The Daily Stoic - BONUS | Charles Duhigg's Reading List (From Ryan Holiday)

Episode Date: March 22, 2026

From the archives, Ryan takes Supercommunicators author Charles Duhigg to The Painted Porch after the podcast and shares a stack of book recommendations that still hold up today. 🎙️ Listen to Charles Duhigg's episode on The Daily Stoic Podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts🎥 Watch this episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfNVvV5F55o📚 Books Mentioned:Supercommunicators Ghost Town Living The Big Goodbye Ask The Dust The Son Path To Power Passage of Power Means of AscentMaster of the Senate Slow Productivity Range A Calendar of Wisdom 👉 Sign up for Ryan’s FREE monthly reading list newsletter: https://ryanholiday.net/the-reading-list/🎙️ AD-FREE | Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing to The Daily Stoic Premium - unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content: https://dailystoic.supercast.com/✉️ FREE STOIC WISDOM | Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemailSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast, designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. Here, I'll give you this one, by the way. This is the ghost town one. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, thank you. So this guy is actually living? Yeah, he bought.

He was my assistant. Really? He basically spent his life savings on this, it's like 300 acres above this lake, above the lake from Chinatown. Oh my gosh. It's really cool. So he's like restoring all these old buildings and, you know, he goes down in the mines. Really? Yeah.

Is that not dangerous to like? He recorded the audio book for this at 900 feet below ground. Oh, my. Whoa. It's great. It's really cool. So he thought he was going to be this. like whole resort thing, and it became a, it's like a YouTube channel. It's, it's just

popular as a YouTube channel. That's really interesting. Okay, so this is about Chinatown. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Because, I mean, there's so many, you got Robert Evans. Yeah. Roman Kalansky, you get Jack Nicholson. The directions you get to go off in studying Chinatown is pretty incredible. Well, and the other thing is, again, because I was just watching it on the plane, it's, like, there's things that they do that you can't do in, like, you don't understand what's going on for, like, the first 30 minutes. Yeah. It's kind of got a Raymond Chandler thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's basically, like, sells itself on attitude and, like, atmosphere. It's also insane that you would, like, make a hit movie about, like, stealing water.

Yeah. It doesn't make any sense. Yeah. There's a, like, the other one is, like, to think, like, who framed Roger Rabbit is about the building of the 110 freeway. That's what that movie. Is it really? The movie is about them ripping out the streetcar to replace it with a highway. Yeah, I, you know? I did not remember that.

So, like, really great things have, like, sort of sublimating to it, like, that's real other. That's really fun. My favorite, have you read Ask the Dust? No. My favorite L.A. book of all time and all the last of the time because it's a pretty

the story. So John Fonte was this sort of struggling writer. He lived in bunker hill like all the big buildings in L.A. used to be these sort of Victorian

mansions like San Francisco. Yeah. They tore down to build all those big buildings. Anyway, so he writes this beautiful novel and the story is the year it comes out, his publisher

publishes an unauthorized unredacted edition of MimeConf. Wow. Because Hitler is like 33, so Hitler's this. It'd be like if you published Putin's book or whatever, but HMH, accountant Mifflin owned the copyright to Minkomp. They were Hitler's U.S. publisher. And so they sued and bankrupted John Fontaine's publisher.

And so the book is lost to history until Bukowski discovers it in the Los Angeles Public Library. Really? And Robert Town discovers it and he's the one and he makes a movie of it it like all these years later. Oh, this is awesome. I picked up the same copy of this obscure book that no one read. Yeah. My all-time favorite writer and it's a novel about a writer. It's incredible. Oh man, thank you. This is going to be awesome. Can I ask you a question about, um, because I noticed you guys have all the like LBJ stuff. Yes. So do do people like because you're in Texas, do people want to buy books about Texas? Is that like?

Yeah, I mean, I've read a lot about Texas. I think Texas is fascinating. And those are three of the, what is it, four? How many are there? I think those are some of the greatest biographies ever written. I mean, it's just a master at work. But I noticed also the sun, like, there's like a. The sun is good.

