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Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast. Each day we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics illustrated with stories from history,

current events and literature to help you be better at what you do.

And at the beginning of the week, we try to do a deeper dive, setting a kind of Stoic intention for the week,

something to meditate on, something to think on, something to leave you with, to journal about whatever it is you happen to be doing.

So let's get into it.

Reading is the most important thing you can do and it's one of the best habits to build into your life.

I wouldn't be here talking to you if I hadn't built a reading habit early in my life.

But of course, it's hard to find time to read and a lot of times you're just trying to get to the core of the idea and then move on.

And that's why Blinkist is here. Blinkist is an app that will provide you with summaries and the most important nonfiction books.

Look, I'm not saying you use Blinkist as a shortcut. I think it's a great way to tackle big ideas, to tackle books, to pair along with actually reading it,

or to decide whether it's a book you're actually going to read. Right now, for a limited time, Blinkist has a special offer just for our audience.

Go to Blinkist.com slash Stoic to try it free for seven days and you get 25% off your new subscription too.

That's Blinkist B-L-I-N-K-I-S-T Blinkist.com slash Stoic to start your free seven day trial.

And you'll also get 25% off, but only when you sign up at Blinkist.com slash Stoic.

Who is calling you to greatness? If you walk into the locker room of any college program in America, you'll see the numbers and names of athletes who went on to play in the pros.

If you walk into any stadium or arena in the world, you'll see the numbers and the jerseys of the all-time greats hanging from the rafters.

If you went back in time many centuries ago and walked into the home of any prominent Roman, you'd find the marble busts of great men and women. If you walk through their cities, you'd have found temples and buildings dedicated to many of those same men and women.

If you'd stepped into Montaigne's study in the 1500s, you'd have found carved in the ceiling beams quotes from the Stoics and the Epicurians and otherwise philosophers.

Why go through the trouble of doing this? Why do individuals spend their hard-earned money having statues commissioned and signs put up? Because it's about creating a culture.

It's about creating a real tangible sense of greatness in the rooms and streets that they and their athletes or students or soldiers spend time in. It was about creating a call to something higher or better.

Marcus Aurelius would write about how nothing makes us better than hearing or reading or seeing the reminders of people we admire and the insights they came up with.

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