Take This Seriously | Ask Daily Stoic

This is what Stoicism has done throughout history. It’s made people the best they could be. 🏛 The 2025 LIVE session ofStoicism 101: Ancient Philosophy For Your Actual Life http://dailystoic.com/101 starts November 10th. Don’t miss your chance to join us! Read on for more about the unique opportunities you get from joining the LIVE course. 👉 Get Stoicism 101: Ancient Philosophy For Your Actual Life http://dailystoic.com/101 & all other Daily Stoic courses for FREE when you join Daily Stoic Life | dailystoic.com/life https://dailystoic.com/life/ 🎟️ Come seeRyan Holiday LIVE https://www.dailystoiclive.com/: https://www.dailystoiclive.com/ Seattle, WA - December 3, 2025 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/daily-stoic-live-onstage-with-ryan-holiday-tickets-1830976292379?aff=oddtdtcreatorSan Diego, CA - February 5, 2026 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/daily-stoic-live-onstage-with-ryan-holiday-tickets-1527497619499?aff=oddtdtcreatorPhoenix, AZ - February 27, 2026 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/daily-stoic-live-onstage-with-ryan-holiday-tickets-1830981698549?aff=oddtdtcreator 📖Wisdom Takes Work https://store.dailystoic.com/pages/wisdom-takes-work by Ryan Holiday is out NOW! Grab a copy here:https://store.dailystoic.com/pages/wisdom-takes-work 👉 Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing toThe Daily Stoic Premium https://dailystoic.supercast.com/ - unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content:https://dailystoic.supercast.com/ 🎥 Watch the video episodes onThe Daily Stoic YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@DailyStoic/videos:https://www.youtube.com/@DailyStoic/videos 🎙️ Follow The Daily Stoic Podcast onInstagram https://www.instagram.com/dailystoicpodcast/?hl=en:https://www.instagram.com/dailystoicpodcast ✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email athttps://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 https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/,Twitter https://twitter.com/dailystoic,YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@DailyStoic,TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@daily_stoic?lang=en, andFacebook https://www.facebook.com/dailystoic See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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

• 0:05Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a Stoic-inspired meditation, designed to help you find strength and insight and wisdom into everyday life. Each one of these episodes is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women, help you learn from them, to follow in their example, and to start your day off with a little dose of courage and discipline and justice and wisdom. For more, visit DailyStoic.com.

• 0:55Ryan Holiday?

  Take this seriously. After seven years in a Vietnamese prison camp, Admiral James Stockdale was thinking about taking his study of Stoicism, the philosophy he credited with helping him survive those horrific years, even more seriously. He wasn't exactly sure what that might look like in practice, though. Would he write more about it, read more about it, apply practices like the dichotomy of control more? Again, he wasn't exactly sure. At a conference not long after he returned home, Stockdale met the great philosopher Will Durant and brought up his interest in Stoicism. Durant wasn't much help as far as clarifying what the next step might be, but he shared Stockdale's interest and pointed him to a passage in his book, Life of Greece. "Stoicism was a noble philosophy," it said,

• 1:40Ryan Holiday?

  "and proved more practical than a modern cynic would expect. It brought together all the elements of Greek thought, and though it naturally won only a small minority to its standards, those few were everywhere the best. Like its Christian counterparts, Calvinism and Puritanism, it produced the strongest characters of its time." Theoretically, it was a monstrous doctrine of an isolated and pitiless perfectionism. Actually, it created men of courage and saintliness and goodwill, like Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Cato the Younger. That's what Stoicism has done throughout history. It has made people the best they could be. It's produced some of the strongest characters of all time.

• 2:24Ryan Holiday?

  Certainly, that's what it had already done for Stockdale, and yet, there he was, like Marcus Aurelius, who was famously seen heading off to philosophy lectures even as an old man, remaining a student and still getting better as he went. And that's what it can do for you if you take it seriously. But maybe you, like me, like Stockdale, are always wondering about what that next step is, how to continue your studies of this philosophy. Well, that's why we created our course Stoicism 101: Ancient Philosophy for Your Actual Life to help you do exactly that. It's the best practices and routines of Stoicism, delivered in 14 custom emails delivered daily. That's 20,000 words of exclusive content.

• 3:07Ryan Holiday?

  You learn what a Stoic does, what a Stoic doesn't do, the Stoic secrets to success, the Stoic secrets to resilience, the Stoic secrets to productivity, the Stoic secrets to virtue, and what sets Stoicism apart from other philosophies, and how to live your best life. For less than the tuition even of one intro to philosophy class at a community college, here you'll learn all you need to know about Stoicism, and you'll learn it from yours truly. "How much progress shall I make?" This is Seneca's question. He said, "Just as much as you try to make." Says, "Don't wait. Wisdom comes haphazard to no man." But this course is beginning on November 10th, which is right here around the corner, and we'd love to have you join us together. And you can sign up right now at DailyStoic.com/101.

• 3:52Ryan Holiday?

  And remember, Daily Stoic Life members get this course and all our Daily Stoic courses for free.

• 4:09Ryan Holiday?

  Hey, it's Ryan. Welcome to another Thursday episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast. Back in September, I got to give a talk here in Austin. It was a lovely morning. Got up, took my kids to school. I went for a long run around Town Lake, went swimming in Barton Springs, and then I went to the office and worked for a bit. And then I got to go give a talk here in my adopted hometown. Usually, I'm in and out of the venues because I'm on the road, but this time it was local. We got to invite all the employees out. A bunch of our friends came. It was lovely. And I actually got to meet you guys, right? Most of the talks that I do are not available to the public. They're companies, or corporations,

• 4:51Ryan Holiday?

  or nonprofits. You can't just buy a ticket and come. But this one in Austin I did was, so that was really cool. I answered questions after, and I'm going to be doing that again in basically a month. On December 3, I'm going to be in Seattle, so you can come to that. In February, I'm going to be in San Diego and Phoenix. You can grab tickets to any and all of those at dailystoiclive.com. Thanks to everyone who came out to the talk in Austin and asked these questions. I can't wait to see you in Seattle, San Diego, and Phoenix. dailystoiclive.com.

• 5:30Speaker 01

  From one parent to another, a parent trying to teach his kids these virtues.

• 5:36Ryan Holiday?

  Sure.

• 5:36Speaker 01

  Can you talk to me a little bit about how you try to give them this wisdom? When I start to talk about Marcus Aurelius, my girls lose me in about five seconds.

• 5:46Ryan Holiday?

  Do you think my kids are interested in it?

• 5:50Ryan Holiday?

  Because they're not at all. Actually, often, when they're watching on their iPad or whatever, if we want to threaten them, we go, "I'm going to turn on one of my videos." And that's the only thing you can watch.

• 6:03Ryan Holiday?

  So, look, I don't think kids are ever interested in things their parents are interested, especially if the parents think that thing is educational. But I do try to find when there's the little slivers of interest and then I want to put as much energy behind that as possible. You know, obviously, I've been talking to my son about the Romans and Marcus Aurelius and Seneca and Epictetus, and he was not interested at all. And then, one day, he became obsessed with Greek history, which is not exactly what I'm interested in, but it's in the ballpark, and I'll take it, you know? And he became obsessed with this podcast called "Greek-ing Out," which we had to listen to an ungodly amount of times. And then, we had to go to Greece to see all the places, and then, we had to read all

• 6:44Ryan Holiday?

  these things, and it's like, it's on one level exhausting and on the other, totally exhilarating and amazing, and you gotta take the opportunities when they're there. So, I try to find, you know, the little spark of interest, and, you know, you see if you can get that going, and, you know, one out of 10 times, you find something that really gets going. You know, right when you start to figure out dinosaurs, they're like, "I don't care about dinosaurs anymore." And then, you know, that's kind of part of it, too, and just like, I just try to love this period that we're in, where we're excited about this thing, and then, I also try to do my best, as excruciating as it is, to be, you know, interested in Mr. Beast and stuff like that.

• 7:28Speaker 02

  Adding to the countries that are here tonight, I come from Iceland.

• 7:34Ryan Holiday?

  Wow.

• 7:35Speaker 02

  So, I would have to say I'm an Austinite now, at this point. My question is very simple. I've been reading your books for a number of years now, and they've helped me through difficult periods, but, as you mentioned to one of my fellow audience here, that, yes, we tend to be lone wolves.

• 7:53Ryan Holiday?

  Yes.

• 7:54Speaker 02

  Do you see yourself running, like, workshops in the future? Because I feel like... That's one of the things that I would really appreciate. This is an independent work for me.

• 8:08Ryan Holiday?

  Yeah.

• 8:08Speaker 02

  But if I get into the right community, is that something you would maybe establish in our area?

• 8:15Ryan Holiday?

  I haven't thought too much about it. I like the idea. I mean, what I love to do is write. I love to write books. That's my main thing. That's what lights me up. And one of the hard, weird parts about succeeding as a writer is people want you to do a lot of things that are not writing, like this. This is the opposite of writing. No one becomes a writer because they want to talk to large groups of people in person. It's like you became a writer because the thought of that is mortifying. So I've got a lot on my plate, and I'm mostly trying to protect that. And I know my next couple of books that I'm in the middle of. But maybe someday, I, obviously, I love talking about this, as you can tell, and maybe smaller groups would be slightly less intimidating.

• 8:59Speaker 03

  I'm Jess, and I was really glad that you brought up John Mackey and conscious capitalism earlier, because I've been into libertarianism for a really long time. Lately, I've gotten interested in self-governance. I was wondering how communities can utilize Stoic ideas.

• 9:20Ryan Holiday?

  Yeah, that's probably beyond my pay grade, to be perfectly honest. But obviously, the Stoics were obsessed with and fascinated with the idea of governance. We know Zeno writes a book called Zeno's Republic, which is unfortunately lost, although as they excavate Pompeii, they're finding more and more of these tightly-rolled papyri that they're able to scan, and AI can slowly see what they say. So who knows? Maybe this'll come out at one point, and then all the Stoic writings on what a government should look like and how it should work will survive. But yeah, I think, obviously, the idea of personal liberty is essential to the Stoics.

• 10:00Ryan Holiday?

  There's a passage in Meditations where Marcus talks about what he learned from his fellow Stoics, and he says, let me find it here, because I love it. He says, um, he says, "I learned from my brother Severus to love my family, truth, and justice." And he says, "It was through him that I encountered Thrasse, Helvidius, who we talked about, Cato, who we talked about, Dion, and Brutus, and conceived of a society of equal laws governed by equality of status and of speech and of rulers who respect the liberty of their subjects above all else." Now, again, a bit rich to hear from the emperor of Rome, an enormous exploitative colonial hegemon.

• 10:42Ryan Holiday?

  But it's like, you know, hearing about how all men are created equal from Thomas Jefferson. The idea is good, and then we have to make that promise real. And that's obviously the project we're all engaged in, either on a local level or a national level.

• 10:57Speaker 04

  I was wondering if you teach younger students? Because I would love to learn more about Stoicism and wisdom.

• 11:04Ryan Holiday?

  Oh, well, that's very nice. I don't teach any students, but...

• 11:08Speaker 04

  Like, do you have any clubs or like anything like that?

• 11:11Ryan Holiday?

  Um, well, and especially now that I'm not allowed back at the Naval Academy. I teach even fewer students, but, um, no, I mostly try to write my books. And then I try, like, I don't watch a lot of YouTube videos. I definitely don't go on TikTok. But the reason we make content in all these different mediums is that I want to meet people where they are. I'm trying to translate my work in as many mediums as possible. And then I, in turn, learn by being in that medium. And of course, I am trying to teach my two kids, however uninterested they currently are in the Stoics. But you sound like you're already ahead of the curve and doing great. So, thank you for your question.

• 11:53Speaker 05

  I know you do hard things, and you were in Athens in Delphi a few some time ago.

• 11:58Ryan Holiday?

  Yes.

• 11:58Speaker 05

  I plan to be there in November.

• 12:00Ryan Holiday?

  Are you gonna do the marathon?

• 12:01Speaker 05

  I am.

• 12:02Ryan Holiday?

  Oh, it's, uh, it's gonna be fun.

• 12:04Speaker 05

  I know. Well, I saw you run it in present. And I want to get some pointers from you, what, uh... How do I survive the trip or marathon to Athens?

• 12:15Ryan Holiday?

  Yeah, don't do it by yourself in the middle of July. That's my first tip. I should have started earlier because I definitely got heat stroke and I threw up all over the Olympic Stadium when I arrived. Obviously, discipline and sort of fortitude and strength and commitment is part of it. I did not really think at all about nutrition or caloric intake. I was just like, I can do this. And I did do it. It was just much more painful than it needed to be. So it's all concrete, up and down. Of course, it has almost 1,000 feet of elevation climb. It's pretty industrial the whole, like you see the ocean for a little bit, but then you're like under freeway underpasses.

• 12:57Ryan Holiday?

  And it's like not, obviously not what the Greeks did. On my birthday, I did 20 and I had some gas in the tank when I finished. And when I'm looking at my time, I'd come out a little slower than I needed to. And I think I overcorrected in the marathon and I came out a little too fast. I think I was like, like in the low sixes for my first three or four miles, which is not sustainable. Discipline is not just doing more and more, I guess is what I'm saying. It's also about holding back and restraining and, you know, being by myself. I had trouble pacing a little bit. And so that's, that's what I, that's what I learned. Also, you have to wear a shirt to enter the stadium. I found that out.

• 13:42Ryan Holiday?

  I had to go find out wherever I'd put my shirt. And so that, that sent me back a little bit too. But good luck. It's a, it's a beautiful thing.

• 13:53Ryan Holiday?

  Hey, it's Ryan. Thank you for listening to the Daily Stoic Podcast. I just wanted to say we so appreciate it. We love serving you. It's amazing to us that over 30 million people have downloaded these episodes in the couple of years we've been doing it. It's an honor. Please spread the word. Tell people about it. And this isn't to sell anything. I just wanted to say thank you.