What did Stoic practice look like when it had a real place in the culture—when people gathered in Athens and Rome to study and live this philosophy together? For facilitators building modern groups, that question is more than historical curiosity: these groups aren’t an established form in our culture, and we’re partly inventing what they look like as we go.
In this conversation, scholar and Modern Stoicism co-founder John Sellers walks through the (admittedly sparse) evidence about how the ancients actually came together — and what it suggests for the stoas we’re creating now. He also shares advice drawn from his own experiences with in-person practice groups and helping to foster the Modern Stoicism movement.
Topics we cover include:
How much we genuinely don’t know about ancient Stoic “schools”
The Stoa was a public space—friends meeting near the marketplace
Contrasting models: Plato’s Academy, Aristotle’s Lyceum, Epicurus’s garden
“Head of the Stoa” likely meant organizer, not formal authority
Why ancient gatherings resemble today’s meetup groups more than classrooms
No doctrinal checklist at the door—self-selecting, openly debating members
Technical scholarly work happened privately; conversation happened in public
Balancing shared content against rigid orthodoxy—a tension even then
The deep human need to practice together rather than alone
What modern groups actually are: not therapy, not book club, not classroom
A Socratic touch: draw people out instead of correcting them
Where this could go: Stoicism embedded in schools, prisons, boardrooms
The irreplaceable energy of in-person community over online events
About the Guest
John Sellars is one of the founder members of Modern Stoicism, the group behind Stoic Week and Stoicon, and the Aurelius Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to sharing Stoic ideas. He is Reader in the History of Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London, and Director of the Centre for the Study and Application of Stoicism. His books include The Art of Living: The Stoics on the Nature and Function of Philosophy, Stoicism, Hellenistic Philosophy, Lessons in Stoicism, and Marcus Aurelius.
