What a Rubber Band Has to Do With Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius wrote in Meditation I that the same man can be both resolute and yielding. Jimmy explains what that means with a rubber…
Ethics
Four Things. Until Your Time Comes.
Marcus Aurelius asked himself what is sufficient until death comes. He answered in four things: venerate, do good, bear, abstain. Jimmy’s analysis of Meditation…
Short Story
First Confession
Listen to Frank O'Connor's First Confession with a free audiobook-style reading, analysis, summary, and insights into childhood, family, and forgiveness.
Nine Rules for When Someone Offends You
Most people have one rule when someone offends them. Marcus Aurelius had nine. Jimmy's analysis of Meditation XI.18 — the most practically useful passage…
Everything Is Opinion — Including This
Marcus Aurelius wrote that life is opinion. Jimmy explores what that means through colorblindness, the sun problem, and Meditation IV.3 — the most radical…
Five Ways You Are Doing Violence to Your Own Soul
Marcus Aurelius listed five ways the soul harms itself in Meditation II.16. Not what others do to you — what you do to yourself.…
Kiss Your Child Like It’s the Last Time
Epictetus wrote: when you kiss your child, remind yourself they are mortal. A BBC professor called it stupid. She missed the point. Jimmy’s analysis…
The Man on the Corner Said One Word
A homeless man in San Francisco said one word: Amnesty. Marcus Aurelius wrote about it eighteen hundred years earlier. Jimmy's analysis of cooperation, kinship,…
The Monk in the Margins
Odin. Thor. Freyr. Freyja. Loki. A rich, complex mythology full of competing powers, supernatural drama, and very specific ideas about how a warrior should…
What the Most Powerful Man in the World Said to Himself Every Morning
Marcus Aurelius was the most powerful man in the world — and every morning he wrote himself a warning. Jimmy's analysis of Meditation II.1:…
Good Is Not a Feeling — It’s a Fight
This is not a story with a complicated moral ambiguity at its core. The lines are drawn clearly. And that clarity is not a…
A Complex Plot, Two Grudging Men, and Aristotle: Character in The Piece of String
Jimmy tells you this in every analysis: Aristotle identified six elements of tragedy in his Poetics — plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle, and song…
