The Daily Dad

“The last pages of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road are about the hardest thing any father will ever have to read. The man is dying. He knows it. He knows it means leaving his boy alone—alone in a terrible world. He knows he has just a few minutes left to teach, to prepare his son for life without him. What does he does? What does he say?” Using this example from Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” Ryan expla...

“As we’ve said before, people have been complaining of the next generation...since well, generations. It’s an old cliche: There’s something wrong with our kids and their friends. They’re missing something. Ugh.” Ryan explains the tired cliche of complaining about the lack of understanding in younger generations, on today’s Daily Dad podcast. This episode was brought to you by Magic Spoon . Magic S...

“When you think of your own school days, what do you think of? What do the days at school of your own children look like? Certainly, very different from what school was ever intended or imagined to be. The root word of school— scholé— in Greek refers to the idea of leisure. It’s supposed to be a place of reflection.” Ryan discusses how we’ve distorted  the nature of children's education throughout...

Today’s episode features clips from some of the best interviews about parenting from The Daily Stoic Podcast . Ryan talks to Jessica Lahey, Angel Parham, Brett McKay, and Dr. Harvey Karp about letting your kids fail, reading the classics to them, teaching them hope and decency, and how to approach parenting from a philosophical perspective. This episode is brought to you by Ritual , a multivitamin...

“There’s been some iconic father-son moments in sports history. Tiger hugging his son Charlie after winning the Masters. Drew Brees lifting up his son Baylen after winning the Super Bowl. Michael Phelps running to kiss his son Boomer after making Olympic history. Now there is a new one.” Ryan explains how even amidst your greatest achievements, all that you want is what you already have, on today’...

“Life is easy now. We should just let them enjoy it right? Before they have to work for a living. Before they have to care about what’s going on in the world. While they can do whatever they want, while they can get away with eating whatever they want, and all the innocent freedoms that children are blessed with.” Ryan discusses why you should be sure that your kids are ready for the harsh reality...

“They have questions. You have answers. That’s how this works? Sure, if you want to be a human form of a Google Search.” Ryan explains why you should let your kids figure things out on their own, on today’s Daily Dad podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the mo...

“The novelist John Steinbeck used to write his novels with pencils. In 1952, he was wearing himself out writing his greatest novel, East of Eden. He was also wearing down his pencils, one by one, as the words poured out.” Ryan discusses how the mundane can become treasure, but only if you look for it, on today’s Daily Dad podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave...

“When you were younger, you were brash. You didn’t take crap. You didn’t keep quiet. If you disagreed, or didn’t like something, you said something. We hated hypocrites. We shook our head at the compromises that we saw older people make. We laughed at them for the way they settled. We were angry with our parents for their political and social beliefs. We were idealistic. They were conservative. It...

On today’s episode, Ryan has a wide-ranging conversation with professor and economist Emily Oster. They talk about how to balance your life with children, how to communicate positive messaging, how the American government handled the pandemic, and more. Emily Oster is a professor of economics at Brown University, as well as the bestselling author of several books. Her most recent book, Cribsheet ,...

“Some parents want their kids to know how to read. We want more than that. We want our kids to be obsessed. We want them to hunger for books. We want them to read like they’re on a mission.” Ryan explains why you should teach your children to find great joy and insight in reading, on today’s Daily Dad podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Pod...

“Florence Nightingale was a precocious child. As a toddler, she always went her own way. Then, unlike many girls her age at the time, she wasn’t interested in parties or getting married or fancy things. She wanted to do something different with her life.” Learn how the life of Florence Nightingale should teach you to let your kids grow into who they were meant to be, on today’s Daily Dad podcast....

“No person has a perfect track record. Certainly, no parent does. We all mess up. We all fall short. We get our priorities wrong. We make mistakes. We lose our temper and our patience. We all handle certain situations in ways we wish we hadn’t.” Ryan discusses why holding onto your past mistakes is a recipe for disaster, and why you should always strive to get better, on today’s Daily Dad podcast....

