The Daily Stoic

On today’s Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan talks to his longtime writing partner and friend Nils Parker. They discuss Stoicism, their ongoing collaboration with Daily Stoic and Ryan’s other written works, and more. Nils Parker is one of the most sought after writers and editors in the business, having worked on books that have grossed more than $100M in earnings in the last fifteen years. He and Ryan have been collaborators, friends and business partners.Preorder Lives of the Stoics now: http://dailystoic.com/livesThis episode is brought to you by Four Sigmatic. Four Sigmatic is a maker of mushroom coffee, lattes, elixirs, and more. Their drinks all taste amazing and they've full of all sorts of all-natural compounds and immunity boosters to help you think clearly and live well. Four Sigmatic has a new exclusive deal for Daily Stoic listeners: get up to 39% off their bestselling Lion’s Mane bundle by visiting foursigmatic.com/stoic.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on A

"When things are hard, when things are scary, when we’re tired, when we’ve had a run of bad luck, that’s when it happens: Magical thinking kicks in.This will all be over soon, we convince ourselves. This one thing will solve all our problems. Our ex is going to walk through the door any minute now. The pandemic will just disappear because we want it to. This kind of thinking makes us feel better, sure, but…That’s just not how it works."Ryan explains how things actually work, and how you must ready yourself for challenges, on today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://ww

"Just a few more years we tell ourselves. Just until I make enough money. After I make rank. Almost there. These are the lies we tell ourselves, the rationales for why we’re doing the thing we hate or being the kind of person we’d rather not be."Ryan tells us why you must leave the intolerable situation you find yourself in, on today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

"No one would have chosen this. No one is that crazy. To have your life disrupted. To be out of work. To lose money or people you love. To see institutions taxed beyond their capacities. To see people scared or frustrated. But this pandemic is a classic 'there it is' situation. It’s here. It happened. Now what?"Ryan lays out the perspective you should use in considering the pandemic and its ramifications in today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https

In today's Sunday Podcast, Ryan goes over seven lessons for life that you can learn from the ancient Stoics (learn more about these philosophers in Ryan’s new book, Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius).Learn about the preorder bonuses and virtual book tour events for Lives of the Stoics: https://dailystoic.com/livesThis episode is brought to you by GiveWell, the best site for figuring out how and where to donate your money to have the greatest impact. GiveWell’s team of researchers works countless hours to determine which charities make the most effective dollar-for-dollar contributions to the causes they support. Since 2010, GiveWell has helped over 50,000 donors donate over 500 million dollars to the most effective charities, leading to over 75,000 lives saved and millions more improved. Visit GiveWell.org/stoic and your first donation will be matched up to 100 dollars.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps

On today’s Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan talks with How I Built This creator and host Guy Raz about how we deal with big collective action problems in an era of increased polarization, harnessing entrepreneurial energy to help society, and more.Guy Raz is a podcast creator and host with a combined audience of over 19 million downloads a month. He is the creator and host of How I Built This, a podcast about entrepreneurs, and also co-created NPR’s TED Radio Hour and Wow in the World. Guy joined NPR in 1997 and has worked every single newsroom job from production assistant to news anchor.This episode is brought to you by GoMacro. GoMacro is a family-owned maker of some of the finest protein bars around. They're vegan, non-GMO, and they come in a bunch of delicious flavors. Visit http://gomacro.com and use promo code STOIC for 30% off your order plus free shipping.This episode is also brought to you by Amazon Alexa. Amazon Alexa is the perfect system to use to set up your house with Smart Home functionality—and

"On the surface, Cicero appears the perfect Stoic. He studied with all the right teachers. He served in office for decades. He was friends with Cato. Diodotus, the old Stoic philosopher, even died in Cicero’s house and left his estate to him. But it’s ironic that Cicero, the author of a book called Stoic Paradoxes, would himself fail to embody a paradox that goes to the core of the philosophy."Ryan explores this irony and shows how the Stoics avoided Cicero's mistakes on today's Daily Stoic Podcast.Preorder Ryan's new book Lives of the Stoics and receive special bonus material from Ryan! Visit dailystoic.com/lives to preorder, as well as to get information on the virtual book tour.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitt

"It’d be wonderful if everyone could agree on some very basic things. Like, you can’t use racial slurs. And no, you shouldn’t judge a person for their gender or their sexual orientation. It’d be wonderful if nobody littered, if people didn’t blast music at 2 AM, if we observed some standard rules of civility for behavior in public. It’d be wonderful if everyone wore a mask and socially distanced as much as possible until we kicked the ass of this pandemic that is killing hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Obviously we’re not there. Not everyone can agree on these things, apparently. The line from Cool Hand Luke stands eternal: Some men you just can’t reach."Ryan describes how to deal with frustrating people on today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic ema

On today’s Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan talks with author and former NFL player Martellus Bennett about the clarifying effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on their day-to-day lives, how readers should engage with the books they acquire, how Marcus persevered to help the New England Patriots come back from the largest Super Bowl score deficit in NFL history, and more. Martellus Bennett is a former NFL tight end who played for 10 seasons with teams such as the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, New England Patriots, and more. Bennett was part of the Patriots team that defeated the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI, coming back from a 28-3 deficit to win in overtime. In 2014, Bennett created The Imagination Agency, a production company focused on children’s literature and entertainment; they have released multiple children’s books and movies, all written and designed by Bennett.This episode is brought to you by Four Sigmatic. Four Sigmatic is a maker of mushroom coffee, lattes, elixirs, and more. Their drinks a

"There are lots of things you should be doing today. Your journaling. Your reading. Taking care of your work, of your children or family. Following the instructions of the authorities (to stay inside, to eliminate unnecessary travel, to make sure you have food and supplies on hand). All this is good. Most of it takes work.But the thing you should be working hardest at? Being calm."Ryan describes some great ways to achieve calm and stillness in today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Califor

"It was Seneca who told us how to learn from history and literature. Ignore the facts and figures, he said, focus on the moral lessons. Focus on what the characters can teach you about life. Plutarch, the great moral biographer of history, would take this lesson to heart. Unlike the biographers of our time, who publish big, thick books filled with footnotes and postmodern digressions, Plutarch was obsessed by what we could learn from the figures he wrote about."Ryan discusses the lessons you should be taking from the biographies you read in today's Daily Stoic Podcast.Preorder Lives of the Stoics, Ryan's new book, and receive one of the wonderful preorder bonuses that's available: http://dailystoic.com/preorder***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/

"You want it, don’t you?That 'I told you so.' That 'Thank You.' That recognition for being first, or being better, or being different. You want credit. You want gratitude. You want the acknowledgement for the good you’ve done, for the weight that you carry."Ryan discusses why the last thing you need is that recognition on today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In today's Sunday Podcast, Ryan talks about five quotes from Seneca, one of the three founding fathers of Stoicism and a famous writer and advisor as well, and how they can change your life for the better..This episode is brought to you by Four Sigmatic. Four Sigmatic is a maker of mushroom coffee, lattes, elixirs, and more. Their drinks all taste amazing and they've full of all sorts of all-natural compounds and immunity boosters to help you think clearly and live well. Four Sigmatic has a new exclusive deal for Daily Stoic listeners: get up to 39% off their bestselling Lion’s Mane bundle by visiting foursigmatic.com/stoic.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/da

On today’s Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan talks with lacrosse star Paul Rabil about the mental obstacles that come with being a pro athlete, the experience of starting a professional sports league, and more. Paul Rabil is one of the best lacrosse players in history and the best in the world at the sport right now—some have called him the LeBron James of lacrosse. He has played for championship lacrosse teams from his time at college to the professional leagues. Rabil is one of the co-founders of of the Premier Lacrosse League, an American professional lacrosse league whose second season ended this past August.This episode is brought to you by GiveWell, the best site for figuring out how and where to donate your money to have the greatest impact. GiveWell’s team of researchers works countless hours to determine which charities make the most effective dollar-for-dollar contributions to the causes they support. Since 2010, GiveWell has helped over 50,000 donors donate over 500 million dollars to the most effective ch

"Never underestimate the ability of human beings to focus on the wrong thing. Think about the number of people this past summer who—as the world’s economy was melting down, as the bodies piled up from the global COVID-19 pandemic, as millions lost their jobs—decided that what we should really be focused on are the ethics of selling tiger cubs and the sexual cultic undertones at play among the zookeepers in the Netflix docuseries, Tiger King. What we should be worried about, judging by reactions on social media, is not how we can get everyone tested for coronavirus or for COVID-19 antibodies, but whether the de facto villain in the show, Carole Baskin, killed her first husband, and whether she fed him to a tiger or buried him under a septic tank."Ryan tells us why we need to focus on the important things on today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podca

"The Stoics were hard on themselves. No question about it. They knew what was right and they insisted on holding themselves to that. They were absolutists. Even if it meant death. Even if it meant avoidable suffering. Even if it meant passing on acceptable pleasures."But as Ryan explains, the Stoics judged themselves by a double standard—the results of which he talks about on today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoiSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On today’s Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan talks with his editor Niki Papadopoulous about their long career together, from the origins of The Obstacle Is the Way and how Ryan became a writer to the development of Ryan’s books on Stoicism, the inner workings of the editing process, and Ryan’s latest book, Lives of the Stoics (now available for preorder).Niki Papadopoulous is the editorial director for the Portfolio imprint at Penguin Random House. She has been Ryan’s editor since The Obstacle Is the Way, and has published several New York Times and Wall Street Journal best sellers. Besides Ryan’s books, Niki has also published works such as Hooked by Nir Eyal, Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke, and The Four by Scott Galloway.This episode is brought to you by Four Sigmatic. Four Sigmatic is a maker of mushroom coffee, lattes, elixirs, and more. Their drinks all taste amazing and they've full of all sorts of all-natural compounds and immunity boosters to help you think clearly and live well. Four Sigmatic has a new

"You’ve been kicked around by life, that’s true. Where other people had it easy, you’ve had to struggle. You didn’t get into the college you wanted, your parents couldn’t buy you a car, you had to wear glasses. You’ve watched as other people hit it out of the park on their first try, getting breaks that you’ve had to work your ass off for. You’ve been insulted. You’ve been fired. You’ve been crapped on and you’ve been brought to tears. It’s unfair, you say. It’d be better if it had been otherwise. Is that true? Do you know that for a fact?"Ryan discusses what going through a struggle can teach you in today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagr

"For most of history, we’ve gotten it precisely wrong. We have given far too much attention to what philosophers have thought or written, when really what counts is what they do. What someone says is not important; what’s important is if they live up to what they say. In the end, what matters—whether a person is ancient or modern—is whether their ideas work in the real world, whether they make our lives better or not."Ryan shows why it's the actions of philosophers that are so important, and talks about the brand new book he's written to help shine light on those actions, Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius.Preorder your copy of Lives of the Stoics now and get exciting bonus chapters and more! Learn more here: https://dailystoic.com/preorder***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better

"People think they are too important, the stakes of their work are too high, that there is not a minute to lose. So they never relax. They never shut off their minds. They never check out, or let go. And far too often they end up losing it."Ryan describes the importance of getting calmness and relaxation in today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.