In the year 165 AD, a plague began to break out in Rome. Brought back from the far eastern corners of the empire, the virus spread from person to person, house to house, until nearly all of Rome was overwhelmed.The doctors could not keep up. Neither could the morticians or the grave diggers. Rome’s economy was devastated. Millions died, millions fled. And the plague simply dragged on, year after year, without serious respite for over a decade.As we reflect now on this third anniversary of our own plague, it’s worth evaluating what you may or may not have been infected with. Marcus broke into tears whenever the victims of the pestilence were mentioned–he knew how much had been lost, literally and figuratively. It’s important, whatever the future holds, that we do not needlessly add ourselves to that casualty list.---And in today's Daily Stoic reading, Ryan ruminates on the importance of balancing the philosophy of study with applying it to real life experiences. After all, philosophy is what you do, not something you say.✉️  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, including the Premium Leather Edition of Meditations.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We get so used to having our way. We live in a time when the skies have been conquered. When so many diseases have been vanquished. When technology allows us to do and have things that were inconceivable even just a generation ago.Consequently the eternal battle for our attention, between the things we control and the things we don’t, becomes even harder for us to wage. The lessons and warnings the Stoics have issued to us across the centuries about this perpetual internal fight, begin to feel like they belong to a different age, like they are meant for people who are fundamentally different from us.This is how skewed our collective sense of self has become.---And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions about how Marcus Aurelius dealt with Commodus's derangement, why the Stoics could be so socially "advanced" in some areas and so "behind" in others, how we can best line up the time when we are the most effective with the work that most needs to be done, and more.✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The busier we get, the more we work, even the more that we learn and read, the further we tend to drift from our center. We get in a rhythm. We’re making money, being creative, we’re stimulated and busy. It seems like everything is going well. But if we’re not careful, those other things grow and grow until they take over completely; and what once felt like a rhythm now feels like a rut.It’s true for us now just as it was true for Marcus Aurelius. He had an awful lot to keep him busy, to distract him, to push him further and further, which in turn afforded him less and less time for that which really mattered to him: philosophy. We get a good sense of how he thought about his priorities with this analogy in Book 6 of Meditations:“If you had a stepmother and a real mother, you would pay your respects to your step mother, yes…but it’s your real mother you’d go home to.The court…and philosophy: Keep returning to it, to rest in its embrace. It’s all that makes the court — and you — endurable.”✉️ 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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Steve Scott about his book Hey, Tiger―You Need to Move Your Mark Back: 9 Simple Words that Changed the Game of Golf Forever, why having integrity is such a crucial part of being a good athlete and human being, the cautionary tale of Tiger Woods, and more.Steve Scott is an American former professional Golfer and the current PGA Head Golf Professional of The Outpost Club and Founder of the Silver Club Golfing Society. The defining moment of his career came during his competition against Tiger Woods in the 1996 Amateur Golf Championships. Scott found himself a surprising 5‐up after the first 18, but on the 35th hole Tiger squared the grueling match with an improbable 40‐foot birdie putt. With the result coming down to the last hole, the difference in the outcome actually came earlier, when Scott reminded Woods to move his mark back to its rightful place on the 34th hole. Had Scott not done the morally correct thing, Tiger would have been penalized and, in turn, not gone on to have his legendary career. Since retiring from playing golf, Steve has become a golf teacher, instructor, speaker, and broadcaster. His work can be found at his website stevescottpga.com, and on instagram @sscottpga.✉️ 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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We like to think that someday, things will be slower, more peaceful. That we’ll get a break. That after the holidays, after this busy season, then we’ll be able to get serious–about that thing we needed to think about, about that exercise we wanted to start doing, about taking that vacation. Once I get away from the city, from the office, then I can relax, we tell ourselves.It’s never going to happen. You are fooling yourself. You are fooling yourself as people have always fooled themselves.---Today, Ryan also shares six Stoic lessons that you can learn and apply to feel more tranquil, free, and at peace. No matter who you are or where you’re from.✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

