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Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast where each weekday we bring you a

meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics, a short passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength and insight here in everyday life.

And on Wednesdays, we talk to some of our fellow students of ancient philosophy, well-known and obscure, fascinating and powerful.

With them, we discuss the strategies and habits that have helped them become who they are and also to find peace and wisdom in their actual lives.

But first, we've got a quick message from one of our sponsors.

And now we do what is necessary. This is a time of uncertainty. It is a time of change. It is a time when options have been eliminated when hard choices are being made.

What does a Stoic do when they've lost their job, when their income is dropped by half, when they've had to bury a sibling or a grandparent or shut her a business, close out a dream.

They do what is necessary. This is a constant theme in Marcus Aurelius's meditations. Here was a man supporting a large family with a difficult job facing a plague, facing enemies facing his own ill health.

It's time and time again he reminds himself my priority is to be good. My duty is to serve. I will not waver. I will not quit. I will not be heard complaining. I will keep going unswerving to the finish line.

In his time, this is what it meant to be a man or to be a Roman. But the Stoic's knew that there was nothing gendered or nationalistic about those four critical virtues of courage, injustice and moderation and wisdom.

There was nothing ancient about them either because they are what you are called to do today. Because the answer to that question you and so many people are forced to ask yourself, what do you do?

Well, you must do what is necessary. You must be brave, good, wise and self-discipline today and always.

Hey, it's Ryan Holiday. Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stewart Podcasts. As you know, I am a long time runner. I've been running pretty much every day since I don't know, 5th grade. That's when I started running maybe earlier, 3rd or 4th grade.

I ran track in middle school, ran track across country in high school. I didn't take it super seriously. It wasn't until college that I really got into it.

And now I run almost every single day. If you've read any of my books, well, then you have experienced the benefits, I guess, of me running because I do a lot of my writing, writing, writing, I tend to work in the morning, try to write.

Not always successful, but when I go for my run in the afternoon, usually, although this morning I ran in the morning, I tend to work out a lot of my problems on the road.

And there's a lot of history of runners and writers, but also going back to the ancient Stoics, there is a long connection between running, writing and thinking.

Not only does Seneca say that we should take wandering walks because walks help relax the mind, a mind that is too focused, Seneca says will break.

Let me read you this passage from lies of the Stoics about Christ's Sipis. It gives you some connection between the history of Stoicism and running.

What is the connection between philosophy and running? There is none, but between Stoicism and philosophy of endurance and inner strength of transcending one's limits and of measuring one's self against a high internal standard, distance running.

Here the overlap is profound, particularly for a young man like Christ's Sipis, solely Celicia, competing for the first time in an Olympic distance race like the D'olico's.

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