Ryan Holiday on Bill Maher: Why Stoicism Is Having a Moment
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How did Ryan Holiday prepare for his live interview with Bill Maher?
Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. Hey, it's Ryan. Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast. Had a cool experience a couple weeks ago. Hopped on a plane, flew to LA, got there uh pretty late at night, woke up that morning, went for a long run, and then uh worked in my hotel room until about three or four in the afternoon. And I went over to, I guess, what used to Be the CBS lot there. And I sat down and talked Stoicism with Bill Maher on real time with Bill Maher. I thought actually originally they were inviting me to be one of the guests on the panel, which I've watched many, many times over the years.
You probably have as well. I thought that's what they were asking. No, that was actually the interview at the top of the show, the main segment. It was really cool. Everyone there was just unconscious. Unbelievably kind. I walk in the dressing room and there's an Iron Maiden poster on the wall and an Iron Maiden shirt. The people had just been unbelievably nice. It was so cool. And look, they they'd prep me for it, for sure. They were like, look, he he doesn't give easy interviews. It's not going to be softballs. He's going to test you a little bit. He's going to tease you a little bit. You got to be ready for it. For that. But they were like, look, at the end of the day, this is the stuff he's interested in.
He loves history, he loves philosophy. So if you can gel, like it'll work. And one of the things I wanted to do was like talk to people who who knew him, who'd been on there. You don't just go in there cold. So I asked a bunch of comedian friends that I know and have known over the years, Whitney Cummings, who just introduced him and spoke at the The Mark Twain Award, which he was accepting. I asked some other comedians that I know here in Austin. I got really good advice. She was like, be prepared for him to just say something that will totally throw you. And then if you can handle that, then you're good. Then you, then you've proven you can hang. And that was pretty much exactly how it went. And look, I was really nervous.
I mean, you're sitting in the green room. Presidents, vice presidents Actors, directors, entrepreneurs, aspiring leaders, all sorts of people have been on this show over the almost 30 years that it's been on. And I was nervous. I d I ran through some stoic lessons before I went on. I was actually in the green room with a friend of mine, and I was sort of riffing on some stoic lessons before you're about to go on live TV in front of a live studio audience, which is pretty intimidating. Actually, here's what I Put together. So I'm about to go on real time with Bill Maher. Here are five stoic things I'm thinking about. The first is how do you prepare? The Stoics talked about premeditatio malorum, a premeditation of evils.
I talked to all the comics I know, I talked to people who know Bill, I watched episodes of the show. Like when Seneca said the unexpected glow lands heaviest, he's talking about not being caught off guard by what might happen. So you want to know what you're in for. The second one has To do with that, which is Mark Sreelis talks about, he says, what is clapping? What is cheering? There's gonna be a live audience in there. He says, clapping and cheering are the clacking of tongues and the smacking of hands. It's not worth pandering to, it's not worth obsessing over. Hopefully they like what I say, hopefully they cheer and clap, but if they don't, it doesn't mean anything to me. The third one is this idea that ego is the enemy, which the stoics talk about over and over and over again.
Don't let things puff you up. Don't think that you're important. Don't think that anyone knows who you are or what you have to say. Go in there and be willing to prove yourself, explain yourself, make what you have to say interesting, which is another important thing. Zeno talked about how we have two ears and one mouth for a reason. You always want to make sure you don't talk over the person, you don't talk too much, you listen.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
How did Ryan Holiday prepare for his live interview with Bill Maher?
0:00–4:03
2
What are the five Stoic reminders Ryan used to calm his nerves before going on air?
4:03–9:08
3
Why does Ryan believe Stoicism is experiencing a cultural moment today?
9:08–14:27
4
Which modern leaders does Ryan cite as embodying Stoic virtues?
14:27–20:16
5
What book does Ryan recommend as essential reading for Americans?
20:16–23:37
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from The Daily Stoic
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