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.

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 are 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 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. Philosophy, or stoicism anyway,

is practical and usable. It's a lifelong pursuit. It's something that challenges you and helps

you rise to the challenges of life. life, something that makes you dependable,

a resource for others, gives you meaning and purpose and joy. It's not just abstract questions,

...