Skipping Stones with Seth Roberts

Turning Hardship Into Strength: The Hidden Power of Adversity

Why do we wear our struggles like badges of honor? In this episode, we explore the strange relationship between hardship, identity, and personal growth. Discover how adversity builds resilience, confidence, and character in ways that privilege often can't.

With powerful insights from psychology and nature, we reveal why your toughest experiences may be your greatest a...

Emotions spread fast. One person panics, and suddenly everyone feels on edge. But what if you could be the calm in the chaos?

After witnessing a friend's apartment ceiling collapse, I was reminded how powerful a steady presence can be during a crisis. In this episode of Skipping Stones, we explore how active listening, emotional awareness, and calm energy can de-escalate panic and create deeper connection—whether you're he...

In this episode of Skipping Stones, we explore the powerful contrast between two mindsets: prey and predator. Prey scans for danger. Predator locks in on a goal. As humans, we can do both but knowing when to switch might change everything.

Whether it’s avoiding that new opportunity because you’re afraid to look foolish, or holding back from an honest conversation, fear can quietly run your life. But clarity, focus, and purpose are t...

How Kids Really Build Confidence (Hint: It's Not Hand-Holding)

When should parents step back and let their kids struggle? Inspired by a scene from The Chronicles of Narnia where Aslan says, “Let the prince win his spurs,” this episode dives into how real confidence is built, not given.

From ancient rites of passage to modern over-parenting, we explore why facing hard things on your own is the key to growing up. 

Whether...

Divorce breaks more than vows.

It can unravel your identity, future, and sense of self.

In this honest episode of Skipping Stones, we explore the quiet collapse that begins long before the paperwork, the emotional crash that follows, and the deep identity shift that comes after. From lonely nights to painful choices, this is a look at what really happens when a marriage ends.

We also talk about the impact on kids, who often...

Is It Love or Just Infatuation?

In this episode of Skipping Stones, we break down the difference between true love and infatuation.

Real love isn’t about constant excitement or missing someone every second. It’s about calm, trust, and feeling safe with someone who makes your life better, not more dramatic.

We explore why many people confuse fantasy with connection, and how real love is built on the little things: steady support, quiet...

Drowning in Self-Help? Try This Instead

Feeling behind because you're not cold plunging at 5 AM, journaling daily, or starting your dream business by lunch? You’re not the only one. The self-improvement world often pushes us to overhaul our lives all at once, but that’s a fast track to burnout, not real progress.

In this episode of Skipping Stones, we explore how lasting change usually starts with just one small, intentional shi...

Why You're Not as Behind as You Think

It’s easy to believe others are ahead, more successful, more fulfilled, more everything. But that feeling often says more about where you're looking than where you truly are.

In this episode of Skipping Stones, we explore how comparison distorts our view of progress and keeps us chasing someone else’s idea of success. What if the game isn’t about catching up, but about choosing a differ...

What men want in relationships beyond sex might surprise you, especially when it comes to emotional needs.

In this episode of Skipping Stones, we dive into the often-overlooked truth behind masculine and feminine dynamics. Men don’t just want respect or physical connection, they crave nurturing love. Not in a maternal sense, but in the form of warmth, attentiveness, and softness that balances their drive to protect and provide.

Throu...

Why do some of the smartest people struggle to succeed?

It turns out that intelligence alone isn’t enough. In this episode of Skipping Stones, we explore two surprising ways smart people sabotage their own potential: overconfidence that blocks learning and a constant craving for novelty that prevents long-term progress.

We’ll unpack why slow, steady focus often beats raw brainpower, and how embracing a little boredom might be the sma...

Why do we always want more even when we already have so much?

That car, that phone, that dream vacation... they thrill us for a moment, then fade. Meanwhile, the quiet beauty of everyday life goes unnoticed.

In this week’s episode of Skipping Stones, we explore how to shift our attention from what’s missing to what’s already amazing. From kids turning trash into treasure to simple moments that stir the soul, this episode w...

Have you ever noticed how destruction grabs our attention, but beauty quietly waits for it?

This episode explores why we’re drawn to negative things more than uplifting ones and what that says about how we live.

We chase quick pleasures like success or comfort, but they rarely satisfy. The truly powerful moments, like watching a sunrise, hearing moving music, or connecting deeply with someone, fill us in a way nothing else...

Have you noticed how tightly we cling to certainty, even when the evidence says otherwise?

This episode explores the hidden power of embracing uncertainty. From Galileo to Einstein, history shows that breakthroughs often come when we admit we do not have all the answers. Our mental maps help us navigate life, but true growth happens when we dare to revise them.

By getting comfortable with the unknown, we unlock a rare strength: intel...

What fills your cup—success, admiration, wealth? Many of us chase these things, only to find our fulfillment draining away, like a cup with hidden holes.

This episode explores the difference between fleeting happiness and lasting contentment. True satisfaction doesn’t come from achievement alone, but from living in alignment with our values. Even great success can feel hollow if it doesn’t reflect what truly matters to us.

From Leo T...

That harsh inner voice constantly pointing out flaws and mistakes, doesn’t have to define your self-image.

We’ve been taught that self-criticism drives improvement, but what if it’s holding us back instead? A personal story about a childhood photo reveals how we’re often needlessly cruel to ourselves. Would you speak to a child the way you speak to yourself?

Instead of a harsh judge, our inner critic can be a compassionate coach. By ...

What happens when we stop standing up for ourselves?

When do we become so focused on pleasing others that we fade into the background?

Boundaries shape our relationships, yet many struggle to set them. From childhood, we learn through resistance, testing limits to understand the world. In adulthood, when we offer no resistance, we paradoxically become unknowable. Genuine connection isn’t built through constant accommodatio...

Naming emotions gives us power over them. When we misidentify what we're feeling, we become controlled by unseen forces instead of responding thoughtfully.

Seth Roberts explores how accurately naming emotions—like realizing irritability stems from hunger, not anger—helps us break reactive patterns. Drawing from Spirited Away and horror films, he illustrates how naming what scares us diminishes its hold over us.

The next time str...

Pride can be an invisible barrier, quietly stealing joy from life’s simplest moments. 

Why do experiences that should bring happiness often create tension instead? 

How can a game of foosball shift from fun to frustration the moment your self-image feels threatened?

In this episode, Seth Roberts explores how the mental pictures we create of ourselves being "smart," "good," or "winners"...

What happens when a man who expected to be Superman can’t even land a role as a henchman? His soul weeps.

Men often define themselves by what they contribute, so when that crumbles, they’re left with a deep sense of defeat.

The defeated man takes many forms: the executive battling imposter syndrome, the divorced father losing touch with his children, the worker whose dreams never materialized. Beneath it all lies shared hum...