Welcome to the Daily Dad podcast where we provide one lesson every single day to help you with your most important job, being a parent.

I'm Ryan Holiday, and I draw these lessons from ancient philosophy, modern psychology, practical wisdom,

and insights from parents just like you all over the world.

Thank you for listening, and we hope this helps.

They need this, whether they know it or not.

Of course, it was too good to be true.

When University of Michigan professor Scott Hershowitz heard his young son screaming for a philosopher,

he should have known there was some mistake.

Hank, Hank, Scott, who wrote a delightful parenting and philosophy book called Nasty,

Brutish and Short, cried back, I'm a philosopher. What do you need? You are not a philosopher, Hank told his father.

There's something stuck in my teeth. No child thinks that they need a philosopher, and few adults do

either. Yet we, whatever our age is, we all have problems, don't we? Problems that require

a philosopher or a bit of wisdom.

In the ancient world, one might have actually sought out a philosopher. Zeno upon washing up in

Athens, heard a story about Socrates and supposedly asked, where can I find a man like that?

That's what philosophy is supposed to be about. That's what philosophers are.

Marcus Aurelius in meditation writes about fighting to be that person, not a pen and ink philosopher,

but a problem solver, a good role model, a person of virtue. And what enterprise demands

philosophy more than parenting? It requires us to be wise, to be just, to be disciplined, to be

brave. It demands that we be rational, even on no sleep. It demands us to be wise, to be just, to be disciplined, to be brave. It demands that we

be rational, even on no sleep. It demands that we see the big picture. It behooves us to love,

learning, and study so we can benefit from the discoveries of parents who came before us.

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