Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2: From New York City, the only city in America. It's
Speaker 2: the show the Intended News. This is the Daily Show
Speaker 2: with your host two that Clepper.
Speaker 3: Welcome to the Daily Show. I enjoy you, Clepper.
Speaker 4: It's my last night hosting the show tonight. It's also four.
Speaker 4: What an emotional roller coaster we just went on. We
Speaker 4: got a great show for you tonight. So let's get anadlines.
Speaker 4: There's so much news that I want to talk about today.
Speaker 3: I wanted to.
Speaker 4: Talk about Elon Musk's rocket exploding four minutes after launch,
Speaker 4: which doesn't make it a successful flight, but does make
Speaker 4: it a successful metaphor. And to the haters who said
Speaker 4: Musk couldn't possibly destroy something faster than Twitter, jokes on you.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Also, also, I wanted to talk about the presidential race
Speaker 4: and how Robert F. Kennedy Junior, the famous anti vaxer,
Speaker 4: launched a primary campaign against Joe Biden. If you asked me,
Speaker 4: it's pretty bold to build your entire campaign on being
Speaker 4: anti vaccine since so many of the people who might
Speaker 4: vote for you are already dead. But unfortunately we can't
Speaker 4: spend time on any of that because there's another thing
Speaker 4: going on, and surprise, surprise, it's gun violence.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 4: I don't want to spend every day this week talking
Speaker 4: about guns, but this is America, and it's not giving
Speaker 4: me a choice. Because maybe you've noticed that a lot
Speaker 4: of this week's gun violence had something in common.
Speaker 6: They are the things that happen all the time, a
Speaker 6: mixed up address, pulling into the wrong driveway, or confusing
Speaker 6: one car from another. Yet, remarkably, for a third time
Speaker 6: in a week, seemingly innocent moments of confusion have led
Speaker 6: to bloodshed. From Kansas City, where a teen who approached
Speaker 6: the wrong doorstep is recovering from two bullet wounds, to
Speaker 6: New York State, where a twenty year old woman was
Speaker 6: fatally shot after the car she was in accidentally drove
Speaker 6: up the wrong driveway, And now in Elgin, Texas, a
Speaker 6: high school cheerleader has been shot and seriously wounded after
Speaker 6: her friend apparently approached the wrong car.
Speaker 7: Police say Peyton Washington and Heather Roth were in a
Speaker 7: parking lot when Roth opened a car she thought was
Speaker 7: one of their own and saw a man inside. Roth
Speaker 7: says the man started firing as she was apologizing.
Speaker 4: Does anyone else watching these stories feel like they're losing
Speaker 4: their goddamn minds. We call the old Whatever happened to
Speaker 4: asking a person one question? Are you confused about why
Speaker 4: a stranger is at your house? Before you open fire,
Speaker 4: open your mouth and just ask them?
Speaker 3: Can I help you? It's not that hard.
Speaker 5: Look, I know.
Speaker 4: You have Second Amendment rights, America, but you also have
Speaker 4: First Amendment rights.
Speaker 3: Used them. They were paying attention to them.
Speaker 4: Now we pay attention now because a few of them
Speaker 4: happened in one week. But what's wild is these wrong
Speaker 4: place shootings happen all the time because America is a
Speaker 4: country where every day too many people are armed, scared,
Speaker 4: and end up using lethal force. Because Google Maps did
Speaker 4: an update, I mean, what does it say when the
Speaker 4: most dangerous job in America is Jehovah's witness?
Speaker 3: You know what? You know how bad things have gotten.
Speaker 4: Remember that couple in Saint Louis and mccloskey's a couple
Speaker 4: of years they went out onto their front yard and
Speaker 4: pointed their guns at protesters, and they got a lot
Speaker 4: of shit for it.
Speaker 3: You know what, They didn't fire it anybody. And I
Speaker 3: never thought i'd say this, but please, America be more.
Speaker 4: Like these gun nuts all.
Speaker 3: Right, that's enough.
Speaker 4: All right, let's move on to something else that's quintessentially
Speaker 4: American people losing their shit on airplanes.
Speaker 8: We turned out to a Southwest passenger's outburst over a
Speaker 8: crying baby that forced the plane to land before its destination.
Speaker 3: This morning.
Speaker 9: It's a mid air mildown of epic proportion to board
Speaker 9: one Southwest flight, not just from the baby on board,
Speaker 9: but also from an adult passenger.
Speaker 3: Baby.
Speaker 10: Goddamn Echo Chambery.
Speaker 2: You want to talk to me about being okay because
Speaker 2: you're good?
Speaker 3: Yell, so is the baby. I don't care what the
Speaker 3: situation is. That is never a strong argument. Oh oh,
Speaker 3: so a baby can poopin's pants in public, But I'm
Speaker 3: getting thrown out of this DJ Max. Yeah, this guy
Speaker 3: totally lost it.
