Who Are You Studying Under?

It’s very easy to be jaded. It’s very easy to be cynical. The system is, as it was in Rome, hopelessly broken. Corruption, dishonesty, and stupidity are all widespread. The odds are impossible. The pr...

13 Sep 202231min

Every day, you have to do things you’d rather not do. Or maybe you’re early in your career, and you have to do things that you think are beneath you. Maybe you dream of some higher station in life, an...

12 Sep 202210min

The Enchiridion is one of the essential texts of Stoic philosophy, and one of the most important ancient documents that we have access to. It is a concentrated collection of Epictetus’s wisest teachin...

11 Sep 202242min

Ryan talks to journalist David Wallace-Wells about his new book The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming, seeking out information, challenging assumptions, and becoming empowered through better und...

10 Sep 20221h 11min

The Stoics spoke about being indifferent, disinterested. Have no interest in what makes no difference, Marcus Aurelius said. That’s the image of the Stoic. Unconcerned with what’s happening around the...

9 Sep 202218min

By the time Marcus Aurelius took over as emperor, he had not had an easy life. He had lost his father at age three. He had lost a beloved tutor. His lifepath was upended by Hadrian’s selection. He had...

8 Sep 202210min

Ryan talks to KIND Snacks Founder Daniel Lubetzky about the importance of culture and values in a successful company, empowering people through kindness, living out the values that you build your life...

7 Sep 20221h 6min

There is a beautiful passage on the last page of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s, The Little House in the Big Woods. She writes of an evening in the cabin with her family, her father playing the fiddle, her mo...

7 Sep 20223min