Philip came out. He lives in Austin. He's great. Huh. Yeah, so we have some good, we have like Texas-y books that are popular. But I kind of, I sort of, I sort of, see like Texas, Mississippi, you know, with all that kind of stuff all together.

Yeah. This is really fun. Yeah, thanks. So what was this before you guys before? This is like a Mexican restaurant? Really? This was built in the 1800s. That was a, these are three buildings.

These were built in the 1800. Huh. They've been a billion different things. That was a barbershop most recently. These were vacant for several years. But like, so there was a, there was a bar here. Oh, wow. And that's what this is.

And this is the kitchen of the restaurant. Oh, really? Yeah. This is the kitchen of the restaurant. So did you guys do the run-o yourself? Yeah, sort of. I mean, obviously, we didn't do the construction myself. Oh, this is awesome. Yeah, it was cool.

And then actually, there was a bar from the 1800s, like a Brunswick bar in that building. I'll send you a little into it. But we moved it to the ghost town. Huh. So because that's when it dates to. Oh, wow. We put it there.

But yeah, we just kind of, that tree fell down on my ranch. So we moved in the thing. This is really cool. And then how did you guys build this? This is amazing. I was noticing it in your studio. This is amazing. Yeah.

These are just a bunch of books. And then this one, he cut a lot of them. So it's not the full weight of the book. Oh, okay. Stacking on top of each other. It would be way too much, yeah. you cut a good chunk of them. But the fireplace is built, so they're just, they're...

Just like arranged around them and then glued in place? Yeah, yeah, so it's what? It's 2,000 books, 4,000 screws, 6 gallons of glue. It's so cool. Yeah. We just wanted something that kind of makes a statement. And it's funny people just come in... The first thing you want to do is take a picture in front of it.

Oh, really? And so kind of, yeah, it's like... So if you... I think in the world... the social media, you want something that you share about the thing that you did. Yeah. Yeah, that totally makes sense. Two cats that run around too, and like that, they're probably like the second most of them. We just want like things, you know.

That's super interesting. Yeah. Well, the thing that I like about it, too, is it's very, like, unlike most Instagram things where it's like pink background. Like, it looks actually distinct. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's been cool. And the fireplace doesn't work, so it.

which probably is a good thing. Yeah, I mean it was like sort of you can't take it out and it doesn't work. Yeah. We were going to do, have you been to the last bookstore in downtown Los Angeles? No. They have this cool when you walk up this flight of stairs

and then it becomes like it said they clearly just took like a metal bar and then drilled a hole in the books and slid it on there but you walk through like a like a tunnel. Yeah, that's cool. Because it's over the stairs. So we're going to do something like that

and then the fireplace sort of being there with. Yeah, that's awesome. Who have you been reading? You know, I want to read Cal Newport's new book. I haven't gotten a copy of it yet. Oh, yeah? Where is it?

Slow productivity. Yeah, is it good? No one just yet. It came out two days ago. Oh, did it? Yeah, okay. He was here the week before it came out. No, he's great.

Yeah, you guys are both at the near hurt. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. He's, it's such a smart, like, it's such a smart way to come at productivity, too. Oh, he's the best. Yes. His deep workbook, I think, is incredible. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. He's great. What do you, so what's, what sells it surprising? Like, what's the thing? What sells? That's, like, what do you surprised by? Oh, that's a good question. I like to find, like, oh, this, there's probably this.

Toll Story wrote a page a day book. Really? Yeah. It was, like, the last thing that he wrote. It's just a collection of his favorite quotes and, like, sort of, meditations on them and then it it was suppressed by the Soviets after his death mostly because it's very religious oh interesting and so it's been it was totally forgotten until like the 80s or 90s and do people buy this and it's probably like I loved it so I started talking about it because I obviously