“When Cato’s son Marcus fell at the second battle of Philippi in 42 BCE, his final act was to shout his father’s name. When Cato’s daughter Porcia wanted to prove her mettle to the conspirators as they plotted against Caesar, she simply told her husband, ‘I am Cato’s daughter.’” Ryan explains why you should live the principles and values that you want your children to live up to, on today’s Daily...

“It is obvious, in retrospect, why some of the towering figures of the 20th century were who they were. Stalin. Hitler. Mao. Even Churchill. They had formative, even horrible childhoods that propelled them to seek power, made them ruthless and cunning, ambitious and even the worst of them, brilliant at times.” Learn why your kids don’t have to come from painful circumstances to be great, on today’...

Ryan speaks with Dr. Harvey Karp, a parenting expert and inventor of the SNOO Sleep System, about how people prepare for parenthood, the benefits of seeking out parenting expertise, and more. Dr. Harvey Karp is a pediatrician and the creator of the SNOO Sleep System. Dr. Karp is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and teaches pediatrics at USC’s Keck School of Medicine. He has achieved...

“The writer Susan Straight was helping her mother move, when she found an old painting thrown in the trash can. Sensing that this wasn’t something that her mother had bought, she asked her about it. ‘I took a painting class at the YMCA,’ her mother explained. ‘Then I found a book—teach yourself to paint. My mother was an artist. She made beautiful sketches of our garden and our house in Switzerlan...

“You’re a patient person. You don’t get road rage. You don’t snap at your employees. You accept apologies when offered. You treat strangers well. Because these are the rules of polite society. Because this is the secret to success in business and life.” Ryan discusses how proximity affects how you treat people, and why you should learn to control your temper, on today’s Daily Dad podcast. *** If y...

“Maybe your kid is into weird stuff. Maybe their heavy metal band sucks--or their talents as a white MC are almost offensive. Maybe you can’t stand the shows they like, or maybe their dream is an unlikely one at best.” Learn why you should cheer your kids on while nurturing and respecting their interests, on today’s Daily Dad podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to le...

“We all know that what we went through in life is what made us who we are. The breakups, the failures, the losses and the mistakes. Some of us grew up poor. Others grew up rich but with absent parents. Others grew up around addiction or dysfunction.” Ryan discusses the delicate balance between protecting and restraining your children, on today’s Daily Dad podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s po...

“When Charles Lindbergh was thinking about attempting the first transatlantic flight, he ran into an issue. It wasn’t that he had very little money. It wasn’t that he was a nobody. It wasn’t even that he hadn’t flown more than a few hours in one stop before. It wasn’t even that others who had tried it had died.” Ryan discusses the one skill that that transcends all others, and why you must show it...

On today's long episode of the Daily Dad Podcast, Ryan and Nils talk about how to create and maintain the right environment in your home—one where your kids are always happy to hear you coming home from work.  The Stoic Parent is a 10-day course that will help you become the best parent you can be. Each day you receive a new challenge with exercises and advice that will guide you to raising your k...

“As you’ve gotten older, it’s been harder to deny: People can be awful. Institutions let you down. The world will break your heart. There is such thing as evil. There is too much of it out there.” Learn why it’s okay to protect your kids from the evil in the world, so long as you sell them on this, on today’s Daily Dad podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a r...

“You love them. It feels good to get them things. It feels good to spoil them even. Especially if you’re someone who works a lot, who feels guilty about mistakes they’ve made, who carry wounds from their own childhood.” Ryan discusses the delicate balancing act that you must practice, even when showing your kids affection, on today’s Daily Dad podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d...

“Like any reasonable adult, you’ve got opinions about the world. How the country should be run. What courage looks like in a politician. What a great coach does, what’s expected of an athlete in crunchtime, what loyalty they owe to the team. Maybe you think budgets should be balanced, maybe you really admire the boldness of certain entrepreneurs and think the world needs more of them.” Ryan explai...