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.
2545 episodes transcribedWhy did Marcus Aurelius study philosophy? What were Seneca or Confucius or Buddha trying to achieve as they pored over their books or sat dee...
Following today’s politics is easy. You turn on the news and a bunch of pretty people tell you that your side is good and the other side is i...
At the beginning of The Odyssey, Zeus utters a famous lament that must, one imagines, be shared by all gods and parents and presidents alike:...
Late last year, a man named Ken Watson died at age 87, but before he did, he made sure to gift wrap fourteen presents for his two year old ne...
You know sometimes you hear a quote or an aphorism and you think, That’s it. That’s me. That’s my philosophy for life. Well it turns out that...
You try to turn on your television, only to find that the batteries in the remote are dead and no one bothered to replace them. Your computer...
When one looks at the dark moments of history, it’s hard not to be a little afraid. Look at what people have done to each other—look at how b...
When we think of greatness, we think of success. We think of strength. We think of influence. We think of the man or woman exerting their wil...
We spend a lot of time worried about what other people are going to do. Will that colleague muscle you out of the way for the promotion? Will...
Nobody cared more about statues than the Greeks and the Romans. In fact, the only reason we know what many of the Stoics looked like is becau...
One way to read The Odyssey is that it’s a story of human perseverance. Odysseus is cunning and determined, he’s willing to do everything and...
During the American Revolution—as in any war—the British quite rightly targeted the estates and the landholdings of the leadership on the Ame...
Epictetus could not have summed up Stoicism better than when he said: “It’s not things that upset us, but our judgement about things.” What h...
This was a big argument amongst the early Stoics: What was necessary for the good life? What was actually important to the wise man? They cam...
Here’s a question to ask yourself about your work and your life: Do you create value for society or do you extract it? Are you a giver or a t...
It must be said that the Stoics were cowardly when it came to slavery. Marcus Aurelius, who believed that we were all part of a common whole,...
It was not lost even on the Stoics that some parts of this philosophy come more naturally to some people than others. Some folks just seem ch...
In her beautiful book about the Los Angeles Public Library fire, Susan Orlean captures the magic of what libraries can offer. She describes w...
It’s pretty incredible to think that Hadrian was able to see the potential in Marcus Aurelius. Hadrian somehow, even though Marcus was just a...
Marcus Aurelius, on nearly a dozen occasions in Meditations, speaks of reaching or achieving “stillness.” Most beautifully, he writes of tryi...
