{"podcast":{"title":"Practical Stoicism","slug":"practical-stoicism-4733608","podcast_index_feed_id":4733608,"rss_url":"https://feeds.captivate.fm/stoicism/","website_url":"https://stoicismpod.com","image_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/064c0245-d727-4773-9e51-eca3a79af386/PRACTICAL-1-1-2.jpg","author":"Tanner Campbell","episode_count":25,"summary":"Stoicism the pursuit of perfect moral character. If this is not what you understand the objective of Stoicism to be, then you do not understand Stoicism properly. If you would like to understand Stoicism properly, you should join Stoic author and public philosopher Tanner O. Campbell, every week, right here, to explore various aspect of Stoicism from an orthodox, but practical perspective. Practical Stoicism is 100% independently owned, entirely ad-free, and produced by a real live human being who knows what he's talking about.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-06T22:19:35.628543+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/practical-stoicism-4733608"},"episode":{"title":"Decide Like a Stoic","slug":"decide-like-a-stoic","published_at":"2026-05-12T19:34:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/practical-stoicism-4733608/decide-like-a-stoic","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/practical-stoicism-4733608","url":"https://stoicism.captivate.fm/episode/decide-like-a-stoic","audio_url":"https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/e0c54424-77a6-4dd6-9377-1b881678ed26.mp3","summary":"Support my work for as little as £0.87/wk: https://stoicismpod.com/members -- In this episode, I lay out a practical, step-by-step Stoic framework for making decisions well. A lot of people interested in Stoicism know the quotes, know the terminology, and understand the broad concepts — but when an actual difficult choice appears in front of them, they still don’t know what to do. This episode is about solving that problem. I begin by making a distinction the Stoics took very seriously: the difference between wanting something and determining whether something is right. Most difficult decisions are not difficult because we don’t know what we desire, but because we’re uncertain what action accords with virtue and reason. From there, I walk through an orthodox Stoic decision-making method rooted in Panaetius and preserved through Cicero’s De Officiis . The process begins with examining what the Stoics understood to be the four roles every human being occupies simultaneously: Our universal human nature as rational beings bound by the virtues. Our individual nature — our temperament, strengths, and weaknesses. Our circumstantial roles — parent, child, citizen, employee, neighbour. Our chosen roles — career, projects, commitments, ambitions. I use a detailed example throughout the episode: a person deciding whether to take a major overseas promotion while also caring for an aging mother whose health is declining. The key Stoic insight is this: the right action is usually found at the intersection of all four roles. Most modern ethical thinking frames difficult choices as trade-offs, but Stoicism instead asks us to search for the action that satisfies all our legitimate roles without violating virtue. I then explain the “tragic conflict clause” — what to do when no intersect…","meta_description":"Support my work for as little as £0.87/wk: https://stoicismpod.com/members -- In this episode, I lay out a practical, step-by-step Stoic framework for mak…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1438,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/practical-stoicism-4733608/episodes/decide-like-a-stoic/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/practical-stoicism-4733608/decide-like-a-stoic.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}