Speaker 4: I mean, somebody should have checked their emotional baggage.
Speaker 3: At Southwest. That's an extra fifty bucks.
Speaker 4: This story raises a lot of questions about passenger behavior
Speaker 4: and parental responsibilities, and I want to dig into all
Speaker 4: these angles with the greatest news team in the world.
Speaker 3: Let's go to the airport right now with Roy Wood Junior.
Speaker 3: Roy right, well.
Speaker 10: You you interviewed.
Speaker 3: The flight Teddence, what did the flight attendants say.
Speaker 1: Oh this is so good?
Speaker 2: Oh my god?
Speaker 3: Right right right, you interviewed the flight attendants, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I was. I was gonna interview him. But damn,
Speaker 1: mans is so good. It's so small, but.
Speaker 10: It's so good.
Speaker 3: Right, I'm sorry? What's going on? Right, Jordan?
Speaker 1: I just wanted to relax a little bit of four twenty.
Speaker 3: Four twenty so so on a four twenty I just smoked.
Speaker 1: It smoked a little bit of weed, and then I
Speaker 1: smoked a whole lot more.
Speaker 3: You're high during the show. Come on, man, the.
Speaker 1: News is so depressing out then I just needed a break. Plus,
Speaker 1: it's black history, mon man, back up off.
Speaker 3: Me right, you literally just told me it's for twenty
Speaker 3: that is April. Get what the flash change? David?
Speaker 4: I'm disappointed, Sorry, folks, is very unprofessional. Let's just let's
Speaker 4: go to Southwest headquarters to get the corporate reaction from
Speaker 4: our own desilonic Desisi. Does it is Southwest policy on
Speaker 4: baby attendance going to change?
Speaker 6: There's an even bigger question here, Jordan, which is how
Speaker 6: do planes even fly?
Speaker 3: Like they have wings? But the wings don't flyp I've
Speaker 3: never seen a plane take off like this, God, David DESI,
Speaker 3: are you I what? No, I mean yes, but on weed.
Speaker 3: I'm not like high in a plane. Is that what
Speaker 3: you meant?
Speaker 4: No, that's not what I meant. Honestly, folks, look, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: There's a total lack of professionalism. You deserve better. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 4: Let's let's try this one more time. Michael Cos are
Speaker 4: you there with us?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, of course I am Jordans. I'm Michael Posta.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And don't you worry because I'm not high on weed.
Speaker 3: I'm high on a cocaine. Okay, I'm very illegal, and well,
Speaker 3: don't you worry. It's it's it's medicinal.
Speaker 10: I bought it behind a Walgreens.
Speaker 3: So we're good. Did you at least interview anyone? Oh, buddy?
Speaker 10: I interviewed everyone.
Speaker 3: I interviewed the guy, I interviewed the baby. I interviewed
Speaker 3: every piece of luggage. I interviewed myself.
Speaker 11: That was interesting, And I'm gonna interview the plane once
Speaker 11: the lands on this run, right, Well, how.
Speaker 4: Did you get how did you get on an acts runwall?
Speaker 3: It was easy. There was a door, it was unlocked.
Speaker 3: It was basically unlocked. You just walked through a punch
Speaker 3: of security guard and then you're here. You're there. That's
Speaker 3: to get out of there. It's not safe. Don't worry, dude,
Speaker 3: I can't physically die. Okay, I see the plane coming,
Speaker 3: but bring it out, bring it out.
Speaker 1: Let's go under the cinab.
Speaker 3: What are you doing? There was a plane coming, right.
Speaker 3: How did he get in the bun How didn't you
Speaker 3: even get you weren't even at the air Oh I flew.
Speaker 3: This does work. You should start airs.
Speaker 5: I was talking about the time that.
Speaker 10: We could get the plane.
Speaker 3: You can beat you and get hit by a plane.
Speaker 4: I can't believe you all got at work without me, Desi,
Speaker 4: Roy and Michael everyone, we'll come back.
Speaker 3: We'll talk about fathering the solutionion to.
Speaker 5: Andrew take don't go away.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to the Daily Show. You know, as part of.
Speaker 4: My job, I talked to a lot of men, a
Speaker 4: lot of dumb men.
Speaker 3: We treat women with respect here, yes we do. That's
Speaker 3: an American ideal. Tell me about your shirt. What's it saying?
Speaker 12: It says Hillary sucks, but not like Monica. Read the
Speaker 12: transcript right, the transcript. I have not read it.
Speaker 3: Look at the transcript, Yeah, look at the transcript. Have
Speaker 3: you read the transcript, I trust to worry about President Man.
Speaker 2: Come on, thank you what you got home?
Speaker 10: About yourself?
Speaker 3: A safe space? Let me get this right.
Speaker 4: You're yelling to me to find a safe space, and
Speaker 4: you have elevated yourself with a megaphone and you have
Speaker 4: a shield.
Speaker 3: Oh well, you know we never kept in touch.
