Resilience Agenda Radio – Talking About Stoicism And Coping With Anxiety In A Complex World with Massimo Pigliucci – Ep.20

Episode 20: Resilience Agenda Radio – The Mental Fitness Podcast

We're all striving for happiness, but somewhere along the way in our world of hyper-consumerism, we place our concepts of happiness in things and we end up constantly chasing for the next best thing to ensure we get the dopamine rush we need, to keep us going.

We're joined by Massimo Pigliucci, who talks us through the concept of Stoicism, and how we can look to cope as we navigate through the world, and the environmental conditions we find ourselves in.

What You Will Learn:

• Understanding the concept of Stoicism, and the yearning for something beyond us
• What it takes to overcome and come with anxiety when we're constantly in a rush to arrive at the next stop of our journey through life
• How to reprogram the way you think about things within and outside your circle of control

Today’s Guest: Massimo Pigliucci

Massimo Pigliucci is a professor of philosophy at the City College New York, a leading thinker on ethics, what makes a good life, and is an expert on rationality and how to live a good life.

He's published several books, including The Quest for Character, How Science and Philosophy Can Lead Us To A More Meaningful Life, and the subject of much of today's discussion, a book called How to Be Stoic.

Massimo has been elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science “for fundamental studies of genotype by environmental interactions and for public defence of evolutionary biology from pseudo-scientific attack.” 

In the area of public outreach, Prof. Pigliucci has published in national and international outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, among others. He is a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and a Contributing Editor to Skeptical Inquirer. He writes on practical and general philosophy at Medium. 

Resources

Website: https://massimopigliucci.org

Check Out Massimo's Latest Book Available Now: https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/massimo-pigliucci/the-quest-for-character/9781541646957/

Quotes by Massimo Pigliucci

“How do you become the best human being you can be? Well, you pay attention to the four cardinal virtues, which are wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance. Practical wisdom is the knowledge of what is truly good for you or not good for you, as opposed to what other people might tell you that's good for you. Justice is the notion that you want to treat other people with respect. With dignity, [being] the way in which you would want to be treated, and courage is the courage to actually do so, even when it may cost you personally. And finally, temperance is the notion that you should be doing everything in the right measure. Neither too much nor too little.” 

“Everybody has a philosophy of life because the philosophy of life in this context, you just mean that everybody has certain priorities, values, and decisions of acting or non-acting on certain things.”

“You buy into the notion that you know, the latest iPhone is gonna make you happy. So you buy the phone and sure enough, for a few days, you're happy, you're all excited about this old thing, and you start playing with it and showing it to friends and all that. And then of course, after a week or two, it just becomes another thing in your life that you have to take care of. So now you need something else. Now it's gonna be a car. And then you get all excited once you get the car and then, the whole thing goes over and over and over, and you never get anywhere.”