Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues,

courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world.

The right book at the right time, it can change everything, right?

How did I come to read Marcus Aurelius?

It was at a conference as a college journalist sponsored by Trojan condoms of all things,

and I asked for a book recommendation, and one thing led to another, and now I have a podcast

about Stoicism.

You know, probably exactly like your story.

All of our origin stories to this philosophy, and in fact, to many of the books that have changed our lives are random.

There's an element of serendipity to them.

But usually it comes with some kind of recommendation. And for Marcus Aurelius, right,

this is how he comes to Epictetus. The discourses of Epictetus are handed to him by Junius Ristichus,

his philosophy teachers. It's one of the great book recommendations in history. A teacher gives it

to a young man who is being pulled towards power and fame and

responsibility and empire. And so these words from a former slave teach a man with incredible

influence and power about the importance of self-mastery. And that's what I wanted to talk to

today's guest about Professor

William O. Stevens, who is a professor emeritus at Crichton University. He's a long-time scholar

of both Marksurelis and Epictetus, who wrote this great book on Stoke Ethics. And then he's

more recently written a biography of Marks-R-Relius called Marcus Aurelius Philosopher King.

And in this little chunk of today's episode, I wanted to ask him about how Marcus came to

encounter Epictetus, what struck him about it, and, you know, who fired Epictetus's imagination

...