The Practical Stoic

Glenn Wehus is an Associate Professor at the Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society. His interests are related to the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world. He also study's the Greek language, both as a language system in itself and as a tool for understanding the theology of the New Testament. Another main of Glenn's interest is the philosophical traditions of these ancient cultures, in particular Stoicism and the Stoic teacher and former slave Epictetus (ca. AD 50-135). He is fascinated by the points of contact between language, history, theology/religion, geography and social aspects—the complex matrix which together makes up what we call culture. ACADEMIA: https://mf.academia.edu/GlennWehus UNIVERSITY: https://www.mf.no/en/ansatte/1493 ----more---- Patreon: patreon.com/simonjedrew Coaching: simonjedrew.com/coaching/ Practical Stoic Mastermind: facebook.com/groups/practicalstoicmastermind Facebook: facebook.com/simonjedrew Instagram: instagram.com/simonjedrew LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/simonjedrew Website: simonjedrew.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

15 Lessons Learned so far in 2020 1. I’ve learned that the goal of our study of philosophy is not to live in the way that they taught, but to think in the way that they thought. Anyone can follow a 10-step program, but the real value of study is to learn how to think. If you can think like Seneca, or Marcus Aurelius, or Epictetus, or Epicurus, or Crates, or Socrates, or Plato, then you can lay that thought over the world we live in today, and you can make decisions not through some ancient authority, but through your own reason. 2. Stop, sit, listen, look, pay attention to where you are, who you are, what you are. We have so much information at our fingertips, but how often do you take the time to simply sit with yourself? Sometimes we have to stop filling our mind with new content so that we can let what we’ve previously learned settle. Even books can hold you back from seeing information that would be most valuable to you. 3. Be cautious of the things that take your attention. Your attention, your time, your thoughts, they are precious and far more valuable than any other commodity, yet all to often we treat them as if they harbour the lowest of value. 4. Listen to how you feel when you feel. Don’t be afraid to let go when listening to your favourite song, as long as you know how you feel and why you feel it. Don’t shy away from being drawn in by an advertisement, as long as you know why you’re being drawn in and how it makes you feel. Scroll Twitter if you like, as long as you pay attention to how that makes you feel. It’s not externals which deceive us, but it’s our own unwillingness to care about where we are and how we feel which gets in the way of personal progress. 5. Remember that we live in a world where some of our best and smartest people spend all of their time learning how you think, what you think, and why you think, so that they can use that information to create problems for you and then to solve those problems with products and services, or with catchy headlines and contentious content. Be cautious of these modern magicians and the spells they cast on your mind. 6. Use Epictetus’ formula for successful personal change - self scrutiny mixed with self kindness. Too much scrutiny, you’ll never be at peace. Too much kindness, you’ll never move forward. Forgive yourself from time to time, and allow yourself the space to make small but powerful improvements in your character. 7. Character development is difficult, but you’re stronger than it is hard. 8. Please don’t choose teams. Learn to be a lover of good ideas, not a lover of tribes. Love good thoughts and good actions, not good campaign slogans. Make sure that what you do is the product of your own conclusions, not the conclusions of your team.  9. Tend to the part of the garden that you can touch. There’s so much to fix, and there are so many people to save. Start by saving yourself, then your family, then your community, and then maybe once you’ve done that you can start to think about saving your country. Let the constant question be on your mind, what is my duty? To whom am I indebted? What can I fix? How can I help? 10. Know that you don’t have to do, be, or say anything. That’s the beauty of life - you get to make that part up. If you ever feel that you’ve been bogged down in other people’s wants, other people’s desires, and other people’s plans for your life then join the club. That’s how the story’s written. But remember death, and remember that there’s no time better to free yourself than now. You won’t become free immediately, but maybe you can unshackle yourself one chain at a time. 11. Simple acts of kindness go a long way. Never underestimate the power of a smile, a shared moment, a generous act, or as Marcus A Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Stoller is the author of Goliath: The Hundred-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy. Previously, Stoller was a Senior Policy Advisor and Budget Analyst to the Senate Budget Committee. He also worked in the US House of Representatives on financial services policy, including Dodd-Frank, the Federal Reserve, and the foreclosure crisis. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, Vice, and Salon. He lives in Washington, DC. ​ BIG Newsletter: https://mattstoller.substack.com/ Website: https://mattstoller.com/ Golliath: https://www.amazon.com/Goliath-Monopolies-Secretly-Took-World/dp/1501183087 Twitter: @matthewstoller Simon Drew Links   Patreon: patreon.com/simonjedrew Coaching: simonjedrew.com/coaching/ Practical Stoic Mastermind: facebook.com/groups/practicalstoicmastermind Facebook: facebook.com/simonjedrew Instagram: instagram.com/simonjedrew LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/simonjedrew Website: simonjedrew.com FEEDSPOT: https://blog.feedspot.com/stoicism_podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fiona Stuart Simpson is an Australian politician serving as Liberal National Party (LNP) member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, representing Maroochydore. Simpson served as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 2012 to 2015 and further served as the Deputy Leader of the Queensland National Party and Deputy Leader of the Opposition from 2006 to 2008. Fiona Simpson Website: https://www.fionasimpson.com.au/ Patreon: patreon.com/simonjedrew Coaching: simonjedrew.com/coaching/ Practical Stoic Mastermind: facebook.com/groups/practicalstoicmastermind Facebook: facebook.com/simonjedrew Instagram: instagram.com/simonjedrew LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/simonjedrew Website: simonjedrew.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Dodson received his PhD in New Testament from the University of Aberdeen. He has written a number of articles for journals such as Novum Testamentum, Catholic Biblical Quarterly and the Journal for Jewish Studies. His most recent books include A Little Book for New Bible Scholars with E. Randolph Richards (2017), and a co-edited volume with David E. Briones, Paul and Seneca in Dialogue (2017). His current research includes a Romans commentary in the Brill Exegetical Commentary Series and a Colossians-Philemon commentary in The Christian Standard Commentary Series.  DENVER SEMINARY: https://denverseminary.edu/faculty/member/1564349/ BOOKS: https://www.ivpress.com/joseph-r-dodson ----more----   Simon Drew Links   Patreon: patreon.com/simonjedrew Coaching: simonjedrew.com/coaching/ Practical Stoic Mastermind: facebook.com/groups/practicalstoicmastermind Facebook: facebook.com/simonjedrew Instagram: instagram.com/simonjedrew LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/simonjedrew Website: simonjedrew.com FEEDSPOT: https://blog.feedspot.com/stoicism_podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Professor Joseph Siracusa is the Professor of Human Security and International Diplomacy at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Melbourne. He's also the President Emeritus of Australia’s Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.  Born and raised in Chicago and a long time resident of Australia, Joseph studied at the University of Denver and the University of Vienna and received his PhD at the University of Colorado (Boulder). He has worked at Merrill Lynch in Boston and New York; the University of Queensland; and for three years served as a senior visiting fellow in the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance at Griffith University. He has authored and co-authored 310 refereed publications including 75 books, monographs and chapters, 115 journal articles/entries and scholarly reviews, and 120 refereed proceedings. His publications include the following: America and the Cold War, 1941-1991: A Realist interpretation, 2 volumes (Praeger, 2010) Nuclear Weapons: A Very Short Introduction (Second edition, Oxford University Press, 2015) The Death Penalty and U.S. Diplomacy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013) A Global History of the Nuclear Arms Race, 2 volumes (Praeger, 2013) Language of Terror: How Neuroscience Influences Political Speech in the United States (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015) WEBSITE: https://www.rmit.edu.au/contact/staff-contacts/academic-staff/s/siracusa-professor-joseph BOOKS: https://www.amazon.com/Joseph-M.