The Daily Stoic

Latest Episodes:

Lean Into Their Strengths Rather Than Disdain Their Weaknesses Jan 25, 2023

Show notes

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

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more, including the Premium Leather Edition of the Daily Stoic Journal.

📱 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.

Come Back To The Rhythm | A Stoic Idea Worth Tattooing On Your Body Jan 24, 2023

Show notes

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 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andypho/

We’re launching Session 2 of the New Year New You Challenge on February 1st! Enroll now to secure your spot or gift it to a friend.

✉️ 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 Premium Leather Edition of the Daily Stoic Journal.

📱 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 Abuse This Power | A Little Better Every Day Jan 23, 2023

Show notes

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, Ryan explores the Stoic idea of bettering oneself with small steps every day by reflecting on quotes from Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius.

✉️ 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 Premium Leather Edition of the Daily Stoic Journal.

📱 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.

How Cato’s Deadly Rivalry With Caesar Destroyed Rome Jan 22, 2023

Show notes

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 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.

Molly Bloom on Turning Down 5 Million Dollars Jan 21, 2023

Show notes

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, and former Olympic class skier. After her competitive skiing career was derailed by injury, Molly became a bartender at the Viper Room in Los Angeles. She eventually started an event and catering company to host high-stakes poker tournaments, which attracted wealthy people, sports figures, and Hollywood celebrities. In 2013, she was sentenced as part of a $100 million money laundering and illegal sports gambling operation and served one year of probation with a $200,000 fine, and 200 hours of community service. Her story was turned into a 2017 film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin. Molly’s speaking and entrepreneurial work focuses on inspiring and educating people on how to become top performers.

✉️ 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.

It’s Just Happening | Ask Daily Stoic Jan 20, 2023

Show notes

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 mother, who had always been unhappy and resentful, goes into recovery and stops drinking. With time, she comes to realize that she had been living life as if it was happening to her. The adversity. The losses. The frustrations. The disappointments. In actuality, none of this happened to her. It was just happening. It just was.

In today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions after a presentation about applying Stoic principles to modern life. His answers cover which books about or by Marcus Aurelius you should read, and the events in Ryan's life that brought him closer to Stoicism.

✉️ 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.

Are You In Touch With Your Future? | Wherever You Go, There Your Choice Is Jan 19, 2023

Show notes

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 people he said, “some in a hundred years, but all sooner or later will die.”

In today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt, Ryan examines the power of choice through the Epictetus quote: "A podium and prison is each a place, one high and the other low. But in each place your freedom of choice is to be maintained if you so wish."

✉️ 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 Know You’ve Made This Mistake Jan 18, 2023

Show notes

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 people in ordinary ways.

✉️ 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.

Champion Distance Runner Lauren Fleshman on the Power of Sport Jan 18, 2023

Show notes

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 went on to become the U.S. 5000 meters champion in 2006 and 2010, as well as a top-ten finisher in the 2011 IAAF World Championships. After her running career, Lauren became Co-Founder and Brand Director of a gluten and dairy free energy bar company, Picky Bars, as well as the Co-Founder of Believe I Am, a business creating sport psychology tools for female athletes. She has also Co-Authored the Believe Training Journal as a resource for runners. Her work can be found at www.laurenfleshman.com.

🎧 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

🏛 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.

A Person Without Boundaries Is Not a Person | 7 Stoic Keys To Happiness Jan 17, 2023

Show notes

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 on your quest to live the virtuous life.

📔 Visit The Painted Porch for signed copies of Discipline is Destiny.

✉️ 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