Lessons from Ryan Holiday: How to Stay Grounded in Turbulent Times

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams

Crooked Media

Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Whether your instinct now is fight or flight, many of us are searching for the way to navigate these turbulent times. In this episode, Stacey shares her practice of stoicism: an ancient philosophy built to make us more resilient, knowledgeable and grounded in the face of adversity. She’s joined by author, entrepreneur, and host of The Daily Stoic podcast, Ryan Holiday, to explore how we can apply the art of stoicism to this political moment —and use it as a tool to build our capacity and organize action. They talk about everything from lessons from past freedom fighters to smart media consumption, as well identifying the small ways we can make a difference and regain a sense of power and stability. Learn & Do More: BE CURIOUS: Check out our guest Ryan Holiday’s podcast The Daily Stoic for more ways we can harness stoicism to find stability and resilience. SOLVE PROBLEMS: Make sure to think about your news diet. Focus on constructive consumption of the news that helps you stay informed instead of being a consumer of endless information. Seek out other sources like historical biographies that can better help you understand the current moment. DO GOOD: In addition to trying to do big, audacious things to change the world, remember that small things can also make a difference. Picking up trash in your community, showing up to a city council meeting, or providing comfort to a friend who's having a hard time is all worthwhile.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Assembly Required.
0:10.0	I'm your host, Stacey Abrams.
0:12.5	We are going to continue today our discussion of our recommended reading by focusing on chapter 10 of Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny, and that chapter
0:23.8	is entitled, Believe in Truth. He says, quote, to abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If
0:32.9	nothing is true, then no one can criticize power because there is no basis upon which to do so.
0:41.3	You see, one of the biggest challenges of the current political moment is the very seductive appeal
0:47.0	of problematic theories that pose as easy answers. And it's the way that autocrats and tyrants use all the time, every time,
0:57.2	to tempt their followers. They have this lure of common sense, which is often divorced both from
1:03.6	reality and from logic. But the seductive part is that it sounds like it should be right.
1:09.7	It sounds like it should be true. Like the idea that
1:13.5	slashing the taxes of the uber wealthy and that widespread deregulation will lead to some magical
1:20.4	economic growth for us, or that a marginalized group is the primary source of all of your societal ills. But we know from
1:29.6	experience, we know from history that cutting taxes and polluting the air hasn't raised
1:35.1	wages for the average American and that the Trump tariffs are not going to lead to some
1:40.6	renaissance in manufacturing. We also know that a transgender teenager is not a danger to our way of life.
1:48.2	And yet for years, conservative voices have amplified these theories, these lies, so loudly that a right-wing
1:58.2	media can then take an ecosystem and reinforce it and amplify those lies.
2:03.2	And they do it so often and with such intention that now they start to sound like the truth.
2:10.1	And that's the moment we're in. That's the political space, the civic space, the public space that we're in.
2:19.7	And that is why we face the current epidemic of what Tim Snyder calls a hostility to verifiable reality. Look, we cannot
2:29.6	deprogram every friend or family member who believes the lies. But we can make the affirmative decision
2:36.7	to believe in the truth, especially when the lie seems easier to believe and easier to live with.
	...

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