The Via Stoica Podcast — A Stoic Way of Life
- Episódios
- 144
- Publicação
- semanal
- Último episódio
- 10 nov 2026
Sobre o podcast
Via Stoica is a podcast dedicated to Stoicism as a lived philosophy and a practical way of meeting modern life. We draw from ancient texts and apply them to real challenges, emotional reactivity, discipline, purpose, relationships, and adversity. This is not about abstract theory. It is about practice, with attention to what is within our control. Each week, we explore Stoic themes through reflections, practical topics, and interviews. The views expressed are my own and for informational purposes only. Learn more at viastoica.com.
Episódios 144
Can You Be in the Moment? Waiting as a Stoic Practice
Living in the moment sounds like a cliché until you spend a long train ride home from London to the Netherlands and decide to stop counting the stations. In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, recorded …
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Living in the moment sounds like a cliché until you spend a long train ride home from London to the Netherlands and decide to stop counting the stations. In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, recorded indoors after I chose not to record on a walk, I share what changed when I stopped watching the clock and asked what was being asked of me.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. I had just finished a trip that took me from Carnuntum to Montaigne's country and on to London, and then I sat alone on a train with hours ahead of me and a delay on the way.
The central question is why waiting gives us so much frustration and anxiety, and my answer is that we hang our attention on a future moment and lose the one we are in. On that train, I could count down the stops or choose what to do with the ride, so I looked out of the window, watched the other passengers, and let the countryside pass until I had arrived. We look at expectancy and the clock, the Stoic question of what our task is right now, the dichotomy of control applied to a waiting room, and why being present does not mean being efficient.
In the second half, I walk you through a short practice. You recall a moment when you were waiting and wanted to be somewhere else, write down the facts, note how you felt, ask what you added to it, and then sort what you can and cannot control. You can try it now or the next time you sit in a waiting room.
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Produced by: Badmic.com
Do You Follow Your Own Advice? The Stoic Art of Otherizing
Do you follow your own advice, or only give it? This episode of the Via Stoica Podcast looks at how to practice what you preach, using a Stoic practice called otherizing: seeing your own situation as if it …
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Do you follow your own advice, or only give it? This episode of the Via Stoica Podcast looks at how to practice what you preach, using a Stoic practice called otherizing: seeing your own situation as if it happened to someone else.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. I recorded this one on a walk in Portugal and finished it at home after I met a friend and chose time with them first, a small example of Stoic philosophy as something you live, not just talk about.
It is easy to tell a friend that a broken cup is nothing and much harder to say it about your own. I ask whether teaching what I have not mastered makes me a hypocrite, and I share what I notice when I teach the pause on a Stoic walk and then catch myself adding judgments to my own bad moments. Epictetus gives us a simple way to create distance from a hard moment, and Seneca shows why even a teacher takes the medicine he recommends. I also talk about stepping out of my comfort zone, one step at a time.
Listen for a three-step exercise: recall advice you gave, recall advice you received, then ask what you would tell someone in your own situation and whether you can follow it. This episode invites you to bring the advice you give so freely home to yourself.
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viastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.comA Stoic at Mont Saint-Michel: The Lessons of the Tides
The tides around Mont Saint-Michel rank among the biggest in Europe, and the story of how people once tried to outsmart them holds a lesson about living with nature. In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast …
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The tides around Mont Saint-Michel rank among the biggest in Europe, and the story of how people once tried to outsmart them holds a lesson about living with nature. In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, recorded at the foot of the abbey, I look at what happened when a causeway let visitors reach the island at any hour, and what it took to undo it.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. The causeway kept the sea from flowing through the bay, silt piled up, and the island slowly stopped being an island. Restoring the tides took about twenty years of work and a new bridge that lets the water move freely beneath it.
The Stoics asked us to live in accordance with nature, which covers both the world around us and our own nature. We reflect on what happens when we bend a place, or ourselves, to our standards and desires instead of working with how things are, and how much simpler a modest life becomes once we stop fighting a rhythm that was already there.
This is a short, reflective stop on a trip through France, and an invitation to ask where you might be rushing something that only needs time.
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Produced by: Badmic.comInside Michel de Montaigne’s Tower: A Tour of His Life and Mind
Michel de Montaigne’s tower in the Dordogne is where he withdrew to read, think, and write his Essays. In this episode, I visit the Château de Montaigne with guide Pauline Gonzalez and walk through his library …
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Michel de Montaigne’s tower in the Dordogne is where he withdrew to read, think, and write his Essays. In this episode, I visit the Château de Montaigne with guide Pauline Gonzalez and walk through his library, his bedroom, and the rooms that shaped his thinking.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. Montaigne was no academic, and he read the Stoics as a man looking for a way to live, which is why his tower belongs on this show.
