We Have An Obligation

Ryan talks about the hunger crisis that America faces and explains how you can make a difference, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast. We've joined Team Feed Corporate to help end hunger in America. No one should go without a meal, yet more than 38 million people in America still face hunger. We created this fundraiser to help provide these much needed meals to our neighbors through the Feeding America network of food banks and we're asking you to join us in our cause. Go to https://dailystoic.com/feeding to donate and let's end hunger together! Sign 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?

  We have an obligation. That nice, warm feeling you're carrying over from Thanksgiving, that fullness after any kind of big family get-together, from the meal, from the company, from the plenty of it all. It's important that you realize that not everyone is feeling that right now. In fact, many people are experiencing the exact opposite. More than 950 million people are food insecure. More than 38 million people in America still face hunger. And some million and a half children lost their primary or secondary caregiver from COVID-19.

• 1:09Ryan Holiday?

  They don't know where their next meal is coming from. You might be thinking, so what? Stoicism is about focusing on what's in my control. Why should I care about some slow-moving humanitarian crisis? Because, as Marcus Aurelius wrote, "Those suffering humans are us, and we are them." "To allow harm to come to them through indifference, through callousness, is to allow harm to come to ourselves." This is why the most magnificent moment of Marcus's reign was the day he decided to sell off the palace furnishings to keep Rome going, to help those in need. There was a Roman Stoic who spoke of our circles of concern. Our first concern was our mind,

• 1:52Ryan Holiday?

  but beyond that was our concern for our bodies, our immediate family, then our extended family. Like concentric rings, these circles were followed by our concern for our community, our city, our country, our empire, our world. The work of the philosopher to the Stoics was to draw this outer concern inward, to learn how to care as much as possible for as many people as possible, to do as much good for them as possible. And this is our obligation. It is our duty to help others, to serve others, to illustrate those virtues of courage and justice toward and for and through others. So on today, so-called Black Friday, when some people might line up to go get a deal

• 2:35Ryan Holiday?

  on a flat-screen television or gorge on leftovers, let us instead put our energy towards helping the less fortunate. Let us help people from going hungry. Let us alleviate someone's worry or fear. Let us put food on their table. Better yet, let us do this together. Daily Stoic is raising money for Feeding America. Last year, the Daily Stoic community came together and raised over $100,000 together, providing more than a million meals. And this year, we're trying to go twice as big. We've donated the first $20,000, and we'd like your help getting to our goal, $200,000,

• 3:16Ryan Holiday?

  which would provide more than 2 million meals for families across the country. You just have to head over to dailystoic.com/feeding, and together, we can make a small dent in a big problem. We can't alleviate everyone's struggle or suffering, of course, but for the people we can help, the difference is huge. So let's do it. Let's be good Stoics today. Let's fulfill our obligation. Just go to dailystoic.com/feeding. Even $1 can provide as many as 10 meals. So head over to dailystoic.com/feeding to help us reach our goal of providing 2 million meals for families across the country. And if you're not in America, if you want to do something globally, I'm sure there's a bunch of resources there.

• 4:01Ryan Holiday?

  If you look for food banks in your local area, try to donate some money, make a difference. Again, this is what Stoics do. This isn't just a philosophy for us. It's a philosophy that obligates us to help other people, and I hope you can celebrate Thanksgiving that way.