Ryan Holiday

Be good now because it's the only thing you have for certain.

Hey there, just a heads up.

I'm going to be on tour this summer and fall.

You can come see me in San Francisco and Portland in June.

You can see me in Australia and New Zealand in October.

In August, I'm mixing my months up here.

But in August, you can see me in Chicago and Minneapolis and Detroit.

Then I'll be on the East Coast sometime in November and December.

Anyways, grab tickets to that dailystoiclive.com.

Hope to see you there.

Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world.

Look, I wish I didn't have to talk about this, but since a lot of young men follow The Daily Stoic and spend a lot of time on YouTube, I feel like I have to address this word that's all over the internet right now, which is... Looks maxing.

Looks maxing.

Looks maxing.

Looks maxing.

Looks maxing.

And it can be hard to know how real some of these trends are, but this one is real enough and it speaks to something timeless too.

But right now, because of social media, because of algorithms, because of toxic online influencers, young men are particularly obsessed with their looks, their muscles, being more attractive, being alpha, being dominant.

Some of this is harmless, some of it's totally fine, whether we're talking about fitness or taking care of your skin or nutrition or getting proper rest, but some of it is actively harmful, if not absurd.

I think it's worth saying that the Stoics were in no way against improving yourself.