Pauline shows me the beams of his library, where he had quotes from the ancient writers painted so he could meet them again while he walked. We talk about his strict Latin upbringing, his deep friendship with Étienne de La Boétie, the family wine business, and why he chose to write in French. Montaigne took nature and his own life as his material, and he asked what it means to be human rather than what a philosopher should say. His Essays still read like a conversation with a friend, which makes them one of the best ways into philosophy as a practice for ordinary life.
If you have ever wondered what a life of reading and reflection looks like in practice, this visit gives you a way in. Step inside Montaigne’s tower with me, and tell me in the comments which room stays with you. Come back to the Via Stoica Podcast for more conversations on living philosophy.
Visit the Château de Montaigne
24230 Saint-Michel-de-Montaigne, Dordogne, France, about 20 minutes from Saint-Émilion and 1 hour from Bordeaux. Open every day, with visits to the tower and the 19th-century château. Opening hours, prices and tickets: https://chateau-montaigne.com/enGuide: Pauline Gonzalez, Guide at Château de MontaigneDrone footage: Déclic et Décolle (@declic_et_decolle_photo)
Support the showviastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaChâteau de Montaigne: https://chateau-montaigne.com/enProduced by: Badmic.com
A Stoic Among the Carnac Stones: What Do They Tell Us?
What do the Carnac stones in Brittany have to say to us? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, recorded as I walked among the long rows early one morning, I follow the questions these Neolithic stones …
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What do the Carnac stones in Brittany have to say to us? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, recorded as I walked among the long rows early one morning, I follow the questions these Neolithic stones raised about purpose, problems, and the simple life.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. Farmers raised these stones thousands of years ago, and nobody knows for certain why, whether for ritual, burial, a landmark, or a map of the stars. Their silence sent me back to my own reasons for what I do, which people around me often cannot see but which can still be worth doing, especially when they help others.
The stones also gave me a picture for how we handle our own problems. A challenge has a real core, and we tend to pile extra weight on top of it with our thoughts and stories. We ask which stones you actually need to carry, which ones you added yourself, and how to focus on the core of an issue instead of making it bigger than it has to be.
We also ask whether the people who lived here stood closer to nature than we do, or whether what we lost is the connection to our own nature, which we find by listening to our values and principles.
This is a short, reflective walk rather than a lesson, and a reminder that life can be simpler than we make it.
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viastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.comI Found Epictetus on Montaigne's Ceiling
An Epictetus quote about the way we judge events sits painted on a ceiling beam in Michel de Montaigne's library tower, and I went to see it in person. In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, recorded at a …
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An Epictetus quote about the way we judge events sits painted on a ceiling beam in Michel de Montaigne's library tower, and I went to see it in person. In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, recorded at a campsite in France the day after my visit, I share what stood out about the place and the line he chose to keep overhead.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. Montaigne was not a Stoic, yet he had dozens of sayings painted on his beams, some running left to right, others right to left or upside down, so he could read them from any angle while he paced around his study.
The quote from Epictetus says that things themselves do not disturb us, only the opinions we form about them. Montaigne tested that idea on himself, and one of his essays tells of a friend whose body failed him for no physical reason, only because his mind expected it to. We look at why a man who doubted most claims to certainty kept this one in view, how modern cognitive behavioral therapy grew from the same insight, and what changes when we separate an event from the story we add on top of it.
You do not need a tower full of maxims to try this, because you can pause, look at what actually happened, and ask which parts of your distress come from the facts and which come from the colour you added.
An interview with our guide at the tower will follow in a later episode.
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viastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.comCarnuntum: The Roman City Where Marcus Aurelius Wrote
What does the Roman city of Carnuntum look like today, and where did Marcus Aurelius write part of the Meditations? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, I walk through Carnuntum in Austria with Dr. Markus …
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What does the Roman city of Carnuntum look like today, and where did Marcus Aurelius write part of the Meditations? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, I walk through Carnuntum in Austria with Dr. Markus Wachter, managing director of the Museum of Carnuntum, to explore the ruins, the reconstructed Roman houses, and the story of a frontier city on the Danube.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. This conversation steps outside the texts and into the place where one of the great Stoic emperors lived and worked during the Marcomannic Wars.
Carnuntum began as a winter camp under Tiberius in 6 AD and grew into the capital of Upper Pannonia, with at least 50,000 inhabitants at its height. Dr. Wachter explains why the Romans chose this spot above the Danube, how the city developed, and why archaeologists have excavated only a small part of it. We visit the baths, which still heat with Roman techniques, walk through the homes of ordinary residents, and talk about the note in the Meditations that connects part of the work to Carnuntum.
Visit Carnuntum
Website: https://www.carnuntum.at/en
Address: Roman City Visitor Center, Hauptstraße 1A, 2404 Petronell-Carnuntum, Austria
Season: Carnuntum opens from mid-March to mid-November, daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with longer summer hours. Check the website for the current dates before you plan your trip.
