The Strong Stoic Podcast

Kristen is an abstract artist here locally in Nova Scotia, Canada. That’s what actually drew me to her – her art is very beautiful and I highly recommend checking out her Instagram and website to have a peak at what she does. She has a background in political philosophy which allowed her to study creativity – quite the thing to study for an artist. Since then, she’s been involved in many projects, including authoring a travel book and hosting a podcast with her musician husband. In this episode, we talk about art, creativity, Stoicism, belonging, and much more. I’m sure you’ll find Kristen to be as kind and wise as I did, so without further ado, please welcome Kristen Herrington.  You can find Kristen here: https://www.kristenherringtonart.com/ https://www.instagram.com/kristenherrington.art/?hl=en Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The idea of showing up for yourself is a bit odd; how could you not show up for yourself? You are you, after all! However, we all fall short of showing up for ourselves. It doesn’t simply mean that we are physically present; on that, surely, we have no choice. Like many philosophical ideas, perhaps it’s best to think of it as being a friend to ourselves, as Seneca would encourage us to do. But what does this really mean? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode, unlike many of my episodes, is a feely-goody episode. I’m going to talk about friendship. But not just friendship in general, but rather how magical it can be. And I don’t use that term lightly – the things that friendship is able to transcend and overcome is truly remarkable. You and I could be from different parts of the world, have different skin colors, be different heights, and even speak different languages, and still become friends. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 this episode, we talk about the basics of wisdom, and tie it in with Josh's new course called Wisdom 101. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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, but having gratitude for exactly how many of each is received. In this episode, I want to break this down practically: how do we gracefully accept everything that comes our way, good and bad? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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: what is Stoic grace, if we can be bold enough to try and define such a thing? This episode will be released in two parts because this topic is really dense. The next episode will be #245 released next Tuesday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. In this episode, we talk about moral judgement, why we should have compassion for everyone, the difficulties people have when finally attaining freedom from prison, and much more. This is quite a heavy episode so brace thyself, but without any further ado, please welcome Santara Gonzales. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 listen more closely? The YouTube video can be found here: https://youtu.be/GPnK7ThATuc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 actually are. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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