In this episode I take my favourite holiday film, A Muppet Christmas Carol, and use it to explore the Stoic idea that every human being is pulled toward moral excellence—even when they have spent years rolling downhill in the wrong shape. Scrooge’s story gives us a clear picture of how isolation, habit, early wounds, and neglect warp a person’s disposition, and how a return to goodness is still possible when someone is willing to face their past, see the present clearly, and respond to both with honesty and concern.
Key takeaways from this episode include:
Isolation blinds us to our shared humanity — and when we habituate isolation, we become harder, colder, and more unjust without even knowing it.
The Stoics believed every person has an inborn pull toward Virtue — but that pull is often overridden by poor habits, early trauma, or years of vicious choosing.
Scrooge’s transformation shows it is never too late to change shape — our rational faculty can always realign with the natural inclination toward the good.
Seeing the goodness of others corrects our cynical view of the world — most people are doing the best they can with what they have, even in hard conditions.
Holiday “magic” can be understood Stoically as the felt pull toward Virtue — and we don’t need to limit that awareness to one season.
True change requires facing the past, seeing the present, and choosing better now — just as Scrooge does with each ghost and each revelation.
For an ad-free version of this podcast please visit https://stoicismpod.com/members
For links to other valuable Stoic things, please visit https://links.stoicismpod.com
If you'd like to provide feedback on this episode, or have questions, you may do so as a member. Email sent by non-members will not be answered (though they may be read). This isn't punitive, I just cannot keep up. Limiting access to members reduces my workload. You're always invited to leave a comment on Spotify, member or not.
Thanks for listening and have a great day!
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19:23
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19:23
Growing Into Roles We're Not Good At Yet
In this episode I talk about what it’s like to take on a large number of new roles in a very short period of time, and how doing so can leave you feeling detached from yourself unless you approach those roles with clear thinking, humility, and attention. Over the last few years I became a husband, a father, an immigrant, and a practitioner in a new career field — all while continuing the roles I already had. That much change, that fast, forced me to build a framework for integrating new roles without losing who I am or slipping into unreasonable self-judgment.
Key takeaways from this episode include:
Roles come with duties — and the more life you live, the more roles you’ll have. That’s normal, but it demands active attention.
You will not be good at a new role at first — and that’s not a sign that you shouldn’t take it on. It’s a sign that you should start like a student, with humility.
You must “titrate” your expectations — judge yourself only according to what is reasonable for your stage of development in that role.
Define the “counting to 10” version of any new role — focus on performing the simplest, most fundamental parts well before anything else.
Habituation shapes character — who you are today is the sum of what you’ve gotten comfortable with; who you’ll become depends on the habits you build now.
For an ad-free version of this podcast please visit https://stoicismpod.com/members
For links to other valuable Stoic things, please visit https://links.stoicismpod.com
If you'd like to provide feedback on this episode, or have questions, you may do so as a member. Email sent by non-members will not be answered (though they may be read). This isn't punitive, I just cannot keep up. Limiting access to members reduces my workload. You're always invited to leave a comment on Spotify, member or not.
Thanks for listening and have a great day!
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16:30
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16:30
Living Well on a Hot Planet [The COP30]
In this episode I take a current headline—the opening of COP30 in Belém, Brazil—and sit with it like a philosopher, not a pundit. Instead of debating policy language or political victories, I look at what a global event like this means for people trying to live excellently right now. How do we face something as vast as climate change without falling into despair, apathy, or outrage? How do we care well within the limits of what’s up to us?
Through the lens of Stoicism, I explore how the virtues of wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance apply to the climate crisis. You’ll hear how to use premeditatio malorum as a calm, practical exercise for readiness; how to transform grief and anger into usefulness; and how to translate anxiety into daily, deliberate action.
Key takeaways from this episode include:
The dichotomy of control is not a license to stop caring; it’s a guide for caring well.
Virtue lives in the roles we already occupy—parent, neighbor, citizen—not in waiting for permission from global summits.
Temperance, courage, and wisdom are not abstract ideals but habits that build resilience and trust where you live.
For an ad-free version of this podcast please visit https://stoicismpod.com/members
For links to other valuable Stoic things, please visit https://links.stoicismpod.com
If you'd like to provide feedback on this episode, or have questions, you may do so as a member. Email sent by non-members will not be answered (though they may be read). This isn't punitive, I just cannot keep up. Limiting access to members reduces my workload. You're always invited to leave a comment on Spotify, member or not.
