Kate Bowler on Memento Mori and Falling in Love with Fate | This Decision—This Process—Will Change Your Life

The Daily Stoic

Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures

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

4.6 • 4.7K Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2021

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ryan reads today’s meditation and talks to author and professor Kate Bowler about her recent book Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved, her battle after being unexpectedly diagnosed with Stage IV cancer, the similarities between hope and fear, the importance of stillness, how the prospect of death concentrates the mind, and more.

Kate Bowler, PhD is a New York Times bestselling author, podcast host, and a professor at Duke University. She studies the cultural stories we tell ourselves about success, suffering, and whether (or not) we’re capable of change. Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel, which received widespread media attention and a lot of puns about being #blessed.

Ten Thousand makes the highest quality, best-fitting, and most comfortable training shorts I have ever worn. They are a direct-to-consumer company, no middleman so you get premium fabrics, trims, and techniques that other brands simply cannot afford. Ten Thousand is offering our listeners 15% off your purchase. go to Tenthousand.cc and enter code STOIC to receive 15% off your purchase.

KiwiCo believes in the power of kids and that small lessons today can mean big, world-changing ideas tomorrow. KiwiCo is a subscription service that delivers everything your kids will need to make, create and play. Get 30% off your first month plus FREE shipping on ANY crate line with code STOIC at kiwico.com.

LinkedIn Jobs is the best platform for finding the right candidate to join your business this fall. It’s the largest marketplace for job seekers in the world, and it has great search features so that you can find candidates with any hard or soft skills that you need. And now, you can post a job for free. Just visit linkedin.com/STOIC to post a job for free.

Novo is the #1 Business Banking App - because it’s built from the ground up to be powerfully simple and free business banking that Money Magazine called the Best Business Checking Account of 2021. Novo makes banking easy and secure - you can manage your account in Novo’s customizable web, android, and iOS apps with built in profit first accounting and invoicing. Get your FREE business banking account in just 10 minutes at https://banknovo.com/STOIC

Follow Kate Bowler: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Homepage

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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.
0:11.2	Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast where each weekday we bring you a
0:16.3	Meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics a short passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength and insight
0:24.3	here in everyday life and on Wednesdays we talk to some of our fellow students of ancient philosophy
0:31.9	well-known and obscure
0:33.9	fascinating and powerful with them we discuss the strategies and habits that have helped them
0:39.1	become who they are and also to find peace and wisdom in their actual lives, but first we've got a quick message from one of our sponsors.
0:49.9	This decision, this process will change your life.
0:53.5	There was a man who changed Marcus Aurelius' life. His name was Quintus Junius Rousticus, a teacher who tirelessly urged his student to read attentively
1:03.5	not to be satisfied with just getting the gist of it.
1:06.5	And what did he urge this student to read?
1:10.0	Whose work did he recommend to this promising young man?
1:13.5	Epictetus.
1:14.5	Knowing all the power and responsibility that would soon come Marcus's way, Rousticus designed a course of study and reading
1:21.5	that would prepare him as much as possible for the kind of thing you can never truly prepare for.
1:27.5	Together they would read and reread these lessons absorbing and discussing, challenging and encouraging each other which made them both better.
1:35.5	Marcus could have blown this instruction off, he could have chased pleasure instead but he didn't.
1:41.5	He was a diligent and dedicated student.
1:44.5	Interestingly enough, Dwight Eisenhower, who in turn would come to hold immense and in some cases absolute power, had a nearly identical influence in his own life.
1:54.5	In 1922 as a lowly staff officer, Eisenhower was ordered to Panama to join the 20th Infantry Brigade serving two years under General Fox Conner.
2:05.5	A man Eisenhower later said had a place in my affections that no other, not a relative, could obtain.
2:11.5	In the book General Fox Conner, Persians, Chief of Operations and Eisenhower's Mentors, there is a passage about the relationship.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.