The Daily Stoic

Latest Episodes:

Find A Way To Use What Life Hands You | Ask DS May 18, 2023

Show notes

Change is a constant in life, and embracing it is key to living a fulfilling and meaningful existence. The Stoics recognized this fact and encouraged us to be adaptable and flexible, no matter what life throws our way.

It can be tempting to resist or fear the unknown. However, the Stoics taught that change is not something to be feared, but rather, it is an opportunity for growth and self-improvement.

Marcus Aurelius wrote, "The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it." By focusing on our thoughts and our perspective, we can choose to see change as a positive and embrace it with open arms.

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And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions after a Stoicism seminar at the Andrews Air Force Base. Topics covered include how Stoicism applies to parenting, as well as whether any of the Cardinal Virtues is more important than the others.

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Do You Have This Kind of Clarity? May 17, 2023

Show notes

Warren Buffett, whose net worth is north of $100 billion, lives in the same house he bought in 1958 for $31,500. The NFL lineman turned mathematician John Urschel is worth millions but manages to live on $25,000 a year. Well past signing a $94 million dollar contract, the NBA star Kawhi Leonard drove the 1997 Chevy Tahoe he had since he was a teenager.

Cato, who came from a wealthy and powerful family, walked around bareheaded and barefooted and generally abstained from unnecessary luxuries. He could have afforded to do otherwise, he chose not to. “Nothing is cheap,” his great-grandfather had famously said, “if it is superfluous.”

Some might say these men were just cheap, but that’s too simple and too unfair.

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General Ty Seidule On Our Responsibility To Study, Understand And Grapple With History May 17, 2023

Show notes

Ryan speaks with Ty Seidule about his book Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause, Henry Flipper and the less-told story of the aftermath of the Civil War and slavery in America, the importance of choosing carefully who to commemorate, how to grapple with challenging family history, and more.

Ty Seidule is a retired United States Army brigadier general, the former head of the history department at the United States Military Academy, the first professor emeritus of history at West Point, and the inaugural Joshua Chamberlain Fellow at Hamilton College. He has published numerous books, articles, and videos on military history including the award-winning West Point History of the Civil War. Ty graduated from Washington and Lee University and holds a PhD from the Ohio State University. Ty’s work can be found on his website: tyseidule.com.

📚 For more reading on the Civil War, check out Bruce Catton’s classics.

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Handle What You Control First | Robert Greene's 6 Stoic Concepts For A Fulfilling Life May 16, 2023

Show notes

Life is frustrating. You’re waiting for people to get back to you. You’re waiting for approval on stuff. You’re waiting for things to ship. You’re dealing with bureaucracy. You’re depending on teammates. You’re dealing with the fallout of decisions that weren’t your call, rules you don’t agree with.

It’s interesting though how often we complain or chafe against these constraints…yet when the ball actually is in our court, we’re slow. We’re indecisive. We don’t do our best.

More than strange, it’s wasteful madness.

The Stoics say over and over again that there is stuff in our control and stuff outside our control.

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And in today's Daily Stoic video excerpt, Ryan presents six Stoic concepts for living a fulfilling life that Robert Greene has gathered from his decades of observing, studying, and writing about people and power.

📺 You can watch the full video on the Daily Stoic YouTube channel.

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When Are You Going To Get This Together? | Count Your Blessings May 15, 2023

Show notes

It doesn’t matter how old you are, it looms before you. Not death–although that’s always there–but the future itself. The future when you’re not going to be so young anymore, when you’re not going to want to be hustling entry level jobs anymore, or doing this or that kind of work anymore. When you’re going to have things you want to do–a house you want to buy, kids to send to college, trips you want to go on, a potential retirement.

Look, at some point, you’re going to have to get it together. You know this.

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And in today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt reading, Ryan examines why the Stoics believed it was so valuable to regularly remind yourself of the unique blessings that fill your life.

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The Life Of Chrysippus May 14, 2023

Show notes

In today's audiobook reading, Ryan presents the biography of the great Greco-Phoenician Stoic philosopher Chrysippus. Written by the prolific biographer of the Greek philosophers Diogenes Laertius, this text covers Chrysippus’s early life, how he used his natural talents for dialectics and writing, stories of his teaching career, and more.

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MMA Legend Frank Shamrock On Conquering The Ego and Developing Honor May 13, 2023

Show notes

Ryan speaks with Frank Shamrock about his memoir Uncaged: My Life as a Champion MMA Fighter, the convergence between the Stoic virtues and the tenets of the Warrior Code, managing his ego when he was considered the greatest fighter on the planet, how his rough upbringing shaped his unconventional life, the mutual respect that they have for each other’s work, and more.

Frank Shamrock is a former professional mixed martial artist and a pioneer of the sport. He was the first to hold the UFC Middleweight Championship and retired a four-time defending undefeated champion ranked the No. 1 Pound-for-Pound fighter in the world. He was named "Fighter of the Decade" for the 1990s by the Wrestling Observer, "Best Full Contact Fighter" by Black Belt magazine (1998), and three time "Fighter of the Year" by Full Contact Fighter Magazine. Frank spent much of his young life in the foster care system, often enduring abuse and neglect, until he was officially adopted and mentored by his father figure Bob Shamrock at the age of 21. Since his retirement from MMA in 2010, Frank has worked as a coach, color commentator, actor, writer, and motivational speaker. His work can be found on his website: frankshamrock.com.

📚 To read more on the philosophy and mindset of MMA, check out Sam Sheridan’s books at The Painted Porch.

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What Gets The Best Part of Your Day? | Kindness Is Always The Right Response May 12, 2023

Show notes

In those first moments you’re awake, how do you decide to start this fresh day? By reaching for the phone, for social media? We fill the sunlight hours with meetings, spending them all indoors. We wait until after school, after a long stint at the office, to try to spend quality time at home. We pick up a book for a few minutes before we close our eyes to sleep, already tired, already fried.

It’s insane. Both Seneca and Marcus Aurelius lamented at the quickness with which ambitious professionals will promise up all their time to the most trivial of work pursuits.

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And in today's reading from The Daily Stoic, Ryan discusses why kindness is invincible only when it is sincere.

📺 You can watch and listen to the video of Ryan's interview with Anthony Everett at youtube.com/@dailystoicpodcast

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Do You Make Time For this? | Ask DS May 11, 2023

Show notes

Even when he was president, Jimmy Carter tried to carve out space for reflection and study. Just a few days after being sworn in, he was already asking his aides to push his meetings back. “I need more time alone early each morning,” he wrote to his team. He wanted an hour of reading and thinking and prayer.

The Stoics protected this time too.

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And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions from the audience at the conclusion of a Stoicism 101 seminar, covering topics including how we can use anger as a tool, how and why to read points of view that we don't agree with, how to balance appreciating what you have with striving to achieve something else, and more.

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Gretchen Rubin On The Power Of Exploring Your Senses May 10, 2023

Show notes

Ryan speaks with Gretchen Rubin about her new book Life in Five Senses: How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and Into the World, how our reality is composed entirely of our perceptions, her striving to better accept herself while still expecting more from herself, the wisdom that can be found with reading and re-reading great books, her former boss Sandra Day O’Connor, and more.

Gretchen Rubin is an author, blogger, podcaster, and speaker whose work focuses on happiness, habits, and human nature. She has written ten books, including the best-selling and widely influential Better Than Before, Happier at Home, and The Happiness Project, and her writings have sold more than two million print and online copies worldwide in over thirty languages. Gretchen’s podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin, on which she and her sister Elizabeth Craft discuss happiness and good habits, has been downloaded over 220 million times. All this and more can be found on her website: gretchenrubin.com.

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