In the kitchen at Per Se, one of the best restaurants in the world, there is a sign. All it says is: A Sense of Urgency. That’s what a great chef, a great service staff, a great organization has. A great person needs it too.

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Perhaps you remember reading The Odyssey in high school or college (or possibly you picked up

Emily Wilson’s fabulous new translation at the Painted Porch). Even if you haven’t, you’re probably familiar with the cyclops scene. Odysseus and his men find themselves trapped in a cave with Polyphemus, the deranged, man-eating, sheep herding, one-eyed beast. Odysseus hatches an ingenious escape plan: they wait for the cyclops to fall asleep and then stab him in the eye with a sharpened log. Enraged and blinded, Polyphemus staggers to remove the stone he had rolled in front of the entrance of the cave, which frees Odysseus and his men.

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Ryan talks to Thomas Ricks about his new book Waging a Good War: A Military History of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968, the philosophical methods that guided the leaders in the civil rights movement, the grit that it took to fight for the promise made in the Declaration of Indepence, and more.

Thomas Ricks is an American journalist and author who has won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting multiple times. He is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq and A Soldier's Duty.

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Marcus Aurelius was smart. He was rich and powerful. He won wars and conquered territories.

But that doesn’t explain why we are still talking about his Meditations so many thousands of years later. As Brand Blandshard would observe of Marcus’s writings 1984,

"Few care now about the marches and countermarches of the Roman commanders. What the centuries have clung to is a notebook of thoughts by a man whose real life was largely unknown who put down in the midnight dimness not the events of the day or the plans of the morrow, but something of far more permanent interest, the ideals and aspirations that a rare spirit lived by."

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Ghosts are, of course, a silly thing to believe in (Athenodorus’ ghost story notwithstanding). Yet the Stoics would not have scoffed at Eleanor Roosevelt’s feeling of not being alone in the Lincoln bedroom. As the New York Times would write many years ago in an editorial about her claim, “The White House is built of memories…It will remain a haunted house as long as it stands, but only in the benign sense that unseen presences may still be watching the destiny of the Republic…What American, passing by that great pillared residence, in time of stress, could fail to feel reassured to sense the shadowy figure of Lincoln, just as Mrs. Roosevelt describes him, gazing thoughtfully from a window?”

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In this excerpt Steven talks about the difference between an amatuer and a professional, the qualities that a professional expresses, and he explains what it takes to become a professional at whatever you do. Published by Recorded Books on Brilliance Audio.

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Ryan talks to the anonymous Instagram poet Atticus about how modern media has distorted old ideas, his experience meeting the Dalai Lama, the decision to remain anonymous in the public eye, and more.

Atticus, who grew up in Vancouver, has built a career as a bestselling poet by reading for hundreds, from behind a mask. From being an early investor in SpaceX, to launching a coffee business with Elon's cousins, to releasing 3 NYT Bestselling books, an international wine brand, and clothing partnerships with John Varvatos, Levis, Target, and KOHLS. Atticus can help share how to create business around ART while doing what you love (all while staying anonymous).He has now produced many bestselling books of poetry including Love Her Wild and The Dark Between Stars.

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The Stoics were not perfect. Nothing illustrates this more than Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations. Why would Marcus have to write reminders about not losing your temper or not wasting your time if he was not guilty of those very things? Why would he remind himself that the people he was going to deal with that day would be meddling, ungrateful and dishonest if he didn’t struggle dealing with those types of people? Why did he have to remind himself that doing the right thing was better than trying to be remembered? Would he remind himself of the importance of discipline if it came naturally to him?

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History is a lie. It is written by the victors, as the saying goes. Which means the picture it produces is inherently biased by a particular point of view. It’s also biased towards the things we know about, by our common knowledge.

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Seneca was a very rich man. He had nice stuff. Critics at the time, and ever since, have found this to be indisputable proof of his hypocrisy. How can a Stoic have expensive ivory tables? Isn’t it unphilosophical to have multiple houses? Or servants?

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