Back to Modern Meditations - Stoicism For The Real World

Podcast Episode

#66 – On the Shortness of Life (New Years Special): Why Justin Was in Tears, The Power of Home Depot, Faces Over Causes, High ROI Living & The 2025 Aurelius Awards

Modern Meditations - Stoicism For The Real World·Justin Stohlton & Bruce Peck·30 March 2026·1h 3m

About this episode

Send us Fan Mail In this New Year’s special, we revisit On the Shortness of Life and come to a deeply encouraging conclusion: You’re not out of time, you’re just wasting it. We break down Seneca’s idea of the Preoccupied vs. the Thrifty Guardian, aka: the person who’s always waiting for something better vs. the person who actually lives their life Justin shares the moment that left him crying in his car before work (don’t worry, he pulled it together and did great things), triggered by a song and the realization that: every relationship slowly fades… and sometimes you’re the one who left. We also introduce a powerful new life framework: The Home Depot Philosophy™ Less thinking. More doing. That’s the power of the Home Depot. Along the way, we cover: why you lose the day waiting for the night, and the night fearing the morning why reading books is apparently controversial now why Target might be a scam (and why we’re rooting for Walmart) and why your Instagram posts might just be… too poetic for the masses We decode this (because Bruce's Instagram followers couldn't):  fewer causes, more faces forget labels, remember names We wrap with the 2025 Aurelius Awards, where we highlight the highest ROI moments of the year.