I read it when I was doing the Daily Stoic just like other books and that's fair and then yeah it's probably there's a handful of books like that where like we're like the one of the only places that's selling them. And so, like, the publisher's always running out. Like, so, okay, so let me ask you, because I am very curious, because your books, like, your books are based on so much research. Yeah. And I obviously do interviews, but not, like, the same way when you're doing. Yeah, I don't know. Most of the people in my books are dead. So, yeah. So how do you structure, like, like, how do you structure your time? Because I use the interview to basically help me. To get my material, but also to help me know when I'm ready to start writing, because I start hearing the

thing from different people. I just, so I just, I'm usually, I have like a theme or a topic and then I'm reading about it and researching about it for a long time. And are you like keeping note cards or like what do you do? Physical, I use like four by six note cards. Yeah, that's what I used to. So I have a table upstairs and they're all laid out. Like I've just started, I'm doing a series now in the Cardinal virtues, like the courage,

this is. Oh, interesting. Justice comes out next and then I just started wisdom. So that's why I had the chapter on question. Right. questions. So I wrote something down that you said about, like, we were talking about, like, questions that get an answer that's not prepared. Right. I was like, oh, that's great. So I'll write that down on a note card. That'll go in the tab of question things. And as I put together that

chapter, it'll go in there probably. But like wisdom is so amorphous. Like how do you, how do you, well that, so, so like, I wanted to write a book about humility. That was what ego was. But then I found out ego is the way in. Like, what is the thing that makes it not amorphous? So the actual virtue for the Stoics is temperance, which they illustrated with a person watering down their wine. Well, that's a super boring idea. You can't write a book about temperance. No one would read that. Like, even moderation, no one would read a book about it.

Right. Right. Because most of what people want is the extreme. They want to be extremely successful, extremely rich, extremely powerful. Like, you know, it's like you quit selling a book on body positivity. It's going to be really tough, right? Because, like, people actually want to be jacked. even though they need to be body positive.

They want to be skinny and they want to be jacked. And they want to believe that if I give you the answer, like you can do it without a chore. You got to figure out what is the thing that's made. No one wants to read a book about a thing that they're not inclined to do, you know? So I made that book about self-discipline, which is a rendering of temperance, self-control. So for me, it's all about, yeah, what is, and I am still figuring it out because I haven't written

the book. But what is the thing that makes that accessible and interesting and then also like compelling to share? That's super interesting because I think for me, I do the same thing, but it's this, I have to find the story. Yeah. Like until I know what the anchor story is, the narrative, that I can't actually figure out how to structure the chapter. So for me, it's what's the theme? Like in this case, like I'm not, I didn't decide. I decided to do a book on the cardinal virtue or series on the cardinal virtue.

So I don't pick the virtues. What's, what's, do I think is most compelling about it? And then it's not what's the story. I have to go, like, who are the characters and what are the main story? So, like, the discipline book, the Lugarig's, the physical manifestation of discipline. Queen Elizabeth is the, like, sort of temperament or emotional. And then the last one I talked about, Marx Reelis, who has unlimited power. And, you know, it's sort of fusing the physical and the temperament.

mental discipline together. So I for me it's first what's the thing then like who are the who are the guys right that's super interesting yeah it's the best yeah solving the puzzle part is fun and then finishing is fun it's the middle part that yeah yeah and it's literally like the middle part of the middle where you're just like you feel like you're like turning the crank every single day and you're like am I getting closer like yeah yeah it's like if you work on it enough and then you're like oh wait when I put it all together, it's decent. Yeah. Like, yeah.

So which stage are you at right now? Are you at the... Oh, so the justice one, like, I'm just... I'll get galleys, like, next. Okay. So that's like done, done, which is hard, it's hard to be done done on one thing and then, like, deepen the shit on the other thing.

Like, I'm, I'm like, the intro is half written, the first chapter is half, I'm doing, I'm like, all the easy parts. Yeah. And then I have, like, I'll just have to go... I'm mostly just like, Just trying to find a little traction here, a little traction here. I totally.

I have this basically a trick. So what I'll do is I'll, once I do all in your reporting and I put everything on no cards. Yeah. Then I'll just sit down and I'll write my editor a letter explaining how this chapter is going to work. And the letter is like four or five thousand words long. I read a lot. It's sort of my job. You can't write without reading.

For almost 15 years now, once a month I send out an email with my favorite book recommendations for that month. books that I've been reading, books that I've been going through, books that changed my life that inspired me, that I think connect to what's happening in the world. And you can sign up right now at ryanholyde.net slash reading list.