The Daily Stoic Podcast

Episode Title: It’s Not Only Always Been Like This, It’s Always Been Worse | Trust But Verify
Date: April 6, 2026
Host: Ryan Holiday

Episode Overview

This episode of The Daily Stoic explores two interrelated Stoic lessons:

1. Perspective on Hard Times: The world’s difficulties are neither new nor uniquely bad. Often, history reveals even greater hardship and cruelty in the past.
2. Trust But Verify: Inspired by Stoic thinker Epictetus, Ryan Holiday urges listeners not to let their immediate impressions control them—advising instead to pause, question, and re-examine initial thoughts or feelings.

The episode blends historical perspective, practical daily Stoic wisdom, and a touch of personal anecdote, culminating in advice to approach each day with gratitude, humility, and thoughtful skepticism.

Key Topics and Insights

1. Hardship Is Ancient—And We Have It Better Now

• Historical Comparison:
  • Ryan opens by reframing today’s anxieties and perceived crises; much of what troubles us now has long historical precedent—and often the past was drastically worse.
  • Notable references include ancient Greece and Rome’s disasters, cruelty, and systemic injustice.
  • Quote:

    “It’s not only always been like this, it’s probably always been worse. … Even the people you disagree with and dislike politically are not selling their enemies into slavery, sending children to work in mines, or doing science experiments on minorities.”
    — Ryan Holiday (00:41)

• Gratitude as an Antidote:
  • Ryan highlights technological, medical, and social advances, reminding us to work for improvement, but from a place of thankfulness.
  • Quote:

    “You live in a time of abundance and medicine and knowledge and opportunity. … Do so with gratitude and not despair.”
    — Ryan Holiday (01:18)

2. The Power and Danger of First Impressions ("Trust But Verify")

• Epictetus’ Advice:
  • The segment draws upon a quote from Epictetus (Discourses 2.18):

    “First off, don’t let the force of an impression carry you away. Say to it, hold up a bit. Let me see who you are, where you are from. Let me put you to the test.”
    — Epictetus (Read at 04:21)

• Instant Judgments:
  • Our minds quickly label and react to things, but this is double-edged: life experience helps in emergencies, but also feeds bias and anxiety.
  • Reference to Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink: quick judgments can be both powerful and perilous.
  • Quote:

    "The impression of the Stoics is that they have no emotions, that they're unfeeling...I don't really think that is it at all...They stop and they think about it."
    — Ryan Holiday (05:33)

• Therapist’s Advice:
  • Ryan shares his therapist’s tool: prefacing thoughts with “what I make up about that is…” as a way to distinguish assumption from fact.
  • Quote:

    “It’s so easy to take what we're about to say or what we think as verifiable…When it’s really opinion…an assumption…an inference, it's not real.”
    — Ryan Holiday (06:04)

3. Applying Stoicism in Daily Life

• Family and Real Life Interruptions:
  • Ryan’s young son interrupts the recording, creating a teaching moment:
    • Initial reaction: frustration and annoyance.
    • Stoic reframing: see it as an opportunity, not a problem—a chance to be present and try again with empathy.
  • Quote:

    “Maybe sometimes your first instinct is, oh, this is an inconvenience. … And then you stop and you go, but is that true?”
    — Ryan Holiday (07:28)

• Everyday Application (“Trust but Verify”):
  • Advice for handling emails, abrupt messages, daily judgments. Often, our interpretation is colored by our mood or biases, not fact.
  • Quote:

    “Did it have a rude tone, or did it have no tone at all and that's what you thought was rude?...You can put all these impressions, assumptions to the test, and you should. And the more that you do that, the better and happier you will be, the more stoic you will be.”
    — Ryan Holiday (08:10)

4. Gut Instincts and Verification

• Limits of Intuition:
  • “Trust your gut” only works if you’ve honed your instincts; even then, verification is essential.
  • Quote:

    “When you go, I trust my gut, do you deserve to trust that gut? Right? Have you done the work that warrants that? Or would just a little more investigation, a little pause, a little more thinking, would that actually make everything better? I think that it would.”
    — Ryan Holiday (09:09)

Memorable Moments

• Son Interrupts Episode (06:40–07:20):
  Unscripted family moment reinforces the lesson of slowing down, questioning our reactions, and finding meaning in everyday hassles.
• Daily Stoic Virtues:
  Host restates the core Stoic values—courage, discipline, justice, wisdom—and presents today’s lessons as living examples of these.

Important Timestamps

• 00:00–01:41:
  Historical perspective—“it’s always been worse,” gratitude, and progress.
• 04:21:
  Epictetus quote on impressions; introduction to “trust but verify.”
• 05:33–07:20:
  Stoic approach to emotion, therapy tools, family interruption, and reflective reframing.
• 08:10–09:09:
  Applying Stoicism to everyday impressions, challenges of intuition, and the importance of verification.

Notable Quotes

• Ryan Holiday (on history and gratitude, 00:41):

  “It’s not only always been like this, it’s probably always been worse.”

• Ryan Holiday (on progress, 01:18):

  “You live in a time of abundance and medicine and knowledge and opportunity. … Do so with gratitude and not despair.”

• Epictetus (read by Ryan Holiday, 04:21):

  “First off, don’t let the force of an impression carry you away. Say to it, hold up a bit. Let me see who you are, where you are from. Let me put you to the test.”

• Ryan Holiday (on therapy tool, 06:04):

  “It’s so easy to take what we’re about to say or what we think as verifiable…When it’s really opinion...an extrapolation, an inference, it's not real.”

• Ryan Holiday (on reframing interruptions, 07:28):

  “Maybe sometimes your first instinct is, oh, this is an inconvenience...And then you stop and you go, but is that true?”

• Ryan Holiday (on email misunderstandings, 08:10):

  "Did it have a rude tone, or did it have no tone at all and that's what you thought was rude? ... The more that you do that, the better and happier you will be, the more stoic you will be."

• Ryan Holiday (on intuition, 09:09):

  “When you go, I trust my gut, do you deserve to trust that gut? ... Or would just a little more investigation ... make everything better? I think that it would.”

Tone and Style

Ryan blends calm, direct wisdom with humility and self-reflection, encouraging listeners to be grateful, skeptical of first impressions, and practice the restorative pause of Stoic inquiry in daily life, even—perhaps especially—when interrupted.

Final Takeaway

Ancient hardships remind us we are not alone or uniquely afflicted by life’s chaos. By trusting but verifying our perceptions and reactions, practicing gratitude, and pausing before judgment, we can make wiser, more peaceful choices—as the Stoics have long advised.

Episode closes with Ryan heading off to be present with his family, embodying the very lesson he teaches.