#808: Stephen West — From High School Dropout to Hit Podcast, and from Stocking Groceries to Reading Philosophy for a Living

Hey, folks. Tim here. My best selling card game, Coyote, which I made with the amazing team at Exploding Kittens, just won the Pop Insider best geeky game of 2025 and also best stocking filler in the made for mom's toy awards twenty twenty '5. It is on sale everywhere. It's cheap. It's fast to learn. It has 4.8 stars out of five. People are loving it. Coyotegame.com will take you to all the retailers, but you can find it everywhere. It is a game of thinking fast and laughing faster. Think charades meets hot potato meets a bunch of brain fun. It's good for your head. It's perfect for families with kids age 10 or adults who are kids at heart or don't take themselves too seriously. A lot of adults love this game. And as I said, it's available everywhere. Amazon, Walmart, Target, 8,000 plus retail locations, you name it. So please check it out. I loved making it. People are really enjoying it. It has 300 or 400,000,000 plus social views of gameplay online. And try it. Enjoy it this holiday season. Check it out, coyotegame.com one more time. That's coyotegame.com or anywhere you buy your games. Now back to the episode. Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferriss. Welcome to another episode of the Tim Ferriss Show. And my guest today needs no introduction, but maybe he does. His name is Steven West. I say he needs no introduction because he has been in my years for years upon years. Steven West is a father, husband, and host of the Philosophies This podcast. His Genesis story is insane. His ability to synthesize decades and centuries and millennia of wisdom into tight little episodes and nuggets that actually deliver the goods is incredible. So I will let him say more about all of that, but he's one of the best people I've come across who can explain, translate, and humanize philosophy in a way that, in my words, doesn't teach you what to think, but how to think better. And he does it by studying the smartest people or the wisest people that have been recorded throughout history. You can find him online at philosophizethis.org. Patreon also philosophize this. On x at I am Stephen West and that is with a p h, Stephen West. And on YouTube, at Philosophize This Podcast. And we'll get right to the meat and potatoes of everything. But first, just a few words from the people who make this podcast possible. Many people wonder how I end up getting sponsors on this podcast. And first and foremost, I say no to 80 plus percent of the products and services that get pitched. But I always test them and I test things either personally or if if they make the first round of vetting, my team and many others will look at these things. Then I test the few who make it myself or I put them on …