#808: Stephen West — From High School Dropout to Hit Podcast, and from Stocking Groceries to Reading Philosophy for a Living

The Tim Ferriss Show

Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig

Lifestyle Design, Business, The 4-hour Workweek, Productivity, Timothy Ferriss Show, Startups, Tim Ferris, Entrepreneurship, Longform Interviews, Tools Of Titans, Timothy Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show, Tim Ferriss

4.6 • 17.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2025

⏱️ 105 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Stephen West is a father, husband, and host of the Philosophize This! podcast.

Sponsors:

Gusto simple and easy payroll, HR, and benefits platform used by 400,000+ businesses: https://gusto.com/tim (three months free)

Momentous high-quality supplements: https://livemomentous.com/tim (code TIM for up to 35% off)

Eight Sleep’s Pod 4 Ultra sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating: https://eightsleep.com/tim (save $350 on the Pod 4 Ultra)

Timestamps:

[00:00:00] So it begins.

[00:06:11] Stephen’s challenging childhood — from San Diego to Child Protective Services.

[00:07:55] How Stephen supported himself after dropping out of school at 16.

[00:09:37] The physical wear and tear of warehouse work (and unexpected upsides of the job).

[00:11:48] How Stephen discovered philosophy through googling “wisest person in history.”

[00:14:07] Defining philosophy as a “disruption of common sense” and “gym for rethinking.”

[00:16:06] The 4-Hour Workweek as a philosophical text.

[00:19:27] A philosophical shift around Ralph Waldo Emerson.

[00:22:18] The transition from warehouse work to starting Philosophize This! with friendly encouragement.

[00:27:47] Authenticity as the secret sauce to Philosophize This!

[00:32:24] The discomfort of comparing old episodes with new.

[00:34:15] The current state of Philosophize This!: 225 episodes, Patreon, ads, upcoming book deal.

[00:37:18] The value of focusing on content quality before monetization.

[00:38:44] Most popular Philosophize This! episodes thus far.

[00:40:00] Philosophize This! episodes I’d like to hear.

[00:41:20] Thinking of philosophy as a verb, not a noun.

[00:46:44] The concept of amor fati (love of fate) and its practical application.

[00:48:41] Wittgenstein’s ladder as a metaphor for philosophical growth.

[00:51:36] Stephen’s perspective on philosophy as a process rather than a set of protocols.

[00:54:43] Philosophies that have personal meaning to Stephen: Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Simone Weil.

[00:56:40] Simone Weil’s concept of attention and self-emptying.

[00:59:26] Stephen’s approach to simplicity and sacrificing efficiency for meaning.

[01:04:07] Valuing time and playing the long game.

[01:06:01] How philosophy lives “in the shadow” of what we give credit to (science, psychology).

[01:08:31] The value of philosophy in generating better questions.

[01:10:06] Stephen’s future plans: possibly writing philosophical fiction.

[01:19:05] Stephen’s billboard.

[01:21:41] Recommendations for getting started with philosophy.

[01:24:29] Gilles Deleuze and concepts as machines.

[01:26:55] Why do we believe what we believe?

[01:30:40] Stephen’s evolving relationship with religion after starting as a New Atheist.

[01:32:33] Exploring mysticism and religious phenomenology.

[01:37:51] Parting thoughts.

For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.

For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsors

Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday.

For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.

Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.

Follow Tim:

Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss

Instagram: instagram.com/timferriss

YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss

Facebook: facebook.com/timferriss

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timferriss

Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs, all jrms.
0:02.3	All right-a-bye-bye-me-hune-hine-hae.
0:05.8	This is Tim Ferriss.
0:07.3	Welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show, and my guest today needs no introduction,
0:12.1	but maybe he does.
0:12.7	His name is Stephen West.
0:13.7	I say he needs no introduction because he has been in my ears for years upon years.
0:18.5	Stephen West is a father, husband, and a host of the Philosophies
0:22.1	this podcast. His Genesis story is insane. His ability to synthesize decades and centuries and
0:29.8	millennia of wisdom into tight little episodes and nuggets that actually deliver the goods
0:36.9	is incredible. So I will let him say more about all of
0:42.2	that, but he's one of the best people I've come across who can explain, translate, and humanize
0:47.2	philosophy in a way that, in my words, doesn't teach you what to think, but how to think better. And he does that by studying the
0:56.5	smartest people or the wisest people that have been recorded throughout history. You can find
1:01.6	him online at philosophize this.org. Patreon also philosophize this on X at I am Stephen West,
1:09.5	and that is with the pH, Stephen West, and on YouTube at Philosophize
1:13.2	this podcast. And we'll get right to the meat and potatoes of everything, but first, just a few
1:18.6	words from the people who make this podcast possible. Many people wonder how I end up getting
1:24.0	sponsors on this podcast. And first of foremost, I say no to 80 plus percent of the
1:29.8	products and services that get pitched. But I always test them. And I test things either personally
1:34.9	or if they make the first round of vetting, my team and many others will look at these things.
1:40.6	Then I test the few who make it myself or I put them on social media at odd
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.