People probably thought Marcus Aurelius was strange. The time he spent alone in his room. The long walks he took by himself. We know they thought it was strange that he was seen reading and writing in the Colosseum, ignoring the carnage of the games below.“The world today does not understand, in either man or woman,” Anne Morrow Lindbergh writes in Gift from the Sea, “the need to be alone.” Perhaps we ourselves don’t understand it. We don’t quite see the point. Or as much as we enjoy it, we don’t see it as much of a priority. As we discussed over at Daily Dad in an email recently, parents will manage to make time for so many things…but quiet time by or for themselves is written off as an impossible indulgence.---And in today's Daily Stoic Journal reading, Ryan examines the importance of cultivating a safe and free place to retreat to inside of your own mind.✉️ 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, including the Stillness Key.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In today’s episode, Ryan presents an excerpt from The Tao Of Seneca produced by Tim Ferriss’ Audio. In this letter, Seneca talks about examining the causes of our fear, the unavoidable threat of death, and more. 📖 Check out the PDF of The Tao of Seneca for free and the Penguin Edition of Seneca’s Letters at the Painted Porch. ✉️ 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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Rob Dyrdek about finding happiness and fulfillment by managing his time and energy in more intentional ways, transitioning from self-preservation to generational preservation, how journaling and applying Stoic principles has changed his life for the better, and more.Rob Dyrdek is an American entrepreneur, actor, producer, reality TV personality, and former professional skateboarder. He is best known for creating and hosting the MTV reality and variety shows Rob & Big, Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory, and Ridiculousness. In 2016, he founded the Dyrdek Machine, a business investment firm and incubator that targets startups. In 2021, Dyrdek started the business-focused podcast, Build with Rob, and he also founded the Do-Or-Dier Visionary Foundation, a non-profit organization aimed at providing entrepreneurship opportunities to underrepresented youth.✉️ 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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meditations, you could say, is Marcus Aurelius exploring himself. That’s literally what the title means–the book isn’t for you and I, it’s “things to one’s self,” to himself. He’s exploring his fears, his desires, his flaws, his virtues.That’s the journey that philosophy took Marcus on. Since he was a young man until right before his death, he was exploring himself, trying to understand himself and his nature better.But what about you? How well do you know ‘the backroads of the self,’ as Marcus calls them in Book 4.---And in today's Daily Stoic excerpt reading, Ryan explores the idea that what you buy, consume, and wear is not what defines who you are. It's ours habits, choices, and actions that do.✉️  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, including the Leather Cover Edition of the Daily Stoic Journal.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

One of the criticisms of the Stoics is that they left certain things unaddressed. Nowhere in Seneca’s writings, for instance, does he directly address Nero or criticize him by name. Even after he left Nero’s service, as the man spiraled out of control, Seneca stuck with the code that General Mattis would stick with centuries later–keeping their opinions about the administration they once served to themselves. Marcus Aurelius, most scholars deduce, was not a fan of Seneca’s actions while serving Nero–yet deduction is all we’re able to do, because nowhere does Marcus criticize Seneca. All we’re left with is a conspicuous absence in Meditations.---And in today's Ask DS, Ryan presents part two of his Q&A sessions with a team of doctors about his morning routine, how the study of history can be both grounding and elevating, his feelings about modern life and technology, and more.✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today marks the anniversary of the death of one of humanity’s greatest specimens. On March 17th, 180, in what is now modern day Vienna, Emperor Marcus Aurelius breathed his last breath and died. We don’t know exactly what his last words were. Cassius Dio claims that Marcus spoke his last sentence to his guard, saying to him, “Go to the rising sun, for I am setting.” Given the incredible legacy of the man, these words ring somewhat insufficiently.✉️ 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, including the Premium Leather Edition of the Gregory Hays translation of Meditations.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Bozoma Saint John about her new book The Urgent Life: My Story of My Story of Love, Loss, and Survival, how intense personal traumas have shifted her perspective on life, why the best legacy to leave behind is to have treated people well, viewing grief as a choice, and more.Bozoma Saint John is an American businessperson and marketing executive who has served as the Chief Marketing Officer at Netflix, CMO at Endeavor, Chief Brand Officer at Uber, a Marketing Executive at Apple Music and Beats Music, Head of Music and Entertainment Marketing at PepsiCo. She has also served as an ambassador for the African Diaspora, special envoy to the President of Ghana, and philanthropic ambassador to Pencils of Promise, and was named among the Top 50 Most Influential Female Leaders in Africa within the corporate and business sphere by Leading Ladies Africa. A series of personal tragedies that culminated in the death of Bozoma’s husband to cancer in 2013 prompted her to embrace her life by living urgently. Now, she lectures around the world on that theme. You can find Bozoma’s work at theurgentlife.com and on Twitter @badassboz.✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There’s a lot of things to try to do in your life. You should feel the ecstasy of falling in love. You should try to catch the sunrise on one coast, and the sunset on another on the same day. You should feel the pride of *mastery* in your chosen line. You should experience the joy of raising children. The thrill of victory. The agony of defeat.Plenty of people who were not Stoics have chased these accomplishments and known them. It’s part of what makes life livable, fun, and wonderful. But meaningful? No, the meaning has to come from something more, something deeper.