Speaker 4: But outside of my job interviewing dumb men, I'm also
Speaker 4: the father of a young son, and as a father,
Speaker 4: my biggest goal is to not end up interviewing my
Speaker 4: son as part of my job. Make sure that happens.
Speaker 4: He's gonna need some help. And that's what I want
Speaker 4: to talk about in tonight's long story. Short America is
Speaker 4: in the midst of some long overdue changes around gender
Speaker 4: and power, re examining ideas of masculinity, femininity, the spectrum
Speaker 4: in between.
Speaker 3: And how fluid it all is.
Speaker 4: It's a difficult and necessary conversation, but luckily for us,
Speaker 4: we get to have these nuanced debates on Twitter.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 4: This cultural change is important, and I'm glad it's happening.
Speaker 4: But when there is a cultural shift, it's easy to
Speaker 4: get lost within it. And even though it feels strange
Speaker 4: to say this, a group that is being left out
Speaker 4: is young boys. And I know, I know, I know,
Speaker 4: war on men and sound like I'm on a network
Speaker 4: that just got sued out of seven hundred and eighty.
Speaker 3: Million dollars, but.
Speaker 4: I know, jokes on you, Comedy Central doesn't have that
Speaker 4: kind of cash. My point is we've had a great
Speaker 4: conversation about what men shouldn't be. Men shouldn't be toxic,
Speaker 4: they shouldn't be overly aggressive. They shouldn't pay a porn
Speaker 4: star to keep quiet about an affair they had right
Speaker 4: after their son was born. It's a high, high bar,
Speaker 4: but we haven't been showing men what they should be.
Speaker 4: And that matters to young boys who are looking for
Speaker 4: an identity, for a narrative about what it means to
Speaker 4: be a man, and that vacuum is being filled by
Speaker 4: people with the worst possible idea of manhood.
Speaker 13: Former kickboxer and Big Brother contestant Andrew Tate infamous for
Speaker 13: being the self proclaimed King of Toxic Masculinity. Tate's core
Speaker 13: message centers around the belief that masculinity is in the
Speaker 13: crosshairs and he's defending it.
Speaker 3: His target audience, young men. This whole idea of being
Speaker 3: toxically masculine is complete garbage.
Speaker 10: The most dangerous men on earth are the weak men.
Speaker 10: Feel feel, feel feeling.
Speaker 3: Leave the feelings for the girls, right, that's what they do.
Speaker 3: We act, We're men of action.
Speaker 6: Empowering females is the easiest way to weaken the will
Speaker 6: of men.
Speaker 10: Study study, study, give up your whole life in school.
Speaker 3: Then you get to be a doctor.
Speaker 10: You can't even buy a mother sports car. The problem
Speaker 10: with most.
Speaker 7: Of you is I am sitting here with my sunglasses,
Speaker 7: bald head, millions of dollars, nearly unmatched fighting skills.
Speaker 10: I am Morpheus.
Speaker 11: I need action.
Speaker 3: I need constant chaos in my life to feel content.
Speaker 10: I need to be driving a supercar and fighting a
Speaker 10: bunch of champagne and going crazy.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, okay, we get it.
Speaker 4: You have a small penis. Even through the video, you
Speaker 4: can tell this guy wears too much cologne. And by
Speaker 4: the way, not to tarnish his sparkling image. But Andrew
Speaker 4: Tate is currently under investigation for human trafficking. I know
Speaker 4: it's always the first one you suspect. Now, maybe you
Speaker 4: don't know Andrew Tait. Maybe you're thinking, who is this
Speaker 4: porn parody? Vin Diesel You may not know him, but
Speaker 4: trust me, your sons do.
Speaker 10: With over thirteen billion views on TikTok, Tate's rhetoric is
Speaker 10: moving from online to the classroom.
Speaker 7: So I'm a teacher and I teach six grade.
Speaker 9: Femo of a young eleven.
Speaker 2: Year old boys that told me that they love Andrew
Speaker 2: Tate is ridiculous.
Speaker 10: One teacher says she hears bleatant misogyny from the boys
Speaker 10: in her class, hearing them say that girls belong in
Speaker 10: the kitchen and only exist for reproduction, and another claiming
Speaker 10: they talk about alpha's in sixth grade now.
Speaker 8: One teacher in South London noticed that his students we're
Speaker 8: parenting Tate's ideology. About a third of the thirty students
Speaker 8: in the class passionately argue that women were responsible for
Speaker 8: their own sexual assaults, one of Tate's top lines.
Speaker 3: Wow, times have really changed.
Speaker 4: When I was in sixth grade, the most toxic role
Speaker 4: model for boys was Michelangelo. He hates pizza for breakfast, lunch,
Speaker 4: and dinner that Turtle doesn't give us. Seriously, how can
Speaker 4: you be misogynistic in sixth grade? It's like the one
Speaker 4: year in life where all the girls are bigger than you.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't be running in my mouth about Alison if Allison
Speaker 4: could hang me by my underwear on the flag pole.
