The Daily Stoic

Ryan speaks with Sarah Churchwell about her book Careless People: Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of The Great Gatsby , the complicated figure of F. Scott Fitzgerald, how The Great Gatsby’s celebration of mad dreamers who chase the American Dream informs our pursuit of the same ideal today, and more. Sarah Churchwell is professor of American Literature and Public Understanding of the Humanities...

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 wres...

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...

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...

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....

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 cha...

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 M...

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...

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 maratho...

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...

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 ar...

To the Stoics, there wasn’t anything wrong with having money. Marcus Aurelius came from money. So did Cato. Seneca came from money and also made a lot of it. In fact, pretty much all the Stoics except for Cleanthes and Epictetus were incredibly rich. Money, nice stuff , living the comfortable life…this was not necessarily the problem. 🎧 For a limited time, you can purchase  The Daily Stoic e...

Ryan speaks with his friend Steven Pressfield during an impromptu walk along Town Lake in downtown Austin, Texas. The two discuss the life experiences behind Steven’s new book Govt Cheese a memoir , the lessons that they've learned from their many mentors, the value of repurposing content, and more. Steven Pressfield wrote for 27 years before he got his first novel published. During that time he w...

Ryan speaks with Mark Manson about the new documentary based on his astronomically successful book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck , how being highly successful can ruin one’s life, what he is striving to disrupt in the self-help industry, and more. Mark Manson is a self-help blogger and the author of four books, including the New York Times Bestsellers Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope...

Francis Bacon was a brilliant philosopher whose breakthroughs reverberate through our world today. He was also a human being and a politician. Less glorious than his intellectual achievements were his travails in the public sphere, which ultimately ended in his conviction for accepting bribes. No one was more disappointed in this than Bacon, who lamented at the end of his life that he had wasted h...

In one of his letters , Seneca tells us of an old Roman pleasantry that friends would exchange when greeting each other: “If you are well,” one would say after inquiring how someone was doing, “it is well and I am also well.” It’s a nice little custom, isn’t it? If you’re good, I’m good, and everything is good. Nothing else matters. Well, Seneca took it one step further. --- In today's Daily Stoic...

Ryan speaks with Humble, the Poet about his new book How to be Love(d ), why our passions often get in the way of real love, viewing love as a service to others rather than a reward for ourselves, and more. Kanwer Singh, professionally known as Humble, the Poet, is a Canadian poet, author, YouTuber, rapper, and spoken word artist, as well as the son of immigrant Indian Punjabi Sikh parents. In 201...

Marcus Aurelius wasn’t born Marcus Aurelius (literally, his name was Marcus Catilius Severus Annius Verus). Epictetus wasn’t born a sage–to say he was would be to deprive him of the enormous credit due to a man who went from a lowly slave to a wise and powerful philosopher. No, becoming a Stoic takes work. It takes practice. 🎧 For a limited time, you can purchase  The Daily Stoic ebook for o...

When he was starting out in Hollywood, Judd Apatow began to have panic attacks. The stress of rewriting a script. Getting a film in on time. Managing all the moving pieces on a project. He felt the enormity of the pressure and like a lot of us, he took that to an irrational extreme. The Stoics would say panic, stress, and anxiety are feelings, and you can’t prevent them from happening. And if you...

We worry about the future. About who might win an election we’re closely watching. About what some foreign leader might do. About the markets and your portfolio. About the climate. It’s so uncertain, we think, unpredictable and potentially overwhelming. But is it really? In today's Daily Stoic Journal reading, Ryan explores why the Stoics viewed the soul as a sphere which is strengthened or weaken...

Ryan celebrates country living with this presentation of the first in a four-part reading of MD Usher’s translation of Princeton University Press’s How to Be a Farmer: An Ancient Guide to Life on the Land . This excerpt examines the benefits of living with nature, dealing with good and bad days on the farm, being neighborly in the country and more. Ryan’s conversation with MD Usher can be heard he...

Ryan looks back on some of the best interviews of 2022 about writing. Featuring Steven Pressfield on what it takes to build discipline and why it’s so important, Robert Greene on our natural tendency as humans to take the path of least resistance, Jack Carr on how your character impacts your work, Meg Mason on how important it is to develop taste as a writer, and Adam Hochschild on how history can...

In today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan discusses how he cultivates better habits, people with habits that he admires, and books that you can read to help improve your routine. If you want to develop better habits in your own life, check out the Daily Stoic Habits Challenge at dailystoic.com/habits . 📙 For a limited time, you can purchase  The Daily Stoic ebook for only $1.99 on Kindle ✉️ Sign...

It’s not for posterity that the Stoics sat with their journals . It wasn’t whiney self-indulgence either. They weren’t cataloging their achievements or pouring out their fantasies. They were doing important work. 📙 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...

Meditations is perhaps the only document of its kind ever made. It is the private thoughts of the world’s most powerful man giving advice to himself on how to make good on the responsibilities and obligations of his positions. Trained in Stoic philosophy, Marcus Aurelius stopped almost every night to practice a series of spiritual exercises—reminders designed to make him humble, patient, empatheti...