Massimo Pigliucci on How to Live a Happy Life
The One You Feed
Eric Zimmer
4.6 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 3 May 2022
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Massimo Pigliucci is a Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York, former co-host of the Rationally Speaking Podcast, and former editor in chief for the online magazine Scientia Salon. His research interests include the philosophy of science, the relationship between science and philosophy, the nature of pseudoscience, and the practical philosophy of Stoicism. He’s the author and editor of many books, including the one discussed in this episode: A Field Guide to a Happy Life: 53 Brief Lessons for Living.
In this episode, Eric and Massimo discuss what Stoicism teaches us about how to live a good and happy life.
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Massimo Pigliucci and I Discuss How to Live a Happy Life and…
- His book, A Field Guide to a Happy Life: 53 Brief Lessons for Living
- What the term Stoicism means
- The Cardinal Virtues of practical wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance
- Origins of the Serenity Prayer
- How the judgments we have are ultimately in our control
- Coming to acceptance with our own death and then continuing on with life in the present moment
- The Dichotomy of Control
- The Discipline of Desire and Aversion in Stoicism
- The most important characteristic of a person in life
- Philosophical Journaling
Massimo Pigliucci links:
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If you enjoyed this conversation with Massimo Pigliucci, you might also enjoy these other episodes:
Applied Stoicism with Professor William B. Irvine
Everyday Courage with Ryan Holiday
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Everything that you can influence itself turns out to be |
| 0:05.0 | divided into these two categories, the bit that you do control completely, |
| 0:10.6 | and the bit that you don't control at all. |
| 0:20.8 | Welcome to the One You Feed. |
| 0:22.8 | Throughout time, great thinkers have recognized the importance of the thoughts we have, |
| 0:27.4 | quotes like garbage in, garbage out, or you are what you think, ring true, |
| 0:33.0 | and yet for many of us, our thoughts don't strengthen or empower us. |
| 0:37.2 | We tend toward negativity, self-pity, jealousy, or fear. |
| 0:42.0 | We see what we don't have instead of what we do. |
| 0:44.8 | We think things that hold us back and dampen our spirit. |
| 0:48.4 | But it's not just about thinking, our actions matter. |
| 0:51.8 | It takes conscious, consistent, and creative effort to make a life worth living. |
| 0:56.0 | This podcast is about how other people keep themselves moving in the right direction, |
| 1:01.0 | how they feed their good wolf. |
| 1:17.2 | Hi, it's Bethany Frankel. My time on the Real Housewives of New York is a few years behind me, |
| 1:22.0 | and now I'm ready to put the real back into the Real Housewives. |
| 1:25.5 | That's where my new podcast Rewives comes in. This isn't your typical ReWatch podcast. |
| 1:30.2 | I'm bringing on unexpected thought leaders and celebrities to give their take on the chaos. |
| 1:34.8 | In my first episode, I dig into the scary island, |
| 1:37.8 | Rony episode with Elizabeth Moss. It's one of my favorite shows I've ever done, so don't miss it. |
| 1:43.6 | Listen to Rewives with Bethany Frankel on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, |
| 1:48.3 | or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. |
... |
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