Stoicism on "Open Air Atheist"

I was recently invited to be a guest on James Stillwell's Open Air Atheist podcast. We had a very nice laid-back one hour conversation on the subject of Stoicism (which includes a smaller segment at the end on the nature of consciousness). We talk about what Stoicism is, some of it's key concepts and their benefits, suggested reading, and more. Many thanks to James for having me on his show again. If you'd like to listen, you can do so by clicking this link:


Open Air Atheist Podcast, Episode #20: Stoicism


In the conversation at least three things got by me before our time was up. I should have also mentioned the International Stoic Forum, which has been instrumental in helping me understand Stoicism better (or, rather, the good people there have helped me with their participation, both the professors and the students, and the people which both agreed and challenged me). Along with reading, there is no substitute for having meaningful dialogs on these things.

The second thing I should have mentioned is the excellent work of Pamela and Michel Daw, in spreading knowledge of practical Stoicism and teaching others. Their site is TheStoicLife.org. And, lastly, the New Stoa is an excellent group promoting the Stoic life.

On a side note, at 25:50 a sound blip silences the word "not" in my sentence, making it seem I'm saying Stoicism is like the emotionless Mr. Spock's way, and in fact I was saying Stoicism is not like the manner of Mr. Spock - in other words, it's not about being emotionless or suppressing all emotion.

Previous Episodes
As I mentioned, I've appeared on this podcast previously, where we talked about Buddhism. There are some sound issues early on, but they get better. That episode can be listened to here:


Open Air Atheist Podcast, Episode #6: Buddhism


Back to Stoicism, if you'd like to learn more, I have several articles on my site at www.humanistcontemplative.org, which also link further to other resources.


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