You Can’t Buy Fearlessness

“There’s no question that the super rich can afford better medical care than you. They have access to the best doctors, the most cutting-edge treatments. So, naturally, they are living longer—they are buying what scientists are calling “radical life extension.” In fact, some thinkers believe this will be a source of conflict in the future. Today, we have income inequality. Tomorrow, it will be longevity inequality.”Ryan explains why you need to conquer the fear of death, 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 Daily Stoic: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. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:04Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom, designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom in everyday life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us, DailyStoic.com.

• 0:27Ryan Holiday?

  You can't buy fearlessness. There's no question that the super-rich can afford better medical care than you. They have access to the best doctors, the most cutting-edge treatments, so naturally, they are living longer. They are buying what scientists are calling radical life extension. In fact, some thinkers believe that this will be the source of conflict in the future. Today, we have income quality. Tomorrow, it will be longevity inequality. We should ask ourselves, though, what are these folks actually buying? And why are they buying it? Because the Stoics would point out that no amount of wealth will ever fully exempt you from the basic fact of mortality, that no amount of medical care, no amount of delaying,

• 1:09Ryan Holiday?

  can ever rid the fear that so many people have about death. There's no question that Nero had better doctors than Epictetus. One was the emperor, the other was a slave. Then, as now, the rich spend their money on insane medical treatments and soothsayers and magical ointments. They were trying to buy the same thing billionaires are trying to buy today. But it's not actually health. It's a respite, a get-out-of-jail-free card, peace of mind from the one fact that so deeply disturbs us. It's ironic, though, that the thing they actually needed was very cheap. Sure, living longer is great, but the secret to most of our anxiety about death is quite accessible. Fearlessness is available to everyone and anyone.

• 1:53Ryan Holiday?

  It's there in the Stoic text. It's there in the examples of the people we admire. Is it as awful as that? One of Nero's guards taunted him to die? It was Teatro because he was a coward because he had lived a bad life. But for Epictetus, who lived well, fear was never part of the equation. He did not tremble before his mortality. Instead, he went through life day by day without worry, without despair. Death and pain are not frightening, he said. It's the fear of pain and death that we need to fear, which is why we praise the poet who wrote, "Death is not fearful, but dying like a coward is." And so it happens, is living like one.

• 2:36Ryan Holiday?

  Thanks for listening to another episode of The Daily Stoic. It's mind blowing to me now that we are well over 30 million downloads of this show. It means so much to me to have all of you listen. If you want to help spread the word about the show, please leave a review on iTunes or whatever your favorite podcasting platform is. It helps a lot. And then, of course, click subscribe. That's how we know how many people are listening and that that makes sure you get the episodes as they come in. So thanks again for listening to the Daily Stoic Podcast.