Good to know: The day ticket covers the Roman City Quarter and the Museum Carnuntinum. The amphitheaters and the Heidentor are free to visit.Whether you plan to go or simply love Roman history, this episode invites you to see the ancient world as a place where people lived.
Aerial footage: © RSC
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Produced by: Badmic.comA Stoic Conversation with Justin Mainous: The Agora Network and the Power of Socratic Dialogue
What happens when philosophy stops being something you read about and becomes something you practice together? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, recorded in Prague, I sit down with Justin Mainous, one …
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What happens when philosophy stops being something you read about and becomes something you practice together? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, recorded in Prague, I sit down with Justin Mainous, one of the driving forces behind the Agora Network, a community built almost entirely on Socratic dialogue.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. Justin's path to philosophy started with losing his faith in university and navigating real mental health struggles largely on his own. Teaching himself cognitive behavioral techniques eventually led him back to a name he half remembered, Epictetus, and from there into a philosophy of life he still practices today.
We talk about building a community around questions rather than answers, why Justin sees his role as a mirror rather than a teacher, and dialogic thinking, the idea that focused thought lasts only seconds alone but can stretch for hours in genuine conversation.
This is a warmer, more personal conversation than usual, and a good reminder that philosophy was never meant to be a solitary pursuit.
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viastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.comHow AI Helped Unwrap 2,000-Year-Old Herculaneum Scrolls - The Vesuvius Challenge
In June 2026, a team of papyrologists and AI researchers achieved something once thought impossible: reading an entire ancient scroll, carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, from beginning to …
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In June 2026, a team of papyrologists and AI researchers achieved something once thought impossible: reading an entire ancient scroll, carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, from beginning to end, without ever physically opening it.
In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, I'm joined by Federica Nicolardi, lead papyrologist of the Vesuvius Challenge and Associate Professor of Papyrology at the University of Naples Federico II, and Maria Chiara Robustelli, a member of the Vesuvius Challenge papyrology team and postdoctoral scholar at the same university, currently preparing a critical edition of a Herculaneum scroll on the Stoics.
We talk about how they each found their way into papyrology, what Pompeii and Herculaneum actually are and how differently they were buried by the eruption, the history of the Villa dei Papiri and its library, and how the Vesuvius Challenge used X-ray imaging and machine learning to virtually unwrap scrolls no one has been able to read in nearly two thousand years.
At the heart of the conversation is PHerc. 1667: a philosophical treatise on impulse, human nature, and practical wisdom, found in a library that's almost entirely Epicurean, except for this one Stoic text. Its final surviving column names Aristocreon, the nephew and student of Chrysippus, raising the genuine possibility that this could be connected to Chrysippus himself, one of the most influential Stoic philosophers whose own writing has otherwise been lost to history.
We close, as I do with most guests, by asking about their own personal philosophy of life.
Topics covered: the Vesuvius Challenge, virtual unwrapping, Herculaneum papyri, the Villa dei Papiri, Pompeii vs Herculaneum, Philodemus, Stoic philosophy, Chrysippus, papyrology, and what it means to recover a voice from the ancient world.
Learn more about the project:
🏺 The Vesuvius Challenge: scrollprize.org📜 The PHerc. 1667 announcement: scrollprize.org/firstscrollSupport the show
🌐 viastoica.com▶️ YouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.comThe One Habit You Need in Life
Most advice about habits is really about saving you time. This episode of the Via Stoica Podcast looks at a different kind of habit entirely, the one Epictetus considered the only one that actually …
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Most advice about habits is really about saving you time. This episode of the Via Stoica Podcast looks at a different kind of habit entirely, the one Epictetus considered the only one that actually matters.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. We all build habits to avoid the exhaustion of deciding everything from scratch every day, from what we eat to how we start our mornings. That kind of habit is useful and worth having. But it isn't the habit the Stoics were most concerned with.
Epictetus taught that the real work is training your response to impressions, not your morning routine. His method was simple and demanding: since bad habits form through repeatedly giving in to an impulse, you fight them the same way, by deliberately practicing the opposite, on purpose, again and again, until it becomes second nature. This episode also looks at how to tell whether a habit still genuinely fits you, or whether it's something you inherited without ever choosing it, and why a habit that breaks the moment your circumstances change was never built well in the first place.
Because the habit that actually shapes your character isn't the one that saves you five minutes each morning. It's the pause you train yourself to take before you react.
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Produced by: Badmic.comIt's Not What You Do. It's Why You Do It.
On the Ides of March, 44 BC, sixty men took part in a single act: killing a tyrant. In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast we ask a question that still matters two thousand years later. Were all sixty acting …
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On the Ides of March, 44 BC, sixty men took part in a single act: killing a tyrant. In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast we ask a question that still matters two thousand years later. Were all sixty acting virtuously, or were some of them doing the exact same thing for entirely different reasons?