Speaker 4: Solution to this problem is not to cancel enter Tate.
Speaker 4: Inner pole is probably gonna do that for us, because
Speaker 4: even if he disappeared, even if he disappeared, someone else
Speaker 4: would take his place and spew toxic shit at young
Speaker 4: boys just as well, and social media algorithms would pump
Speaker 4: it into young boys eyes and ears just as fast,
Speaker 4: because that's really all this is about. Entertate is not
Speaker 4: interested in being a role model. He wants clicks for money.
Speaker 4: He doesn't want to raise your son. He's taken Dad's
Speaker 4: seat at the table. But he's really the loudmouthed uncle,
Speaker 4: that uncle who seems cool when you're a kid, but
Speaker 4: when you grow up you realize living in a hotel
Speaker 4: is not a vacation. What we need is an alternative,
Speaker 4: positive narrative for young men to follow. And it's ironic
Speaker 4: that these guys are talking about taking the red pill
Speaker 4: and using these matrix metaphors, because if you're looking for
Speaker 4: a complex, emotionally available male role model to counter their
Speaker 4: bullshit idea of manhood, just look at the guy who
Speaker 4: took the red pill.
Speaker 3: Keanu Reeves.
Speaker 4: This, This is a man who is wildly considered to
Speaker 4: be kind and decent. He donates huge sums of money
Speaker 4: to cancer research. He gives up his seat to women
Speaker 4: on the subway. He bought Sandra Bullock champagne and truffles
Speaker 4: because she.
Speaker 3: Had never had them before. He's the perfect man. Maybe
Speaker 3: his movies.
Speaker 4: Glorify gun violence, but nobody's perfect, and that makes him
Speaker 4: even more perfect. Because our children shouldn't strive for perfection.
Speaker 4: That will only make them sad. And those movies sometimes
Speaker 4: are pretty cool. The point is, young boys need a
Speaker 4: cultural role model who is kind and comfortable in his skin,
Speaker 4: not guys who are so fragile in their masculinity they
Speaker 4: can't puff a cigar without putting it on every social
Speaker 4: media platform like they invented fire hell. Jana Reeves he
Speaker 4: isn't even on social media, that's how healthy he is.
Speaker 3: So who has a society? We have two options.
Speaker 4: We can either follow Keanu Reeves around and put everything
Speaker 4: he does on TikTok, or probably better, we make sure
Speaker 4: that the conversation about modern society includes a role for
Speaker 4: men that young boys can look up to. Because long
Speaker 4: story short, we don't talk to our boys. Andrew Tate
Speaker 4: is going to talk to them, and that means ten
Speaker 4: years from now, I'm.
Speaker 3: Going to be talking to him. All right, stay tuned,
Speaker 3: we'll come back. Ryan Holiday will be joining me on
Speaker 3: the show. Don't Go Away. Welcome back to the Daily Show.
Speaker 4: My guest tonight is considered one of the leading stewards
Speaker 4: of stoic philosophy. He's behind the Daily Stoic Stillness is
Speaker 4: the key, the obstacle is the way, and much more.
Speaker 4: Please welcome Ryan Holiday.
Speaker 3: Right, welcome to the job.
Speaker 11: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3: But I've been a fan of yours for.
Speaker 4: Quite some time. You're you're a popular man. Twelve best
Speaker 4: selling books. That's a lot of books. That's almost more
Speaker 4: books than I've read. But you have a lot of
Speaker 4: fans out there, from very successful comedians like myself, to
Speaker 4: folks in the NFL to senators. Sort of what you
Speaker 4: speak to goes across many aisles, if you will, and
Speaker 4: I will say I've taken a lot from some of
Speaker 4: the ideas you have. I will also say that you
Speaker 4: talk about philosophy and it helps me work through life.
Speaker 4: And then a byproduct is that I go home and
Speaker 4: I tell my wife how she should work through life.
Speaker 3: That's a great idea, and I'm just before we get started.
Speaker 4: I wonder if it's possible for you to apologize to
Speaker 4: my wife for more.
Speaker 11: People ask my wife what it's like living with the
Speaker 11: Stoic philosopher, and she usually answers I don't.
Speaker 4: Know that feels socratic, but mostly maybe it's just passive aggressive.
Speaker 11: Yes, yeah, one of us writes about it, and then
Speaker 11: the other is sort of naturally.
Speaker 3: Is it kind of lives it?
Speaker 5: Yes.
Speaker 4: For those who don't know a Stoic philosopher, what are
Speaker 4: the tenets of stoicism?
