Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure
The Daily Stoic
Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures
4.5 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 30 May 2026
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There are some situations where panic is not an option. In today’s episode, Ryan talks with Senator Mark Kelly about what his years as a Navy pilot, test pilot, and NASA astronaut taught him about fear, focus, humility, and staying calm under pressure. They discuss the lessons of spaceflight, the danger of ego in high-stakes moments, Marcus Aurelius’ “view from above,” and what real leadership requires in today’s world.
Senator Mark Kelly is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. Before entering public service, he served as a U.S. Navy combat pilot, test pilot, and captain. He was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1996 and flew four space shuttle missions: STS-108, STS-121, STS-124, and STS-134, commanding the final two. Over the course of his NASA career, he spent more than 54 days in space. After his wife, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, was shot in an assassination attempt in 2011, Kelly retired from the Navy and NASA later that year. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2020 in the special election for the seat once held by Senator John McCain, and was reelected to a full term in 2022.
👉 Follow Senator Mark Kelly on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Substack, and learn more on his website
📚 Check out Senator Mark Kelly’s books:
Mousetronaut book series
Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope
Enough: Our Fight to Keep America Safe From Gun Violence
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues, |
| 0:07.8 | courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. |
| 0:14.4 | Hey, it's Ryan. |
| 0:15.7 | Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast. |
| 0:20.0 | One of the things I think that the Stoics understood was that |
| 0:24.2 | pressure reveals. Like who you are when things are awesome, when things are calm, it doesn't say |
| 0:29.9 | that much. But what about when you're under strain? What about when the world is falling apart? |
| 0:34.8 | What about when you're under attack, literally and figuratively? What about |
| 0:39.7 | when you're being accused of something untrue or unjust, when you are the victim of an injustice? |
| 0:46.5 | What about when you're stuck in traffic? What about when you're isolated and lonely? What about |
| 0:50.6 | when tragedy strikes? Right. That's where stoicism comes in. That's where discipline |
| 0:57.0 | comes in. That's where all the virtues come in, right? Courage, discipline, justice, wisdom. |
| 1:02.3 | And there are some people who are tested more than others, right? When you're trying to land an |
| 1:07.5 | aircraft carrier at night in the middle of the ocean, knowing that everyone is watching and |
| 1:10.8 | every landing is going to be graded. |
| 1:12.4 | And by the way, the real failing grade isn't an F. |
| 1:14.5 | It's dying and a fiery crash. |
| 1:17.7 | What about being shot into space? |
| 1:19.5 | What about being attacked by the most powerful person in the world? |
| 1:22.8 | What about a deranged maniac trying to murder the woman that you love? |
| 1:29.3 | How do you come back from that? |
| 1:32.3 | How do you get through that? |
... |
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