The Daily Stoic

Marcus Aurelius’ life looked nothing like ours, but the habits that kept him grounded still work today. In this episode, Ryan breaks down the daily practices Marcus used to stay focused, disciplined, humble, and present, and how you can apply them to your own life.

🎟️ DAILY STOIC LIVE | Ryan Holiday is coming to a city near you! Grab tickets here |  https://www.dailystoiclive.com/

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What can a 3,000-year-old story about gods, monsters, and shipwrecks teach us today? Almost everything. In this episode, Ryan breaks down some of the most powerful lessons from The Odyssey and the ancient wisdom it still offers for living a better life.

🎥 WATCH THIS EPISODE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28MUVg0oTGg

🎟️ DAILY STOIC LIVE | Ryan Holiday is coming to a city near you! Grab tickets here |  https://www.dailystoiclive.com/

🎙️ AD-FREE | Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing to The Daily Stoic Premium - unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content: https://dailystoic.supercast.com/

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It is easy to judge people from a distance. It is much harder to reduce them to a stereotype once you have sat with them, listened to their story, and tried to understand how they see the world. In this episode, Ryan talks with filmmaker, traveler, and author Peter Santenello about what he has learned from meeting people across America. They discuss how our bubbles distort the way we see others and why curiosity is more useful than judgment. Peter also explains how traveling to 85 countries changed the way he sees the United States, why America is more hopeful than the headlines suggest, and what happens when we stop talking about people and start talking to them.

Peter Santenello is an independent journalist and filmmaker with over four million subscribers on YouTube. He’s traveled to eighty-five countries and lived in five, building a global audience by letting people tell their stories in their own words. These days, Peter’s lens is focused squarely on the United States, where he explores the diverse, complex, and often misrepresented communities that make up the fabric of America.

📕 Pick up a signed copy of Your Fellow Americans: Dispatches from Across the Country We Call Home by Peter Santenello at The Painted Porch: https://www.thepaintedporch.com/

Check out Peter’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PeterSantenello

Follow Peter on Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/petersantenello/?hl=en

Peter’s Website | https://petersantenello.com/

📚 Pick up a copy of the books Ryan recommended to Peter at The Painted Porch: https://www.thepaintedporch.com/

🎟️ DAILY STOIC LIVE | Ryan Holiday is coming to a city near you! Grab tickets here |  https://www.dailystoiclive.com/

🎙️ AD-FREE | Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing to The Daily Stoic Premium - unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content: https://dailystoic.supercast.com/

🎥 VIDEO EPISODES| Watch the video episodes on The Daily Stoic YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DailyStoic/videos

✉️ FREE STOIC WISDOM | Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

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All you want is some quiet. All you want is some space. All you want is some calm. More than want it, you need it. You need it for your sanity. For your survival.

🎶 Song lyrics: Future Islands - "A Dream Of You And Me"

📚 Books Mentioned:

• Stillness Is The Key
• The Daily Stoic Journal: 366 Days of Writing and Reflection on The Art of Living
• The Boy Who Would Be King

🎟️ DAILY STOIC LIVE | Ryan Holiday is coming to a city near you! Grab tickets here |  https://www.dailystoiclive.com/

🎙️ AD-FREE | Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing to The Daily Stoic Premium - unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content: https://dailystoic.supercast.com/

🎥 VIDEO EPISODES| Watch the video episodes on The Daily Stoic YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DailyStoic/videos

✉️ FREE STOIC WISDOM | Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

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Epictetus’s work changed Marcus’ life. Both of them have changed Ryan's life. Both of them will change your life—if you let them.

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Kyle Carpenter is a medically retired United States Marine who received the United States' highest military honor, the Medal of Honor in 2010. Kyle is the youngest living Medal of Honor recipient. 

Full episode with Medal of Honor Recipient Kyle Carpenter | Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube

💡 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 August 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

📚 Grab a signed copy of Kyle’s memoir, You Are Worth It, at The Painted Porch | https://www.thepaintedporch.com/

🎟️ DAILY STOIC LIVE | Ryan Holiday is coming to a city near you! Grab tickets here |  https://www.dailystoiclive.com/

🎙️ AD-FREE | Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing to The Daily Stoic Premium - unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content: https://dailystoic.supercast.com/

🎥 VIDEO EPISODES| Watch the video episodes on The Daily Stoic YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DailyStoic/videos

✉️ FREE STOIC WISDOM | Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

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As Epictetus, the slave-turned-philosopher who inspired Marcus, reminds us, ”Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”

🎶 Song lyrics: A Satisfied Mind (Bon Iver version)

🎟️ DAILY STOIC LIVE | Ryan Holiday is coming to a city near you! Grab tickets here |  https://www.dailystoiclive.com/

🎙️ AD-FREE | Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing to The Daily Stoic Premium - unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content: https://dailystoic.supercast.com/

🎥 VIDEO EPISODES| Watch the video episodes on The Daily Stoic YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DailyStoic/videos

✉️ FREE STOIC WISDOM | Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

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One sentence from Marcus Aurelius made Tom Junod circle it three times, star it, and dog-ear the page. In this episode, Ryan talks with the acclaimed writer about reading Meditations for the first time, why Marcus still feels so modern, and the line he can’t stop thinking about.

Tom Junod is senior writer for ESPN, where his work has won an Emmy and the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting. He is a two-time winner of the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing, and a winner of the James Beard Award for essay writing. Previously he was a staff writer at GQ and Esquire. The film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood was based on his article in Esquire. 

Grab signed copies of In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man by Tom Junod at The Painted Porch | https://www.thepaintedporch.com/

Follow Tom on Instagram | @tom_junod

📚 Grab your own copy of Meditations translated by Gregory Hayes | https://store.dailystoic.com/pages/meditations

🎟️ DAILY STOIC LIVE | Ryan Holiday is coming to a city near you! Grab tickets here |  https://www.dailystoiclive.com/

🎙️ AD-FREE | Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing to The Daily Stoic Premium - unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content: https://dailystoic.supercast.com/

🎥 VIDEO EPISODES| Watch the video episodes on The Daily Stoic YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DailyStoic/videos

✉️ FREE STOIC WISDOM | Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Got a banned book at home? Send it our way — we need a lot more  👉 Address: 912 Main St. Bastrop, TX 78602

🎥 Watch this episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m02lZEbBY9E

 📚 Sign up for Ryan’s free monthly reading list newsletter: https://ryanholiday.net/reading-list/

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This is what it is to be a human. Some of it good, some of it better to resist. But it’s the rhythm of life, the bleeding of eras, one into the other.

🎟️ DAILY STOIC LIVE | Ryan Holiday is coming to a city near you! Grab tickets here |  https://www.dailystoiclive.com/

🎙️ AD-FREE | Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing to The Daily Stoic Premium - unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content: https://dailystoic.supercast.com/

🎥 VIDEO EPISODES| Watch the video episodes on The Daily Stoic YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DailyStoic/videos

✉️ FREE STOIC WISDOM | Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marcus Aurelius was not satisfied just getting the gist of Epictetus’ powerful teachings and you shouldn’t be, either.

💡 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 August 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!

🎟️ DAILY STOIC LIVE | Ryan Holiday is coming to a city near you! Grab tickets here |  https://www.dailystoiclive.com/

🎙️ AD-FREE | Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing to The Daily Stoic Premium - unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content: https://dailystoic.supercast.com/

🎥 VIDEO EPISODES| Watch the video episodes on The Daily Stoic YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DailyStoic/videos

✉️ FREE STOIC WISDOM | Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.