The Daily Stoic

On today’s Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan and Angel Parham of Loyola University New Orleans talk about the classics: how she first fell in love with them, the importance of classics in education, and what resources are available to bring them into your and your family’s lives.  Angel Parham is a professor at Loyola University New Orleans. She has studied the classics in college and beyond, and is now a...

"There are things that just set you off. There are things that happened to you that you prefer not to think about. There are the things you asked repeatedly for someone to stop. There are the things that decent people are not supposed to do and say. And yet they happen anyway. So you get upset. You get triggered." Find out how you can avoid being triggered on today's Daily Stoic Pod...

"Now, unlike any other moment in recent memory, we are being forced to reevaluate things. We’re looking at our jobs, at our finances, at the places we live. We’re looking at so many of the systems that have been set up, whether they’re governmental or cultural or familial. We’re having to ask questions about why they are what they are, how they’ve held up under the immense pressure and stress...

On today's podcast, Ryan discusses today's reading from The Daily Stoic , about how to overcome your challenges through the Stoic mindset. We also present a discussion from Ryan about how to turn tragedy into triumph. Get your copy of the leather-bound, limited edition of The Daily Stoic : https://dailystoic.com/leather *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a...

On today’s Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan and author and therapist Donald Robertson talk about the history behind Stoicism, including how the historical record treats catastrophes like the Antonine Plague and the Spanish influenza pandemic, what Marcus was feeling as he suffered through multiple tragedies while writing his Meditations , and more. Donald Robertson is a cognitive behavioral therapist and...

"Marcus Aurelius said we should get up early. But what should we do then? Seneca agreed, saying that it was important to start the day at a good hour, but what mattered was what you did next. A good start, according to the Stoics, was something that would 'shake the laziness out of [your] system.'" Find out the habit that's a perfect start to any day, in today's Daily...

"It seems terrible now. It does, of course. How could it not? Each day the number of new reported cases comes in. Each day the reports of overloaded hospitals increase. The markets continue to stumble—no, fall headfirst—into a major recession.  You’re not working. You are afraid. But this is partly because you are right in the thick of it—you are looking at it up close. If we can zoom out, ju...

"Many of us can be forgiven for having thought that this life thing was pretty easy. The last few decades have been pretty good to us. Booming economies. Great technology. Our wars have had limited impact on our populace and our recessions have been short. We were living, as one academic said after the fall of communism, after the end of history . All those tragic, bleak moments of the past…w...

On today’s Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan and author Rich Cohen talk about the ever-changing lens through which we judge historical figures, how the subjects of several of Cohen’s books reached success in the face of seemingly-insurmountable opposition, and more. Rich Cohen is a best-selling author and editor. His books range in subject matter from Jewish gangsters, the Rolling Stones, and the formatio...

"Zeno dreamed of following in his father’s footsteps, into the family business. Panaetius did the same, becoming a famous diplomat, just as he was expected to. Cicero strove, as few have ever striven, to cast aside his family’s humble origins and reach the heights of power. Seneca wanted to become the greatest writer of his age.    How do you think it felt for these Stoics to achieve what the...

"In Rome, as today, things went wrong all the time. Wars broke out. Earthquakes struck. Pandemics infected populations. In Rome, as in our time, people were constantly caught off guard by these things." Learn the exercise that the Stoics performed to prepare for disaster in today's Daily Stoic Podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Ap...

In today's episode, Ryan describes the new leather-bound edition of The Daily Stoic and reads today's entry. Get your copy of the limited leather-bound edition of The Daily Stoic : https://dailystoic.com/leather/ *** 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 more...

On today’s Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan takes a deep dive into the American Civil War with author and journalist S.C. Gwynne. They discuss the immense bloodshed of the conflict and the strategies utilized, compare the merits of its most notable political and military leaders, and more. S.C. “Sam” Gwynne is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Empire of the Summer Moon (a finalist for the Puli...

"The iron law of history is that people do dumb things.  They behave this way for many reasons: Ignorance. Fear. Bad habits. Because they’ve been corrupted. Because they are ordinary people with flaws, just like that. Because they are in pain.  There is nothing like a pandemic to put a spotlight on these people and these reasons." Ryan discusses how we should react to people who don&apos...

"It feels a little bit like things suddenly got really bad. Like the political order is not working. Like government agencies are failing. The stock market is falling. The economy turned out to be not nearly as robust as we thought.  And it’s true, these things are happening. It’s just important to remind ourselves that this is not new. It’s just that the darkness from the edge of town, the o...

"Marcus had no interest in posthumous fame. He was a private man. It’s a historical irony that today he is famous for a work of art he desperately wanted no one to see. What he really cared about was what he did in the moment, who he was as a person, how he responded to crises and difficulty. 'Just that you do the right thing,' he told himself, “the rest doesn’t matter.” That would...

Ryan speaks with sportswriter Kate Fagan about the issues surrounding physical and mental health in sports, how our society promotes sports to children and young adults, and more. Kate Fagan is a sportswriter, author, and former college basketball player. She has written the #1 New York Times best seller What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen . Previousl...

"We Stoics don’t just get a book and put it up on our shelf. We devour it. We take notes. We fold pages. We throw it in our backpacks and suitcases when we travel, it sits on the front seat of the car in case we have a few minutes. It moves with us from college to our first apartment to our first home and then, if it’s really good, perhaps, one day we’ll give it to our own children." Rya...

"As Hemingway writes in one of the most beautiful passages in A Farewell to Arms, the world eventually breaks all of us. 'Afterward,' he says, 'many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills.'" Find out about the power of antifragility in today's Daily Stoic Podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave...

Today’s Daily Stoic Sunday episode features Ryan’s talk to the NFL’s Cleveland Browns from 2019. In it, he gives the team a breakdown of Stoicism, and discusses how they can use its ideas for success on- and off-field. This episode is brought to you by Trends . Trends is the ultimate online community for entrepreneurs and business aficionados who want to know the latest news about business trends...

On today’s Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan talks with author and journalist David Epstein about the power of range, how to get the right kind of experience to be successful, and more. David Epstein is the author of #1 New York Times best seller Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World . He has previously worked as a reporter at ProPublica and Sports Illustrated and also wrote the best-selli...

"With all the change of history, with all the progress we’ve made, we’re still people. Places are still places, cultures still cultures—with all their unique tendencies, flaws, and patterns. We like to think we’re so different, that we’ve so moved on from the past, but have we?" Ryan discusses how history repeats itself, and the lesson we can draw from this, in today's Daily Stoic P...

"What has happened here is objective. A virus spread from China to countries all over the world. First to the Philippines, then to Italy and Iran, the rest of Eurasia, and beyond. While many of those countries have succeeded in flattening the curve, there are new epicenters across the globe, in the United States, Brazil, and India. States like Florida and Arizona are dealing with more virulen...

"One day, some 2000 years ago, Marcus Aurelius put up his stylus and jotted down six epithets for himself, values he said that should not be “traded” for any others. What were they? Upright. Modest. Straightforward. Sane. Cooperative. Disinterested." Ryan describes what you need to do and how you should act in order to be "born again" in today's Daily Stoic Podcast. *** If...

Ryan speaks with wellness and natural beauty expert Kimberly Snyder about the intersection of Stoicism and Eastern practices, the pursuit of simplicity, finding beauty in the natural world, and moreKimberly Snyder is an author, celebrity nutritionist, and wellness expert. Kimberly founded the lifestyle brand Solluna and has written multiple New York Times-best selling books, including one co-writt...