📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is Day 150. “Men are disturbed not by the things that happen, but by the opinions about the things: for example, death is nothing terrible, for if it were, it would have seemed so to Socrates.” — Epictetus, Enchiridion Epictetus is not making a philosophical argument. He is performing one. He has taken the belief—death is terrible—and subjected it to a test. He has so...
Jun 03, 2026•11 min•Ep. 153
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is Day 149. “All men want to live happily, but when it comes to seeing clearly what makes life happy, they are in the dark. Achieving a happy life is so challenging that the more desperately one pursues it, the more elusive it becomes.” — Seneca, On the Happy Life Seneca is not describing the lazy or the careless. He is describing everyone. Everyone wants a happy life...
May 30, 2026•15 min•Ep. 152
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is Day 148. In 399 BC, a jury of five hundred Athenian citizens voted to convict Socrates of impiety and corrupting the youth. They were now deciding his penalty. The implicit offer was simple: stop asking questions, go into exile, live quietly, and stop examining people and calling into question the beliefs they had never thought to question. He refused. He stood bef...
May 27, 2026•12 min•Ep. 151
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is Dying Daily. One Stoic text that doesn’t get nearly enough attention is Cicero’s Stoic Paradoxes—six ideas that seem like contradictions until you understand what the Stoics actually mean. In this Dying Daily, we sit with one of them: the claim that virtue alone is sufficient for happiness. To test it, we go to September 9th, 1965—the moment Navy pilot James Stockd...
May 23, 2026•11 min•Ep. 150
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is Day 147. “Know thyself,” the words inscribed at the entrance to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Not know the world. Not know the gods. Know yourself—and understand that until you do, everything else you investigate is a distraction from the only question that finally matters. The question this meditation wants to sit with is not whether you know yourself. It is whe...
May 20, 2026•13 min•Ep. 149
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is Dying Daily. In this first episode of Dying Daily, a new occasional and much more casual series on the podcast, we sit with a question that most of us already know the answer to, but haven't done anything about: Who are we taking for granted? You may have seen Eric Church's recent commencement address at UNC-Chapel Hill. If not, it’s worth watching. Church warns a ...
May 17, 2026•8 min•Ep. 148
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is Day 146. There is the happiness that depends on circumstances—on getting what you want, on the day cooperating, on fortune being kind. It is real, while it lasts. And it does not last. And then there is something else. Something that does not rise and fall with the weather of events. Something James could describe but struggled to name—until he reached for a phrase...
May 13, 2026•14 min•Ep. 147
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is Day 145. Epictetus identified three key disciplines: desire, action, and assent, with assent being the most crucial. He described assent as the mind’s act of accepting an impression—saying yes to it, recognizing it as real and meaningful, and responding accordingly. Every moment, impressions arrive. Not the dramatic ones—those are easy to see coming. The ones that ...
May 06, 2026•12 min•Ep. 146
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is a bonus episode. We often spend much of our lives wanting more—more time, more success, more security. But Seneca offers a different path: not more, but enough . This week’s episode is ultimately a reflection on loosening our grip and learning to meet life—and death—with a willing mind. It comes by way of my Sundays with Seneca series, since it’s one of my favorite...
May 03, 2026•6 min•Ep. 145
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is Day 144. Anger is among the most examined emotions in human history, yet it remains one of the least understood when we're actually experiencing it. Today, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and psychologist Albert Ellis guide us in exploring it from the inside. I hope you find this useful! [...] --- 🖇️ Stay Connected: Newsletter: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe In...
Apr 29, 2026•15 min•Ep. 144
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is Day 143. Why is it that we can fully grasp the dichotomy of control—know exactly where the line lies and what belongs to us and what doesn't—and still find ourselves reaching across it? Today, we’re revisiting one of Stoicism's most essential ideas, this time with Epictetus as our guide and a little help from Buddhist philosophy, to hopefully answer that question o...
Apr 22, 2026•14 min•Ep. 143
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is Day 142. “The longest-lived and those who will die soonest lose the same thing. The present is all that they can give up, since that is all you have, and what you do not have, you cannot lose.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations , 2.14 Take a moment to reflect on today’s passage. Let the logic of it settle before you try to follow it. Marcus Aurelius is making a claim ...
Apr 16, 2026•12 min•Ep. 142
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is Day 141. “And so I commanded myself to live. For sometimes it is an act of bravery even to live.” — Seneca, Moral Letters , 78.2 Sit with that. Not die bravely. Not endure bravely. Live bravely. Seneca writes these words to his friend Lucilius from the middle of an illness. Not from recovered health, looking back with the perspective of someone who has already over...
Apr 10, 2026•8 min•Ep. 141
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is Day 140. Happy Easter to everyone celebrating this weekend! Today's meditation sits inside this season deliberately. We are going to spend some time with two men who refused to look away from death: a Roman emperor writing alone in his journal, and a sixth-century monk writing rules for living. Both believed that keeping death close was not pessimism but rather the...
Apr 04, 2026•11 min•Ep. 140
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is Day 139. The alarm goes off. You reach for your phone. Not because you need to—just because it’s there. Nothing urgent. Nothing necessary. And when you finally get up, the pull remains. Not toward stillness—but toward more stimulation. More noise. More distraction. This is the quiet pattern of most days: not crisis, not collapse—just a gradual movement away from wh...
Mar 28, 2026•8 min•Ep. 139
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is Day 138. Most conflicts begin with a story we tell ourselves. “They meant to insult me.” “They knew this would hurt.” “They’re trying to undermine me.” The mind fills in motives. In seconds, the event feels personal, intentional, and almost malicious. Once that story takes hold, anger seems justified. The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius interrupts that story with a d...
Mar 13, 2026•9 min•Ep. 138
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is Day 137. The boxes are packed. The room echoes. The keys are handed over. Something stable disappears, and suddenly the life that made sense yesterday no longer exists today. And the question appears, quietly but insistently: Where do I belong now? This is the problem Musonius Rufus addresses when he speaks about exile. And unlike many philosophers, he knew the sub...
Feb 05, 2026•7 min•Ep. 137
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is Day 136. You don’t need a skull on your desk or a Latin motto in your bio to practice memento mori . Montaigne, a sixteenth-century philosopher influenced by the Stoics, treats mortality as a human issue rather than a rare or dramatic event. He removes death from the category of “special occasions” and places it where it truly belongs: within everyday life. Montaig...
Jan 22, 2026•7 min•Ep. 136
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is Day 135. Most people build happiness like a house on sand—on approval, outcomes, comfort, and conditions. It looks solid when the weather is calm. But when circumstances change—as they always do—the foundation gives way. Seneca insists the mistake is not bad luck, but bad architecture. “You ask me what is the foundation of a happy life?” he writes. And his answer i...
Dec 30, 2025•9 min•Ep. 135
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is Day 134. We've all been there, someone interrupts you mid-sentence. The moment is small, almost forgettable—yet something tightens inside. A warmth in the chest. A quiet bracing in the jaw. The urge to correct, to defend, to be seen as right. It all happens before a single clear thought forms. And already, a choice is waiting to be made. This is the moment Seneca i...
Dec 23, 2025•9 min•Ep. 134
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe In this episode of Dying Every Day, I’m joined by my good friend Brandon Tumblin ( The Strong Stoic Newsletter ) for a casual chat on the fundamentals of Stoicism. We explore practical ways to apply Stoic philosophy in daily life and reflect on life's greater purpose and the Stoic commitment to building a just society. Key Takeaways Virtue is the only true good The dichotomy of control Building a just soc...
Dec 19, 2025•29 min•Ep. 133
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe In this episode of Dying Every Day, we explore the ancient wisdom behind money, prosperity, and the search for a good life. Drawing on Seneca’s teaching that 'the proper limit to a person’s wealth is first having what is essential, and second, having what is enough,' we examine why chasing more never brings contentment—and why living according to nature frees us from endless craving. With insights from Bo...
Dec 01, 2025•8 min•Ep. 132
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe In this episode of Dying Every Day, we explore the Stoic idea that virtue is a skill—something practiced, not merely understood. Drawing especially on the teachings of Musonius Rufus, the “Roman Socrates,” we look at why the Stoics believed that philosophy must be lived like an athlete trains: through repetition, effort, and real-world tests. With insights from Aristotle, Epictetus, and William James, thi...
Nov 25, 2025•8 min•Ep. 131
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe In this meditation, we explore Seneca’s powerful teaching on emotional freedom and the art of holding your self-worth within—not in the shifting opinions of others. Seneca writes: “The wise man is invulnerable to insult… He stands above both the applause and the condemnation of the crowd, for he has placed his esteem within his own soul, where honor is incorruptible and peace undisturbed.” Most of us rise...
Nov 18, 2025•8 min•Ep. 130
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe In this meditation, we explore one of Seneca’s most profound teachings on wealth, desire, and freedom: “You ask what is the proper limit to a person’s wealth? First, having what is essential; second, having what is enough. If you shape your life according to nature, you will never be poor. If you shape it according to opinion, you will never be rich.” Seneca reminds us that poverty is not measured by what...
Nov 11, 2025•6 min•Ep. 129
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Dying Every Day (Stoicism in a Year) is a podcast by the Perennial Leader Project (and Perennial Meditations newsletter). Each episode turns a selected passage from Stoic philosophy into a guided meditation designed to help you (and me) contemplate what it means to live a ‘good’ life. --- 🖇️ Stay Connected: Newsletter: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perennia...
Oct 30, 2025•5 min•Ep. 128
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Dying Every Day (Stoicism in a Year) is a podcast by the Perennial Leader Project (and Perennial Meditations newsletter). Each episode turns a selected passage from Stoic philosophy into a guided meditation designed to help you (and me) contemplate what it means to live a ‘good’ life. --- 🖇️ Stay Connected: Newsletter: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perennia...
Oct 11, 2025•6 min•Ep. 127
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Dying Every Day (Stoicism in a Year) is a podcast by the Perennial Leader Project (and Perennial Meditations newsletter). Each episode turns a selected passage from Stoic philosophy into a guided meditation designed to help you (and me) contemplate what it means to live a ‘good’ life. --- 🖇️ Stay Connected: Newsletter: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perennia...
Oct 02, 2025•5 min•Ep. 126
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Dying Every Day (Stoicism in a Year) is a podcast by the Perennial Leader Project (and Perennial Meditations newsletter). Each episode turns a selected passage from Stoic philosophy into a guided meditation designed to help you (and me) contemplate what it means to live a ‘good’ life. --- 🖇️ Stay Connected: Newsletter: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perennia...
Sep 25, 2025•7 min•Ep. 125
📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Dying Every Day (Stoicism in a Year) is a podcast by the Perennial Leader Project (and Perennial Meditations newsletter). Each episode turns a selected passage from Stoic philosophy into a guided meditation designed to help you (and me) contemplate what it means to live a ‘good’ life. --- 🖇️ Stay Connected: Newsletter: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perennia...
Sep 14, 2025•5 min•Ep. 124
