This was a series of lectures by a philosophy professor and social critic from City University of New York which is intended for someone who might have heard about Stoicism but does not know what it is all about. A certain amount of repetition is to be expected in this format, unlike what you might expect from an edited hardcopy volume (which has been published under the same name by the author). The emphasis is on pragmatic application of Stoic thought rather than comparison to other systems of belief, though there is a section on this included. It does address popular misconceptions of the philosophy by those who espouse it as a path to wealth and fame over the last few years. The audio comes with a pdf going over the points in an easily browsable format including suggested readings and questions for the student. I found it a pleasure to take in, though challenging to apply to everyday life because of the way reason takes a back seat to emotion when we encounter difficulties. To me, it sounded like a strategy for achieving harmony the way Cognitive Behavioral Therapy might be, though I had to imagine for myself how to mesh it into the rest of my own belief system since I am not looking to to take it as the sole strategy to address everything in life. Its rejection of any point to leave a legacy after one's death was novel to me, not just because of the insistence that there is no afterlife; saying also there is no reason to seek lasting fame or influence as an individual after death. It sounded like one practices virtue for its own sake in the moment, not to be remembered by anyone else, which is so unlike the modern tendency.

I'd started reading Seneca's letters previously and now am motivated to take them up again, along with Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius for what insights they contain. I might want to look up the book version of this work too some time.