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. The Stoics were clear that virtue never lives in the visible act itself. It lives in the judgment behind it, in what they called prohairesis, the reasoned choice that belongs to you and no one else.
Two people can do the identical thing, reach out to a friend, stay quiet in an argument, walk away from a fight, and only one of them is acting from genuine character. The other might be doing it for approval, out of fear, or to avoid feeling guilty. From the outside, both actions look exactly the same. Only the person doing them ever really knows which one they did. This episode also looks at a simple, practical question worth sitting with before any decision, big or small: would I still do this if no one else would ever know? And it explores why this isn't just a private matter, since a society built on the right actions for the wrong reasons rarely holds together for long.
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Produced by: Badmic.comDoes Your Legacy Matter? What If You Left Nothing Behind?
Does your legacy actually matter, and what if you left nothing behind at all? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast we look honestly at why so many of us build our lives around being remembered, and what …
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Does your legacy actually matter, and what if you left nothing behind at all? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast we look honestly at why so many of us build our lives around being remembered, and what the Stoics actually thought about that impulse.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. Only twelve people have ever walked on the moon, and their footprints will likely outlast almost everything else humans have ever built, yet ask someone to name the seventh person to do it. That gap between permanence and memory says more about legacy than most of what gets written about it.
This episode looks at the strange case of Marcus Aurelius, whose private journal was never meant for publication, and yet two thousand years later it remains one of the most read books in the world. He could not have controlled that, could not have predicted it, and never got to witness it. His actual legacy came from doing the work in front of him, not from chasing how he would be remembered. We also look at what happens when people build a career around legacy directly, from famous musicians and actors whose personal choices ended up defining how they are remembered, to the quieter ways all of us attach our sense of worth to something that will outlast us.
Because here is the uncomfortable truth. You will not be there to see your legacy. So the only honest question left is what you do with today.
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Produced by: Badmic.comAre you relevant enough? To Whom and Why?
Are you relevant enough, and relevant to whom exactly? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast we look at why this question comes up so often during moments of change, and what Stoic philosophy actually says …
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Are you relevant enough, and relevant to whom exactly? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast we look at why this question comes up so often during moments of change, and what Stoic philosophy actually says about the value we attach to being needed.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. Relevance always exists in relation to someone or something else, at a particular moment, which means it was never a fixed thing to hold onto in the first place.
Twelve people have ever walked on the moon, and their footprints will likely outlast almost everything else humans have built, yet ask someone to name the seventh person to do it. That gap between permanence and memory says a great deal about what we are really chasing when we chase relevance. The fear of becoming irrelevant is rarely about relevance itself. It is grief for something that mattered, a role that shifted, a relationship that changed shape, a chapter that ended without warning. This episode also looks at Hierocles and the Stoic idea of concentric circles, and why the people closest to you may deserve more of your attention than the audience you imagine is watching.
The question worth sitting with by the end is simple. What does relevance actually mean to you, and who do you really want to be relevant for.
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viastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.comHow Influencable Are You? Or Do You Trust Your Own Judgment?
Family, friends, colleagues, and strangers on a screen all try to sway how you think and act. In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast we look honestly at how influencable we really are, and what it takes to …
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Family, friends, colleagues, and strangers on a screen all try to sway how you think and act. In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast we look honestly at how influencable we really are, and what it takes to trust your own judgment instead.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. If the previous episode was about what we put out into the world, this one is about what we let in, and how easily that shapes the direction of our lives.
Influence is not new, and it is not only found online. Family, teachers, partners, and friends have always had ways of nudging us toward what they believe is right, often with the best intentions and sometimes without either of us noticing. The moments that carry the most risk are rarely the ones that upset us. They are the ones that inspire and motivate us so strongly that we stop questioning them altogether. The Stoics called our capacity to choose our own judgments prohairesis, the one thing that always remains ours, no matter how loud or convincing the voices around us become.
This episode explores what it actually looks like to receive information without surrendering your direction to it, and why the pause before you are swept along matters more than the source of the pull itself.
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viastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.comSo You Have an Opinion? Does Everyone Need to Know?
Do you really need to share that opinion? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast we look at what drives the impulse to comment, react, and weigh in online, and what Stoic philosophy says about examining that …
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Do you really need to share that opinion? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast we look at what drives the impulse to comment, react, and weigh in online, and what Stoic philosophy says about examining that impulse before we act on it.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. This episode is not about whether you are allowed to have opinions. It is about what you do with them and why you feel the need to share them at all.
Social media rewards reaction. Every post, every event, every scroll seems to demand a response, and the algorithm feeds on the comments and replies that follow. Underneath that pressure sits something older than any platform, the quiet pull to be relevant, to be heard, to matter in the moment. The Stoics called the practice of pausing before adding judgment to an impression the discipline of assent, and it applies just as much to a reply typed in anger as it does to any other reaction. Most opinions shared online skip that step entirely.
