It’s my great honor to announce that as of today, Brittany Polat will take over as the editor of Stoicism Today. It has been a privilege to be the editor and assistant editor for the blog for the last few years, and I’d like to thank our readers, all those who have written for us, my predecessor Greg Sadler, and my former assistant editor, Judith Stove, as well as the whole Modern Stoicism team for giving me this opportunity.

Brittany is probably well known to most of our readers. She holds a Ph.D in applied linguistics, she has written Journal like a Stoic as well as Stoic Ethics – The basics (co-authored with Christopher Gill), co-founded the organization Stoicare, and a long time member of the Modern Stoicism team, and she is [one of the hosts/the host] of this year’s Stoicon.

With Brittany as the editor, I’m sure that I leave the blog in more capable hands than my own, and that the future holds great things for Stoicism Today.

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Many thanks to Harald for the warm introduction, and for the excellent publication he is handing over to me. It’s an honor to follow in the footsteps of Harald, Greg, Judy, and everyone else who has contributed to Stoicism Today in the past. For over a decade now ST has served as a rallying point for the worldwide Stoic community, and my goal is to continue this wonderful tradition. We aim to continue publishing a wide representation of Stoic voices, including philosophers, classicists, historians, creatives, therapists, coaches, professionals who use Stoicism in their work, and Stoic practitioners from all walks of life. We welcome thoughtful essays on a wide range of subjects from those committed to seriously studying and practicing Stoicism in the 21st century.

It’s especially important to me that Stoicism Today acts a springboard for new and established Stoic practitioners to come together—a sort of town hall for discussion about contemporary Stoic issues. When I first discovered Stoicism in 2016, one of the first websites I came across was Modern Stoicism, with its wonderful blog and vibrant community. Not only did I learn a great deal from the essays featured in ST, but I felt empowered to contribute. With its long-form essays, ST is different from a social media platform, but it also allows for interesting discussions and serves as a gathering place for serious conversation. Here we can share thoughts and ideas that might be difficult to discuss on social media or in an academic journal. In a way, Stoicism Today is a perfect hybrid of social media and academia: open to people from all walks of life, but rigorous in adhering to high standards of research and writing.

Given how important Stoicism Today was in my own development as a Stoic, I am committed to continuing this tradition for our community. However, we are also facing a different online landscape in 2025 than we did in 2012, when the blog was first started. That’s why I’ll be referring to ST as an “online journal” rather than a “blog.” While this could seem like a superficial semantic change, it represents a shift in how we might think about the purpose and content of Stoicism Today. We want to keep the personal and practical tone of a blog, but we also want to make sure our pieces are reliable and demonstrate the Stoic virtue of justice. With all the dubious information currently circulating on Stoicism, our publication remains a credible and trustworthy source for information on this popular philosophy.

One of the biggest technological changes we have all faced recently are advances in artificial intelligence that enable AI to write essays for us. While this is exciting in many ways, at Stoicism Today we continue to value the human experience of practicing philosophy and seeking truth over the course of a lifetime. We are not interested in machine-generated pieces that do not reflect the individual and personal thoughts, emotions, and lived experiences that every person necessarily possesses. In its own way, AI could potentially contribute a different sort of viewpoint to philosophical conversations, perhaps offering ideas derived from large databases that no human would be able to formulate. I look forward to seeing how large language models and other types of AI may assist philosophy as they grow increasingly sophisticated in the future. However, for now Stoicism Today remains committed to featuring individual human voices and content created by humans.

With that said, we do look to publish articles from a variety of genres and on a range of Stoic-related topics. Here are just a few of the areas Stoicism Today covers:

• Personal essays discussing practical experience with Stoicism

• Theoretical pieces addressing one or more aspects of applied Stoicism

• Fictional or artistic representations directly related to Stoicism

• Reviews of contemporary Stoic books (including new translations)

• Announcements and coverage related to Modern Stoicism events, including Stoicon and Stoic Week

Essentially, we aim to publish a wide range of discussions supporting modern Stoic theory and practice. If you are interested in submitting a piece to us, please take a closer look at our submission guidelines (https://modernstoicism.com/submission-guidelines/). We would love to hear from you.

In closing, I want to offer my heartfelt thanks to all our readers, contributors, and supporters. Thank you for making Stoicism Today a wonderful space for sincere and inspired discussion of all things Stoic. We will continue blazing a path forward for Stoicism today, carrying on the remarkable and enduring tradition of Stoicism for the 21st century.