Speaker 11: Stoicism, if I had to summarize in one sentence, I
Speaker 11: would say, it's this idea that we don't control what
Speaker 11: happens to us in life, but we control how we
Speaker 11: respond to what happens in life. And the Stoics say
Speaker 11: that basically every situation, big ones, small ones, ones you wanted,
Speaker 11: ones who didn't want, it's all an opportunity to respond
Speaker 11: with these four virtues. The virtues are courage, discipline, justice,
Speaker 11: and wisdom. So the idea is that that is what
Speaker 11: life is asking from you, one or all of those
Speaker 11: virtues in some kind of a combination. That's what it's
Speaker 11: demanding of you. And what's cool about the Stoics is, like,
Speaker 11: I think when people hear philosopher, they think like, you know,
Speaker 11: a tweed jacket or an old white guy Innatoga or whatever. Sure,
Speaker 11: but the Stoics were were philosophers. They were fingers, but
Speaker 11: they were also doers. The most well known Stoke is
Speaker 11: Marcus Realis, who's the Emperor of Rome, the philosopher king.
Speaker 11: But there were Stokes who were slaves, who were soldiers,
Speaker 11: who were artists, there were men and women. They were
Speaker 11: people trying to do what we're all trying to do,
Speaker 11: which is make sense of the crazy world.
Speaker 4: That we live it, right, But these image of them,
Speaker 4: Marcus Aurelias doesn't seem like the most modern person that
Speaker 4: people are drawn to. Why do you think there's don't
Speaker 4: get me wrong, why do you think there's residents today?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we have a hard time.
Speaker 4: We're kicking Rosa Parks out of libraries in Florida, so
Speaker 4: it feels like trying to I mean, maybe the fact
Speaker 4: that it's a white guy from back of the day
Speaker 4: makes it easier in places like Florida, But I think
Speaker 4: we have a hard time with grappling with historic ideas.
Speaker 3: These feel archaic. Why are they residants?
Speaker 11: I actually think that life hasn't changed that much, good
Speaker 11: and bad. Right, Obviously we made all sorts of progress
Speaker 11: into that years, and at the same time life is
Speaker 11: still life. Like one passage in Meditation's Marks Realist is like,
Speaker 11: when you're struggling to get out of bed in the
Speaker 11: morning and you go, but it's so much warmer here
Speaker 11: under the covers. He goes, But is this what you
Speaker 11: were put here to do? To stay under the covers
Speaker 11: and be warm? He says, No, you have a purpose.
Speaker 11: You should help people. You should make a positive difference
Speaker 11: in the world. You should do what you're uniquely suited
Speaker 11: to do. So, even two thousand years ago, the most
Speaker 11: powerful man in the world was like, I don't want
Speaker 11: to get up, it's too early. And that's because he
Speaker 11: was a person. And Marcus also lived through a pandemic,
Speaker 11: He lived through social unrest, there was an insurrection and
Speaker 11: a coup. Right, some of this might be sounding familiar,
Speaker 11: so at.
Speaker 3: Least the laziness does. Yes, life is life.
Speaker 11: People are people, and for better or for worse, that's
Speaker 11: going to always stay the same.
Speaker 3: It feels like what is active?
Speaker 4: I mean, there's there's there's been philosophy for at least
Speaker 4: twenty years. Well we'll fact check that, but I know
Speaker 4: it's been around while. There's many tenets of philosophy. It
Speaker 4: feels like an element of stoicism is that it feels
Speaker 4: actionable around your emotions.
Speaker 11: Is that fair to say, yeah, it's not this thing
Speaker 11: that you think about, it's this thing you're supposed to do. Right, So,
Speaker 11: some of the Stoics, the great Stoics, never wrote anything down.
Speaker 11: They were considered Stoics because of how they lived. It
Speaker 11: was the idea of deeds, not words. So yes, I
Speaker 11: struggle with it in my own life, but I try
Speaker 11: to actually put the ideas into practice. They're not philosophy.
Speaker 11: It's a shame if we think of philosophy as a
Speaker 11: series of thought exercises. Right, how do we know? For
Speaker 11: living in a computer simulation?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 11: Or is there such a thing as right and wrong?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 11: We can use it to answer these abstract, impractical questions,
Speaker 11: or we can use it as a way to make
Speaker 11: things impossibly complicated, or we can use it to really
Speaker 11: simplify things and go who am I what am I
Speaker 11: supposed to do? How do I make the best out
Speaker 11: of this complicated, messy situation? That's what I think philosophy is,
Speaker 11: and it's it's a shame that so few people have
Speaker 11: access to it, or that it's been made accessible to
Speaker 11: them in a way that would help them make better
Speaker 11: decisions and be better people.
Speaker 3: All right, help me through this? Okay, all right, So
Speaker 3: real life philosophy.
Speaker 4: I'm I'm with I'm with my son at a store
Speaker 4: and he throws a ship fit and it's screaming and
Speaker 4: doesn't want to leave, and I'm embarrassed, I'm exhausted. How
Speaker 4: do I use philosophy at a moment like that?
