Stoic Coffee Break

The Architect and the Repairman | 395

The Problem: Living in Repair Mode Years ago, I decided that I wanted to learn how to ride a motorcycle. They had always been scary to me and I wanted to get over that f

Interview With Andres Kuusk Pentamind Champion and Thinker

Find the transcript here. The Build an Unbreakable Mind program for building mental discipline is now open for enrollment! My book Stoicism 101 is available! Order here

Vonnegut's Envelope: Why Inconvenience is the Cost of Community | 393

The Problem The last few months have been isolating for me. I was working hard on my book, which I turned in last week. It was exhausting, but I'm proud of what I've wri

Why You Need to Fight Better, Not Less | 392

Do you know how to fight well? Do you think that having relationship without conflict means that everything is just fine? In this episode we’re going to talk about why co

Why Socrates Would Hate AI | 391

AI seems to be everywhere at the moment. You can’t go a single day without someone posting about how AI sped up their work and solved all their problems. But with every t

Inner Critic vs. Inner Coach | 390

Beating yourself up doesn’t make you better person. Hating yourself doesn’t motivate you more. So what’s the difference between holding yourself high standards and punish

The Pressure Code: Interview with Performance Coach Jason Stacy | 388

Jason Stacy is a performance coach and author of The Pressure Code. He works with high performers including world tennis champion Aryan Sabalenka. In this episode we talk

The Game You Didn't Know You Were Playing | 388

So much of our lives are governed by rules that we aren’t even really aware of. Many of them we never even really question because we just assume that’s the way things ar

The Danger of Certainty | 387

Certainty and hubris have always been part of being human. It feels good to be certain, to believe that your opinion is the right one. We like leaders who sound certain a

Michael Lukich: The Stoic System Thinker | 386

Michael has built a career at the intersection of data, teaching, and strategy. Always circling the same question: “How do we make better decisions amid a complex reality

Keystone Habits: How One Good Habit Can Change Everything | 385

Habits are a key part of our lives. We have helpful habits that help us accomplish what we set out to do. We also have some that we’d like to get rid of. But what if I to

The Virtue of Reading | 384

When was the last time that you read a book. A serious book. Something stretched your mind? Something that you had to stop and go back and reread a sentence or paragraph

Interview with Jon Brooks: Stoicism and Emotions | 383

Jon Brooks is the host of the Stoic Handbook podcast and Substack page. In this episode we talk about the dangers of over-managing your emotions and finding ways to be a

What Does It Actually Take to Be Courageous? | 382

Courage, one of the four cardinal virtues of Stoicism, is what I consider the fuel for virtue, and really for living a good life. But what does courage actually look like

Interview with Kelly McGinnis: What it Takes to Really Lead | 381

Kelly McGinnis has a long and storied career working her way up the corporate ladder to CFO and later President of Thermo Fischer, a Fortune 100 company. In this episode

What's the Worst that Could Happen? | 380

“What’s the worst that could happen?” We’ve all heard this before. Usually it’s tongue in cheek just before something really bad does happen. But counterintuitively, it’s

Why Searching for Meaning Is Keeping You Stuck | 379

Marcus Aurelius was the most powerful man on Earth. He had every external condition for a meaningful life — wealth, status, purpose handed to him by birth. And yet, his p

Collaborating with Reality: The Stoic Art of Being Present | 378

Far too often we’re never really in the moment. Maybe we’re stuck ruminating in the past over what we wished would have happened, or projecting out into the future our ho

The Power of Paradox: The Stoic Art of Holding Two Truths at Once | 377

Can two things be true at the same time? Can you hold two opposing ideas at the same time? Today I want to talk about how learning be be comfortable with opposites can wi

How Fear Creates the Failure It Fears | 376

Are you motivated by fear? What if that fear is actually at the root of why you’re not getting the results you’re going after? In this week’s episode I want to talk about