It’s Not Only Always Been Like This, It’s Always Been Worse | Trust But Verify

Summary

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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

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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.

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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)

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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Transcript

[A]

Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom, into the real world. It's not only always been like this, it's always been worse. It's not new, okay? Ancient Greece had earthquakes and horrible storms and natural disasters. People suffered, people were killed. People stole the money intended to help those people. Ancient Rome had tyrants and bullies. It had pointless cruelty and systemic injustices. For centuries, people have fought over minuscule differences. Their governments have been dysfunctional, their traditions seemed like they were falling apart. Stuff was changing, stuff was stressful, stuff sucked. It's not only always been like this, it's probably always been worse. You can look out at the news in despair about things, or you can zoom out and see progress. You can focus on bad people and miss that the bad people today are almost certainly better than the bad people back then. 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. Things that were not only common in Zeno and Marc Auli's time, but common enough not that long ago. You live in a time of abundance and medicine and knowledge and opportunity. Things that the Stoics could not have imagined in their wildest dreams. So, yes, see what is broken. Yes, work to make it better. But do so with gratitude and not despair. Do so with the understanding that you inherited a world improved by generations before you. And now it's your turn to leave

[B]

it better than you found it.

[C]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[B]

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You're hoping that people find your listing. You're waiting for them to walk in. Well, Whatnot flips that on Whatnot, you go live and sell directly to people in real time. They see what you got, they ask questions and they buy.

[B]

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[C]

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[B]

today's quote is from Epictetus Discourses 218. He says, 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. One of the wonders of your mind is the quickness with which it can comprehend and categorize things. As Malcolm Gladwell wrote in Blink, we are constantly making split second decisions based on years of experience and knowledge, as well as using the same skill to confirm prejudices, stereotypes and assumptions. Clearly, the former thinking is a source of strength, whereas the latter is a great weakness. We lose very little, though, by taking a beat to consider our own thoughts. Is it really so bad? What do I really know about this person? Why do I have such strong feelings here? Is anxiety really adding much to the situation? What's so special about by asking these questions? By putting our impressions to the test, as Epictetus recommends, we're less likely to be carried away by them, or make a move based on a mistaken or biased one. We're still free to use our instincts, but we should always, as the Russian proverb says, trust but verify. You know, it is funny, right? I think the impression of the Stoics is that they have no emotions, that they're unfeeling, unflinching. I don't really think that is it at all. I think they're not as immediately reactive or emotional because they do this. They stop and they think about it. They stop and they question. They put it to the test. One of the things my therapist has said, you start to say something and she cuts me off. She goes, no, preface it with what I make up about. That is right. Because, like, it's so easy to take what we're about to say or what we think as verifiable, indisputable fact. When it's really opinion, when it's really an assumption, when it's really a stereotype, when it's really an extrapolation, an inference, it's not real. And once you put it to the test, you go, oh, yeah, this isn't really based on anything. I've made this up. I'm guessing I'm basing it on past experience. And when I stop and go, hey, is this really so bad? Is this really what I think it is? What do I know about this? Hey, buddy. Sorry, my son just came out of his room. Can you go in your room? I'll send mom in. This is making for super entertaining. Super entertaining episode.

[A]

I think I'm going to leave this

[C]

all in for you so you guys

[B]

get a taste of what my life is. You know, even stuff like that.

[A]

Right?

[B]

I try to, you know, maybe sometimes your first instinct is, oh, this is an inconvenience. Oh, this is annoying. Oh, this is not how it's supposed to be. And then you stop and you go, but is that true? Actually isn't an opportunity to me. That's what Marx realized. He's reminding himself with that idea of the obstacle is the way you go, okay, yes, I can see it this way as a problem, as not how I want things to be, as an inconvenience or whatever. And then actually we can stop and think. No, it's this chance to do something. It's a chance for things to go differently. It's a chance to do it again. Seriously. I'm going to wrap this up here in just a minute and then I'm going to go in and get a second chance to lay with My son as he goes to bed. And that's not annoying. That's not a problem. None of this is important. These are arbitrarily made up things to begin with, right? But that's not how I always think about them. That's not how I necessarily think about them naturally. But it's taking this second to put it to the test, to think about it, to question it. And that's true for the email that you just got that had a rude tone. Did it have a rude tone or did it have no tone at all and that's what you thought was rude? Did it have a rude tone because that's the voice in your head, not what was coming across? What did this person mean? What's a nice way to interpret it? Right? 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. Now, sometimes that initial instinct is correct. That's what that expression, trust but verify means. You verify. Sometimes you're right, sometimes you're not. But you gotta do that work and you understand that, you know, your mind is not always your friend and your impressions are not always right. 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. So with that, I'll close up today's episode. I'm not going to record anymore. I'm going to go get a second crack at bedtime. And I hope that you are probably listening to this in the morning, so I'll wish you a good day and talk to y' all soon.

[A]

Foreign.

[D]

Hey, it's Ryan. Thank you for listening to the Daily Stoic podcast. I just wanted to say we so appreciate it. We love serving you. It's amazing to us that over 30 million people have downloaded these episodes in the couple years we've been doing it. It's an honor. Please spread the word, tell people about it. And this isn't to sell anything.

[A]

I just wanted to say thank you, Sam.