Speaker 11: Well, I think what we do is we don't do
Speaker 11: what the guy on the plane did, which is throw,
Speaker 11: which is throw our own tantrum in response. Right, So
Speaker 11: first episode, Yes, yeah, I don't know where he's studied,
Speaker 11: but the idea is we only control ourselves, right, So
Speaker 11: our kids throwing a tantrum, and we have to say, Okay,
Speaker 11: I'm not going to make this situation worse by freaking out.
Speaker 11: I'm also going to say I'm going to strip out
Speaker 11: the part of me from my own upbringing, from society
Speaker 11: that says this is a reflect on me as a person, right,
Speaker 11: that it's reflecting that I'm a failure, I'm embarrassing myself.
Speaker 11: Everyone's looking at me. Everyone who has kids knows exactly
Speaker 11: what's happening, and they're too busy with their own life
Speaker 11: to even think about you for the most part. And
Speaker 11: then I think another part of it is understanding why
Speaker 11: they're feeling that way, right, which is, hey, they don't
Speaker 11: want to be doing this, right.
Speaker 3: Life is hard.
Speaker 11: It's hard to be a two year old, right, And
Speaker 11: when we understand that people are dealing with their own crap, right,
Speaker 11: it gives us empathy and passion and compassion and patience
Speaker 11: for those people. And so if you can try to think, well,
Speaker 11: why do they think this is a good way to respond?
Speaker 11: What are they trying to get? How do I resolve
Speaker 11: the situation as opposed to solving it with force, solving
Speaker 11: it with you know, rushing out of the situation or
Speaker 11: just having a meltdown because the whole thing is overwhelming.
Speaker 4: Now we're regulating emotions here using stoicism, But are we
Speaker 4: just creating robots like because it's eno must territory here?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 11: No, no, stoicism is not about making you a better sociopath.
Speaker 3: It's not a which one is that? What book is that?
Speaker 3: Do you know that?
Speaker 11: Carricer guard I think Andrew Tate has some videos.
Speaker 3: It's an okay good.
Speaker 11: The idea is not that you suppress the emotions. It's
Speaker 11: that you don't be overwhelmed by the situations and make
Speaker 11: decisions from those emotions.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 11: So there's a difference between being angry, right, and then
Speaker 11: doing something out of anger, and I think this is
Speaker 11: an important distinction that we can miss. In the moment
Speaker 11: someone did something that's upsetting, that's annoying, that caught you
Speaker 11: off guard, you're going to have your immediate reaction, But
Speaker 11: there's a lot of space between that and hitting send
Speaker 11: on the email that you wrote, dressing them down right,
Speaker 11: or you know, you're getting mad at your kid because
Speaker 11: they're having the meltdown, and you can stop yourself part
Speaker 11: of the way through because you're older, because you've been
Speaker 11: you know, you know what this looks like. And so
Speaker 11: the idea is have the emotions, process the emotions, try
Speaker 11: not to make bad decisions from those emotions, and that
Speaker 11: we have power along this spectrum.
Speaker 4: Now there's a criticism of stoicism too about yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: I think what I appreciate with some of this is
Speaker 4: the idea that it takes response and it breaks it
Speaker 4: down in little bits and pieces, and I know this
Speaker 4: main tenet that like being aware of what you can
Speaker 4: control and what you cannot, and being able to let
Speaker 4: go of the things you cannot control. I think a
Speaker 4: criticism of stoicism is if you look at is it
Speaker 4: a philosophy that comes from.
Speaker 3: A place of privilege? Sure for people that are.
Speaker 4: In situations where where even institutional situations. You look at
Speaker 4: things like racism, activist movements, where like the situation that
Speaker 4: they cannot control is one that is inherently oppressive. Is
Speaker 4: stoicism teaching you how to accept those things and.
Speaker 3: Not push back? Is there inherent privilege in there?
Speaker 11: It's hard to get more privileged than the Emperor of Rome. Right,
Speaker 11: But the philosopher that influences Marcus really is more than
Speaker 11: any other philosopher who he quotes in his writings all
Speaker 11: the time, is this guy named Epictetus, who is a slave,
Speaker 11: the exact opposite of Marcus. You have extreme power and
Speaker 11: you have extreme powerlessness, and yet they're all human beings.
Speaker 11: They're all dealing with the hand that life deals deals
Speaker 11: with us, and they're trying to make the best of
Speaker 11: it and trying to have the most impact that they
Speaker 11: can in the world despite and because of that right. So,
Speaker 11: the Stoics occupy a wide range of positions in society,
Speaker 11: but most of all the Stoics are active in public life.
