11 Stoic Lessons Ryan Learned in Rome

Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. I'm here in the Caput Mundi, the center of the world, ancient Rome. Rome is the city that changed the course of of history that changed the course of civilization and it also changed the course of my life. Because about 20 years ago I read this book, Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, The Private Thoughts of the Most Powerful Man in the World.

I had no idea who Marcus Aurelius was, I had no idea about Stoic philosophy, and this sent me down a rabbit hole. Marcus Aurelius led me to Seneca. Seneca led me to Epitetus and indeed to all the other Stoics. But look, Stoicism isn't a theoretical philosophy, it isn't an Abstract philosophy.

It's a philosophy for life. It was used by real people in the real world in this city. So that's what we're gonna do in today's episode. I want to take you to the places where those people were challenged, where these ideas were tested, where they had to be put into practice because ultimately that's what Stoic philosophy is. It's something real, it's something tangible, it's something you do.

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