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PODCAST

Socratic State of Mind Podcast

Exploring the wisdom of history"s greatest men and women to help us live more productive, tranquil, and moral lives. andrewperlot.substack.com

society & culture philosophy

All Episodes

12:51

Why Substack Sucks Less

Socratic State of Mind Podcast ·

2025/04/21

Original article. Get full access to Socratic State of Mind at andrewperlot.substack.com/subscribe

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11:49

Rebuilding Community Is Like Nuclear Disarmament: A...

Socratic State of Mind Podcast ·

2025/04/16

I was happy to stumble on Sara Ness’s Substack after losing track of her for years. We met in 2013, when she was running an Austin Relating Games group, and I’ve always been impressed with her thoughtful ideas about communication, connection, and community. We’ve decided to exchange some letters about overlapping interests, and we’ll continue as long as we and our subscribers enjoy it. Let us know what you think.Dear SaraRebuilding community from the fractious status quo is like nuclear

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9:32

Can We Talk About Your Slaves?

Socratic State of Mind Podcast ·

2025/04/14

We rely on memory slaves and think nothing of it. The ancient Romans did too, but their memory slaves wore shackles. If our cost is merely the atrophy of obsolete recall abilities — a little brain fog that Chat GPT or Alexa can dispel — it might be worth it for the convenience. Maybe. But if the living memory slaves of ancient Rome — nomenclatores servi— are any indication, the cost of offloading important memories and ideas to an external entity or technology is not merely poorer memory and

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11:42

How They Took Our Automatic Wins

Socratic State of Mind Podcast ·

2025/04/07

Find my original post.My Memorize for Meaning course.The fate of good things may be to act as Trojan horses for small evils.In many modern cases, the evil is not so small — the debasement of humanity itself. The wells where clear water bubbled up — free for anyone to take — are now often tainted.Our bodies, our food, and our minds are the latest victims. Caring for them a century ago was simpler and less effortful — automatic wins were provided by survival itself.Today, those wins are reserved for

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8:20

How to Protect Yourself From Manipulation

Socratic State of Mind Podcast ·

2024/01/23

Virtue without power is benign, but power without virtue tears lives and civilizations apart. So it’s a pity good people often don’t understand how power works, and what people holding the levers of power are up to. Part of wisdom is understanding that ignorance of reality leaves us susceptible to manipulation by those who lack scruples, and less effective in doing good. If the United States broke any ground with its constitution, it was in assuming saints wouldn’t be elected — that politicians

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1:52

What Sir Michael Caine Learned From a Chair

Socratic State of Mind Podcast ·

2023/12/30

Early in his career, the famous actor Sir Michael Caine struggled with an errant chair disrupting a scene. It blocked the doorway he was supposed to enter through, and his teacher gave him a piece of advice that stuck with him: “Use the difficulty,” Caine said. “If it’s a comedy, fall over (the chair). If it’s a drama, pick it up and smash it…Now I took that and I used it in my own life...There’s never anything so bad that you cannot use that difficulty. If you can use it a quarter of one percent to

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5:10

Why No One Expects Killer Toads

Socratic State of Mind Podcast ·

2023/12/13

No one expected the toads to be killers. Or rather the Australians assumed the amphibians would stick to slaughter of the convenient and beneficial sort, a staggering failure of imagination. Rhinella marina, a giant neotropical toad better known as the cane toad, was imported to deal with beetles ravaging Australia’s sugar cane industry in 1935. They devoured New World pests in the Americas, so why not give them a shot in Australia?Unfortunately, the imported toads rarely ate the voracious beetles

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4:55

How to Be Happy When Life Sucks

Socratic State of Mind Podcast ·

2023/12/08

Can we be cheerful when life sucks?Training yourself to be is a focus for Stoics. Seneca talks about the ideal Stoic sage we’re supposed to be aiming for:“And if you come across a man who is never alarmed by dangers, never affected by cravings, happy in adversity, calm in the midst of storm, viewing mankind from a higher level and the gods from their own, is it not likely that a feeling will find its way into you of veneration for him? …Into that body there has descended a divine power.” But there

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16:31

Love and Physics: What the Universe Wants

Socratic State of Mind Podcast ·

2023/11/27

Our Universe isn’t known for leniency. Gravity will not be dismissed. The laws of thermodynamics aren’t fungible. Entropy stalks us in the night. Try to live in defiance of the universe’s underlying principles and you’ll quickly find out how unforgiving they are. Yet an all-star cast of ancient philosophers — and not a few modern scientists and engineers — suggest there are other universal principles we’re ignoring, and our inattention is costing us. Love is at the top of the list. The Socratic

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8:04

Self Love Ends Here

Socratic State of Mind Podcast ·

2023/11/09

Self-love has to end somewhere, right? Only if we insist on a very limited definition of self-love.I suspect Marcus Aurelius was right to instruct himself to, “be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.”I consider being strict with myself to be one of the greatest forms of self-love. It's only when I consistently adhere to my values that I thrive. Socratic State of Mind is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid

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1:14

How To Shift Your Perspective

Socratic State of Mind Podcast ·

2023/07/10

Maybe you’ve felt it when you look at the stars at night, or see a picture of earth from space. It’s what French philosopher and Stoic scholar Pierre Hadot called that “oceanic feeling,” which overcomes us when we zoom out our awareness and notice our insignificance against the vast scope of the earth, our universe, or time itself. In one sense it’s humbling. We might feel adrift when we realize how little our lives and personal concerns matter in the grand scheme of things. Why try when what you do

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0:57

How To Carry Everything You Need

Socratic State of Mind Podcast ·

2023/07/07

Surging floodwaters nearly killed me in 2015, and swept away almost everything I owned. In the shocked aftermath, as I gathered up the mud-smeared detritus of my life, I remembered the words of Seneca — Omnia mea mecum sunt: All that is mine I carry with me. Seneca thought our most valuable possessions couldn’t be taken from us — our character, our freedom to choose, our knowledge and logic. Peace of mind and integrity are far more valuable than wealth, things, and reputation. Therefore, we should

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1:00

Don’t Be a Consistent Hobgoblin

Socratic State of Mind Podcast ·

2023/07/05

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines,” Ralph Waldo Emerson famously mused in his essay, Self Reliance.He recognized that new evidence often renders previous stances untenable, so an insistence on consistency often leaves us misaligned with our reason and our moral character over time. A devoted Democrat or Republican in 2003 would find themselves supporting a party with considerably different values in 2023. Only a thorough

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0:58

How The Rich Janitor Gave Back

Socratic State of Mind Podcast ·

2023/07/03

The hospital and public library of Brattleboro Vermont were shocked to receive their largest donations ever in 2015 — a $5 million bequest from Ronald Read, a former janitor and widower who drove a second-hand beater, chopped his own firewood, and wore worn-out clothes. His riches resulted not from a large income, but from frugality and steady investment in blue-chip stocks.Read would perhaps agree with Seneca that “Nature demands but little, and the wise man suits his needs to nature.”But frugality

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0:53

How To Be Ready for Anything

Socratic State of Mind Podcast ·

2023/06/28

Stoics try to be prepared for life. To best way to prepare is to train yourself a react to everything with equanimity or indifference while seeking to respond with virtue. * Imagine different “disasters” that might befall you today or in the future as if they’re happening. Imagine your initial reaction (probably overblown), and see yourself pull back from it so you can take a more critical look. * Practice removing value judgments from your “disasters”, looking at them as simple facts, and realizing

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0:52

How To Dance to the Music Only You Hear

Socratic State of Mind Podcast ·

2023/06/26

Practicing philosophy and living by our values can leave us looking strange and out of touch. The Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau thought we should embrace this. “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer,” he wrote in Walden, “Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”But your out-of-step marching may well attract attention, which we have to steel ourselves for.“If you want to improve, be content to be

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0:50

The Trick To Being Relaxed and Dedicated

Socratic State of Mind Podcast ·

2023/06/23

Watch the video. It seems like a paradox— Stoics want to be relaxed and at peace, and yet dedicated to achieving things.How can we be serious about justice or reaching a business or personal goal if we have to also be relaxed about it? A serious drive to achieve anything seems to sabotage peace of mind. The answer is simple but not easy — as Epictetus says, “Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.”So we dedicate ourselves to doing what we have control over while

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1:41

Wherever You Wash Ashore, Start From There

Socratic State of Mind Podcast ·

2023/06/21

Watch the video.As artillery shells exploded on the beach around him, Theodore Roosevelt Jr. knew he had a problem. The vanguard of the allied attack against Nazi Germany, which Roosevelt was leading, had come ashore far from its target. His soldiers were pinned under heavy fire and panicking. The 56-year-old son of President Teddy Roosevelt was the oldest man on Utah Beach that day. He walked with a cane and was battling a heart condition. Yet he calmly ignored the bullets and shrapnel, drew his

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4:59

How To Journal Like A Philosopher

Socratic State of Mind Podcast ·

2023/06/14

Watch the video.Journaling is, on its surface, pretty easy: Get a notebook. Get a pen. Write about your life. Done. But not all journaling is created equal. One of the most powerful journaling techniques is simply talking to yourself the right way — like a philosopher.What does a person gain from practicing philosophy? Antisthenes, one of Socrates’s students, had a strange answer to this question. He said he gained “The ability to converse,” with himself. (Lives of the Eminent Philosophers,

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1:20

A Surprising Way To Find Your Real Values

Socratic State of Mind Podcast ·

2023/06/12

Watch the video version.If we don’t know what we value, how can we know how to live? One of Socrates’s aims was to clarify what was actually good and truly important so he could live up to those values. Therapist and author Donald Robertson suggests one surprising way to find our values: Look for what we despise. If you dislike a politician because they’re a hypocrite, it implies you value integrity. “You’re projecting your values left, right, and center,” Robertson says.Once we see this

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