Speaker 11: In fact, this is the big distinction. People have heard
Speaker 11: of the word epicurean or the Epicureans. The epicureans sort
Speaker 11: of retreat from public life. They study philosophy and they go,
Speaker 11: let's just hang out in this cool garden. We'll drink,
Speaker 11: we'll have fun, will enjoy life, will not be disturbed
Speaker 11: by things. We'll do our own thing. Well, the Stokes say,
Speaker 11: but if you do that, who does that seed the
Speaker 11: field too? Like you were saying your thing, It seeds
Speaker 11: it to the worst people. And the stoics idea is
Speaker 11: that unless something prevents them, they will get involved in
Speaker 11: public life. They will try to contribute, they will try
Speaker 11: to make a positive difference. And this is why the
Speaker 11: Stoics were influential, influential to the founders, you know, in
Speaker 11: the Renaissance. All throughout history, the Stokes have been involved
Speaker 11: in social movements and positive change making, because yes, there's
Speaker 11: a lot we don't control, but we do control what
Speaker 11: we do right. We control whether we vote, whether we
Speaker 11: go out to a protest, whether we speak out about
Speaker 11: something right. So courage is one of the virtues. Justice
Speaker 11: is another virtue, discipline is a virtue, and then wisdom
Speaker 11: is a virtue. All of these, I think propel us
Speaker 11: into being informed and then being active in the world.
Speaker 3: How do we utilize something like this?
Speaker 4: So I go on the road, I talk to a
Speaker 4: lot of folks and I get into infuriating conversations more
Speaker 4: often than people ask me, how do you deal with
Speaker 4: something like that? And I do go to philosophy. I
Speaker 4: go to Bourbon as well. I hell of a philosophy.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you know the philosopher Bookers, he's great.
Speaker 4: McCallan is a great one, a Scottish philosopher.
Speaker 3: He's great.
Speaker 4: But I do you find elements of like again, controlling
Speaker 4: your response and your temper and also empathy help me
Speaker 4: get out of things like that?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: People, Also I touch to a lot of people who
Speaker 4: are really frustrating what's going on both sides of the aisle.
Speaker 4: They're scary times people turn to God. I think less
Speaker 4: and less people are turning to God, Like, what do
Speaker 4: you say, and what can people find in philosophy and
Speaker 4: stoic philosophy that can help them?
Speaker 3: They can provide a.
Speaker 4: Balm two days where you wonder just how long well
Speaker 4: we're going to be able to fight this battle, whether
Speaker 4: it's climate change, whether it's democracy, whether it's just getting
Speaker 4: up in the morning.
Speaker 11: Yeah, philosophy at its best is what they call the
Speaker 11: guide to the good life, to human flourishing, not just
Speaker 11: to happiness, but productivity and purpose and meaning and being
Speaker 11: able to endure suffering and pain and loss as we
Speaker 11: all have to go through in life. But I think
Speaker 11: if we can see philosophy as something we lean on,
Speaker 11: something that gives us counsel that's really helpful, not as
Speaker 11: this thing that only people in universities do, but that
Speaker 11: it's like there for all of us. I think one
Speaker 11: of the problems is as those other systems have fallen away,
Speaker 11: whether people are turning away from the church, or they're
Speaker 11: disillusioned with higher education, or their disillusion with the media,
Speaker 11: Like where do they go? They go to random stuff
Speaker 11: on the internet and a lot of those people are grifters,
Speaker 11: or they're trying to weaponize those feelings or those doubts
Speaker 11: or those emotions of those people, And so you know,
Speaker 11: people end up down these dead ends and you can
Speaker 11: pity them, but also understand that, like, that's not a
Speaker 11: good way to go.
Speaker 4: How do you I mean, because you're you're all over
Speaker 4: the other you have, you have newsletters, you put on
Speaker 4: Instagram videos all the time. I think you've taken something
Speaker 4: that seems to live in libraries, in dusty back back rooms,
Speaker 4: and you brought it to people's phones. How do you
Speaker 4: balance using a medium that has zero depth and is
Speaker 4: destroying our conversations, but also is the way in which
Speaker 4: you can talk to kids in twenty second snippets.
Speaker 2: I do.
Speaker 11: I think it's important that we go to people where
Speaker 11: they are right, and take what we think is important,
Speaker 11: what needs to be said, and find out how to
Speaker 11: In the same way that I don't speak Latin or Greek,
Speaker 11: I read the translations of those texts, we have to
Speaker 11: figure out how to translate these ideas that we want
Speaker 11: kids to understand, that we want young people to understand
Speaker 11: that we need sort of permeting through our culture. We
Speaker 11: have to figure out how to translate those into the
Speaker 11: different mediums where people get their information. And so I
Speaker 11: love hearing that someone discovered me on YouTube or on
Speaker 11: Instagram and then they're like, and then I read your books,
Speaker 11: because that's what that's the.
Speaker 3: Medium page yes, yes, yes, but that's get it. I
Speaker 3: get it.
Speaker 11: That's the medium that human beings have been learning about
Speaker 11: big ideas for a really long time, right right, Books
Speaker 11: are where we Books are the I think one of
Speaker 11: the best mediums to really meditate on something or think
Speaker 11: about something over a long period of time, right, as
Speaker 11: opposed to something that's bite size.
