The Stoic Handbook with Jon Brooks

If you have ever caught yourself daydreaming about "making it", the money, the status, the proof that you matter, this one is for you. I walk through Chapter 24 of Epictetus' Handbook, where he lays out five arguments against chasing status and wealth for their own sake.

None of this is about pretending you do not want nice things. It is about getting honest with what you are actually chasing, and what it costs you. I share where I still get caught by it myself.

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Toughness gets sold to us as never flinching, never feeling, gritting your teeth and pushing through. I am not convinced that is it. In this episode I work through what real toughness might actually be, and why the chest-out version often hides something brittle underneath.

The Stoics had a more useful idea of strength: not the absence of feeling, but knowing what is yours to carry and carrying it without making everyone around you pay for it. I share where I have got this wrong.

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Justin Noppé works with health and fitness for a living, so I used this conversation to ask him the questions I actually wanted answered. We get into the metrics worth tracking and the ones worth ignoring: VO2 max, why he rates resting heart rate and morning respiration over chasing your HRV score, and what the numbers do and do not tell you.

From there it is the practical stuff. The four movements he builds everything around (push, pull, hinge, squat), the difference between eccentric, concentric and isometric work, a pre-bed stretching routine for better sleep, and why following your curiosity matters more than any perfect programme you will not stick to.

Justin's Neuro Resilience course: bit.ly/neuroresiliencecourse

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The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com

Can consciousness and spiritual experience be studied without abandoning scepticism? Steve Taylor is a psychologist at the University of Leeds who works in transpersonal psychology and has written about awakening, consciousness and materialism. I came to the conversation as a curious sceptic. We discuss whether emotional turmoil can produce lasting changes in perspective, what psychedelics can and cannot tell us, and how seriously to take claims such as telepathy. Steve makes the case for a wider view of consciousness. I push on the parts that feel least secure. Take what survives scrutiny and leave the rest.

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This is a full lesson from one of the premium courses inside The Stoic Vault. We sit with anger through Seneca, who treated it not as a sign of strength but as a kind of chain, something that quietly runs your life while telling you it is protecting you.

I find anger the hardest emotion to be honest about, because it does not always show up as shouting. Often it is the low simmer you carry around all day, just as corrosive but easier to hide. This session is about learning to notice it, name it, and let some of it go.

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Anxiety is the thing I have spent the most time wrestling with, so this episode is less a lecture and more a report from someone still doing the work. I share what actually helped me, where Stoic practice fits, and the difference between fear and anxiety: fear is a sane response to a real threat in front of you, anxiety is your mind running drills against threats that may never come.

I also point to the books that did the heavy lifting for me: "When Panic Attacks" by David Burns, "Stoicism and the Art of Happiness" by Donald Robertson, and "A Guide to the Good Life" by William B. Irvine.

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Dan Munro is back for a fourth conversation, and this might be my favourite one yet. Dan is a coach and the author of "The Naked Truth", and his whole project is honesty: what it costs to tell the truth, and what it costs not to. This time Sami Marcus from Beyond Stoicism joins me to dig in.

A lot has changed for Dan since his last visit. He has become a father, which has forced new questions about what honest parenting actually looks like and how far you take it with your kids. We get into honesty in dating and relationships and the fallout it can cause, how impermanence has reshuffled his priorities, and why he has moved his work toward courses and short-form video. Sami and Dan both share where this has cost them personally.

Dan Munro's newsletter, The Daily Dose of Integrity: danthecoach.substack.com

Dan's book "The Naked Truth": on Amazon

Sami Marcus, Beyond Stoicism: instagram.com/beyondstoicism

Also mentioned, "No More Mr. Nice Guy": on Amazon

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The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com

"Self-mastery is the ability to live by choice and not by chance." That line from Eric Brown sets the tone for this whole conversation. We range widely: personal growth, what self-mastery actually requires day to day, honesty in relationships, and what he calls the discipline of surrender, which he describes as submitting to a practice that slowly molds you.

We also get into the quieter tools that do a lot of the work, reading and journaling among them. Eric is generous with his own experience, including the parts he is still figuring out, which is the kind of guest I like having on.

Eric's organisation, Hero100: hero100.org

Eric's newsletter, Serious Play: seriousplay.substack.com

Eric's Productivity Manifesto playlist: on YouTube

Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co

The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com

Dan Munro is back, and this time we go after the validation addiction: the quiet habit of arranging your life around being liked. Dan is a coach and the author of "The Naked Truth", and his angle is always the same uncomfortable question, where are you lying to keep the peace, and what is it costing you?

We get into self-deception and the biases that protect it, the link between shame and dishonesty, and the mixed messages culture sends about being honest. Dan shares the real damage his own dishonesty caused. We also talk about being comfortable with being disliked, expressing yourself honestly without using "honesty" as a weapon, and we even use the Chris Watts case as a dark study in where dishonesty can lead.

This episode is sponsored by Podia, the platform I use to host all my Stoic courses and premium offerings. You can create a free account here: podia.com/jon

Dan Munro's newsletter: danthecoach.substack.com

Dan's book "The Naked Truth": on Audible

Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co

The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com

Most of us measure success by whether we hit the target. The Stoics would say that is the wrong place to put your attention, because the target was never fully in your control to begin with. This episode is about a different definition of success, one that holds up even when things do not go your way.

I use Cicero's arrow analogy and the dichotomy of control to build what I think of as the Stoic success formula: clarity of intent paired with freedom from outcome. You aim as well as you possibly can, then you let go of what the wind does to the arrow. I show how to apply that to real goals, personal and professional, not just to ancient texts.

This episode is sponsored by Podia, the platform I use to host all my Stoic courses and premium offerings. You can create a free account here: podia.com/jon

Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co

The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com