The Daily Stoic

Philosophy Podcasts

For centuries, all sorts of people—generals and politicians, athletes and coaches, writers and leaders—have looked to the teachings of Stoicism to help guide their lives. Each day, author and speaker Ryan Holiday brings you a new lesson about life, inspired by the thoughts and writings of great Stoic thinkers like Marcus Aurelius and Seneca the Younger. Daily Stoic Podcast also features Q+As with listeners and interviews with notable figures from sports, academia, politics, and more. Learn more at DailyStoic.com. New episodes come out every day for free. Listen 1-week early on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday and to all episodes ad-free, with Wondery+ or Amazon Music with a Prime membership or Amazon Music Unlimited subscription.

For centuries, all sorts of people—generals and politicians, athletes and coaches, writers and leaders—have looked to the teachings of Stoicism to help guide their lives. Each day, author and speaker Ryan Holiday brings you a new lesson about life, inspired by the thoughts and writings of great Stoic thinkers like Marcus Aurelius and Seneca the Younger. Daily Stoic Podcast also features Q+As with listeners and interviews with notable figures from sports, academia, politics, and more. Learn more at DailyStoic.com. New episodes come out every day for free. Listen 1-week early on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday and to all episodes ad-free, with Wondery+ or Amazon Music with a Prime membership or Amazon Music Unlimited subscription.

Location:

United States

Genres:

Philosophy Podcasts

Description:

Twitter:

@dailystoic

Language:

English

Website:

http://dailystoic.com/

Email:

info@dailystoic.com

Episodes

What To Do When You Have Fallen Short | The Three Areas of Training

1/26/2023

He had considered not going public with it. He had wanted so badly to be able to keep saying, to get credit for being the guy who says, ‘I’m sixteen years sober.’ But he could not. So in September of 2020, the actor Dax Shepard opened up on his podcast about relapsing. The episode was titled “Day 7”—because after a streak of a decade and half he was effectively back at the beginning. “Today, I have seven days,” he said with as much strength as he could muster. Beautiful. --- In today's...

Duration:00:09:10

Professor Sarah Churchwell on Genius, Big Dreams and F. Scott Fitzgerald

1/25/2023

Ryan speaks with Sarah Churchwell about her book Careless People: Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of The Great Gatsby, the complicated figure of F. Scott Fitzgerald, how The Great Gatsby’s celebration of mad dreamers who chase the American Dream informs our pursuit of the same ideal today, and more. Sarah Churchwell is professor of American Literature and Public Understanding of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Her work focuses on 20th- and...

Duration:01:11:36

Lean Into Their Strengths Rather Than Disdain Their Weaknesses

1/25/2023

Marcus Aurelius was clearly torn about his fellow man. He was loving and kind and spoke repeatedly of serving the common good. He was also clearly frustrated and disappointed with the flaws of the people around him. Like many great men, he had trouble understanding that not everyone had his gifts, not all of them were capable of what he was capable of. You can see in Meditations how he wrestled with these feelings. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail 🏛...

Duration:00:02:50

Come Back To The Rhythm | A Stoic Idea Worth Tattooing On Your Body

1/24/2023

Marcus Aurelius wasn’t perfect. With so many responsibilities competing for his time and attention, he was guilty, as we all have been, of letting his good habits slide. The question is: What do we do when this happens? Today, Ryan discusses how Marcus kept his habits in check and how you can, too, as well as the Stoic idea that influenced his newest tattoo, which he got from Andy Pho. Andy is the owner of Upside Tattoo, and he opened a new shop in Hutto, TX in 2022. Follow Andy on...

Duration:00:10:56

Don’t Abuse This Power | A Little Better Every Day

1/23/2023

In one of the weirdest passages of Meditations, Marcus Aurelius notes with pride that he never laid a hand on any of his female slaves. Not cheating on your spouse, not sexually assaulting a captive person, these are hardly achievements worthy of being feted for. They are the bare minimum, you could argue, to be considered a good, moral, virtuous person. And yet, they are not nothing, especially back then, it’s worth taking a minute to consider. --- In today's Daily Stoic Journal reading,...