Thanks for listening and have a great day!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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25:35
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25:35
Gender Roles and the Rational Soul
In this episode I take on a listener question about gender roles and Stoicism — whether they exist, how the Stoics would have defined them, and what any of it means for modern relationships. We look closely at Musonius Rufus, the so-called “fourth head” of the Stoic school, who argued that women and men share reason, virtue, and moral responsibility in equal measure — but who also, being a man of his time, fell back on some outdated assumptions about what that equality should look like in practice.
From there, I unpack how we can read those ancient ideas without either dismissing them or accepting them wholesale. What would a Stoic say about “fifty-fifty” relationships today, about who pays for dinner, or who does the dishes? We’ll explore how justice and reason — not gender — define our roles, and how mutual care can guide modern partnerships without falling into pathos or ideology.
Key takeaways from this episode include:
Musonius Rufus saw virtue as genderless, even if his society didn’t.
Stoicism asks us to perform our chosen roles justly, not conform to old scripts.
Rational partnership — not cultural expectation — is what makes a relationship Stoic.
For an ad-free version of this podcast please visit https://stoicismpod.com/members
For links to other valuable Stoic things, please visit https://links.stoicismpod.com
If you'd like to provide feedback on this episode, or have questions, you may do so as a member. Email sent by non-members will not be answered (though they may be read). This isn't punitive, I just cannot keep up. Limiting access to members reduces my workload. You're always invited to leave a comment on Spotify, member or not.
Thanks for listening and have a great day!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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22:28
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22:28
The Stoic Blot [with Jason Pack]
In this episode I talk with Jason Pack — a world-class backgammon grandmaster, geopolitical analyst, and host of Disorder, a podcast about what he calls “the global enduring disorder.” It’s an unexpected mix of topics: the psychology of high-stakes decision-making, the Stoic discipline of attention, and how lessons from the game board apply to politics, leadership, and life. What starts as a conversation about dice and probability evolves into a reflection on courage, restraint, and rational focus — the same virtues Stoicism trains in us every day.
Key takeaways from this episode include:
— Backgammon teaches Stoic focus: attention belongs to the present move, not to past mistakes or imagined futures.
— “Tilting” in games — or in life — is what happens when emotion overruns reason; Stoic practice helps restore composure and clear judgment.
— The best players (and the best leaders) understand their own dispositions — courage, restraint, or excess — and correct for them.
— Stoicism and strategy both demand discernment between what’s up to us (our choices, our attitude) and what isn’t (chance, luck, politics).
— In a chaotic world — Jason’s “enduring disorder” — wise cooperation and measured risk are the antidotes to reactive nationalism and impulsive power.
— Whether in global politics or a roll of the dice, fortune favors those who prepare reasoned courage and act decisively when the moment comes.
For an ad-free version of this podcast please visit https://stoicismpod.com/members
For links to other valuable Stoic things, please visit https://links.stoicismpod.com
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You can listen to Jason Pack's Disorder podcast here: https://linktr.ee/disorderpod and learn more about it here: https://disordershow.com/
Why Backgammon Can Help us Order the Disorder Marc Olsen and Jason Pack on what BG teaches us about life: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ep-132-why-backgammon-can-help-us-order-the-disorder/id1706818264?i=1000718750592
For more on Backgammon Galaxy visit - https://www.backgammongalaxy.com/
For a very fun video produced by Marc and featuring Jason about the World Backgammon Championship and what BG teaches about Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TebkgCNS7OI
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If you'd like to provide feedback on this episode, or have question, you may do so as a member. Email sent by non-members will not be answered (though they may be read). This isn't punitive, I just cannot keep up. Limiting access to members reduces my workload. You're always invited to leave a comment on Spotify, member or not.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Stoicism is the pursuit of Virtue (Aretê), which was defined by the Ancient Greeks as "the knowledge of how to live excellently," Stoicism is a holistic life philosophy meant to guide us towards the attainment of this knowledge through the development of our character. While many other Stoicism podcasts focus on explaining Ancient Stoicism in an academic or historical context, Practical Stoicism strives to port the ancient wisdom of this 2300-plus-year-old Greek Philosophy into contemporary times to provide practical advice for living today, not two millennia ago. Join American philosopher of Stoicism Tanner Campbell, every Monday and Friday, for new episodes.
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