You Know What I'm Going to Say When Something Bad Happens?

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I try to reframe whatever happens like, Oh, I'm stuck here in traffic or something like that as an opportunity. A couple of small examples: I used to get pissed off when somebody would pass me and tell one of my cycling buddies said, Hey, sure, there goes your rabbit. Let him get the ticket. So now I like it when some guy zips by them. And maybe you're going to learn something that you haven't learned before. You wouldn't not have learned otherwise from the experience. In fact, Marcus Aurelius puts in a very similar way. He says that the obstacle becomes the way. Which is actually a very daoist way of looking

In this episode Michael Shermer speaks with the stoic philosopher and evolutionary biologist Massimo Pigliucci on how to apply the ancient wisdom of stoicism to our personal lives and to our society.

Shermer and Pigluicci discuss: his journey from Rome to New York • evolutionary biology • stoic philosophy • can there be a science of meaning and morality? • ultimate questions • desire, action, depression, suicide, anger, anxiety, love, and friendship • practical spiritual exercises • how to react to situations • teaching virtue to politicians • philosophy and politics • character and leadership • the nature of evil.

Massimo Pigliucci is the K. D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York. The author or editor of sixteen books, he has been published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and Salon, among others. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. His books include: Making Sense of Evolution; Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk; Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem; Answers for Aristotle: How Science and Philosophy Can Lead Us to a More Meaningful Life; A Field Guide to a Happy Life; A Handbook for New Stoics; How to Be a Stoic; The Quest for Character.