Speaker 3: And so I think it's.
Speaker 11: Important that we drive people towards books and reading and
Speaker 11: big ideas that are not always of the moment.
Speaker 3: I like it. I actually I don't. I don't think that's.
Speaker 4: Articulated enough to use social media as a conduit to
Speaker 4: something that it has more depth. We talked about entertain
Speaker 4: on the show and I am a father. You have
Speaker 4: a book, The Daily Dad that is coming out. How
Speaker 4: do you use these things to be a better dad,
Speaker 4: to create better humans, to make this world a better place?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 11: First off, I mean we have to model the stuff.
Speaker 11: Epic says, don't talk about your philosophy. Embody it right,
Speaker 11: My kids aren't going.
Speaker 3: To read it out.
Speaker 11: Yeah, they're never going to read the books, right, So
Speaker 11: what matters is do I live the books at my house?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 11: And how do we model the things we want our
Speaker 11: kids to be? And I think politically and culturally that's
Speaker 11: a big thing a lot of people my age are
Speaker 11: dealing with is how do you respond to the fact
Speaker 11: that your parents apparently didn't believe a lot of the
Speaker 11: things they grew up talking to you about because willing
Speaker 11: to throw their vote to a carnival barker, you know,
Speaker 11: because they want to win elections, right, Like, how do
Speaker 11: you deal with that? It's not even a hypocrisy, but
Speaker 11: it's it's it's a sort of it's an insincerity, I guess, right.
Speaker 11: And so what really matters is do we model things
Speaker 11: and do we show that we're sincere and we really
Speaker 11: like put value, we put stock in the things that
Speaker 11: we pay lip service.
Speaker 3: Do you feel there's like a parenting crisis in America?
Speaker 11: Well, I think I think people are struggling with the
Speaker 11: fact that their parents are struggling. Whether it's you know,
Speaker 11: they could suck down some internet rabbit hole or you know,
Speaker 11: they're having to work longer than they thought.
Speaker 3: I do, I do.
Speaker 11: I do think there is a problem. There's a problem
Speaker 11: in every generation. But it's not just the millennials and
Speaker 11: the young people that are struggling, you know what I mean.
Speaker 11: There's a joke I heard that. You know, all the
Speaker 11: things that my parents warned us about, that warned us
Speaker 11: was going to happen to us on the internet. It
Speaker 11: happened to them.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah. A questions to a healthy
Speaker 4: philosophical diet. Obviously you talk a lot about stoicism, but
Speaker 4: people who are interested, myself included.
Speaker 3: One, they should go towards your books.
Speaker 4: They should go to the ideas of Marcus Aurelius, Epictetis, Seneca,
Speaker 4: things of that nature. But also is it healthy to
Speaker 4: indulge in other great philosophers? Do you find yourself like,
Speaker 4: do you find yourself having to be defined by one
Speaker 4: particular philosophy?
Speaker 11: No, we should read widely. We should put anything to
Speaker 11: use that's good for us. One of the Seneca, he says,
Speaker 11: read like a spy in the enemy's camp. Right, he says,
Speaker 11: I'll quote a bad author if the line is good, Right,
Speaker 11: so it doesn't matter who said it. What matters is
Speaker 11: is it true? And does it help you get better
Speaker 11: at being a parent, a person, a professional? Whatever it is,
Speaker 11: is it of use? That's what matters.
Speaker 4: If you had to replace a philosophy quote, if you
Speaker 4: had to replace live, Laugh, Love, one of my faves,
Speaker 4: one of my faves. What should I if I take
Speaker 4: that down from my living room?
Speaker 11: Looking for a sign at home?
Speaker 3: Goods? I need a nice side at home? What should
Speaker 3: I look at every day?
Speaker 11: Marcus opens book two of Meditations with a thought. He says,
Speaker 11: today the people you will meet will be jealous and
Speaker 11: stupid and annoying and obnoxious and mean.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 11: It goes on, he's yes, he's preparing for the day ahead, right,
Speaker 11: and so some people think this is depressive stoicism, that
Speaker 11: it's best. But then he goes, but you can't hate them,
Speaker 11: and you can't let them implicate you in ugliness. He says,
Speaker 11: because we're meant to work together, we're like two rows
Speaker 11: of teeth are two hands, and that we're all part
Speaker 11: of this large thing together, and that some people are
Speaker 11: fulfilling their role by being the kind of people that
Speaker 11: you have to interview. And then the rest of us
Speaker 11: are doing the best we can and that is life.
Speaker 3: I love it, and that is life. Ryan Holliday, everybody
Speaker 3: you want to chuck out the doors. Let's and podcast
Speaker 3: and his last book, The Daily Dad Development at three
Speaker 3: over now, let to take it quick break. You're right
Speaker 3: back after this.
Speaker 4: Left our show for tonight left by time is your
Speaker 4: host this week for tune in next week for your host,
Speaker 4: Teddy Lyne.
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