---And Ryan presents some of his favorite Stoic quotes read from the Daily Stoic Page-A-Day Desk Calendar.📗 Check out Tyler Cowan's Average is Over.✉️ 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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Marcus Aurelius was strict with himself. He slept on a hard mattress. He didn’t drink or eat to excess. He didn’t have affairs or lose his temper. Cato was strict with himself too. He didn’t wear fancy clothes or live a life of ease.But what’s remarkable about both these men, given this strictness, is the love and affection they both had for their brothers–who had very different approaches to life.---And in today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt, Ryan discusses the importance of questioning our own perspective while trying to understand and empathize with others'.✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today, Ryan presents the second and third of six readings of Cicero's Stoic Paradoxes. Cicero was considered Rome’s greatest politician, and he has survived as one of history’s most enduring chroniclers of Stoic philosophy and the Stoics themselves. As Ryan explains in Lives of the Stoics, these paradoxes are designed to question commonly held beliefs in order to promote reflection and discussion. In his second and third paradox, Cicero interrogates the ideas that “virtue is sufficient for happiness” and “all vices and all virtues are equal,” respectively.✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Carli Lloyd about the intense discipline that it takes to be a professional athlete at the highest level, how she was able to bounce back from being cut from the Women’s National Under-21 team, how Stoicism informed her soccer career, and more.Carli Lloyd is a former American professional Soccer player who retired in 2021. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion, two-time FIFA Player of the Year, and a four-time Olympian (2008, 2012, 2016 and 2021). Lloyd scored the gold medal-winning goals in the finals of the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics. Lloyd also helped the United States win their titles at the 2015 and 2019 FIFA Women's World Cups, the bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics, and she played for the team at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup where the U.S. finished in second place. She currently stars on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test on Fox.✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There’s an old joke: When the Gods wish to punish us, they give us everything we’ve ever wanted. Look at most people who win the lottery. Look at most famous people. Look at most world leaders. To borrow an expression from one particularly unhappy world leader, what do they look like? They look like they’re tired of winning. Because winning isn’t actually as fun as it seemed like it would be...and most of what we want to win turns out to not really be worth it.This was Marcus Aurelius’ point.--And in today's Daily Stoic excerpt reading, Ryan discusses the importance of having a great and noble person in our minds at all times to help guide our actions by examining this quote from Seneca's Moral Letters: "We can remove most sins if we have a witness standing by as we are about to go wrong. The soul should have someone it can respect by whose example it can make its inner sanctum more inviolable. Happy is the person who can improve others, not only when present, but even when in their thoughts."📔 You can check out How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life at the Painted Porch.✉️ 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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We’ve said before that a Stoic focuses on what they control. That is the essence of Epictetus’s teachings, after all. You put your energy where you can make an impact and you ignore the rest–the rest being fear of what other people will think, fear of the potential results, your chances of success, the long hard road that may come next.To do anything else is a recipe for misery.---And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions about how to respond to someone who ignores praise and jeers for the wrong reasons, what Ryan has learned in his visits to Stoic sites around the world, strategies for overcoming a personal tragedy, and more.📚 Check out Daily Stoic Life to sign up for the Leadership Challenge and more.✉️ 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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It might seem like the Stoics didn’t have fun, didn’t experience pleasure. They did write, after all, quite a bit about the emptiness of chasing sex or money or fine wines. But just because they scorned excess luxury and comfort doesn’t mean their lives were empty and joyless.Quite the contrary.In his book The Expanding Circle, the philosopher Peter Singer (who was on a great episode of the Daily Stoic podcast recently if you haven’t listened) explains that what they were actually doing was trying to avoid the paradox of hedonism.✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Dr. Shadi Bartsch about her new book Plato Goes to China: The Greek Classics and Chinese Nationalism, the controversial role that Greek classics are taking in China, the surprising similarities between western and eastern philosophical interpretations, and more. Dr. Shadi Bartsch is an American academic and author and the Helen A. Regenstein Distinguished Service Professor of Classics at the University of Chicago. Shadi is an expert on Roman Stoicism, the reigns of Hadrean, Nero, and Augustus, and The Aeneid, which she translated in 2021. She has written and/or edited thirteen books, including the acclaimed Persius: A Study in Food, Philosophy, and the Figural and The Mirror of the Self: Sexuality, Self-Knowledge, and the Gaze in the Early Roman Empire. Shadi can be followed on Twitter @ShadiBartsch. ✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It was last night 1,862 years ago that Marcus Aurelius had a dream.A few years earlier, when Marcus received the news of Hadrian’s plans to have Antoninus Pius adopt him and place him next in line for the throne, he broke down in tears. There was no one he revered more than Antoninus. How could he possibly live up to the task of following in his footsteps?Today, you would say that Marcus was struggling with what we call “imposter syndrome.” As the story goes, the night before he was to become emperor on March 7, 161 AD — Marcus had a dream.---To commemorate this dream and the man himself, Ryan presents 45 of his favorite life-changing quotes from Marcus Aurelius.📕 Visit dailystoic.com/leather to pick up your own copy of the Premium Leather Edition of The Daily Stoic.✉️  Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books (including The Boy Who Would be King), and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The reason we don’t get what we want is because we want it too much. We reach for it with too much force. We lack the patience, we lack the poise. In Buddhism, they speak of willful will. More often than not, that is our problem.In her beautiful book Gift from the Sea, Anne Morrow Lindberg writes on the hunt for sea shells: “The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach–waiting for a gift from the sea.”It’s our expectations, the Stoics tell us, that get us in trouble.--- And in today's excerpt from The Daily Stoic Journal, Ryan examines the Stoic idea that expensive things cost more to us than their dollar value by reflecting on a recent situation in his life. ✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan presents the second of four excerpts from Josiah Osgood’s Uncommon Wrath: How Caesar and Cato’s Deadly Rivalry Destroyed the Roman Republic. Here, in Chapter Two, we witness the parallel paths that the rivals took as they grew and gained power in Rome, as well as how their journeys shaped their personalities.You can listen to Ryan’s recent conversation with Josiah here.✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the second of a two-part interview, Ryan speaks with Rick Rubin about his new book The Creative Act: A Way of Being, respecting everyone’s unique approach to the creative process during collaboration, his new podcast Tetragrammaton, the importance of studying art created long ago, and more.Rick Rubin is a renowned American record producer and the co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records. He has produced albums for a wide range of acclaimed artists, including the Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, Public Enemy, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Audioslave, Rage Against the Machine, and Johnny Cash. He has won nine Grammys and has been nominated for 12 more. He has been called "the most important producer of the last 20 years" by MTV and was named on Time's list of the "100 Most Influential People in the World".You can hear part one of Ryan’s interview with Rick here. 📰 Check out Bill Oppenheimer’s writing and Six at 6 on Sunday newsletter at billyoppenheimer.com.✉️ 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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebooSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We are so busy. We think we’re supposed to be. We think that’s how we get better. We think that moving is the only way to move forward.You might think that Marcus Aurelius could relate. Yet when he speaks most beautifully it’s of moments of quiet and calm. "If you can cut free of impressions that cling to the mind," he said, "free of the future and the past—can make yourself, as Empedocles says, 'a sphere rejoicing in its perfect stillness.’" Have you ever had a moment like that?---And in today's Daily Stoic excerpt reading, Ryan discusses his perspective on focusing on the internal more than the external by examining the quote from Epictetus's Discourses, “These things don’t go together. You must be a unified human being, either good or bad. You must diligently work either on your own reasoning or on things out of your control—take great care with the inside and not what’s outside, which is to say, stand with the philosopher, or else with the mob!”✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It’s hard not to look at the lives of Marcus Aurelius and Seneca and Epictetus and Cato and Zeno and not see what seems like one trauma after another. The loss of young children. Civil wars. Betrayals. Sickness. Criticism. Droughts, deforestation and powerful storms. Then again, it’s hard not to look at our lives and see the same thing. Financial crises. Political unrest. Political violence. A pandemic. Terrorist attacks. Mass shootings. Climate change.But of course, this is not how a Stoic tries to look at things. Because it’s not a great lens.---And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan presents part one of his Q&A session with a group of doctors in which he covers the Stoic way of motivating a team to achieve a common goal, how we can use routine to come back to ourselves, and more.✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We live in modern, cutting edge times. Each day, there are breakthroughs in neuroscience, microcomputing, medicine, and in how we make, save, and spend money. Our ability to beam information around the world, instantaneously, also means that we can get breaking news from all corners of the planet. Big data gives us the power to scrap enormous amounts of inputs and draw new insights from them. All this is wonderful and illuminating. We know things that we never thought we’d be able to know…and the person who doesn’t avail themselves of this is needlessly ignorant.And yet…and yet.As the great General Mattis said recently on Medal of Honor recipient Kyle Carpenter’s podcast:My best new ideas come from very old books.📚 If you’re ready to put down your phone and pick up a book to find those best new ideas, check out our Read to Lead: A Daily Stoic Reading Challenge.✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the first of a two-part interview, Ryan speaks with Rick Rubin about his new book The Creative Act: A Way of Being, the importance of allowing creativity to happen rather than willing it into existence, working with the unique facets of the artist’s ego, the importance of changing up the way that you do things, the phases of the creative process, and more.Rick Rubin is a renowned American record producer and the co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records. He has produced albums for a wide range of acclaimed artists, including the Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, Public Enemy, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Audioslave, Rage Against the Machine, and Johnny Cash. He has won nine Grammys and has been nominated for 12 more. He has been called "the most important producer of the last 20 years" by MTV and was named on Time's list of the "100 Most Influential People in the World".Part two of Ryan’s interview with Rick will air on February 22nd for subscribers, and March 1st for non-subscribers.✉️ 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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Stoics believed in the concept of "amor fati," or "love of fate." This means accepting and embracing everything that happens, including the fact that we are all replaceable.As Marcus Aurelius wrote, "All things are ephemeral – fame and the famous as well." No matter how great or important we may feel in the moment, time marches on and eventually someone else will fill our place.But this shouldn't be seen as a negative.---Today, Ryan presents highlights of his discussions with top performers in their fields about how practicing the Stoic virtue of discipline has shaped their lives for the better.✉️ 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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

While most of us will never be an emperor or a rock star, we can imagine what it would be like.It would be so abnormal as to be dehumanizing. Indeed, this is what a lot of famous people say—that they often feel like an animal at a zoo.The point isn’t to say that we should pity famous people or even that we should try to avoid fame. The point is to say that, when we come across a famous person who seems to have stayed normal, we should learn how they did it.---And in todays Daily Stoic Journal reading, Ryan discusses the power of cultivating a certain type of indifference towards the struggles that enter into our lives.📚 You can get a signed copy of Stillness is the Key at The Painted Porch.✉️ 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, including the new Stillness Key.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

To the Stoics, it wasn’t that we read. It’s what we read. We should seek out books that make a difference in our lives…not ones that win prizes. What matters is what we think of the books, not what other people think. What’s impressive is what we get out of them, not how they look on our shelves or that they might impress certain types of company.Read widely. Read aggressively. But don’t be a glutton for punishment.In October of 2022 Ryan Holiday was asked to speak at the Austin Central Library about the importance of reading books that resonate with you. In today’s episode, he shares a recording of that speech.✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with William D. Cohan about his new book Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon, the link between Marcus Aurelius and the “imperial CEO” of General Electric Jack Welch, the legacy of Thomas Edison and GE, the egos of powerful CEOs, and more.William D. Cohan is a business writer and former investigative reporter. He is a graduate of Phillips Academy, Duke University, and Columbia University Journalism and Business schools. Prior to his career as a writer, he worked on Wall street in mergers and acquisitions banker, having spent spent six years at Lazard Frères in New York, then Merrill Lynch, and later at JP Morgan Chase. His books include House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street, Four Friends: Promising Lives Cut Short, and The Price of Silence: The Duke Lacrosse Scandal, the Power of the Elite, and the Corruption of Our Great Universities.✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Punctuality is a matter of self-discipline, but also respect. We must be aware of and in command of our schedule and the time we’ve allocated to different people and activities. We must also care about how our decisions affect those people.Which is why it’s not hard to imagine Marcus Aurelius or Cato being quite diligent about when they arrived and when things started, even though they were powerful enough to insist that others wait for them.But what about when they screwed up or lost track of time? Did they whip themselves? Berate themselves for being lazy? No, hopefully not!---And in today's reading of The Daily Stoic, Ryan examines Epictetus's quote, "Keep in mind that it isn't the one that has it in for you and takes a swipe that harms you, but rather the harm comes from your own belief about the abuse."