What We Can Learn from the Ancient Stoics

Honestly with Bari Weiss

The Free Press

News, Society & Culture

4.6 • 7.8K Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2024

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the 2010s, Ryan Holiday was the head of marketing for the controversial clothing brand American Apparel, and the sought-after media strategist for people like the womanizing blogger Tucker Max. Then he wrote an exposé called Trust Me, I’m Lying, which lifted the veil on his world of media manipulation. Now, he is an advocate of the ancient philosophy of stoicism, which he roughly defines as the idea that we do not control what happens but we do control how we respond, and that it’s best to respond with four key virtues: courage, wisdom, temperance, and justice. His series of books on stoic virtues have sold over three million copies worldwide. His latest book, Right Thing, Right Now, is about the necessity of living justly—even when it is hard. Today: why power corrupts, how ego can destroy you, whether we should remain loyal to people even when they do abhorrent things, the limits of free speech, and how to treat people in our everyday lives. If you liked what you heard from Honestly, the best way to support us is to go to TheFP.com and become a Free Press subscriber today. The Free Press earns a commission from any purchases made through all book links in this article. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:26.9	sake, search the economist. From the free press, this is honestly. I'm Michael Moynihan.
0:36.9	In the 2010's Ryan Holliday was the head of marketing
0:40.1	for the controversial clothing brand American Apparel
0:42.5	and a sought-after media strategist for people like the womanizing blogger Tucker Max.
0:47.9	Then he wrote an expose.
0:50.1	Trust me, I'm lying.
0:51.4	That lifted the veil on his world of media manipulation.
0:55.1	Today, Holiday is best known as a philosopher.
0:57.4	He's an adherent of stoicism, an ancient set of ethics.
1:01.4	He advocates its tenets in his daily life.
1:04.4	His books on Stoic exercises and applications have sold more than 3 million copies worldwide.
1:10.5	Holiday's latest book is Right Thing Right Now.
1:13.7	It offers an antidote for the moral failures of our modern age,
1:17.4	making the case for simple ethics like living justly and doing the right thing.
1:22.1	I sat down with him to speak about how stoic ideals are applicable today
	...

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