Duration:00:10:15

How Cato’s Deadly Rivalry With Caesar Destroyed Rome

1/22/2023

Ryan presents the first of four excerpts from Josiah Osgood’s Uncommon Wrath: How Caesar and Cato’s Deadly Rivalry Destroyed the Roman Republic. Here, in chapter one, Josiah sets the stage for Rome’s great collapse by describing the world that Julius Caesar grew up in, how Cato the Younger’s upbringing put him at odds with Caesar, and the explosive events that escalated the tension between them. You can listen to Ryan’s recent conversation with Josiah here. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic...

Duration:00:50:43

Molly Bloom on the Reality of Being Rich and Powerful

1/21/2023

Ryan speaks with Molly Bloom about her book Molly's Game: The True Story of the 26-Year-Old Woman Behind the Most Exclusive, High-Stakes Underground Poker Game in the World, the crossroads moment that taught her to overcome challenges through mindfulness, the intoxicating and eye-opening effects of running poker games for the ultra-rich and famous, how hitting rock-bottom taught her that good character is something to be trained, and more. Molly Bloom is an entrepreneur, author, speaker,...

Duration:01:09:52

It’s Just Happening | Ask Daily Stoic

1/20/2023

It feels terrible to hear that someone is breaking up with you. Or that your retirement portfolio has dropped significantly in recent months. To find out that the company you’ve invested your entire career in is laying you off. That your father doesn’t accept the person you love or how you live your life. We want it to be otherwise, so we’re disappointed. It hurts, so we take it personally. In Meg Mason’s novel Sorrow and Bliss (listen to our great podcast episode with Meg), Martha Friel's...

Duration:00:13:12

Are You In Touch With Your Future? | Wherever You Go, There Your Choice Is

1/19/2023

As Gandhi sat with a reporter one hot afternoon, he began experiencing some stomach pains. An attendant brought him a mudpack to place on his abdomen. “This puts me in touch with my future,” he said with a smile. He was joking about his mortality, just as the Stoics and all wise philosophers have. The reporter was a bit surprised. You are so young, he said. And that’s when Gandhi reminded him, as Marcus Aurelius did in Meditations, that age didn’t matter. Death was the common lot of all...

Duration:00:07:17

Champion Distance Runner Lauren Fleshman on the Power of Sport

1/18/2023

Ryan speaks with Lauren Fleshman about her new book Good For a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man’s World, how the Stoics approached many of the gender equality issues that we still debate today, the unique power of sports to shatter perceptions and shift perspectives, and more. Lauren Fleshman is a retired world champion track and field athlete who competed in the 1500, 3000, 5000, and marathon events. Lauren graduated from Stanford as a 15-time All-American and five-time NCAA champion, and...

Duration:01:01:29

You Know You’ve Made This Mistake

1/18/2023

It is certainly true that people can do some awful things to each other. We hear of a trusted representative who is stealing from their clients. We hear of a man who has been leading a second life, even starting a second family. We hear of a woman who commits an unspeakable crime. These gross violations of morality and law do exist. They are things we would never do, we’d never even consider doing them. However, the truth is that most of the wrongs committed day to day are done by ordinary...

Duration:00:02:38

A Person Without Boundaries Is Not a Person | 7 Stoic Keys To Happiness

1/17/2023

It’s clear when you read about Cato and Marcus Aurelius that these were men of great reserve. Antoninus, too. They were friendly and kind of course, and to people who knew them well, there was frivolity and fun, but they kept something back from strangers. They were self-contained. Today, Ryan examines why having the discipline to create strong boundaries for yourself is how you define who you are, especially in the age of social media, He also presents seven Stoic principles to adhere to...