This episode also looks at what changes when you start asking a harder question before you speak: what does this opinion actually reveal about you, your values, and what you are really seeking in that moment?
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viastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.comAnger: The Stoic Way to Reclaim Your Sanity
Anger protects us. It motivates us. It gets things done. These are the arguments people make for keeping it, and in this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast we take an honest look at why Seneca called anger …
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Anger protects us. It motivates us. It gets things done. These are the arguments people make for keeping it, and in this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast we take an honest look at why Seneca called anger momentary madness and what that means for how we live.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. This episode examines one of the most defended emotions in modern life and what Stoic philosophy actually says about it: not that we should suppress it, but that we should understand it well enough to choose differently.
The Stoics made a clear distinction between the involuntary first flash of irritation and the full emotional response that follows. That gap is where your agency lives. When we add the judgment that an injustice has occurred and that we are right to be furious, we step through a door from reason into what Seneca called momentary madness. And unlike most emotions, anger is contagious. One angry person in a room changes the room. The Stoics were deeply pro-social and cultivating anger is a direct betrayal of that responsibility toward others.
This episode also looks at what replaces anger when we choose not to walk through that door. Not emptiness or passivity, but the Stoic positive emotions: joy from doing the right thing, calm from acting in line with who you are, and the kind of presence that actually changes situations rather than inflaming them.
Anger will come. What you do with it is entirely yours.
Support the showviastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.com
The Blame Game: Stop Pointing the Finger and Start Growing
When did we stop asking what we could do better and start looking for someone else to blame? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast we examine one of the most common and costly habits in modern life: the …
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When did we stop asking what we could do better and start looking for someone else to blame? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast we examine one of the most common and costly habits in modern life: the blame game, and what Stoic philosophy says about how to break it.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. This episode is an honest look at how blame keeps us stuck, why it feels so comfortable, and what taking real responsibility for our lives actually looks like in practice.
The shift did not happen overnight. A teacher approaching retirement described how in her early years, parents would tell underperforming children to work harder. Over time, that finger moved from the child to the teacher, from the self to everything outside it. That shift is not just happening in schools. It is happening in our relationships, our careers, and our inner lives.
Epictetus placed blame squarely on the discipline of assent; we are not adding the correct judgment to what is happening. The discipline of desire reminds us that chasing externals makes blaming externals inevitable. And Epictetus described three stages of progress: the beginner blames everyone else, the intermediate blames themselves, and the advanced person simply does the work.
The moment you stop blaming is the moment you start growing.
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Note: In the episode, I attributed the three stages of blame to Marcus Aurelius. This is actually from Epictetus, Enchiridion 5. The wisdom is the same; the source just needed correcting.
Your Life Is Not Short. You Just Don't Know How to Live It.
"Life is too short." It is one of the most common things people say and, according to Seneca, one of the most misguided. In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast we examine what the Stoics actually thought …
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"Life is too short." It is one of the most common things people say and, according to Seneca, one of the most misguided. In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast we examine what the Stoics actually thought about time and why the problem is never how much of it we have.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. This episode draws on Seneca's On the Shortness of Life to make an argument that is uncomfortable and liberating in equal measure: life is not short. We spend most of it somewhere else.
Seneca observed that people guard their money and possessions carefully but give their time to anyone who asks. Every second lost is gone for good and we do not know when the last one will come. The people who complain loudest about life being short are often the busiest, but busy with the wrong things.
This episode also explores what it looks like to design your life around what actually matters. Not as a distant goal to arrive at, but as a direction you can begin moving in today. When your values and priorities are clear, every small decision becomes deliberate and the feeling that life is passing you by begins to fade.
As Seneca wrote, "Life is long, if only you knew how to use it."
Read the full article: https://viastoica.com/how-to-design-your-life/
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The Real Stoic View on Emotions: What Are They Telling You?
What are your emotions really telling you? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we take a closer look at one of the most misunderstood aspects of Stoic philosophy: the real Stoic view on emotions and what …
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What are your emotions really telling you? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we take a closer look at one of the most misunderstood aspects of Stoic philosophy: the real Stoic view on emotions and what they can teach you about yourself.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. This episode challenges the popular belief that Stoicism is about suppressing emotions and replaces it with something far more useful: understanding them as a source of information about your beliefs, your fears, and who you are becoming.
The Stoics made a clear distinction between the involuntary first flash of feeling and the full emotional response that follows. That gap between the two is where your agency lives. By learning to pause and examine what judgment you have added to an event, you begin to see what your emotions are actually pointing at. Not an enemy to defeat or a wave to ride out, but a signal worth reading.
