The Daily Stoic

People say they love learning. And sure, they pick up books and go to museums and watch documentaries, and yes, they sat through their college courses. But this is only superficial evidence of a true student. There’s a joke from Churchill where he said that yeah, he likes learning, but he hates being taught. Most of us are like that: We like learning when it’s easy, when it doesn’t challenge us. W...

On today’s episode of the Daily Stoic podcast Ryan speaks with Whitney Cummings, comedian, actress, writer, producer, director, entrepreneur, and host of the hit podcast “Good for You". In part 2 of 2 they discuss having no sense of what life is because you’re not living one, discipline is really important in the beginning but it’s important to know when to update, Rerouting addictive behavior and...

Unfortunately, it’s been happening for a long time: People doing horrible things to each other. Marcus Aurelius was betrayed . Seneca was exiled on trumped-up charges. There were Stoics who were cheated on. There were Stoics who were persecuted . Stoics who were tortured. How did they get over it? Did they get even? Get justice? The great Dr. Edith Eger (whose books we highly recommend and has bee...

We got together with family. We reminded ourselves what was important. We enjoyed the bounties of the Earth. Perhaps when we took the rolls out of the oven we noted, as Marcus Aurelius did in Meditations , the way the bread cracks open on top, a nod to nature’s inadvertence. We gave thanks. And then the next day, what did millions of people do? They rushed out to get a deal on a flat-screen televi...

In today’s audiobook reading, Ryan talks with 150 Local Business Leaders and Marketing Directors who are Twins Brand Partners about Challenges we face, Overcoming adversity in leadership roles and work life balance. ✉️ 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. 📱 Foll...

On today’s episode of the Daily Stoic podcast Ryan speaks with Whitney Cummings, comedian, actress, writer, producer, director, entrepreneur, and host of the hit podcast “Good for You". In part 1 of 2 they discuss having no sense of what life is because you’re not living one, discipline is really important in the beginning but it’s important to know when to update, Rerouting addictive behavior and...

Marcus Aurelius would have recognized the feeling you feel right now. So would Seneca and Cato and many of the other Stoics. The Romans, like Americans, loved a good feast. They loved wine. They loved breaking bread with family. We know this because their writings abound with descriptions of overflowing tables and dinners that went long into the night. But you know what doesn’t appear in their wri...

It doesn’t seem that way of course. The economy is a mess, the government is dysfunctional, the virus is still there, screwing up plans and making us sick. People are annoying. People are frustrating. Your co-worker is a jerk. Your kid just broke his arm. Everything is expensive, so expensive. This isn’t how things are supposed to be is it? Well, it’s pretty much how things have always been. Look...

It’s not that the Stoics didn’t love. It’s not that they didn’t like the nice stuff that they had or the jobs they had worked hard to earn. Of course, they liked these things and would have preferred to keep them, would have preferred a world in which fortune was less fickle, where everything lasted and no one ever grieved or missed or regretted. When Richard Feynman was in high school, he fell in...

Ryan speaks with assistant professor and MFA program at George Mason University, Timothy Denevi The economics of a book being different than the media, How much do you internalize the tumult and danger around you as a journalist, Fundamentally journalism is a form of lying and an act of aggression and his book  Freak Kingdom  ·  Hunter S .  Thompson's Manic Ten - Year Crusade A...

We have a false picture about how success happens. We often only see the results and almost never the process of things, so we tend to think that the finished product—a book, being in shape, being wise—is impressive, and therefore the process by which that event was created must have been equally brilliant. In fact, it’s not. All success happens the same way: “action by action,” as Marcus sai...

Amazon tells us that’s one of the most highlighted passages in the digital version of Stillness is the Key . It’s an idea that’s impossible to disentangle from Stoicism. Epictetus said there were things that were up to us and some things were not. Ok, but then what? Remind yourself, Marcus Aurelius writes in Meditations , that the past and the future are not in our power, only the present is. &nbs...

