexander is a psychotherapist, the co-host of the Between Two Ravens podcast, the creator of the Prosoche Project, and a founding member (like myself) of the Walled Garden. In this episode, David and I discuss becoming more conscious, analyzing dreams, Norse mythology, Stoic mindfulness, and much, much more. I found our conversation to be very natural and I learned a lot from his psychologi...

You may consider your body to be yours, but the Stoics had a different perspective on this. It is “yours”, in one sense, as it constitutes a part of you. At the same time, making the mind strong is what Stoicism is all about. In fact, you could look at many of the Stoic doctrines as a kind of rebellion against the body. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Often, we find ourselves either liking or being fascinated by villains. Consider how cool everyone thinks Darth Vader is, for example. There’s also Batman’s Joker, Negan from The Walking Dead, and Thanos from the Marvel movies. These are just some example, but there’s a common element here: we are attracted to these characters even though they are villains. But why is that the case? And should we...

Corey Robinson is a former member of Canada’s National Wrestling Team who has also served as both a national and provincial coach of Olympic freestyle wrestling. He is currently a specialist of social impact at Motivate Canada, which is an organization which focuses on youth-driven development all over Canada. He also is a coach at CrossFit Basinview for those of you in the Halifax area. In this e...

Many of the greatest philosophers in history were misunderstood. It makes sense – for someone to be great, they must be different from everyone else. And that often takes the form of being misunderstood. Still, it’s an interesting conundrum because clearly, they are understood in some ways. Otherwise, why even listen to them? And then there’s the question: does EVERYONE misunderstand them? And do...

There are two elements to self-improvement, overall. There’s the learning of the philosophy itself, and then there’s the application of it. vI know this is very hard for people to hear… but it’s not as simple as just learning something new and then your life gets better! Learning something is the first step. It’s a crucial step. But it’s not going to give you positive results in the long term. Wha...

Josephine is a caregiver innovator, coach, and activist who promotes rethinking how we deal with death. Being exposed to aspects of death and mortality on a daily basis, she witnesses first-hand the issues we seem to have in dealing with, not just our own mortality, but the mortality of our loved ones. In this episode, we talk about being yourself, the importance of boundaries in relationships, an...

Tyranny is not a new thing. It's been around for as long as people have formed cities. One could even argue that governments and society tilts towards tyranny over time, as we slowly drift away from understanding the importance of our fundamental rights and freedoms. But is there anything we can do to ensure liberty? How does a tyrannical government even come into being? Learn more about your...

There’s a number of misconceptions about Stoicism that never seem to die. One of these notions is “Stoics are docile. Weak.” In fact, it isn’t uncommon to think a Stoic reaction to something like a slap on the face would be to treat it as something that wasn’t harmful. And that MAY be right… but is it always? Do Stoics actually get aggressive from time to time? Are they willing to fight under the...

Simon Drew is an alignment coach, poet, author, musician, and photographer. He has a Bachelor of Music Performance and is currently studying for a Master of Divinity. He is most well known for his work with the Practical Stoic Podcast, which has since evolved into The Walled Garden. In this episode, we talk about the current "mess" that we're in as a species and what we can do about...