This episode draws on the Stoic concepts of pathos, eupatheiai and propatheia to show how emotions rooted in false judgments take us away from reason, while emotions rooted in accurate ones can guide us toward virtue, better decisions, and more authentic connections with the people around us.
If you have ever felt taken over by a reaction you did not choose, this conversation is for you.
Read the full article: https://viastoica.com/what-your-emotions-are-trying-to-tell-you/
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A Stoic Conversation with Massimo Pigliucci: How to be a (Happy) Skeptic
What does it mean to be both a Stoic and a skeptic?In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, philosopher and author Massimo Pigliucci returns to discuss his new book How to Be a (Happy) Skeptic: a guide to …
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What does it mean to be both a Stoic and a skeptic?
In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, philosopher and author Massimo Pigliucci returns to discuss his new book How to Be a (Happy) Skeptic: a guide to building a philosophy of life rooted in Stoic virtue and the ancient art of proportioning belief to evidence.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. Massimo Pigliucci is Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York, a former evolutionary biologist, and one of the most important voices in modern Stoic philosophy. This is his second conversation on the show.
The discussion moves from the foundations of a philosophy of life to the ancient debate between the Stoics and the Academic Skeptics, and then to one of the most compelling figures in Western history: Marcus Tullius Cicero. Not a Stoic himself, but deeply shaped by Stoic ethics, Cicero lived through the fall of the Roman Republic, exile, personal grief, and death at the hands of Mark Antony's soldiers. His life, Pigliucci argues, is a model for holding strong convictions while remaining honestly uncertain about what you know and why.
The episode also explores how skepticism is not the enemy of commitment but its most honest companion: that our beliefs should be proportioned to evidence, and that a life examined with intellectual humility is not weaker but more durable.
Read the full article here: https://viastoica.com/a-stoic-conversation-with-massimo-pigliucci/
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viastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.comEpisode Outline:
00:00 Introduction to Massimo Pigliucci02:30 The Importance of Personal Philosophy11:46 Key Ingredients of a Philosophy of Life15:12 The Evolution of Skepticism in Philosophy19:31 Understanding Skepticism: Pyrrhonism vs. Academic Skepticism29:52 The Evolution of Persuasion and Belief33:15 Stoicism vs. Skepticism: A Philosophical Rivalry42:49 Cicero: The Relatable Philosopher52:05 The Structure of Cicero's Philosophy58:53 Future Endeavors: Exploring New Philosophies
The People Pleaser: How to Stop Living for Other People's Approval
People pleasing is not kindness. It is fear dressed up as generosity. In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we look honestly at what it means to stop living for other people's approval and start showing up …
Notas do episódio
People pleasing is not kindness. It is fear dressed up as generosity. In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we look honestly at what it means to stop living for other people's approval and start showing up as yourself.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. This episode builds directly on the previous conversation about the scripts we inherit. People pleasing is what happens when we keep performing that script out of fear rather than choice.
Most of us learned early that being agreeable was rewarded and that causing discomfort came at a price. That lesson becomes a habit, the habit becomes a pattern, and the pattern quietly erodes the person underneath it. You say yes when you mean no. You manage the emotions of others at the expense of your own. You lose track of where their needs end and yours begin. Epictetus was clear: what others think of you is entirely outside your control. Handing your life over to opinions you cannot control is not kindness. It is fear with a generous face.
This episode of the Via Stoica Podcast asks the question most people pleasers never stop to consider: am I doing this because it is right, or because I am afraid of what happens if I do not? The in-between is yours.
Read the full arctile: https://viastoica.com/how-to-stop-being-a-people-pleaser/
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YouTube: @viastoica
Produced by: Badmic.com
Who Wrote Your Script? The Stoic Guide to Authentic Living
How much of the life you are living was actually chosen by you? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we explore authentic living: the practice of examining the scripts inherited from parents, culture …
Notas do episódio
How much of the life you are living was actually chosen by you? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we explore authentic living: the practice of examining the scripts inherited from parents, culture, school, and social media, and deciding for the first time which ones are genuinely yours.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. This episode invites you to look honestly at the voices shaping your choices, not to blame them, but to see them clearly and to begin living from your own values rather than someone else's story.
Most of us were handed a script before we could read it. Family wrote the early lines. School added more. Culture and religion filled in the gaps. And now social media rewrites it daily: feeding you someone else's version of success, happiness, and what a good life looks like. The Stoics called the faculty of conscious choice prohairesis, the one thing that has always been yours. Most people spend their entire lives using it to fulfil someone else's vision without ever noticing.
This episode of the Via Stoica Podcast asks one of the most important questions in Stoic philosophy and in life: who wrote your script and why are you still listening to them? If you have ever felt that the life you are living belongs to someone else, this conversation is for you.
Read the article on: https://viastoica.com/how-to-stop-living-someone-elses-life/
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YouTube: @viastoica
Produced by: Badmic.com
Amor Fati: How Do You Love Your Fate?
