For centuries, all sorts of people—generals and politicians, athletes and coaches, writers and leaders—have looked to the teachings of Stoicism to help guide their lives. Each day, author and speaker Ryan Holiday brings you a new lesson about life, inspired by the thoughts and writings of great Stoic thinkers like Marcus Aurelius and Seneca the Younger. Daily Stoic Podcast also features Q+As with listeners and interviews with notable figures from sports, academia, politics, and more. Learn more at DailyStoic.com.New episodes come out every day for free. Listen 1-week early on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday and to all episodes ad-free, with Wondery+ or Amazon Music with a Prime membership or Amazon Music Unlimited subscription.
2272 episodes transcribedSeneca was a very rich man. He had nice stuff. Critics at the time, and ever since, have found this to be indisputable proof of his hypocrisy...
So much has happened in the past. We’ve messed up. We’ve been hurt. We’ve missed opportunities and we’ve embarrassed ourselves. So much can h...
While we all hold up humility as an admirable trait, we’re not always sure it can get us to the goals we aspire to. We look at a Kanye West o...
In the Book of Matthew, we are told of the parable of the talents. Three servants are left sums of money (talents) by their master. The first...
You’ve probably caught yourself doing it. Life has been rough or depressing, but your social media feed looks awesome. Someone asks how much...
The Stoics were not unacquainted with awful people. They saw tyrants. They saw cheats. They saw toxic egomaniacs and insatiable ambitions. An...
In 2006, Benjamin Mee bought a zoo. Literally a zoo. It was broken down and in desperate need of a caring owner. Mee and his family were stru...
The fact that America exists is the ultimate argument that Stoicism is not apathy and that philosophy is not mere theory. Because without Sto...
Twice, Seneca was exiled. Twice, he basically lost everything. Money. Access. Influence. It all went away, like *that.* How did he handle it?...
King George IV was a notorious glutton. His breakfast supposedly consisted of two pigeons, three steaks, a near full bottle of wine, and a gl...
When we hear about an athlete who was doubted and kicked around, or an entrepreneur who ends up buying the previously dominant company that o...
William Alexander Percy, the uncle of the great writer Walker Percy, and one of the last Southern Stoics, was a famous host. His mansion in G...
People do a lot of things that feel mean. That frustrate us. That cause problems for us. That make the world a worse place. They vote for bad...
We live in the freest time in the freest places in the history of the world. Yet many of us feel far from free. We are slaves to vices and de...
Virtue is one of those words that contains multitudes. If you think about it, being virtuous is not doing one thing all the time, or even lot...
In Richard III and in Othello, Shakespeare has two different characters utter the same line. Both Iago and a nameless orphan say, “I cannot t...
The best way to make sure you are always offended and upset is to be on the lookout for things to be offended by and upset about. The sharper...
There is a certain archetype that is as old as literature and history themselves. One of the first times we see it in the West is with Cassan...
Nietzsche’s classic line was “what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” It’s a nice sentiment, but is it true? Don’t people who were born with...
The occupations of the three most well-known Stoics could not be more different. Seneca was a playwright, a wealthy landowner, and a politica...
