Perennial Meditations

Perennial Leader Project•perennial.substack.com

Perennial Meditations is a podcast for seekers and curious minds. Each episode delivers a quote, a meditation, and a practice—inspired by the writings of Stoics, Saints, and Sages. Learn more at perennial.substack.com.

Last refreshed: June 22nd, 2026 at 10:22 AM ⓘ

Follow this podcast in the Metacast mobile app to refresh it and see new episodes.

Follow on

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

RSS

Podcasts are better in Metacast mobile app

Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Episodes

Confucius on Two Kinds of Lost | Perennial Meditations

📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe “Learning without reflection is labor lost. Reflection without learning is perilous.” — Confucius, Analects The first type consumes everything—self-help, philosophy, psychology, spiritual wisdom. They can quote books, explain concepts, and pinpoint what needs to change in their lives. Yet, despite all this knowledge, nothing actually changes. Reading has become a substitute for action. They might know mor...

Jun 22, 2026•4 min•Ep. 265

St. Francis and the open hand | Perennial Meditations

📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe “It is in giving that we receive.” — St. Francis of Assisi This sounds like a pleasantry, but it is actually a provocation. Most of us are wired to assume that receiving comes first, that we give from surplus, and that generosity is what happens after our own needs have been sufficiently met. Put plainly, we will be more generous when we have more. We will give more time when we have more of it. We will o...

Jun 18, 2026•4 min•Ep. 264

Plato on Conquering Oneself | Perennial Meditations

📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe “For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.” — Plato, The Laws Every tradition has a version of this. The Stoics called it discipline. The Buddhists called it renunciation. The Christian mystics called it mortification of the self. The language changes. The diagnosis is the same. We are not, by nature, unified. We contain competing appetites, contradictory impulses, and desire...

Jun 15, 2026•4 min•Ep. 263

Socrates on the Examined Life | Perennial Meditations

📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe “The unexamined life is not worth living.” — Socrates, Plato’s Apology He said these words at his trial. Not in a lecture hall or a private dialogue with friends, but standing before a jury of five hundred Athenians who were deciding whether he should live or die. He had been charged with corrupting the youth of Athens and impiety toward the gods. He was seventy years old. He could have apologized, soften...

Jun 11, 2026•4 min•Ep. 262

Heraclitus on the Only Constant | Perennial Meditations

📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe “The only constant is change.” — Heraclitus, Fragments We have all heard this. We nod when we encounter it, the way you nod at something that sounds true without quite landing. Then life changes in a way we didn’t choose—a loss, a door closing, a season ending before we were ready—and we discover that we didn’t really accept it. Heraclitus of Ephesus wrote in Greece around 500 BC, making him one of the ol...

Jun 08, 2026•4 min•Ep. 261

Hosted on Transistor

For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android