How Are You Using Your Platform?

Ryan challenges you to think about how you are using the voice that you were given, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast. Pre-orders are available for Ryan Holiday’s new book Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors The Brave - check it out at https://dailystoic.com/preorderSign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/emailFollow 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 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 at DailyStoic.com.

• 0:26Ryan Holiday?

  How are you using your platform? Marcus Aurelius would have liked to be a quiet philosopher. Instead, he found himself emperor. So what did he do? He used his immense platform as a public figure to preach with actions instead of words, what a philosopher was supposed to do. And so it has gone for countless people throughout history. They would have liked to go about their lives and jobs, but they found themselves thrust into the spotlight or a position of influence, and they had to choose. Would they use it? Or would they hide from it? Would they step up? Or hope someone else would? The Italian virologist Robert Baroni would have liked to have focused on his lab work and his teachings,

• 1:10Ryan Holiday?

  but the rising tide of anti-science in his country put him in an odd position. He could quietly let misinformation and untruths hurt people, or he could wade into the battle of public ideas and speak up on behalf of vaccines and public health. As he explained, "I felt this was a duty." When you are a tenured professor, you are granted a lot of privilege because you are relatively safe in your job. But this also brings responsibilities, he said. "You have a responsibility to your patients as a doctor, as a professor, and as a citizen to talk about what a dangerous threat there is for your country." "My daughter is nine years old. In 2015, when she was four, I realized that the school she was going to attend, parents were refusing vaccinations." That's why he said something.

• 1:55Ryan Holiday?

  And we've said this before. "To whom much is given, much is expected." It's actually a line from the Bible that's in my book, The Boy Who Would Be King, as well. Each of us has certain privileges, be they a form of expertise or a social media audience, a public office, a business with many locations. How will you use this power? Will you use it for good? Yes, it's probably in your business interests to stay in your lane. Yes, it's probably easier and more peaceful to keep your head down and follow your own passions. But what would the world look like if everyone did that? What would Rome be if Marcus had retreated to his estate like Tiberius? If no one ever came out and said something unpopular, but true and truly necessary?

• 2:40Ryan Holiday?

  And what if you never use your platform, no matter how big or small, to do what is right? You know the answer. That's why I use my public platform, whether it's on YouTube or social media or this podcast. I use it to say what I think is important. Does that piss people off sometimes? Of course. But I don't care about that. What I care about is saying what I think and know to be true. What I think my obligations are as a person, as a successful person, as a citizen on this planet. You don't always have to like that. You might get upset with me for doing it occasionally. But I think you know that's what platforms are for, and I hope you can appreciate that.