Trudging Through Your Own Life? Here's the Stoic Fix | Maria Semple
10% Happier with Dan Harris
10% Media, LLC
4.6 • 12.9K Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How to do your best work, reframe life's bullshit, and stop making your happiness hostage to outcomes.
Maria Semple is the bestselling author of Today Will Be Different, Where'd You Go, Bernadette, and This One Is Mine. Before writing fiction, Maria wrote for TV. Her newest book is called Go Gentle.
In this episode we talk about:
- Cognitive reframing tools to shift your mindset
- Maria's daily Stoic routine
- The limits of Stoicism
- What to do when mediating gives you anxiety
- The danger of "baited bounties"
- How to "get shit done" with non-attachment
- Using fantasy as a coping mechanism
Related Episodes:
- Stoic Practices for Getting Rid of Mental Junk, Your Morning Routine, and Talking to the Dead | Ryan Holiday
- Stoic Advice for Handling Setbacks, Insults, and Death | William Irvine
Get the 10% with Dan Harris app here
Sign up for Dan's free newsletter here
Follow Dan on social: Instagram, TikTok
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
Additional Resources:
Join Dan and Emmy Award-winning journalist Allison Gilbert at 92NY on May 17th for a live conversation about how mindfulness can deepen connection and combat loneliness, available in person and via streaming. Register here.
Join Dan, Sebene Selassie and Jeff Warren for Meditation Party, a 3-day immersive retreat at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, October 16–18, 2026. Register here.
This episode is sponsored by:
Rosetta Stone — Language learning that's immersive and intuitive. Start your journey at https://www.rosettastone.com/happier
ButcherBox — 100% grass-fed beef, free-range organic chicken, and wild-caught seafood delivered to your door. New listeners get chicken breasts or top sirloin for a year, or ground beef for life, plus $20 off at https://www.butcherbox.com/happier
To advertise on the show, contact sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/10HappierwithDanHarris
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris. |
| 0:18.0 | Hey, gang. Today we're talking about the enormous power and relief and release that comes from shifting your perspective. |
| 0:27.1 | One way of putting this is the old saw about how the problem isn't the problem. |
| 0:32.8 | The problem is how you're relating to the problem. |
| 0:35.4 | So today we're going to talk about that. |
| 0:36.7 | We're also going to talk about a whole bunch of other stoic principles, including focusing on what you're relating to the problem. So today we're going to talk about that. We're also going to talk about a whole bunch of other stoic principles, including focusing on what you can control and letting the rest fall by the wayside, which my guest calls, quote, a major turn on. And we'll talk about the concept of, quote, digging it, baby, no matter what's happening. My guest is my friend Maria Semple, who's a well-known novelist. |
| 0:58.0 | She is perhaps best known for her novel, which then turned into a movie called Where'd You Go Bernadette? |
| 1:04.1 | And now she's got a new novel that's getting a ton of buzz called Go Gentle. |
| 1:09.1 | I had the opportunity to read it early and it's incredibly good and it is |
| 1:13.2 | filled with stoic principles because the protagonist is an expert on stoicism, which I should |
| 1:20.1 | have said this earlier, but it's the ancient Greco-Roman philosophy, which itself has become |
| 1:24.8 | incredibly buzzy in recent years. and Maria herself, as you will hear, |
| 1:29.1 | is a big stoic enthusiast. That's why she injected the theme into this new novel. Although, |
| 1:34.8 | as you will also hear her discuss, both she and her protagonist have some questions about the |
| 1:39.7 | limits of stoic philosophy and practice. By way of context, I got to know Maria several years ago when I met her and what I'm |
| 1:47.9 | about to say is supremely bougie. |
| 1:50.1 | I know it. |
| 1:51.0 | But when I met her, when we were seated near one another at a dinner party at the TED conference |
| 1:55.9 | where I was giving a speech, over the subsequent years, Maria and I have become really good |
| 2:00.6 | friends. I've watched |
| 2:01.5 | her go through quite a bit in her personal life, including a divorce and a cross-country move, |
| 2:07.6 | and then, of course, all the labor that she put into this new book. So it's really moving and |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from 10% Media, LLC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of 10% Media, LLC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.