What does it really mean to love your fate? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we look at one of the most used phrases in modern Stoicism, where it actually comes from, and what Stoic philosophy says …
Notas do episódio
What does it really mean to love your fate? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we look at one of the most used phrases in modern Stoicism, where it actually comes from, and what Stoic philosophy says about acceptance, fate, and how to show up when life does not go as planned.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. Here, philosophy is not something you recite. It is something you practice, especially when the difficult moments arrive.
Amor fati was never a Stoic phrase. Nietzsche coined it, and his version was radical: a total, eternal affirmation of everything that has ever happened, exactly as it happened. The Stoics had a different relationship with fate. They saw the world as a chain of cause and effect governed by the logos, and they asked a simpler question: Will you walk with it, or be dragged?
That is where the real practice begins. Not in the good moments, when acceptance is easy, but in the ones that test you. The rejection, the injury, the plan that falls apart. Those are the moments Epictetus called the exam. The ones that show you how much you have actually learned.
This episode will not tell you to love what hurts. It will show you how to welcome it anyway.
Want to go deeper? Read the full guide: viastoica.com/how-to-practice-amor-fati/
And the article of this episode: https://viastoica.com/how-to-welcome-difficult-moments/
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YouTube: @viastoica
Produced by: Badmic.com
Stop Waiting: Take Responsibility for Your Soul
Are you waiting for the right moment to start living your life? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we look at what Stoic philosophy says about responsibility: not the kind the self-help world sells you …
Notas do episódio
Are you waiting for the right moment to start living your life? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we look at what Stoic philosophy says about responsibility: not the kind the self-help world sells you, but the deeper, more demanding kind. The responsibility for your own soul.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. Here, philosophy is not theory. It is a daily practice of honest choices, taken one moment at a time.
Most of us are waiting for something. For the situation to improve, for permission, for the stars to align. But every moment spent waiting is a moment of handing over the wheel to someone else and hoping they are driving in your direction. The Stoics called this the loss of your prohairesis: your capacity to choose, to act, and to become who you are.
Self-knowledge is where this starts. You cannot take responsibility for someone you do not know. That means sitting with the uncomfortable parts, the patterns, the past experiences, the beliefs you have never examined. Not to judge them, but to understand them. Because once you know where you are, you can begin moving toward where you want to go.
The lights are already on green. This episode will remind you of that.
Read the full article on the website: https://viastoica.com/how-to-stop-waiting-and-start-living/
Support the show🌐 viastoica.com▶️ YouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.com
Who Are You? Time to Remove the Mask
Who are you beneath the persona you perform for others? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we sit with that question and what Stoic philosophy says about the difference between the character we are …
Notas do episódio
Who are you beneath the persona you perform for others? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we sit with that question and what Stoic philosophy says about the difference between the character we are building and the mask we wear for the world.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. Here, philosophy is not theory. It is the daily, honest work of examining who you are and how you show up.
Most of us are building something for an audience. A reputation. A version of ourselves shaped by approval, attention, and the fear of not being enough. Marcus Aurelius wrote his Meditations for no one but himself: an audience of one. That is not a small detail. It is the whole point.
The Stoics called our deepest aim eudaimonia: a well-ordered life, lived from the inside out, in accordance with your own nature and values. Not fame. Not wealth. Not the version of success that looks good on a screen. To get there, you have to strip away what is not truly yours: the noise, the performance, the need for external validation. And ask the harder question. When the audience disappears, when the algorithm moves on, who are you then?
This episode will not answer that for you. It will help you start looking.
Read the full article on this episode: https://viastoica.com/who-are-you-really/
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YouTube: @viastoica
Produced by: Badmic.com
Control: The Side Most Choose to Avoid
Everyone talks about letting go. But what about the side that actually demands something of you? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we look at what Stoic philosophy really asks of us when it comes to …
Notas do episódio
Everyone talks about letting go. But what about the side that actually demands something of you?
In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we look at what Stoic philosophy really asks of us when it comes to control and why most people stop at the easier half.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. Here, Stoic philosophy isn't a wellness tip or a productivity hack. It's a serious and urgent call to examine who you are and who you are becoming.
The dichotomy of control is one of the most recognized ideas in Stoicism. But the way it gets used today, mostly as permission to detach and move on, misses the deeper point entirely. Epictetus wasn't inviting passivity. He was demanding self-awareness, character work, and the kind of daily practice the Greeks called askesis. What is yours to work on is not just a short list. It's everything: your judgments, your habits, your values, your reasons for acting. That's where the real work of Stoic philosophy begins and where most people quietly step back.
If you've ever felt like you understood Stoicism in theory but couldn't quite connect it to real life, this episode is a good place to start looking at why.
Read the full article on this episode: https://viastoica.com/what-is-really-in-your-control/
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YouTube: @viastoica
Produced by: Badmic.com
Feeling like a failure? Don't let your mind bring you down
Do you ever feel like everyone else has it figured out and you're the only one falling behind? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we look at where that feeling really comes from and what Stoic …
Notas do episódio
Do you ever feel like everyone else has it figured out and you're the only one falling behind?
In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we look at where that feeling really comes from and what Stoic philosophy teaches us about separating a setback from your identity.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. Here, Stoic philosophy isn't theory. It's a practical tool for the moments when life feels like too much.
Feeling like a failure rarely starts with one event. It starts with the standards we're measuring ourselves against and whether those standards were ever really ours to begin with. When we absorb other people's definitions of success, we hand them the answer key to our own lives.
No wonder the results feel wrong. Self-awareness starts the moment we ask: whose expectations am I actually living by? The Stoics were clear. Character and how you act are the only real measures. Not money, not status, not how things look from the outside.
This episode is for anyone who has felt stuck, inadequate, or quietly resigned to the idea that this is just who they are. It isn't. That's exactly where your agency begins.
Read the full article on this episode: https://viastoica.com/feeling-like-a-failure/
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YouTube: @viastoica
Produced by: Badmic.com
Bird Poo and Bad Days — The Stoic Art of Moving On
Bird poo lands on your brand-new hat. What do you do? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, a small, absurd moment on a walk in Granada becomes a real test of Stoic philosophy, and a lesson in the art of …
Notas do episódio
Bird poo lands on your brand-new hat. What do you do? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, a small, absurd moment on a walk in Granada becomes a real test of Stoic philosophy, and a lesson in the art of moving on.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. Here, Stoic philosophy isn't studied; it's lived, tested in the ordinary friction of daily life.
A bad day is rarely about what happened. It's about the gap between what you expected and what actually is. The moment you stop fighting that gap and start working with what's in front of you, something shifts.
That's not forced optimism. That's self-awareness meeting reality, which is exactly where Stoic philosophy lives. The pause between the trigger and your response isn't automatic. It's a skill. And like any skill, it gets sharper with practice.
If you've ever let a small setback color the rest of your day, this one's for you. The Stoic art of moving on isn't about pretending things are fine. It's about stopping the spiral before it starts, and choosing what happens next.
Read the full article on this episode: https://viastoica.com/how-to-handle-a-bad-day-the-stoic-way/
Support the show
viastoica.com
YouTube: @viastoica
Produced by: Badmic.com
Why Happiness Eludes You
Why does happiness feel so hard to hold onto? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we explore what happiness actually means and why most of us have been searching for it in the wrong places.Welcome to the …
Notas do episódio
Why does happiness feel so hard to hold onto? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we explore what happiness actually means and why most of us have been searching for it in the wrong places.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. This episode sits at the heart of what Stoic philosophy has always asked us to examine: not how to feel more, but how to understand what we're actually feeling.
We spend most of our lives chasing peak moments. The trip, the achievement, the rush of external validation. But those peaks fade. And the ancient thinkers had a word for what remains when the excitement clears: eudaimonia. Not excitement. Not pleasure. A deeper sense of meaning and fulfillment that comes from living in alignment with your values.
The problem isn't that we're failing at happiness. It's that we've inherited a definition of it that was never quite true. Self-awareness begins with asking what the word actually means to you. Not to culture, not to advertising, but in the quiet moments when you feel most at peace.
This episode is an invitation to pause, reflect, and look honestly at what you're chasing and whether it's worth chasing at all.You can also read the accompanying post on our website: https://viastoica.com/what-is-happiness-in-stoicism/
Support the show🌐 viastoica.com▶️ YouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.com
Want less, Live More
Are you chasing a life that doesn't feel like yours? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we explore what it means to want less, and why that might be the most direct path to living more. Stoic philosophy …
Notas do episódio
Are you chasing a life that doesn't feel like yours? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we explore what it means to want less, and why that might be the most direct path to living more. Stoic philosophy has always asked this question. Most of us just haven't stopped long enough to hear it.
Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. This episode sits with something most of us sense but rarely name: that the things we're working toward might not actually be what we want. Stoicism, as a lived practice, begins exactly there.
We spend years chasing promotions, salaries, and possessions, rarely asking where those wants came from in the first place. Were they chosen, or inherited? Stoic philosophy invites a specific kind of self-awareness here: not more discipline, but more honesty. There's a question worth sitting with this week. What would you do with your time if money weren't the obstacle? That question isn't a thought experiment. It's a mirror. What it reflects tells you more about your personal values and sense of meaning than most things will. And once you see it clearly, the noise around it gets a little quieter.
This episode won't tell you to quit your job or strip your life back overnight. It's a quieter invitation to examine what you're actually chasing, and whether it's leading somewhere that feels like you.Support the show🌐 viastoica.com▶️ YouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.com
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