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.

Good morning to you and welcome back to practical Stoicism.

Thank you so much for being here.

Before we start, I would like to remind you again that if you hate ads and you'd like to get rid of them,

you can do so by becoming a subscriber to the premium version of this podcast for just $6 a month.

For more information on that, head over to stoicism.com or check the link

in the show notes. You can also go to stoicismpod.com and click the button in the top right corner of the

site. If supporting a podcast with money isn't your style, no big deal, that's cool. It takes all kinds.

You can still support practical stoicism by reviewing it on Apple podcast, Spotify podcast,

or podchaser.com, or by sharing it with friends and family you think we'll enjoy it.

Today we're covering Meditation 5 from book 2, which reads as follows.

If our intellectual part is common, and the reason in respect of which we are rational beings is

also common.

If this is so, common also is the reason which commands us what to do and what not to do.

If this is so, there is a common law.

Also, if this is so, we are fellow citizens, and if this is so, we are members of some political community.

If this is so, the world in a manner is a state.

For of what other common political community will anyone say that the whole human race are members?

And from thence, from this common political community,

comes also our very intellectual faculty and reasoning faculty, and our capacity for law,

...