Episode 52 – How to Keep Our Cool with James Romm

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The topic this week is How to Keep Your Cool, and my guest is James Romm, a Professor of Classics at Bard and the author of the book, How to Keep your Cool: An Ancient Guide to Anger Management. This is James’ second appearance on The Good Life, he was a guest on episode #9 where he talked about Seneca.

In this episode James talks about Seneca’s famous essay, On Anger. Seneca is a Stoic, and his advice on how to control our anger draws heavily on Stoic philosophy. Seneca thinks anger is always harmful, so his advice is to avoid it altogether, and he offers a number of tips on how to do that. However, if we do slip into anger, he offers advice on how to cool ourselves down.

What You’ll Learn

  • Why anger is always harmful to us
  • Why Seneca compares anger to “jumping off a cliff”
  • How to avoid anger altogether
  • How to stop anger once it shows up
  • How to help others control their anger
  • The moral argument for non-violence
  • How a close study of anger and it’s causes will make us a better person

Books & Resources

Connect with James Romm

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