The Daily Stoic

Latest Episodes:

This Predicts Everything | Show, Don't Tell May 01, 2023

Show notes

Who a person is determines what will happen and what they can do. It’s true in sports. It’s true in politics. It’s true in business. No matter how talented a person is, how great the incentives, how great the system around them—in the end, character is everything. It can’t be hidden. It can’t be compensated for. It comes out.

This is an excerpt from Ryan Holiday’s latest book The Daily Dad.

---

And in today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt reading, Ryan examines the importance of letting new ideas like Stoic philosophy germinate in your mind for some time before committing to them after first glance.

📙 If you enjoyed this passage, please consider preordering a signed and numbered first edition of The Daily Dad: 366 Meditations on Parenting, Love, and Raising Great Kids before the May 2 release.

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Control Your Emotions Apr 30, 2023

Show notes

In today's audiobook excerpt, Ryan presents his reading of the section of his own book The Obstacle is the Way entitled “Control Your Emotions,” in which he discusses why real strength lies in recognizing, understanding, and controlling one’s emotions.

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more, including The Obstacle is the Way.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Actor Alexander Ludwig on How Stoicism Helped Him Get Sober Apr 29, 2023

Show notes

Ryan speaks with Alexander Ludwig about how studying Stoicism gave him the discipline to quit drinking, the power of surrendering to the moment, pursuing mastery of the crafts of acting and songwriting, the mindset he has maintained while navigating his career, and more.

Alexander Ludwig is a Canadian actor and country musician. He is most known for his starring and supporting roles in the History Channel series Vikings and the films Bad Boys for Life, Lone Survivor, The Hunger Games, and Race to Witch Mountain. He currently stars on the series Heels. He began his acting career in commercials at the age of nine and moved into movie work shortly thereafter. As a musician, Ludwig released his self-titled EP in 2021, and then his debut album Highway 99 in 2022 via BBR Music Group. Ludwig has also participated in competitive freestyle skiing.

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Now That You Know, Do Better | Wants Make You A Servant Apr 28, 2023

Show notes

We look back on things we clearly messed up. We were too preoccupied. We were too harsh. We were wrong. We didn’t know.

And because we messed up, we feel guilty. We regret what could have been. We’re mad at ourselves. We wallow in pity or shame.

Dr. Edith Eger, the Holocaust survivor, cut through all this with her graceful bluntness on the Daily Stoic podcast recently (she’s been on twice, both episodes are must listens). “I’ll give you a sentence,” she said. “If I knew then, what I know now, I would have done things differently.”

---

And in today's excerpt from the Daily Stoic, Ryan explores why "the highest power is no power if you desire nothing."

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Make Them Do Their Own Stuff | Ask DS Apr 27, 2023

Show notes

There is a great story about a young Spartan woman, Gorgo, who would one day become queen. Despite her royal status, like all Spartans she was raised to be self-sufficient, with no frills or needless luxury. So imagine Gorgo’s surprise when she witnessed a distinguished visitor to Sparta have his shoes put on by a servant. “Look, Father,” she said innocently to her father, King Leonidas, “the stranger has no hands!” Sadly, for some of us, it could just as easily be deduced that our kids have no hands. And no brains. We put on their clothes for them. We make their decisions. We clear the road in front like a snowplow. We hover like a helicopter, just in case something goes wrong. We do everything for them. Then we wonder why they are helpless.

---

And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions from a virtual audience as part of a Stoicism Q&A session. Topics covered include the concept of the Passions, how to read the classics, the representation of the Virtues in The Gladiator, and more.

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Don’t Let Them Make You Bitter Or Mean Apr 26, 2023

Show notes

Whatever you decide to do with your life, whatever path you decide to walk, people are going to stand in your way. They’re going to doubt you. They’re going to give you bad advice. They will do you wrong. On purpose and unintentionally. They’ll lie. They’ll undermine you. They may well actively take steps to stop you.

Think about what it means to have a “disruptive” idea or business—something that promises to upend entire ways of thinking or doing things. It means you’re not just someone’s competition, you’re an existential threat. Why would anyone who faced obsolescence, then irrelevance, then oblivion, just accept that fate? Of course they’re going to put up roadblocks. Of course they’re going to resist and there is going to be conflict.

The important question is not if this is going to happen, at least according to the Stoics, it’s about how you’re going to respond to the challenge when it does.

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rachel Hollis on Empathy and Emotional Acceptance Apr 26, 2023

Show notes

In the first of a two-part discussion, Ryan speaks with Rachel Hollis about how her success has been defined by perseverance and acceptance, the importance of approaching work without arrogance, improving relationships by working to understand emotional boundaries, dealing with public criticism, and more. The second part of the discussion can be found at Rachel’s podcast, The Rachel Hollis Podcast.

Rachel Hollis is an author, podcast host, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, blogger, and mother of four. Two of her three self-help books, Girl, Wash Your Face andGirl, Stop Apologizing, have become massive worldwide bestsellers, and The Rachel Hollis Podcast inspires a wide listenership with interviews and self-help oriented content. Rachel also founded and grew her own media company, The Hollis Company, which produces books, podcasts, movies, social and live events and physical products. Her work can be found at her website msrachelhollis.com.

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Don’t Waste Your Gifts | The Secret To Better Habits in 2023 Apr 25, 2023

Show notes

There is, as we have talked about many times, a tinge of sadness in the story of Seneca. This immensely talented and wise man spent the best years of his life advising and collaborating with one of the worst emperors in history. As James Romm illustrates in his fascinating book, Dying Every Day (and you can listen to our podcast episode with James here) Seneca’s ambition, his drive, it took him fatally off track from where he should have been.

We should all see it as a cautionary tale.

---

And in today's video excerpt, Ryan outlines some of the best ways that you can have better habits in 2023.

Watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TfzaMr0Lxc

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You Can Never Do This Twice | The Freedom Of Contempt Apr 24, 2023

Show notes

The first time was revelatory. The first time you watched Mad Men. Or The Godfather. Or cracked open Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations. Or heard Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’ or listened to Fantine sing, I Dreamed a Dream from Les Mis. Or stood in front of a Caravaggio painting.

It hit you with all the power that new and brilliant art has. It shook you. It opened up something in you. It taught you something. But in some way, the power of these moments is actually overrated or at least overstated. It’s powerful because it’s new and immediate. But what’s actually more transformative is what happens when you return to those works of art, lingering as Seneca said, on the words of the master thinkers.

---

And in today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt reading, Ryan discusses how the practice of treating the luxurious things that we yearn for with contempt through thoughtful and intentional language serves to remind us of what really matters in life.

📙 The Daily Dad: 366 Lessons on Parenting, Love and Raising Great Kidsis available for preorder right now.

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more, including the a special leather edition of The Daily Stoic.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Life of Cleanthes Apr 23, 2023

Show notes

In today's audiobook reading, Ryan presents the biography of the great Stoic philosopher, boxer, and successor to Zeno of Citium as the second head of the Stoic school of Athens, Cleanthes. Written by the prolific biographer of the Greek philosophers Diogenes Laertius, this text covers Cleanthes’s early life, the inspiration he took from Zeno, his strong work ethic, and more.

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected