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The Daily Stoic

Ask Daily Stoic: Ryan and Donald Robertson On the Brilliance and Insights of Marcus Aurelius

The Daily Stoic

Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures

Education, Daily Stoic, Stoic, Ryan Holiday, Self-improvement, 694393, Stoic Philosophy, Business, Society & Culture, Stoicism, Philosophy

4.55.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 August 2020

⏱️ 65 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On today’s Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan and author and therapist Donald Robertson talk about the history behind Stoicism, including how the historical record treats catastrophes like the Antonine Plague and the Spanish influenza pandemic, what Marcus was feeling as he suffered through multiple tragedies while writing his Meditations, and more.

Donald Robertson is a cognitive behavioral therapist and writer who is an expert on applying and practicing Stoicism in a therapeutic setting. He has written How to Think Like a Roman Emperor, one of the best and most popular biographies of Marcus Aurelius in recent years.

Get How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: https://geni.us/Vkqvw

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today.

0:11.7

Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Stoic. Each weekday we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoic, something that can help you live up to those four

0:22.0

Stoic virtues of courage, justice, wisdom, and temperance. And here on the weekend we take a deeper dive into those same topics. We interview Stoic philosophers, we reflect, we prepare, we think deeply about the challenging issues of our time. And we work through this philosophy in a way that's more possible here when we're not rushing to worker to get the kids to school.

0:51.0

We have the time to think, to go for a walk, to sit with our journals and to prepare for what the future will bring.

1:02.0

Hello, I'm Hannah and I'm Sieruti and we are the hosts of a Redhanded, a weekly true crime podcast. Every week on Redhanded we get stuck into the most talked about cases.

1:11.0

From the Idaho student killings, the Delphi murders and our recent rundown of the Murdoch saga.

1:16.0

Last year, we also started a second weekly show, Shorthand, which is just an excuse for us to talk about anything we find interesting because it's our show and we can do what we like.

1:24.0

We've covered the death of Princess Diana, an unholy Quran written in Saddam Hussein's blood, the gruesome history of European witch hunting, and the very uncomfortable phenomenon of genetic sexual attraction.

1:34.0

Whatever the case, we want to know what pushes people to the extremes of human behaviour.

1:39.0

Like, can someone give consent to be cannibalized? What drives a child to kill? And what's the psychology of a terrorist?

1:45.0

Listen to Redhanded wherever you get your podcasts, so access our bonus shorthand episodes exclusively on Amazon Music, or by subscribing to Wondry Plus, in Apple Podcasts or the Wondry app.

1:56.0

Hey, it's Guy Ross here and on my podcast, how I built this, I talked to the founders behind some of the world's biggest and most innovative companies like Starbucks, Google and Pedagonia.

2:07.0

And together, we discuss all of the skills these leaders have learned along the way, like how to solve complex problems and how to lead through uncertainty.

2:16.0

But how I built this isn't your average business podcast. By tapping into the hearts and minds of entrepreneurs, we better understand how they use adversity as fuel to help them persevere through challenges or overcome setbacks and achieve their goals.

2:32.0

And these aren't just conversations about the past. My guests and I also explore the novel and world-changing ideas they're pursuing right now.

2:40.0

The goal of our podcast is to inspire you to approach challenges like their opportunities, just like an entrepreneur. So check out how I built this on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

2:54.0

Hey, it's Ryan Holiday. Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoke Podcast. I don't remember when I first found out about the sort of link between Stoke Philosophy and CBT that's cognitive behavioral therapy.

3:07.0

But I remember that that was really exciting to me this idea that, oh, this wasn't just this dusty old philosophy, but it was something new that had sort of a modern application.

3:18.0

It could be used. It wasn't just abstract ideas, but it was had a real use in the real world too.

3:24.0

And I've got a figure that it was through Donald Robertson, my guest today, that I first made that connection.

3:32.0

And I'm indebted to Donald in another sense. I don't know if he knows this, but when I was writing the obstacles the way I sort of come across this quote from Marcus really says objective judgment now at this very moment, unselfish action now at this very moment.

3:46.0

That's very moment willing acceptance now at this very moment. That's all you need. And that quote, it's her struck me as the core of what I was saying the book was about.

...

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