The weather. Tomorrow, expect a... Biting cold front. Hmm, how naughty. I wonder what I'll be wearing or taking off. The night will be wild and untamed. Expect heavy, lashing rain that'll soak you to the skin. By Monday, temperatures will rise slowly but surely reaching their peak in the afternoon.

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Most of our media are owned by a handful of tech billionaires, but there's one place that still operates like the internet was never invented.

On the new season of the divided dial from On the Media, we're exploring shortwave radio,

where prayer and propaganda coexist with news and conspiracy theories, and where an existential battle

for the public airwaves is playing out right now.

Listen to On the Media wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome back to practical stoicism. I hope you're doing well.

Remember, if you'd like to get rid of ad, you can do so at

stoicism.com, and there's a link in the show notes to learn more about that. Today, we're going to be covering

meditation 17 from book four, which reads as follows. Within 10 days, thou wilt seem a god, to those to whom thou art now, a beast and an ape. If thou wilt seem a God to those to whom thou art now a beast and an ape, if thou wilt

return to thy principles and the worship of reason. I actually giggled when I read this one,

because it's so absolutely prescriptive, right? Marcus is saying, if only you'd stop mucking around

and actually get back to or

start putting into practice the things I've been talking about up till now, you would seem like a

god to all those who currently see you as a stupid ape, and it would only take 10 days. It's almost

super villain-esque, isn't it? Thou wilt seem a god. It's a strange thing to say,

I think. A little egotistical maybe. There are times when meditations like this crop up that I wonder

if Marcus might have been prone to bouts of excitement during certain phases of his life.

I imagine him walking around his barracks on the warfront thinking, 10 days seems right. I'll bet you in just 10 days

...