The Daily Stoic - They Can Help You With Your Most Important Job

Episode Date: November 13, 2024

The more you study philosophy the more you realize that parenting is a topic almost every tradition has spoken about. The Daily Dad is built around accessing that advice—one piece at a time, one day a time, just like The Daily Stoic. 📕 We’re excited to announce that we’ve put together a special leatherbound edition of The Daily Dad just in time for the holidays! Pick up a copy of the leatherbound edition of The Daily Dad at dailydad.com/leather✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medallions, and prints to remember these lessons at the Daily Stoic Store: https://store.dailystoic.com/📱 Follow us:  Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to The Daily Stoic early and ad free right now. Just join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcast. and wisdom, everyday life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2000 year old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystoic.com. They can help you with your most important job. We think of the Stoics as philosophers, which of course they were, but they were human beings too, sons, daughters, husbands, wives, and most of all, parents.

Marcus Aurelius had for a dozen children, Seneca had one, Cato had a son and a daughter. His daughter, Portia, was one of the great female Stoics of history. So it should definitely not surprise us that many of the best insights from Stoicism seem to double as parenting advice. Want a more peaceful home?

Remember you always have the option of having no opinion, Marx really writes in Meditations. Want to raise a resilient family? Remember we don't control what happens, but we do control how we respond, as Epictetus tells us. And Seneca is full of tips for parents. Remember to expose them to good role models, he says. Praise them, but not excessively. Show them how to be good sports in winning and losing.

And it was this wisdom, this tradition from the Stoics that actually inspired the Daily Dad. I'm holding the new book here in my hands. I'll tell you about it in a second. It was a way to help give parents a way to access this timeless advice, one piece of it at a time, one day at a time. And I'm really excited because now we have this really cool leather edition. If you've seen the leather edition of the Daily Stoic, I'm holding a leather daily dad.

But anyways, let me get into this because the more you study philosophy, the more you realize that parenting is a topic that almost every ancient tradition has spoken about. You find lessons in raising kids from Plato, Confucius and Epicurus. The more you realize that parenting is a topic that almost every ancient tradition has spoken about. You find lessons in raising kids from Plato, Confucius, and Epicurus. History too has helpful wisdom for parents. The lives of Lincoln, Queen Elizabeth II, Douglas MacArthur, Frederick Douglass, their lives demonstrate so much practical advice for raising kids.

And it's a reminder that as much as things change, there's no more universal experience that we share across time and space as human beings than being a parent. Wouldn't we do well to learn from these examples? Don't parents, no matter where we are on our journey, need all the help we can get? Well, The Daily Dad is built around accessing that advice. As I said, one piece at a time, one day at a time.

The idea is you pick it up, you start with the day's date that you grab it and you pick it up every day. You return to it, you go through it over and over and over and you linger on these lessons from the master thinkers, as Seneca says, because although the pages remain the same, your kids change, the world changes and you too change. I'm really proud of this thing we've been working on.

We use this amazing bindery in London. I talk about having to find this new bindery at the end of right thing right now, but the idea is, you know, already seeing some of the well-worn copies that people bring up to me at events of the hardcover. I wanted to make something that could really last. At a level of quality,

this is not possible on mass-produced books. It's printed on Munk & Cream paper, one of the best papers in the world for books. It's got a genuine leather cover. It's stamped with a gold foil logo. It's got a picture of a father holding his son's hand. And there's all new illustrations in each section of the book, a sewn red ribbon.

It's an amazing gift for parents in your life. Maybe you want one, maybe you wanna give one to your spouse. And we've got a limited run of these for the holidays. So you can grab that at dailydad.com slash leather. And check it out. I think it's awesome. I'm really proud of this thing. And here, I don't know if you can hear that,

but I'm holding it and it sounds good. All right, enjoy. If you like The Daily Stoic and thanks for listening, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. And before you go, would you tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey on wondery.com slash survey.