📚 Check out The Painted Porch to get your copy of Discipline is Destiny.✉️ 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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What’s the opposite of Stoicism, this austere philosophy based on toughness and resilience, virtue and service? Well, in the ancient world, it was Epicureanism–a philosophy that said that pleasure was the highest good. Could there be anything more different than Stoicism?As it happens, the Epicureans got a bad rap in the ancient world and in today’s.---And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan presents part three of his Q&A at the Young President's Organization West Michigan chapter in which he discusses why the Stoics are an "operating manual for modern leadership", why it can be difficult to discourage ego in leadership during a time when it is promoted so heavily in the media, and more.📗 You can check out The Painted Porch to get your copy of Art of Happiness.✉️ 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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Anthony Everitt about his book Nero: Matricide, Music, and Murder in Imperial Rome, how Rome would have been different if Nero were free to become a musician, why Nero’s overbearing mother contributed to his lack of moral compass, and more.Anthony Everitt is a British professor, author and historian of ancient Rome. His critically acclaimed books about Roman history include Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor, The Rise of Rome: The Making of the World's Greatest Empire, and The Rise of Athens: The Story of the World's Greatest Civilization. He also publishes historical essays regularly in The Guardian and The Financial Times.✉️ 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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

One way to go through life is to turn away from the things that are hard. You can close your eyes and ears to what is unpleasant. You can take the easy way, forgoing difficulty whenever possible. The other way is the Stoic way—it entails not only not avoiding hardship, but actively seeking it out.✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We all have reasons we don’t like something. We think a certain comedian isn’t funny or is a hack. We think a certain author is too basic or overhyped. We think that Oscar-winning movie is total garbage. We know what’s stupid and lame, what’s low brow or trash, what’s fake and what’s real, authentic and commercial. It’s interesting how certain we are with these opinions about particular people or products. Far less often do we stop and think, “Oh maybe I’m just not the audience for that.”---And today Ryan talks about some of the surest ways to improve yourself and your life by listing 60 of the most valuable lessons that you can learn from the Stoics.✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It’s always been difficult to concentrate. In one of his letters, Seneca talks about trying to write while Rome resounds beneath him with cacophony. There are street sellers and protestors and a fight and blacksmiths screaming and yelling and hammering down below. Now add to those typical sounds of the outside world, the chaos of our personal world–a buzzing iPhone, an overflowing inbox and endless Zoom meetings–and you get our daily nightmare.But if we wish to succeed, as Seneca did, we must find a way to tune this all out.---And in today's reading from the Daily Stoic Journal, Ryan dissecting three quotes from Epictetus in order to illustrate the Stoic idea of cultivating happiness in our lives by reducing the destructive habit of wanting more.📔 Check out The Painted Porch to get your signed copy of Stillness is the Key.✉️ 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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today’s audiobook reading features the second excerpt from The Way to Love: The Last Meditations of Anthony de Mello. Anthony was an Indian Jesuit priest, psychotherapist, and spiritual teacher, writer, and public speaker who wrote several books on spirituality, including this collection of his last meditations on love and awareness. In today’s excerpt, Anthony discusses why awareness is a key part of creating real change in your life.This book is published by the Center for Spiritual Exchange, and you can buy your copy at The Painted Porch.✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Sam Harris about the overlap between eastern and western philosophy, how mindfulness practices like meditation help us become better Stoics, why he is so dedicated to providing his content for free, and more.Sam Harris is a philosopher, neuroscientist, author, and host of the Making Sense Podcast. His work touches on a range of topics, including rationality, religion, ethics, free will, neuroscience, meditation, psychedelics, philosophy of mind, politics, terrorism, and artificial intelligence. He has written for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Economist, London Times, The Boston Globe, and The Atlantic, and he has authored five five New York Times bestselling books, including The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason and Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion. Check out wakingup.com/dailystoic to try Sam’s hugely popular meditation app.✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Life was just one thing after another for Marcus Aurelius. The plague. The flooding. The wars. He did not meet with, “the good fortune he deserved,” one ancient historian noted, “as his whole reign was a series of troubles.”Anyone who has had a run of bad luck knows the feeling. It’s frustrating and annoying and sometimes deeply unfair, but there is also something freeing about it. Because after a certain point, you stop fighting and start accepting.