The Via Stoica Podcast — A Stoic Way of Life

Episodet

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  Are you relevant enough? To Whom and Why? 17.08.2026 12min

  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.Support the showviastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.com
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  How Influencable Are You? Or Do You Trust Your Own Judgment? 10.08.2026 12min

  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.Support the showviastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.com
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  So You Have an Opinion? Does Everyone Need to Know? 03.08.2026 17min

  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?Support the showviastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.com
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  Anger: The Stoic Way to Reclaim Your Sanity 27.07.2026 15min

  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
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  The Blame Game: Stop Pointing the Finger and Start Growing 20.07.2026 13min

  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.Support the showviastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.comNote: 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.
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  Your Life Is Not Short. You Just Don't Know How to Live It. 14.07.2026 11min

  "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/Support the showviastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.com
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  The Real Stoic View on Emotions: What Are They Telling You? 06.07.2026 21min

  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/Support the showviastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.com
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  A Stoic Conversation with Massimo Pigliucci: How to be a (Happy) Skeptic 26.06.2026 1h 2min

  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/Support the showviastoica.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
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  The People Pleaser: How to Stop Living for Other People's Approval 22.06.2026 16min

  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/Support the showviastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.com
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  Who Wrote Your Script? The Stoic Guide to Authentic Living 15.06.2026 18min

  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/Support the showviastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.com
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  Amor Fati: How Do You Love Your Fate? 08.06.2026 18min

  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/Support the showviastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.com
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  Stop Waiting: Take Responsibility for Your Soul 01.06.2026 17min

  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
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  Who Are You? Time to Remove the Mask 25.05.2026 12min

  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/Support the showviastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.com
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  Control: The Side Most Choose to Avoid 18.05.2026 17min

  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/Support the show: viastoica.com YouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.com
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  Feeling like a failure? Don't let your mind bring you down 11.05.2026 13min

  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/Support the show viastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.com
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  Bird Poo and Bad Days — The Stoic Art of Moving On 04.05.2026 13min

  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 showviastoica.comYouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.com
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  Why Happiness Eludes You 27.04.2026 13min

  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
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  Want less, Live More 20.04.2026 16min

  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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  Why Life Feels So Hard: Stop Making It More Difficult 13.04.2026 16min

  Why does life feel so hard, and how much of that difficulty are we actually creating ourselves? In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we look at the gap between our desires and reality, and why closing that gap is one of the most practical things Stoic philosophy offers us.Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. Each episode explores what it means to live well: not as theory, but as something you practice in the life you actually have.We have been sold a version of happiness that keeps moving. The perfect job, the right moment, the life that looks good from the outside. But that pursuit quietly makes everything harder. Stoic philosophy points to something more stable: contentment, not as a consolation prize, but as the actual goal. The wider the gap between what we want and what is, the heavier and more chaotic life feels. Desire and suffering are more connected than we usually admit. And a lot of what we carry, the anxiety, the overthinking, the sense that we are falling short, is something we are adding rather than something being done to us.That is confronting. It is also liberating. Because if we are making it harder, we can also start making it easier.This is an episode about finding inner peace, not by fixing your circumstances, but by looking honestly at what you are asking life to be.Support the show🌐 viastoica.com▶️ YouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.com
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  We Need More Love — And Stoicism Shows Us Where to Start 06.04.2026 18min

  We need more love in the world. That was the statement, made quietly on a walk along the river in Granada, that stayed with us long after the conversation ended. In this episode of the Via Stoica Podcast, we explore what Stoic philosophy actually says about love, kindness, and where to begin when the world feels like it's moving in the wrong direction.Welcome to the Via Stoica Podcast, the podcast on Stoicism. This episode grew out of a real Stoic walk and one simple statement that turned into a genuine reflection on what sincere kindness looks like in practice.It is easy to feel overwhelmed. The news pulls us toward division. Social media rewards performed kindness over the real kind. And human goodness starts to feel like it is losing ground. But the Stoics had a word for what this moment is asking of us: philanthropia, a love for humankind that does not wait for an audience. Marcus Aurelius returned to this again and again. Epictetus located it in prohairesis, that quiet place where self-awareness and personal values meet, where our real choices are formed. The starting point is not out there. It is here, in the small acts that nobody records, done simply because they are the right thing to do.You do not need power or influence to shift something. You only need to start where you are.Support the show🌐 viastoica.com▶️ YouTube: @viastoicaProduced by: Badmic.com