In today’s audiobook reading, Ryan presents an excerpt from one of the seminal texts of Stoicism, the Discourses of Epictetus, read by Michael Reid. As a series of lectures given by Epictetus that were written down by his pupil Arrian in 108 A.D., these discourses provide practical advice to think on and practice in order to move oneself closer toward the ultimate goal of living free and happy. In...

Ryan speaks with assistant professor and MFA program at George Mason University, Timothy Denevi on mastery in learning the entire playbook so that you can throw it away, How the information makes us blind to the facts, Fundamentally journalism is a form of lying and an act of aggression and his book Freak Kingdom  ·  Hunter S .  Thompson's Manic Ten - Year Crusade Against American F...

Oscar Wilde was the victim of a terrible tragedy and a terrible injustice. At the height of his artistic powers, he was thrown in jail–an awful prison which contained the germs that later killed him. It was intolerance and tyranny, plain and simple. Everything he cared about was taken from him. His family. His freedom. His work. As he sat in that dark cell, rotting, festering, angry, he had a kind...

A man walks through a field of flowing grain, the grass bending low under its own weight. The wind blows softly on a cold day. He looks and sees a small bird sitting on a branch, the steam rising off the ground behind it. The bird takes flight and he follows it with his eyes, smiling at the beauty of nature’s inadvertence. But when the man turns, you see that he is surrounded by darkness–uprooted...

Marcus Aurelius spent 14 years at war with the Marcomanni. It was a brutal, grinding campaign which he eventually won at great cost and risk. His victory was celebrated as a triumph, immortalized in a 97 foot tall marble tower which winds upward, showing in brilliant detail, "the heroic emotion and despair of Roman soldiers along with the unwavering leadership of Marcus Aurelius." And some 19 cent...

Ryan speaks with book athour & screenwriter Steven Pressfield on fewer possessions, superstition in memorabilia, the impact of working without any attachments to the outcome, and his new books  The Daily Pressfield.  Steven is an American author of historical fiction, non-fiction, and screenplays. He’s most known for The War of Art, Do The Work, Turning Pro, Gates of Fire, and G...

Seneca thought he knew Nero. He was confident in his ability to teach or contain or even control him. Other Stoics knew better. Thrasea (whose story we tell in Lives of the Stoics ) opposed him from the start. Agrippinus (another fascinating Stoic in Lives ) wouldn’t even attend Nero’s parties, because it was clear to him that the man was a tyrant. Surely these men (and women) communicated their c...

It’s fascinating to think of all these different translators sitting down and seeing this same bit of writing and having such wildly different interpretations. How much each one was a reflection of their time and place, how much room there was for personality, for re-creation, and re-imagination and yet also still, how the same essential truth comes through. So it goes with philosophy and with lif...

Epictetus taught that philosophy is a way of life and not simply a theoretical discipline. To Epictetus, all external events are beyond our control; he argues that we should accept whatever happens calmly and dispassionately. However, individuals are responsible for their own actions, which they can examine and control through rigorous self-discipline. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily...

Ryan speaks with book athour & screenwriter Steven Pressfield on fewer possessions, superstition in memorabilia, the impact of working without any attachments to the outcome, and his new books The Daily Pressfield. Steven is an American author of historical fiction, non-fiction, and screenplays. He’s most known for The War of Art, Do The Work, Turning Pro, Gates of Fire, and Government Ch...

From the outside looking in, author Philipp Meyer had the kind of success that is easy to not just be envious of, but angry about. His first two published novels, American Rust and The Son , were massive critical and commercial hits (we carry them both at The Painted Porch for good reason–they sell!). American Rust won the 2009 Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, and The Son...

Nobody wants to be criticized. It doesn’t feel good when people judge what you’ve done. We want the right people to like us , we want all people to like us. We want to be accepted, appreciated, and celebrated. So we try to be like other people, like the people that everyone likes. But in the end, does this effort pay off? No, it doesn’t. You work hard to preempt criticism, to appeal to the trends,...

John Adams' life was not an easy one. First, because it was just hard to be alive in the 18th century. It was hard to make dinner. It was hard to stay warm in the winter. It was hard to travel even short distances. It was hard to not die of the endless diseases and injuries that were so tragically common. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email:  https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail 🏛 Check out the...