---In todays Daily Stoic reading, Ryan explores how we can get out of the way of our own happiness by curbing our yearning.💪 Check out the Slay Your Stress Challenge to equip yourself with strategies, mantras and mindsets that you can fall back on to navigate the relentless ups and downs of life.✉️ 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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Seneca wasn’t fond of philosophers you could recognize. Not by their fame, but by their uniform. In his time, just as it is in ours, there was a type of person who, in reading about the Diogenes types or the tough Stoic types, thought that philosophy required that they give up their worldly possessions or start dressing like a bum.Today, these types try to signal their virtue by driving a beat up old car or by showing you how little they own. See, they say, I am practicing detachment. See, I don’t want like you want. But these appearances can be deceiving.And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan presents his part two of the Q&A from the Daily Stoic Stoicism 101 course in which he discusses the idea of being able to practice your philosophy wherever you are, the ins and out of the Stoic passions, how to go about reading ancient texts, and more.✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ruby Doris Smith died at age 25 of cancer. It was an unfair death, concluding a short, unfair life. For two and half decades on this earth – from 1942 to 1967 – she experienced the brutal day-to-day realities of Jim Crow segregation. Yet her tombstone laments none of this. Instead, it codifies into stone one of the most basic principles of the SNCC, the civil rights organization she had been so dedicated and active in during her short life. “IF YOU THINK FREE,” it reads, “YOU ARE FREE.”✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Professor Massimo Pigliucci about his new book The Quest for Character: What the Story of Socrates and Alcibiades Teaches Us about Our Search for Good Leaders, what Alcibiades’s magnetism and lack of moral compass can teach us about what we look for in leaders today, the tension between being virtuous and being pragmatic, and more.Massimo Pigliucci is Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York, the former co-host of the Rationally Speaking Podcast, the originator of Neoskepticism, and an advocate and popularizer of Stoicism. He wrote a viral piece in The New York Times called How to Be a Stoic as well as two books on Stoicism titled How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life and A Handbook for New Stoics: How to Thrive in a World Out of Your Control a Stoic handbook. He also explores Stoic philosophy on his podcast Stoic Meditations. ✉️ 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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We know what we want to do–or need to do. We need to quit that job. We need to have that hard conversation. We need to be more active in our community. We need to stop smoking or start eating healthy. We need to tell our crush we like them.But when? That’s the question. Or at least, we tell ourselves that it is a question.---Today, Ryan recounts one of the greatest stories in human history and talks about how Antoninus Pius taught Marcus Aurelius the most important virtue of all.✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The writers Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five) and Joseph Heller (Catch-22) were at a glamorous party outside New York City. Standing in the palatial second home of the billionaire host, Vonnegut began to needle his friend. He described the exchange in a poem published in the New Yorker in 2005:I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel to know that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel Catch-22 has earned in its entire history?”And Joe said, “I’ve got something he can never have.”And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?”And Joe said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”--And today's Daily Stoic Journal reading, Ryan discusses what the Stoics teach us about keeping constant watch over the flood of perceptions that fill our minds.🎧 Listen to Ryan's interview with Molly Bloom✉️ 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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today’s reading features an excerpt from The Way to Love: The Last Meditations of Anthony de Mello. Anthony was an Indian Jesuit priest, psychotherapist, and spiritual teacher, writer, and public speaker who wrote several books on spirituality, including this collection of his last meditations on love and awareness. In today’s excerpt, Anthony explores the origins of our wants and desires, and how they translate into our quest for love.This book is published by the Center for Spiritual Exchange, and you can buy your copy at The Painted Porch.✉️  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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Dr. Samantha Boardman about her book Everyday Vitality: Turning Stress into Strength, how you can improve your life by changing small daily habits, why feeling stressed is not necessarily a bad thing, how to deal with catastrophizing, and more.Samantha Boardman is a Positive Psychologist based in New York. She received a B.S. from B.A. from Harvard University, an M.D. from Cornell University Medical College, and completed a 4-year residency program in Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College. Her work focuses on the promotion of wellbeing and the creation of health using Positive Psychiatry. You can learn more about Susan, her book, her blog, and her practice at positiveprescription.com. ✉️ 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.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.