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

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

This is a good surprise. You're tough, you're firm, you don't get bothered by things,

you keep yourself under control.

You know a thing or two about life.

You have earned your wisdom the hard way, by experience.

Good, but you're missing something else just as important and perhaps more impressive.

If ever anyone possessed of power had grounds for thinking himself the best and most

lightened among his contemporaries, was the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher John

Stuart Mill wrote. Marcus was the absolute ruler of nearly the entire world. He was strong and

firm, wise, and resilient. But what was less expected from his stoical breeding mill said

was his tender heart. What a lovely thing to have said about you, that in your nicer and kinder

than expected, nicer and kinder than perhaps you could have gotten away with. Marcus Aurelius probably

would have attributed his tender heart to his mother, but that was by no means

at odds with stoic philosophy. He saw this tenderness in Antoninus, and in sextus who taught him,

he said, to be free of passion but full of love. That's good surprise. Not just strength,

but softness where it matters, not just control but care, not only to be wise, but to be

attentive, compassionate, and patient with the people in our lives.

Look, this is the time of year. We try to get our health in order, try to get back on track,

try to have better habits, put better things into our bodies. So maybe you're thinking about

supplements. If you are, you know it's a confusing space. There's a lot of brands out there.

It's a low trust category, not a lot of regulation, a lot of scammers, a lot of big unpronounceable ingredients. It's hard.

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