It's the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris.

Hello, everybody. You may have heard about stoicism, that word stoicism in the common parlance, as, you know, having a stiff upper lip or sucking it up or grinning and bearing it, suppressing your emotions, etc. However, you may have also heard about stoicism with a capital S, the ancient Greco-Roman philosophy that has become

the du Ruger set of life hacks among millennial optimizers. My guest today is here to argue,

quite convincingly in my opinion, that stoicism is way deeper than any of that. She will argue,

in fact, that stoicism is kind of the opposite of the above. It's a way to

truly know your patterns of thought and emotion. The stoics, she says, were sort of early cognitive

behavioral therapists. They even developed a whole set of meditations designed to help people

handle worst-case scenarios, shave down their egos, and develop a sense of connection to the universe,

all of which, said guest, is now going to teach us how to do. She, by the way, is Nancy Sherman.

She's a professor of philosophy at Georgetown University and expert in ethics, the history

of moral philosophy, moral psychology, military ethics, and emotions. Her most recent book is called Stoic

Wisdom, Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience. Just to say, we first posted this conversation back in

2021. It is one of our most listened to episodes of all time, but we have never reposted it,

so we're doing it today.

Not for nothing, many of the practices described in this conversation might be super helpful during the turbulent aftermath of the American election.

In this conversation, we cover the basics of stoicism, how and why capital S.

Stoicism is often misinterpreted these days, a meditation practice called premeditation of

evils, which is far more practical than it may sound, and another practice designed to make

you feel, quote, at home in the world. Nancy Sherman, right after this. Before we dive in,

just to say, we've got some exciting things happening in the 10% happier universe,

we are now offering bespoke guided meditations to go with every podcast episode. Those meditations

will be guided by a teacher of the month, all people who you know from the 10% cinematic universe,

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