Duration:00:10:28

The Things You Own…Can’t Own You | The Wake Up

1/16/2023

To the Stoics, there wasn’t anything wrong with having money. Marcus Aurelius came from money. So did Cato. Seneca came from money and also made a lot of it. In fact, pretty much all the Stoics except for Cleanthes and Epictetus were incredibly rich. Money, nice stuff, living the comfortable life…this was not necessarily the problem. 🎧 For a limited time, you can purchase The Daily Stoic ebook for only $1.99 on Kindle ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email:...

Duration:00:08:39

Steven Pressfield on Creating Work That Lasts

1/15/2023

Ryan speaks with his friend Steven Pressfield during an impromptu walk along Town Lake in downtown Austin, Texas. The two discuss the life experiences behind Steven’s new book Govt Cheese a memoir, the lessons that they've learned from their many mentors, the value of repurposing content, and more. Steven Pressfield wrote for 27 years before he got his first novel published. During that time he worked 21 different jobs in eleven states. Steven taught school, drove tractor-trailers, worked...

Duration:00:34:17

Mark Manson and the Catastrophe of Success

1/14/2023

Ryan speaks with Mark Manson about the new documentary based on his astronomically successful book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, how being highly successful can ruin one’s life, what he is striving to disrupt in the self-help industry, and more. Mark Manson is a self-help blogger and the author of four books, including the New York Times Bestsellers Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope, Will, and The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. His work focuses on providing life advice that...

Duration:01:09:26

Don’t Disgrace Yourself | Ask Daily Stoic

1/13/2023

Francis Bacon was a brilliant philosopher whose breakthroughs reverberate through our world today. He was also a human being and a politician. Less glorious than his intellectual achievements were his travails in the public sphere, which ultimately ended in his conviction for accepting bribes. No one was more disappointed in this than Bacon, who lamented at the end of his life that he had wasted himself, “in things for which I was least fit, so as I may truly say, my soul hath been a...

Duration:00:20:05

If You Are Studying Philosophy, It Is Well | The One Path To Serenity

1/12/2023

In one of his letters, Seneca tells us of an old Roman pleasantry that friends would exchange when greeting each other: “If you are well,” one would say after inquiring how someone was doing, “it is well and I am also well.” It’s a nice little custom, isn’t it? If you’re good, I’m good, and everything is good. Nothing else matters. Well, Seneca took it one step further. --- In today's Daily Stoic excerpt, Ryan examines Epictetus's assertion that the one path to serenity is in "giving up...

Duration:00:08:19

Humble, The Poet on Being Free of Passion but Full of Love

1/11/2023

Ryan speaks with Humble, the Poet about his new book How to be Love(d), why our passions often get in the way of real love, viewing love as a service to others rather than a reward for ourselves, and more. Kanwer Singh, professionally known as Humble, the Poet, is a Canadian poet, author, YouTuber, rapper, and spoken word artist, as well as the son of immigrant Indian Punjabi Sikh parents. In 2010, he left his job as an elementary school teacher in 2010 to become a poet, and since then, he...

Duration:01:03:00

A Stoic Isn’t Born. They’re Made.

1/11/2023

Marcus Aurelius wasn’t born Marcus Aurelius (literally, his name was Marcus Catilius Severus Annius Verus). Epictetus wasn’t born a sage–to say he was would be to deprive him of the enormous credit due to a man who went from a lowly slave to a wise and powerful philosopher. No, becoming a Stoic takes work. It takes practice. 🎧 For a limited time, you can purchase The Daily Stoic ebook for only $1.99 on Kindle ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail 🏛...

Duration:00:04:06

You Can’t Keep It From Happening | How To Get Through Life's Most Difficult Situations

1/10/2023

When he was starting out in Hollywood, Judd Apatow began to have panic attacks. The stress of rewriting a script. Getting a film in on time. Managing all the moving pieces on a project. He felt the enormity of the pressure and like a lot of us, he took that to an irrational extreme. The Stoics would say panic, stress, and anxiety are feelings, and you can’t prevent them from happening. And if you try to suppress these emotions, like stuffing junk in your closet, it eventually comes...

Duration:00:12:19