Parent Audience Member (7:40)

From one parent to another, a parent trying to teach his kids these virtues.

Ryan Holiday (7:45)

Sure.

Parent Audience Member (7:46)

Can you talk to me a little bit about how you try to give them this wisdom? As when I start to talk about Marcus Aurelius, my girls lose me in about five seconds.

Ryan Holiday (7:56)

Do you think my kids are interested in it? Because they're not at all, actually, often, you know, when they're like watching on their iPad or whatever, if we want to threaten them, we go, I'm going to turn on one of My videos. And that's the only thing you can watch.

Ryan Holiday (8:13)

So.

Ryan Holiday (8:14)

Look, I don't think kids are ever interested in things their parents are interested in, especially if the parents think that thing is educational. But I do try to find when there's the little slivers of interest, and then I want to put as much energy behind that as possible. You know, obviously, I've been talking to my son about the Romans and Marcus Aurelius and Seneca and Epictetus, and he was not interested at all. And then one day, he became obsessed with Greek history, which is not exactly what I'm interested in, but it's in the ballpark, and I'll take it, you know? And he became obsessed with this podcast called Greeking out, which we had to listen to an ungodly amount of times. And then we had to go to Greece to see all the places, and then we had to read all these things. And it's like, it's on one level, exhausting, and on the other, totally exhilarating and amazing. And you gotta take the opportunities when they're there. So I try to find the little spark of interest, and you see if you can get that going. And, you know, one out of 10 times you find something that really gets going. You know, right when you start to figure out dinosaurs, they're like, I don't care about dinosaurs anymore. And then. And then, you know, that's kind of part of it, too. And just, like, I just try to love this period that we're in where we're excited about this thing. And then I also try to do my best, as excruciating as it is to be, you know, interested in Mr. Beast and stuff like that.

Audience Member from Iceland (9:40)

Adding to the countries that are here tonight. I come from Iceland.

Ryan Holiday (9:44)

Wow.

Audience Member from Iceland (9:44)

I would have to say I'm an Austinite now at this point. My question is very simple. I've been reading your books for a number of years now, and they've helped me through difficult periods. But as you mentioned to one of my fellow audience here that, yes, we tend to be lone wolves.

Ryan Holiday (10:02)

Yes.

Audience Member from Iceland (10:03)

Do you see yourself running workshops in the future? Because I feel like that's one of the things that I would really appreciate. This is an independent work for me. But if I get into the right community, is that something you would maybe establish in our area?

Ryan Holiday (10:25)

I haven't thought too much about it. I like the idea. What I love to do is really. I love to write books. That's my main thing. That's what lights me up. And one of the hard, weird parts about succeeding as a writer is people want you to do a lot of things that are not writing like this. This is the opposite of writing. No one becomes a writer because they want to talk to large groups of people in person. It's like you became a writer because the thought of that is mortifying. So I've got a lot on my plate and I'm mostly trying to protect that. And I know my next couple books that I'm in the middle of, but maybe someday, obviously I love talking about this, as you can tell, and maybe smaller groups would be slightly less intimidating.

Jess, Audience Member (11:09)

I'm Jess, and I was really glad that you brought up John Mackey in Conscious Capitalism earlier, because I've been into libertarianism for a really long time. Lately I've gotten interested in self governance. I was wondering how communities can utilize Stoic ideas.

