We're at McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast.

As long as humans have existed, we've had to choose between our lower and higher desires,

between what we want in the moment and what we want in the long term.

As long as humans have existed, we've had to exercise self-control.

While exercising self-control has always been part of the human condition, our ideas about

what we have changed through the ages, as have the number of obstacles to doing so.

My guest charted the course of these changes in his book Temptation, finding self-control

in an age of excess.

And he takes us on a tour of them today.

His name is Daniel Axt, and we begin our conversation with the definition of what self-control

is.

We then discuss our Freudian psychology and the scientific study of self-control, took it

from being something the ancient Greeks and Romans, considering an essential virtue of

character, something you shouldn't or even couldn't exercise.

We all talk about what it is about the modern age that makes self-control uniquely difficult

to put into practice.

Winter conversation with how, despite the addition of complexities and hindrances, self-control

remains a fundamental resource in the flourishing life.

And Daniel shares practical tips for preserving yours by changing your environment, so you actually

don't have to exercise self-control as much.

To the show's over, check out our show notes at a-wim.is slash self-control.

Alright, Dan Axt, welcome to the show.

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