Stoicism, Virtues & Founding Fathers (#314)

Stoicism, Virtues & Founding Fathers (#314)

Author: Dan Koch March 10, 2025 Duration: 58:01
In this episode, Dan sits down with legal scholar and author Jeffrey Rosen to discuss his book The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America. Starting from Rosen's background as a secular Jew who studied Puritan theology at Harvard, the conversation weaves through classical virtues and their relevance today to the American founders' surprisingly ecumenical approach to religion and morality. They explore the tension between Christian concepts of perfect holiness and classical virtue ethics' focus on finding the golden mean, with Rosen even sharing a song he wrote to help remember Aristotle's virtue framework. The discussion reveals how the founders were more interested in finding common ground between different wisdom traditions than enforcing rigid doctrine, leading to insights about religious freedom and the First Amendment. Throughout, they examine how ancient ideas about self-mastery and virtue remain relevant for navigating our modern pluralistic world, with practical applications from Benjamin Franklin's virtue journaling as well as contemporary approaches to living well. Highlights 19:56 The Power of the Mind and Self-Mastery 27:35 Exploring Classical Virtues 34:17 The Golden Mean and Emotional Moderation 47:04 Navigating Pluralism and Moral Flexibility 52:23 The Founders' Vision of Virtue and Freedom Jeffery's New Book | The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined Jeffery on X | @Rosenjeffrey Books Mentioned: My Voice Will Go With You ___________________________________________ Follow Dan on IG: www.instagram.com/dancoke/ Or Twitter: twitter.com/DanKoch Faith deconstruction resources: www.soyouredeconstructing.com/ Edited by Josh Gilbert (joshgilbertmedia.com -- he is accepting more work!) Join the Patreon for exclusive episodes (and more) every month: patreon.com/dankoch Email about the "sliding scale" for the Patreon: youhavepermissionpodcast@gmail.com YHP Patron-only FB group: tinyurl.com/ycvbbf98 Website: www.dankochwords.com/yhp.html Join Dan's email list: www.dankochwords.com/ Artwork by sprungle.co/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosted by Dan Koch, Religion on the Mind digs into the messy, fascinating, and deeply personal space where our inner lives meet our search for meaning. This isn't a sermon or a debate; it's a series of conversations that feel more like late-night talks with curious friends. Each episode brings in a different voice-psychologists, scholars, writers, and other experts-to explore how our beliefs, doubts, rituals, and spiritual yearnings are intertwined with the workings of the human mind. We get into the psychology behind religious experience, the spirituality that emerges outside traditional structures, and the very real ways these forces shape identity, community, and coping. The tone is thoughtful but unvarnished, embracing complexity without pretension. You'll hear genuine curiosity, nuanced perspectives, and, yes, the occasional bit of cussing when the topic calls for it. The goal is to offer a space for reflection on how these fundamental aspects of being human collide and coexist. If you've ever wondered about the psychological roots of faith, the spirituality of non-belief, or just how our brains make sense of the profound, this podcast provides a grounded, accessible entry point to those questions.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Religion on the Mind
Podcast Episodes
Purpose & Calling After Religious Change (#400) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:29:10
Psychologist Dr. Pamela Epstein King returns to explore how religious systems provide purpose, calling, and meaning — and what happens to those foundations when people go through significant religious change. Pam's Facul…
The Jewish Renewal Movement with Rabbi Simcha Raphael (#399) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:30
I sit down with Rabbi Dr. Simcha Raphael and learn about his remarkably wide-ranging spiritual journey. From a traditional Montreal Hebrew education through India, the San Francisco counterculture, and ultimately into th…
Study Hall: Nature v. Nurture (#398) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:29
The nature vs. nurture debate is largely settled (spoiler alert: it's both), but the implications for how and when religious identity forms are striking. The research points to a surprisingly early window for faith forma…
Parenting After Faith Deconstruction with Meredith Miller (#397) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:25:44
Meredith Miller returns to talk about something many of us have been navigating in our personal lives: how do you raise kids with a meaningful faith after your own deconstruction? We cover the real reasons to consider ch…
Eclectic Therapy: Mind, Body & John Wesley with Brad Strawn (#396) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:43:06
Brad Strawn of Fuller Seminary returns to unpack the four clinical and theological influences that shape his work as a therapist, pastor, and professor (Wesleyan theology, relational psychoanalysis, 4E cognition, and ter…
Sh*tty Minister’s Club with Lillian Daniel (#394) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:22:12
Lillian Daniel returns after five years to discuss her new book Defrocked: Good News from a Bad Pastor for a Better Church — a candid, often funny, and deeply human account of the misconduct process she underwent in the…
Facing Anxious Times Together, Part 5 (#393) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:34
This is the fifth and final installment of the Anxious Times series, and we're bringing it home by exploring what existential psychology has to say about community, belonging, and civic engagement. I’m joined by returnin…
Naming Your Limits As a Tool For Hope: Anxious Times, Part 4 (#391) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:54
Co-host Kristen Tideman and I work through the final two legs of Emmy van Dersen's triad — the impossible and the desirable — using Kristen's new motherhood, MS diagnosis, and ongoing religious change as real, lived test…