-Siracusa/e/B0034NDAMK%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share ----more---- Simon Drew Links   Patreon: patreon.com/simonjedrew Coaching: simonjedrew.com/coaching/ Practical Stoic Mastermind: facebook.com/groups/practicalstoicmastermind Facebook: facebook.com/simonjedrew Instagram: instagram.com/simonjedrew LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/simonjedrew Website: simonjedrew.com FEEDSPOT: https://blog.feedspot.com/stoicism_podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin Vost is the author of more than a dozen books with more in press, bringing his knowledge of classical Greco-Roman and medieval scholastic philosophy, modern cognitive psychology, and High Intensity Strength Training to bear on issues of Catholic catechetics, apologetics, saint’s biographies, spiritual growth, and physical fitness. He’s also written about the links between Stoicism and Christianity in his book, The Porch and the Cross.  Dr Vost holds a Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.) degree from the Adler School of Professional Psychology in Chicago with internship and dissertation work at the SIU School of Medicine’s Alzheimer Center’s Memory and Aging Clinic. He has taught psychology and gerontology (the scientific study of old age) at Aquinas College, the University of Illinois, MacMurray College, and Lincoln Land Community College. Kevin has also served as a research review committee member for American Mensa, a society promoting the scientific study of human intelligence, and as an advisory board member for the International Association of Resistance Trainers, an organization that certifies personal fitness trainers. WEBSITE:​ www.drvost.com BOOKS: https://www.amazon.com/Kevin-Vost/e/B001JP19P0%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share ----more---- Simon Drew Links   Patreon: patreon.com/simonjedrew Coaching: simonjedrew.com/coaching/ Practical Stoic Mastermind: facebook.com/groups/practicalstoicmastermind Facebook: facebook.com/simonjedrew Instagram: instagram.com/simonjedrew LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/simonjedrew Website: simonjedrew.com FEEDSPOT: https://blog.feedspot.com/stoicism_podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aldo Dinucci is a Professor in Ancient Philosophy based in Brazil. He has published the first translation of Epictetus' Discourses book 1 in Portuguese, among other works. He is the founder of Brazilian Epictetus Porticus, a group of researchers and followers of Epictetus in Brazil.  ACADEMIA: ​https://ufs-br.academia.edu/AldoDinucci ----more---- Patreon: patreon.com/simonjedrew Coaching: simonjedrew.com/coaching/ Practical Stoic Mastermind: facebook.com/groups/practicalstoicmastermind Facebook: facebook.com/simonjedrew Instagram: instagram.com/simonjedrew LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/simonjedrew Website: simonjedrew.com FEEDSPOT: https://blog.feedspot.com/stoicism_podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jules Evans is policy director at the Centre for the History of Emotions at Queen Mary, University of London. He is the author of Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations, which was published in nineteen countries and was a Times Book of the Year. Jules has written for WIRED, Aeon, the Financial Times and the Guardian, and is a BBC New Generation Thinker. WEBSITE: https://www.philosophyforlife.org/ FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/philosophyforlife INSTAGRAM: @julesthephilosopher TWITTER: @julesevans11 ----more---- Patreon: patreon.com/simonjedrew Coaching: simonjedrew.com/coaching/ Practical Stoic Mastermind: facebook.com/groups/practicalstoicmastermind Facebook: facebook.com/simonjedrew Instagram: instagram.com/simonjedrew LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/simonjedrew Website: simonjedrew.com FEEDSPOT: https://blog.feedspot.com/stoicism_podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charles Eisenstein is a speaker and writer focusing on themes of human culture and identity. He is the author of several books, most recently Sacred Economics and The More Beautiful World our Hearts Know is Possible, and his newest book, Climate: A New Story. WEBSITE: charleseisenstein.org ----more---- Patreon: patreon.com/simonjedrew Coaching: simonjedrew.com/coaching/ Practical Stoic Mastermind: facebook.com/groups/practicalstoicmastermind Facebook: facebook.com/simonjedrew Instagram: instagram.com/simonjedrew LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/simonjedrew Website: simonjedrew.com FEEDSPOT: https://blog.feedspot.com/stoicism_podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices