This Is The Most Valuable Real Estate In The World | Keeping "The News" In Check

We study philosophy to learn how to protect this real estate between our ears—and you could argue there's no better teacher than Epictetus.💡 We designed our How To Read Epictetus (A Daily Stoic Guide) as a personal field guide —part book club, part masterclass, part daily practice. It’s designed to help you not just read the words of Epictetus, but live them—to turn his timeless wisdom into real change in your own life and the lives of those around you. And if you get the guide before July 26th, you’ll receive a private invitation to an exclusive LIVE Q&A with Ryan Holiday, where he’ll go deep on all things Epictetus, Stoicism, and how to apply these ideas right now, in today’s world. Head to dailystoic.com/epictetuscourse to learn more and get your book, guide, and bundle today!👉 Get How To Read Epictetus (A Daily Stoic Guide) & all other Daily Stoic courses for FREE when you join Daily Stoic Life | dailystoic.com/life📚 Turn off the news and read these books instead:Trust Me I’m Lying by Ryan Holiday Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil PostmanThe Image by Daniel BoorstinThe Brass Check by Upton Sinclair📕 Grab a signed copy of The Daily Stoic Journal: 366 Days of Writing and Reflection on The Art of Living by Ryan Holiday📖 Preorder the final book in Ryan Holiday's The Stoic Virtues Series: "Wisdom Takes Work": https://store.dailystoic.com/pages/wisdom-takes-work🎙️ Follow The Daily Stoic Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoicpodcast🎥 Watch top moments from The Daily Stoic Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dailystoicpodcast✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://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, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and FacebookSee 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.

• 0:05Ryan 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.

• 0:56Ryan Holiday?

  People spend a lot of money to buy nice land. They want to be in a good neighborhood with good schools. They want to have a beautiful view. Just look at what happened during the pandemic when people rushed to outbid each other for houses outside of major cities because they wanted safety and space and a change of scenery. For centuries, armies have clashed over territory, some of it valuable, some of it not, willing to pay in blood for control over a piece of dirt. Meanwhile, some of the most valuable real estate in the world sits ignored. What's that? Well, we refer to it in "The Girl Who Would Be Free" as "the empire between your ears." How many people spend an enormous amount to keep up their estates but let their brain fall into disrepair? How many of them protect their property, as Seneca said, "but let people waste their time or influence their choices"? Yes, land is valuable.

• 1:41Ryan Holiday?

  They aren't making any more of it, after all. And yes, you want to have a roof over your head. And yes, nations must protect their sovereign territory. But the Stoics remind us that the greatest empire is within us, between our ears, inside that mushy muscle that is our brain. You have inherited an incredibly valuable piece of property. Will you rule it and cultivate it? Will you rule over it? Let's hope so. This is obviously the idea in The Girl Who Would Be Free, which is about Epictetus, Epictetus having so much taken from him, having so little control, in some cases even over his physical body, that the greatest empire, the empire between his ears, is really all that's left.

• 2:20Speaker 01

  And that's what we've been exploring this July here at Daily Stoic. We're calling it Epictetus Month, a deep dive into the life, the lessons, and the legacy of this incredible teacher. And if you've been curious about Epictetus, well, then we would love for you to join us. We're kicking it off with this course, How to Read Epictetus: A Daily Stoic Guide. If you join us before January 26th, you can do this live Q and A. It's going to be awesome. We're going to be answering questions. We're going to be exploring together. We're going to get through Epictetus together. And you can buy a copy of the discourses and this course altogether. It's a great discount. All of that is available at dailystoic.com/epictetuscourse. I'll link to that in today's show notes. I'm excited to see you all there. Let's get after it.

• 3:16Ryan Holiday?

  Keeping the news in check. Even the ancient news felt inundated with gossip and news. This week, you will face a barrage like they couldn't have imagined, from texts, calls, emails, to the incessant grind of the 24/7 news machine. Instead of responding to every status update, every urgent call, or the latest trending incendiary news story, take a moment to remember the three ways that the Stoics used to keep their focus on their purpose and duty in the present moment. Number one, step away from the noise. Two, remember that no news can throw you off the purpose of your present choices. Three, don't add something negative or positive to what's being reported. This is from this week's entry in the Daily Stoic Journal,

• 3:59Ryan Holiday?

  "366 Days of Writing and Reflection on the Art of Living" by yours truly and my colleague Stephen Hanselman, who I also wrote the Daily Stoic with. You can actually get signed copies of the Daily Stoic Journal in the Daily Stoic store at store.dailystoic.com. Or we've got copies here at the Painted Porch, my bookstore in Bastrop, Texas. Always popular, people ask me to sign them all the time. Anyways, check out the Daily Stoic Journal. I'm on like my fourth year of doing it. You might like it as well. But here's two quotes from Marcus and one from Epictetus to guide you this week. "Are you distracted by breaking news? Then take some leisure time to learn something good and stop bouncing around. But when you do, keep in mind the other mistake, to be so distracted by getting control

• 4:44Ryan Holiday?

  that you wear yourself out and lose a purpose by which you can direct your thoughts and impulses." That's Meditations 2:7. Epictetus's Discourses 3:8 says, "Whenever disturbing news is delivered to you, bear in mind that no news can be relevant to your reasoned choice. Can anyone break news to you that your assumptions or desires are wrong? No way. But they can tell you someone died. But even so, what is that to you?" And then Marcus Aurelius' Meditations 8:49, he says, "Don't tell yourself anything more than what the initial impressions report. It's been reported to you that someone is speaking badly about you. This is the report. The report wasn't that you've been harmed. I see that my son is sick, but not that his life is at risk. So always stay within your first impressions and don't add them to your head.

• 5:29Ryan Holiday?

  This way, nothing can happen to you." Look, I think the number one secret to a good productive routine and personal happiness is to limit your news consumption. Obviously, I'm biased as an author, but read books, don't watch the news. Read thoughtful perennial analysis. Don't follow speculative news reports. Limit your news consumption. Honestly, if you do feel like you need the distraction, you need like a Palacunzer, don't pull up CNN, pull up ESPN. Like, read about sports or something, right? Read celebrity gossip. Don't read the latest divisive piece of news. I'm not saying that it's not important to be informed. Of course, it's important to be informed.

• 6:13Ryan Holiday?

  I would just argue that following the infinite news machine is how one becomes informed. Because the news stories never really changed anything. It's like, hey, this thing is real. Here's the scientific advice. Take it seriously. Wait for it to be over. Right? The latest report is only adding to what we already know for the most part. So step back. Don't consume so much news. Couple of recommendations on this front. Obviously, one, my book, Trust Me, I'm Lying, is about how the news manipulates you. But there's a great book by Daniel Boorstin called The Image that I suggest people read. There's also Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death. These are two eye opening books that will give you a sense of why you should consume

• 6:55Ryan Holiday?

  as little news as possible, and how manipulative it is and how harmful it is. And then the other book, which inspired my book, Trust Me, I'm Lying. If you read The Jungle as a kid in high school or whatever, Eppen Sinclair's expose of the meatpacking industry, then I strongly suggest you read his book, The Brass Check, which is actually an expose of the news industry around the same time. And sadly, almost nothing has changed. I'm not saying that reporters aren't good people. I'm not saying that they don't do an important public service. I'm not saying I read no news. I'm just saying, look, the most viral emotion is anger. Should it surprise us that the news perpetually makes us angry? Right? Should it surprise us that news is always breaking, but never fully arrives? That they're always speculating?

• 7:41Ryan Holiday?

  No, it's an enormous beast trying to capture as much attention as possible to then sell that attention to advertisers. You are the product that's being sold when you consume this free news. Got to understand that. I think it's interesting that even 2,000 years ago, the Stoics were struggling with it. They'd be appalled at what our information diet is today. So step back. Give yourself some space. Don't follow breaking news. Don't let it change who you are. Don't let it rattle your equilibrium. Just keep doing you. Read books. Study real wisdom and information that will make you smarter and able to respond to what's happening in the world and make you a better, more informed citizen.

• 8:23Ryan 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.