Practical Stoicism

Very welcoming and warm community

Very friendly and informative community.

I can't say enough wonderful things about this podcast. It is wonderfully refreshing to be interacting in a community who all has a common goal of improving their virtue. PS accomplishes its main objective of distributing useful, practical advice incorporating stoic principles into common problems we are all encountering in 2023. Now, with the recent addition of Kai Whiting to the team, I have really begun to see a progressive growth of the learning opportunities. This brings me to another key aspect of PS - it is really much, much more than a podcast. It is an entire community of people who are exchanging knowledge at a very high level and priding themselves on being able to explain it to all who are interested. I really respect Tanner for choosing to surround himself with all sorts of experts. I feel like this podcast promotes virtue in all its forms and recognizes that there are many different paths which ultimately lead to the same destination. The Discord community is divided into two parts - there is an open community which is free to all and there is a 'Stoic Path' membership which includes and interactive journaling program. Anyway, all that is to say that is to say that this is more than a podcast to many of us who interact. The podcast introduces so many interesting concepts and, in the Discord, people provide real-world examples of current challenges they have faced and how applying Stoic principles helped them pursue the most virtuous path. Or, sometimes, giving sad example of when we all fail to live up to our own expectations. Strictly limiting my review to the PS podcast is hard to do but it definitely stands up on its own no matter if you want to be involved in the Discord or not. Tanner has really ramped up production value and the long-form fireside chats and interviews have been with amazing, interesting people who are all trying help out fellow humanity in some way or another. It gives me hope to hear interviews with so many wonderful people who are passionate about trying to bring greater justice to the world, broaden knowledge in the world, providing inspiring stories of those who learned to handle their various addictions or poor behavior with famous Stoic moderation, or even more inspiring stories of those who have displayed the kind of courage that defines that absolute best that humanity has to offer. I believe that at physician can have all the necessary knowledge and relay it in a completely logical way to their patient. However, not enough physicians pay attention to their patient's true ability to remember everything they have told them or if they can even afford tests and treatments they recommend. Stoicism focuses on seeing things as they truly are and not how we want them to be. Therefore, in the example of the physician, a Stoic physician would care much more about the desired outcome for each patient which takes into account their own preferences based upon their perceived roles in life and this specific patients ability to realistically execute the plan based upon where they are in their life. I heard a story about a wonderful woman who is in her late 70's and still working as a counselor because her true joy in life comes from helping others. She has a heart condition called aortic stenosis which could easily be fixed but has chosen not to because she is not willing to accept the risk that she would not be able to continue to do her job if there were a serious complication such as stroke. This podcast promotes virtues which lead to people like this. The truth is she may be right. She may have been destined to have a massive stroke and dodged that bullet with her courageous choice.