The Daily Stoic

Sometimes we are so stuck, so in our own heads, so down on our luck that improvement–let alone a full recovery–seems impossible. Our business has been slowing down. We’re not throwing the ball like we used to. Our significant other walked out after 20 years of marriage. What do we do? Well, first thing is we don’t despair . --- And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions about the Stoic...

Ryan speaks with Susan Sauve Meyer about the work of making ancient philosophy accessible in today’s world, the insights that she has gained from teaching philosophy to powerful and famous people, what it was like to practice philosophy in ancient Greece and Rome, in what ways Aristotle and the Stoics would have agreed and disagreed, and more. Susan Sauve Meyer is Professor and Chair of Philosophy...

Of course, it’s lovely to take a vacation. It’s lovely to go to cool places. Even on the weekend, it’s lovely to go places and do things we can’t do during the week. But Seneca tells us to be careful. He quotes Lucretius who said, “Thus each man flees himself,” then elaborates, “But to what end if he does not escape himself? He pursues and dogs himself as his own most tedious companion. And so we...

We’re supposed to put up with difficult people. We’re supposed to turn the other cheek. We’re supposed to find a way to smile through a tough situation. We’re supposed to be rational in a time of craziness and confusion. We’re supposed to be still despite the chaos . We’re supposed to be grateful for all that life gives us. Ok? But for how long? What about this exception or that one? Are we suppos...

In Walter Isaacson’s wonderful biography of Leonardo Da Vinci , he spends a lot of time dissecting and exploring the ideas in Da Vinci’s notebooks. As Isaacson observed of Da Vinci’s lifelong habit of journaling : “Five hundred years later, Leonardo’s notebooks are around to astonish and inspire us. Fifty years from now, our own notebooks, if we work up the initiative to start them, will be around...

Marcus Aurelius’s father died when he was young. But then this young boy who was cursed by tragedy received a great gift. A gift that all children who have received it know to be one of the most incredible things in the world: a loving step-father. Ernest Renan wrote that, more than his teachers and tutors, “Marcus had a single master whom he revered above them all, and that was Antoninus.” All hi...

Ryan speaks with Sam Gwynne about his new book His Majesty’s Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World's Largest Flying Machine , the triumph of hope over experience, why progress is based in irrationality, the fascinating history of the zeppelin, and more. Sam Gwynne is a writer, journalist, and historian. After earning a bachelor’s degree in history from Princeton University and a master’s...

The rarest thing in the world is wisdom. The most expensive thing in the world is experience. How many truly wise people have you met? How many of them would take the time to download to you all that they know? And of the small amount of wisdom you have accumulated in your life, how much painful trial and error did it take to get it? There is really only one shortcut or hack around this. It is the...

Cato fought a losing battle. He was trying to preserve a Republic that was old and creaky in a rapidly changing world. He was trying to be honest and good in a political world in which corruption was the norm–clinging to idealism, as Cicero said, and refusing to accept that reality was the ‘dregs of Romulus.’ Cato was going up against the most insatiable of foes, the ambition, the ego of a future...

Ryan speaks with Brett Crozier about his new book Surf When You Can: Lessons in Life, Loyalty, and Leadership from a Maverick Navy Captain , what it felt like to go against his orders to save the lives of his sailors, the tensions between being a part of a system and doing the right thing, the importance of learning something new every day, and more. Brett Crozier is a retired captain in the Unite...

No one likes to be found at fault. In fact, this is what many of us walk around fearing–that we’ll be exposed as imposters, we’ll be put on the spot in front of people, we’ll have to admit error . This makes us defensive, it makes us play it safe, and in some cases, it even makes us dishonest. It’s a cure, you could say, that’s worse than the disease. --- And in today's Daily Stoic video excerpt,...

Today the United States celebrates Juneteenth, the commemoration of the emancipation of slaves in America. Two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and nearly 90 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Union Army troops deployed to Texas, the only state of the Confederacy still with institutional slavery, on June 19, 1865. “The people of Texas are...

Jordan Harbinger is a podcaster, radio personality, entrepreneur and longtime friend of Ryan’s. So when he invited Ryan to come to The West in LA to join him for a live conversation for his podcast, The Jordan Harbinger Show , Ryan jumped on a plane right away. This is that conversation, in which they discuss how they find their flow states, the ins and outs of teaching Stoicism, cultivating a hea...

Ryan speaks with Matthew McConaughey in the second of a two-part interview about his new course: Roadtrip – the Highway to More , the importance of being close to the ones you love, the sense of oneness that comes with zooming out your lens, why he is striving to be less impressed and more involved, and more. Matthew McConaughey has been working in Hollywood for over 25 years, appearing in acclaim...

One day everything is easy. The next, everything that can go wrong, does . One minute, everyone tells you you’re great. The next, they’ve all ganged up against you. Life is too short…and interminably long. Things move insanely fast…and also take forever. Look at Marcus Aurelius’ life. He loses his father…and is then adopted by two powerful stepfathers. He’s suddenly thrust into power…then forced t...

Seneca should have owned up to it. We’ve talked about this. He was 13 years in Nero’s service before he broke with the clearly broken emperor. It is to Seneca’s credit that he walked away. More to his credit still that he was at least partly involved in the Piso Conspiracy to unseat Nero , as we talked about recently (and is also told at length in Lives of the Stoics ). But where in Seneca’s volum...

Ryan speaks with Matthew McConaughey in the first of a two-part interview about the philosophy behind his bestselling memoir Greenlights , how he aims to help teach people unique ways improve their lives with his new course: Roadtrip – the Highway to More , what he learned from his recent terrifying flight experience, why being truly selfish is actually selfless, how he strikes a balance between l...

So much happens in life. There is so much happening. Forget macro events—there are dogs that get sick in the middle of the night. There are trips that need to be made to the store. There are unpleasant conversations to have. Bills that somebody has to pay. Dishes to be done. Hard decisions to make. Most people’s reaction—especially when those macro events are stressing them out on top of everythin...

Technology is advancing rapidly. While every generation has felt like it was impossible to keep up, today it really is mindblowing to try to understand everything that’s happening on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence, machine learning, quantum computing, biotechnology, the blockchain, virtual and augmented reality, and on and on. World events and trends continue to accelerate too. Perhap...

In the first century AD, few would have argued that Epictetus was the most powerful person in Rome. Few would have argued that this lowly slave possessed any power at all–in fact, the name said it all: Epictetus means acquired one. Yet what philosophy helped Epictetus come to understand was that it was actually Nero and the other ‘powerful’ men and women of the time who were the slaves. They were...

In today's audiobook reading, Ryan narrates a section of his own New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling book Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius , which he wrote with Stephen Hanselman. With this section, Ryan starts from the very beginning by profiling the founder of Stoicism, Zeno of Citium. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/...

Ryan speaks with Troy Baker about how practicing Stoicism enriches the life of the artist and the parent, why gratitude is so much more beneficial than comparison, why one of the biggest goals of life is to be okay with death, how a bad breakup and a Comic Con led him to Stoicism, why he cried reading Meditations for the first time, and more. Troy Baker is a voice actor and musician. Since startin...

The Stoics accepted that life could be cruel and random. They knew people were stupid and annoying . They did not deny that death was ever present . You might think the result of these beliefs was a dark and dour worldview. Certainly, many critics of the Stoics have registered that–or potential fans of the Stoics have turned away after a few passages of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations or Epictetus’ w...

Here’s a way to feel good every single day, no matter what happens. A way to appreciate even a day stuck in the airport or putting out fires. It’s an exercise from Seneca. A person who wraps up each day as if it were the end of their life , who meditates on their mortality in the evening, Seneca believed, has a super power when they wake up. --- And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questio...

Ryan speaks with Peter Singer about the tenth anniversary edition of his book The Life You Can Save , why he finds freedom in resisting attachment to material objects, the power of monetary donation to aid people and animals around the world, practical ways that we can help others, and more. Peter is an Australian professor of moral philosophy who specializes in applied ethics. He is the Ira W. De...