Ryan Holiday (11:30)

Yeah, that's probably beyond my pay grade, to be perfectly honest, but obviously the Stoics were obsessed with and fascinated with the idea of governance. We know Zeno writes a book called Zeno's Republic, which is unfortunately lost. Although as they excavate Pompeii, they're finding more and more of these tightly rolled papyri that they're able to scan and AI can slowly see what they say. So who knows, maybe this will come out at one point in the. All the Stoic writings on what a government should look like and how it should work will survive. But yeah, I think obviously the idea of personal liberty is essential to the Stoics. There's a passage in Meditations where Marcus talks about what he learned from his fellow Stoics. And he says, let me find it here because I love it. He says, I learned from my brother Severus to love my family, truth and justice. And he says it was through him that I encountered Thracia, Helvetius, who we talked about Cato, who we talked about Dion and Brutus, and conceived of a society of equal laws, governed by equality of status and of speech and of rulers who respect the liberty of their subjects above all else. Now, again, a bit rich to hear from the Emperor of Rome, an enormous exploitative colonial hegemon, but it's like hearing about how all men are created equal from Thomas Jefferson. The idea is good, and then we have to make that promise real. And that's obviously the project we're all engaged in, either on a local level or a national level.

Jess, Audience Member (13:07)

I was wondering if you teach younger students, because I would love to. To learn more about Stoicism and wisdom.

Ryan Holiday (13:14)

Oh, well, that's Very nice. I don't teach any students, but, like.

Jess, Audience Member (13:18)

Do you have any clubs or, like, anything like that?

Ryan Holiday (13:21)

Well, and especially now that I'm not allowed back at the Naval Academy, I teach even fewer students. But no, I mostly try to write my books and then I try, like, I don't watch a lot of YouTube videos. I definitely don't go on TikTok. But the reason we make content in all these different mediums is that I want to meet people where they are. I'm trying to translate my work in as many mediums as possible, and then I in turn learn by being in that medium. And of course, I am trying to teach my two kids, however uninterested they currently are in the Stoics. But you sound like you're already ahead of the curve and doing great, so thank you for your question.

Marathon Runner Audience Member (14:03)

I know you do hard things and you were in Athens, in Delphi, a few, some time ago. Yes, I plan to be there in November.

Ryan Holiday (14:10)

Are you going to do the marathon?

Marathon Runner Audience Member (14:11)

I am.

Ryan Holiday (14:12)

Oh, it's. It's going to be fun.

Marathon Runner Audience Member (14:14)

I know. Well, I saw you run it. I did. And I want to get some pointers from you. What? How do I survive the. The trip from Marathon to Athens?

Ryan Holiday (14:25)

Don't do it by yourself in the middle of July. That's my, my first tip. I should have started earlier because I definitely got heat stroke and I threw up all over the Olympic stadium when I arrived. Obviously discipline and sort of fortitude and strength and commitment, that's part of it. I did not really think at all about nutrition or caloric intake. I was just like, I can do this. And I did do it. It was just much more painful than it needed to be. So it's a. All concrete up and down course. It has almost 1000ft of elevation climb. It's pretty industrial, the whole, like, you see the ocean for a little bit, but then you're like under freeway underpasses. And it's like, not, obviously not what the Greeks did. On my birthday I did 20 and I had some gas in the tank when I finished. And when I'm looking at my time, I'd come out a little slower than I needed to. And I think I overcorrected in the marathon and I came out a little too fast. I think I was like, like in the low sixes for my first three or four miles, which is just not sustainable. Discipline is not just doing more and more, I guess, is what I'm saying. It's also about holding back and restraining and, you know, Being by myself, I had trouble pacing a little bit. And so that's, that's what I. That's what I learned. Also, you have to wear a shirt to enter the stadium. I found that out. I had to go find out wherever I'd put my shirt. And so that set me back a little bit too. Well, good luck. It's a beautiful thing. Hey, it's Ryan.

Ryan Holiday (16:05)

Thank you for listening to the Daily Stoic podcast.

Ryan Holiday (16:08)

I just wanted to say we so appreciate it. We love serving you.

Ryan Holiday (16:12)

It's amazing to us that overseas, over 30 million people have downloaded these episodes in the couple years we've been doing it.

Ryan Holiday (16:17)

It's an honor. Please spread the word, tell people about it. And this isn't to sell anything.

Ryan Holiday (16:22)

I just wanted to say thank you.

Parent Audience Member (16:34)

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