The Daily Stoic

Rosa Parks wasn’t just some lady who happened to make a stand on a bus one day. She was trained. She had attended NAACP meetings for years. She had gone to the Highlander Folk School, which cultivated a generation of activists. In his fascinating book Waging a Good War , Tom Ricks (who has a must-listen-to interview on the Daily Stoic podcast ) explains, “Each Highlander training session of one or...

He buried too many children. He was betrayed by those closest to him. He dealt with health issues. He was surrounded by the corrupt and inept and endlessly ambitious. He saw plagues and floods and war. So yeah, there is a hint of world weariness in Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations . It would be stranger if that didn’t color his writing. While critics are wrong to call Marcus depressing or negative, he...

Ryan speaks with Martha Nussbaum about her new book Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility , the problems that can arise with the Stoic focus on the internal over the external, how the loss of her daughter taught her what to dedicate the rest of her life to, why animals should be considered citizens of a society, the actions that Martha is personally taking to protect animal rights, an...

How would you describe someone who lies to you? Who riles you up? Who makes you anxious and afraid? Who questions whether you’re good enough? Who has preposterous blindspots and disturbing biases? Who prods you to suspect the worst of others? Who tricks you into doing things you’ll regret? Who encourages your worst impulses? But this is what our mind does to us on a daily basis ! ✉️ Sign up for th...

We know at least one of the Stoics was a runner. Chrysippus ran the dolichos , a grueling three-mile loop consisting of approximately 24 stadium length wind sprints. Epictetus’s leg injury probably precluded much in the way of running, but he was clearly an avid sports fan and his lectures abound with metaphors to prove it. Yet the Stoics relationship to athletics was slightly different than your...

In the demands of daily life, in the immediacy of a heightened moment, in the pincering crush of competing interests—we rarely make good decisions. Whether it’s because we don’t have all the information, or we are biased by impressions, or we are blinded by emotions …it doesn’t really matter. What matters is the virtuousness of the decisions we make. --- And in today's excerpt reading from the Dai...

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...

While on tour for his new book The Daily Dad: 366 Meditations on Parenting, Love, and Raising Great Kids , Ryan met up with his longtime friend and occasional running partner Casey Neistat for a live interview at Barnes & Noble in Union Square during which they shared the story of how they met, reflections and wisdom they have gleaned from their journeys through parenthood, the work and life h...

Part of the reason we’re afraid of things is that we’re unfamiliar. We don’t know what it’s like to bomb on stage in front of people, but it seems bad–so we avoid any scenario where something like that might happen. We’ve been turned down or blown off once or twice, asking someone out, asking for help, and it was unpleasant enough that we decided we did not want to explore those feelings any furth...

In  Richard III  and in  Othello , Shakespeare has two different characters utter the same line. Both Iago and a nameless orphan say, “I cannot think it.” In both cases, the news they are faced with—the conclusion they are being asked to accept—is simply too much. The Shakespearean scholar, Richard Greenblatt, calls this phrase a kind of motto for those who can’t wrap their mind aro...

Ryan speaks with Melinda Moyer about how the death of her family dog became an opportunity to teach her children about emotions, why feelings of powerlessness led her to write her best-selling book How To Raise Kids Who Aren’t Assholes , why encouraging curiosity is a fantastic way to help kids grow up with positive outlooks on life, and more. Melinda Moyer is a journalist and author whose work fo...

People will take things from you (as we talked about recently with Epictetus and his lamp ). People will betray you–as Marcus Aurelius was by his most trusted general, Avidius Cassius. People will lie, they will cheat, they will break the rules, they will blow apart the mos morium as Cato knew all too well. This will be painful. It may even be costly. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://...

It’s one of the great moments in the history of comedy. At Comedy Central Presents: The Roast of Bob Saget, the comedian Norm Macdonald is up roasting his friend, Bob Saget and the rest of the panel. Yet instead of doing what nearly every other comedian has done in the history of roasts, Norm goes on stage and basically bombs on purpose, telling a series of inane and mediocre jokes that he may or...

In the early days of the pandemic, many of us picked up new hobbies and habits. We started taking walks. We started cooking for ourselves. Some of us stopped drinking. Some of us started doing 50 pushups when we woke up. Some of us stopped watching the news or quit Twitter. As we talked about recently though, that time feels very far away. Some of those habits and practices, certainly the energy w...

In today’s audiobook reading, Ryan narrates the chapter on Seneca the Striver from his own best-selling guide to all the major Stoics, Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius . As one of the seminal figures of Stoicism, Seneca the Younger led a fascinating and hugely influential life full of the peaks and valleys that come with a relentless pursuit of greatness.  ✉...

Ryan continues the second in his two-part discussion with Rachel Hollis about what she learned from the public backlash that she received from an instagram video, how she is currently living her definition of success, why her key to being a good parent is communicating honestly and openly, and more. Part one can be heard here: dailystoic.com/rachel-hollis-on-empathy-and-emotional-acceptance  ...

Life may have big challenges in store for us. What’s more certain, as we talked about recently, is the ‘petty hazards of the day.’ We may find ourselves thrust in some crisis–a big political moment or some emergency that unfolds in front of us on the street. We will definitely experience traffic and obnoxious people and temptation and burnout. It’s important we understand that whether the moment i...

It doesn't matter how important you are. It doesn't matter how much money you have. It doesn't matter how used to getting your way you are, or how much you have planned and prepared. A single driver can decide to slow down lanes of traffic and lines of cars. A single bureaucrat can decide not to accept your paperwork, not to approve your application. One person with a grudge can tie you up in mont...

Ryan speaks with Andrew Wehrman about his new book The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution , how and why responses to health emergencies in the past are strangely similar to those of today, how major historical events always coincide with medical events of the day, the wisdom that studying history can impart on us, and more. Andrew Wehrman is a historian, auth...

For years, the Stoics had fought. First, they fought moral and spiritual decay, trying to preserve Rome’s traditions in the midst of all their success. Then they fought, as Cato did, to keep the Republic intact as Caesar attempted to overthrow it. They fought later, in a ragtag group known as the Stoic Opposition, against a series of tyrannical and deranged emperors. The Stoics did not win al...

The fact that America exists is the ultimate argument that Stoicism is not apathy and that philosophy is not mere theory. Because without Stoicism, it’s possible there would have been no revolution, no Constitution, no Bill of Rights and no Fourth of July. Thomas Jefferson kept a copy of Seneca on his nightstand. George Washington staged a reproduction of a play about Cato at V...

Life may have big challenges in store for us. What’s more certain, as we talked about recently, is the ‘petty hazards of the day.’ We may find ourselves thrust in some crisis–a big political moment or some emergency that unfolds in front of us on the street. We will definitely experience traffic and obnoxious people and temptation and burnout. It’s important we understand that whether the moment i...

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. Th...

Ryan speaks with Garland Robinette about the brain-altering effects of chasing dopamine, how he has coped with his morally injurious experience serving in Vietnam, his movie-like life and career path, why working in broadcast forced him to let go of his ego, the deep sense of peace and purpose that painting gives him, and more. Garland Robinette is an artist and former journalist, television news...

Nearly every day was a terror. People died of easily curable diseases. People starved to death. People were clapped into slavery. Wars broke out–fought literally to the knife–where the losers were executed alongside civilian populations…their cities razed to the ground. Seneca was exiled. Marcus Aurelius buried his own children. Epictetus was tortured, leaving him disabled for life. Yet somehow th...