The Daily Stoic - The Kind of Philosophical Life To Aim For

Episode Date: October 22, 2023

More than 60 years ago, a young boy in Pittsburgh, PA was curious about philosophy. He went to his high school library and found a book of the writings of Kant. Excited, smart for his age, he started reading…and only made it a few pages before he threw it aside, hopelessly confused.It was later that day, when he explained what happened to his father, that the boy’s life was changed forever. Because his father had a brand new copy of the beautiful Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. These pages, this philosophy came a bit more easily to the boy, and were still inspiring him nearly to a point of reverie decades later–infectiously so as countless students of his would attest at the news of the death of Professor Paul G. Woodruff at age 80 earlier this month.We were lucky enough to interview Professor Woodruff on The Daily Stoic Podcast back in January, and he told us one of his favorite lessons from 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.

Emily, do you remember when One Direction called it a day? I think you'll find there are still many people who can't talk about it. Well luckily, we can. A lot. Because our new season of Terabli Famous is all about the first One Directioner to go it alone. Zayn Malik. We'll take you on Zayn's journey from Shilad from Bradford to being in the world's biggest boy band and explore why, when he reached the top, he decided to walk away.

Follow Terabli Famous wherever you get your podcast. Ghosts aren't real. At least as a journalist, that's what I've always believed. Sure, odd things happened in my childhood bedroom, but ultimately I shrugged it all off. That is, until a couple of years ago, when I discovered that every subsequent argument of that house is convinced they've experienced something inexplicable too, including the most recent inhabitant who says she was visited at night by the ghost of a faceless woman. And it gets even stranger. It just so happens that the alleged ghost haunting my childhood room might just be my wife's great grandmother. It was murdered in

the house next door by two gunshots to the face. From Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios comes Ghost Story, a podcast about family secrets overwhelming coincidence and the things that come back to haunt us. Follow Ghost Story on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes ad-free right now by joining Wondry Plus. by joining One Replace. Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Sundays, we take a deeper dive into these ancient topics with excerpts from the Stoic texts, audiobooks that we like here recommend here at Daily Stoicalk and other long form wisdom that you can

chew on on this relaxing weekend. We hope this helps shape your understanding of this philosophy and most importantly that you're able to apply it to your actual life. Thank you for listening. The kind of philosophical life to aim for. More than 60 years ago, a young boy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was curious about philosophy. He went to his high school library and found a book of the writings of Kant. Excited, smart for his age, he started reading, and only made it a few pages before he threw it aside, hopelessly confused. It was later that day when he explained what happened to his father that the boy's life was changed forever, because his father had a brand new copy of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. These pages, this philosophy, came more easily to the boy, and we're still inspiring him nearly to the point of

reverie decades later, infectiously so even as countless students of his would attest at the news, the death of Professor Paul G. Woodruff at 80 earlier this month. I was actually lucky enough to interview Professor Woodruff at 80 earlier this month. I was actually lucky enough to interview Professor Woodruff on the Daily Stoke Podcast back in January. And he told one of his favorite lessons from meditations. It's a wonderful little story that captures the essence of this great teacher, this lover of literature, lover of nature, lover of people.

And up until the end, Professor Woodruff was brave. This would not have surprised the men he served with as an officer in Vietnam, but his moral courage, as he faced a painful death from a lung condition, was evident in a series of moving op-eds he wrote for the Washington Post, which I'll link to in today's notes. Up until the end, he was reading novels with his wife, writing, seeing students and friends, living with virtue. He was no pen and ink philosopher. The ones the Stoics looked at was scorn.

He was a father, a husband, a soldier, a leader, a teacher. He was active in social causes and a friend. And we're lucky that he shared his wisdom with us. He will be missed and he will continue to inspire all of us as a model of a great life. I actually was lucky enough I went and saw Professor Woodruff, he wrote this great piece in the Washington Post about how he was sort of seeing friends, family members, and students before he passed. And that Zoom was sort of insufficient, that it was something that he wanted to do in

person. And I drove out to Austin and spent about 30 minutes with him. And we talked philosophy and life. And he was, it just meant a lot to me that he took that time. I didn't want to take up too much of his time. I could see he was struggling and in pain, but he was just there living up to these ideas right there up until the end. And I'll remember that always,

and I'll remember our handful of brief interactions. And I continue to read his new... I continue to read his work. I'm actually reading this book that he just put out called Living Towards Virtue. And just an overall great human being that will be missed. And I hope you'll check him out after you listen to today's episode. Thanks for listening to The Daily Stoodle Podcast. Just a reminder, we've got signed copies of all my books

in the Daily Stoke Store. You can get them personalized. You can get them sent to a friend. The app goes the way. It goes the enemy. Still, this is the key. The leatherbound edition of the Daily Stoke. We have them all in the Daily Stoke Store,

which you can check out at store Stoke early and ad-free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts.