The Daily Stoic

The bestseller in colonial America was Thomas Paine's Common Sense and exactly what you're talking about.

The bestseller in colonial America was Thomas Paine's Common Sense and exactly what you're talking about.

This was a pamphlet that many, many colonial Americans heard about, which is a remarkable thing considering how anemic the kind of media infrastructure was at the time.

The bestseller in colonial America was Thomas Paine's Common Sense and exactly what you're talking about.

That book, that pamphlet was read aloud in taverns and churches and city halls and squares across the country and was probably in terms of a kind of cultural zeitgeist or what we would call a kind of water cooler moment where everybody is talking about the same piece of media was probably as galvanizing and as momentous and as influential and as broad of a readership as any book since, you know, Harry Potter, Taylor Swift, whatever kind of contemporary examples we could think of.

The bestseller in colonial America was Thomas Paine's Common Sense and exactly what you're talking about.

And sort of relatedly, the bestseller in colonial America was Thomas Paine's Common Sense and exactly what you're talking about. The colonial population was still largely illiterate, but that book, that pamphlet was read aloud in taverns and churches and city halls and squares across the country and was probably in terms of a kind of cultural zeitgeist or what we would call a kind of water cooler moment where everybody is talking about the same piece of media was probably as galvanizing and as momentous and as influential and as broad of a readership as any book since, you know, Harry Potter, Taylor Swift, whatever kind of contemporary examples we could think of.

Maybe you read his book, Green Lights which is great, there's also Green Lights Journal.

You can grab his book Green Lights here in the painted porch as well.

I'll link to it in today's show and it's all you can just go to artoflivenevent.com slash Road Trip or if you just Google Matthew McConaughey Road Trip, it should come up there at the top also I think you'll really like it and it's always a treat to get a peek inside this guy's head because there's not many people thinking or living like he is and that's why I wanted to have him back on the podcast.

This is part two, listen to part one if you haven't and remember you can follow him on all social platforms especially now on YouTube at Matthew McConaughey and I'll link to the new course Road Trip The Highway to More.

It's my book. It's published more or less how I want it to be published.

So you can grab that and then check out his book Greenlights which is also extremely good and I quite enjoyed him.

I loved Matthew's book Greenlights and he was nice enough to ask me to blurb it, which I did.

If you haven't read Greenlights or seen the Greenlights Journal, you should; they've bostled a bazillion copies for good reason.

I am a fan of writing the headline before writing the story.

I'm having a wonderful time; I get more mad, more sad, I get more joy, I'm laughing hard, I'm feeling resonance with the thing I'm doing...

I had such a great time; I had the best creative time I've ever had writing this book; I laughed, I cried, I drew blood, but I had the best time I've ever had with the best company I've ever kept writing this book, me.

The incredible work he's done as an actor since and now his book Greenlights, it's a testament to that.

It's called Lessons from an American Stoic, How Emerson Can Change Your Life by Mark Matusik, who is nice enough to come out to the painted porch to do an interview.

His new book is great.

You can follow him on Instagram at mark.matusik, follow him on Facebook at mark.matusik and you can grab copies of Lessons from an American Stoic from the Painted Porch or anywhere books are sold.

I think we are running or we have run an excerpt from it. If not, I'm going to chase that ball down because I wanted to show that.

And I was like, oh, I bought this in Bondi Beach last time I was in Australia.

And it's funny, I was just pulling a book off the shelf for something I'm writing for The Wisdom Book now, this Emerson book. And I was like, oh, I bought this in Bondi Beach last time I was in Australia.

And I was like, oh, I bought this in Bondi Beach last time I was in Australia.

i'm writing about emerson right now and uh it's funny i was going through my books on emerson and i've got my portable emerson i've got my penguin classics translation of nature and then i found this book i had that i forgot that i'd read emerson has a little collection of biographies called representative men

it's actually about emerson one of my favorite people to write about and the subject of a really great new biography called Lessons from an American Stoic how emerson can change your life

the author mark metusik actually came out and did the daily stoic podcast a couple of weeks ago that episode is going to run in a little bit but i wanted to bring you an excerpt from that book because i liked it so much his publisher harper columns was nice enough to let us run this excerpt from the audiobook on the daily stoic podcast so you get a sense of what that audiobook is like the book in physical form is great too we've got some sign copies in the painted porch and uh there's just something about emerson

he really can't change your life so check out the book and listen

there's also Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death these are two eye opening books that will give you a sense of why you should consume as little news as possible and how manipulative it is and how harmful it is.

there's also Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death these are two eye opening books that will give you a sense of why you should consume as little news as possible and how manipulative it is and how harmful it is

By the way there are plenty of books at Suckerberg ought to read these days in that vein, including Amusing Ourselves to Death, the storm before the storm, the brass check, the filter bubble and trust me online.

there's also Neil postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death these are two eye-opening books that will give you a sense of why you should consume uh as little news as possible and how manipulative it is and how harmful it is

he references how inspired he was by meditations in the final chapter of his new book Be Useful

I have been the creation of hundreds of people. He said thousands of people.

if you haven't read these useful you should carry it to painting porch

Arnold's new book it's great I'll link to it in today's show notes you can grab Be Useful from the painted porch or anywhere books are sold it's fantastic

I think at the end of this conversation where people didn't have to really start thinking about and some people say what a doctor told me that I'm now 55 years old my cholesterol is high and my blood pressure is high and they thought instead of just going on drugs and you're describing me medication I should try vigorous exercising every day for a little bit not too long but just every day something and so they do that but I always tell them as it look if this is specific goal that you have where you say okay by Christmas I want to have 20 pounds less now you're shooting for specific goal and now you weigh yourself every day now you watch what you eat because you always know that you're stepping on this scale and you want the way less and less and less every day and by Christmas you want to have 20 pounds less so you can afford a little bit picking out right at the Christmas time or whatever because maybe feel overweight or whatever so when we said specific goals like that or I sometimes talk about it then when I was a kid 15 years old I wanted to go the next year to the lake where I grew up and I wanted to be more muscular and impress the girls and people say you you were actually saying that I said no I was not saying that to anybody I said but it was my goal and I dealt with it sure I said I dealt with it and it motivated me to go into train every day and all of a sudden I said and it's of course a stupid motivation but it works yeah I said so I'm telling people as in no matter how stupid your motivation is it doesn't matter how silly it is it doesn't matter but pick a goal and then go after that goal have a specific reason for it because for everything it gives us more motivation when we have a reason it's no different than a kid that is coming out of high school and he now goes to college and he wants to be a doctor but that's a goal yeah well that's a big goal and now all these classes that he would take will be specific classes that would get him to do that goal to make that goal a reality there's so many that go to university just because they're here always this always the American way and I got to have a university I've never degree and all this stuff but they don't know for what right so they go in there and what did they do they go in the joint at the university they go and stay in some flat house and they get drunk they eat junk food they gain weight and all this and they're drunk more than they're really studying and all this so because they are aimlessly kind of like going through university for as long as they're finished and they don't earn more money because they haven't really shot that they study American history something that's a they were not used like don't except if you become an educator of some sort then you can use those things or say college to study or English to study yeah we can use this but if that's used for something specifically so I think it's always good if you say I want to be a businessman I want to start a real estate business and so therefore all of this that you study is like you studied a micro economics macroeconomics study accounting get really good in math and the algebra geometry and all of those kind of things and you're really good in writing business letters and then communicating and then marketing and the publicizing products and all of this stuff so all of the stuff that is important to be a good businessman because no matter what business you're in you have to be able to sell the market to communicate the product whatever you're dealing with so then you can take classes for that yeah so this is why it's more fun when we have a goal and this is why I stress this in my book about have a vision have a clear goal like I had when I was 15 years old I wanted to be the world champion in bodybuilding I wanted to be another rich park and five years later after that dream and that vision that I had five years later I was standing on that very same stage in London where red park one is mr. universe contest in 1951 in 1958 and in 1965 he won three mr. universe titles and at the very same stage I stood there in 1966 and then in 1967 I won the mr. universe title in that stage so I saw firsthand how that vision drove me to the gym hours a day where the normal amateur bodybuilder didn't train three four hours a day they trained an hour and a half but I did the weightlifting I did the powerlifting I did the bodybuilding I did the reps and the heavy weights and everything like this and then by the time after hours and hours of training and torturing myself and going through this I started winning competitions and junior mr. europe then mr europe best buildman of europe and then second mr. universe then mr. universe with the age of 20 so it was amazing so now I knew ah this is what I have to do for the rest of my life I have to have a very clear vision and so then of course the vision expands you say I want to be not just mr. universe I got the goal become the greatest bodybuilder four times so that becomes you new goal the year after one win that many mr. universe titles as a rich park win I have to win as many mr. Olympia titles as Sergio Lever and Larry Scott won and so I have to just go after those titles and so eventually I became the greatest bodybuilder of all times in 1975 after winning the sixth 1980 the seventh mr. Olympia competition and the thirteenths world bodybuilding title and so it was like so and that same idea went into acting again I had a very clear vision to become another clean these two the child's bronze does something like this so every one of my goals uh approached it way well it's when you have the goal you have the motivation which is key but then something that's really interesting about your career you also know what to say no to that might be exciting or lucrative or interesting or standard but it takes you further away from where you're going right so the path so I think someone who has a strong idea of what they're trying to accomplish clear vision as you call it um strong sense of who they're trying to help or what they want to accomplish then they also know how to pass on things that are coming their way they know how to pass on distractions they know how to pass on temptations they also know how to pass on you know doing the same thing over and over again because the next part of their vision actually requires them to go over here you have to have that clarity

Arnold Schwarzenegger has a great new book called Be Useful 7 Tools for Life

I really enjoyed the book

When I read Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, I was struck by the fact that the first book...was basically a 2000-year-old journey...nothing more than a list of people in Marcus's life who helped him or taught him something valuable.

I said to my team, I said guys, maybe you think I have a little bit of a hang-up about all this stuff, maybe I do, but let's look at this. I said, you know, I'm a Republican, but Republicans as we get this list of judges that are supposed to be appointed now, I said the natural thing is that you guys are going to look for a Republican judge, I said but I'm not going to look for that. I said here is what I'm looking for, I'm looking for to put in more women as judges in California than any other governor.

I don't hate Democrats, I don't hate black people, I don't hate Jews, I don't hate anybody. I said to me they're all the same, they're equal.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's new book called Be Useful which is great that episode will come out in a little bit so stay tuned for that

i love the book blue ocean strategy the idea is you don't want to be competing with other people you want to have the space all to yourself

there's another one called Blue Ocean Shift actually did the marketing for but the idea is red oceans is where there's lots of competition that means being like everyone else wanting the things that everyone wants focusing on what's out of your control like everyone else.

probably maybe one of the most influential business books that I've ever read actually has had a huge impact on the outside just business. It's this book, Blue Ocean Strategy. The idea that you create new markets rather than trying to compete in and win in an already competitive market. And it's one of the best selling business books of all time. It's all like five million copies.

If you haven't read Blue Ocean Strategy, we carry it here in the paint of porch, grab that.

There's another book that I rave about that we carry here in the store called Blue Ocean Strategy.

In Pierre Hedot's fascinating book on Meditations called The Inner Citadel, he describes this as a series of spiritual exercises.

you should read that book too

this guy said that basically almost all the study of ancient philosophy gets it wrong that we're thinking about the ideas we're thinking about the writing we're thinking about the theory when in fact what philosophy was was a series of spiritual exercises notes discussions with the self about how to solve problems of life

marcus really wasn't making philosophy for you he was philosophizing to himself

I'm a big fan of Pierre Hadoo in his book The Intercedado which I carried the paint of Portugal into today's episode. But Hadoo does his own translation of meditations which has not been published except for the excerpts in the book and there's a really good one inside the intercedado which you should read.

We tend to think of moral choices, William Lee Miller writes in his incredible biography of Abraham Lincoln.

There are also those latent possibilities lying all around us all the time if we bestir ourselves, Miller writes.

And by the way, you should grab William Lee Miller's book. It's amazing.

There's a great book by William Lee Miller called Lincoln's Virtues and then another local president Lincoln which we we think of Lincoln as this brilliant moral figure we don't think of him as a politician but he was a politician is politician there's that's like the Kennedy quote that parents want their kids to grow up to be president but they don't want them to be politicians but those are inseparable roles.

One of my favorite books I think it's by William Lee Miller. It's called Lincoln's Virtues.

Evan Friss is the author of a new book called The Book Shop, A History of the American Bookstore.

And I love bookstores. I've always loved bookstores long before I opened them.

Check out Evan's book, The Bookshop, A History of the American Bookstore.

And it seemed like basically nobody could figure out if bookstores were dead or alive, including Amazon. And so they were going to wade into it.

Evan Friss is the author of a new book called The Book Shop, A History of the American Bookstore.

Check out Evan's book, The Bookshop, A History of the American Bookstore.

And it seemed like basically nobody could figure out if bookstores were dead or alive, including Amazon. And so they were going to wade into it. I liked their bookstores. I thought they were great.

And my book is Viking, which is an imprint of that. If you go to the Penguin Random House site and search for the book, you can't actually buy it from Penguin Random House.

Evan Friss is the author of a new book called The Book Shop, A History of the American Bookstore.

So I was so excited to read this book because it dives into the history of American bookselling, how the marketing of books has changed throughout history, and just the stories behind America's most iconic bookstores, which I was very excited to nerd out about with Evan.

Check out Evan's book, The Bookshop, A History of the American Bookstore.

And so they were going to wade into it. I liked their bookstores. I thought they were great.

And it seemed like basically nobody could figure out if bookstores were dead or alive, including Amazon.

Evan Friss is the author of a new book called The Book Shop, A History of the American Bookstore.

And we're going to talk about the foundational roles of bookstores and libraries.

Check out Evan's book, The Bookshop, A History of the American Bookstore.

And in the book, I profile one of them and the name happened to be Amazon.

It's a kind of compendium of miscellaneous. It's a really interesting read if you go back and look at it.

Evan Friss is the author of a new book called The Book Shop, A History of the American Bookstore.

So I was so excited to read this book because it dives into the history of American bookselling, how the marketing of books has changed throughout history, and just the stories behind America's most iconic bookstores, which I was very excited to nerd out about with Evan.

He's also written a history On Bicycles called On Bicycles, which is fascinating.

He's also written a history On Bicycles called On Bicycles, which is fascinating.

He's also written a history On Bicycles called On Bicycles, which is fascinating.

He's also written a history On Bicycles called On Bicycles, which is fascinating.

He's also written a history On Bicycles called On Bicycles, which is fascinating.

What's incredible about this book, it's written by a fighter pilot who's shot down over Vietnam, has his fur shooting down, knowing he's going to be taken prisoner, knowing that he very well could die.

This man says to himself, I'm leaving the world of technology and entering the world of Epictetus.

He's locked in solitary confinement. He's tortured as Epictetus was and yet all the time he's focusing on what Epictetus talked about, that a podium in a prison is each a place.

This is a short little pamphlet-looking thing I get that maybe doesn't seem like it would be one of the greatest philosophical works ever written, but it is.

Obviously the Stoics wrote for a long time about adversity and difficulty and we take them at their word. What's incredible about this book is that it's written by a fighter pilot who shot down over Vietnam, and he'd studied the Stoics, he studies epictetus most of all, and as he is parachuting down, knowing it's going to be taken prisoner, knowing that he very well could die.

This man says to himself, I'm leaving the world of technology and entering the world of epictetus.

What he's doing is testing the doctrines of epictetus in the laboratory of human experience.

James Stockdale spends seven plus years in what now is called the Hanoi Hilton, he's locked in solitary confinement, he's clapped in irons as epictetus was, he grievously injures his leg, never fully regaining the use of it, as epictetus did, he's tortured as epictetus was, and yet all the time he's focusing on what epictetus talked about that, there are some things that are up to us, some things that are not up to us.

The most transformative book for me during that time was Carriage Under Fire, the Stocktail book. And, you know, and I have that just completely marked up.

And the thing that really helped me from that book was talking about epic tease is basically just like feeling like a victim, right?

There's another book called Papuland that's great.

There's another book called Papuland that's great.

we talked about Papuland and the convergence of sports and culture

his book Papyland, Story of Family, Find Bourbon and Things That Last. Also fantastic.

Papyland also fantastic.

That book's so good.

That's one of my favorites.

He wrote the book to list the best dynasties of all time in sports.

And so he changed it and he wrote about The Captain's Class.

did you read that books that the captain's class by sam no what's his name uh oh we see that Wall Street general guy yes yeah or was it the wall street general yeah he wrote a piece and i think he's working on a book about it where it's it's called like the Eisenhower paradox or something which is that basically the best leaders don't want to be leaders yeah and that they are called to it in some way and they wrestle with whether they should do it or not and that it's the people who want it very badly that tend to do very badly but also um are the ones you should kind of be suspicious of

I was on his podcast and he recommended this book, The Captains Class by Sam Walker, which I absolutely loved.

And for whatever reason it wasn't until I read, actually I know what reason women's sports tends to get the short end of the stick in American culture. But I hadn't really thought of the US women's national team as one of the great dynasties of sports all time. And it very clearly is, very clearly was it remains an institution that a ton of people could learn from and I have seen that team totally differently from reading that book.

have you have you read the captain's class by Sam Walker I think you would like that book a lot but it's a it's a great book about how often like the most the best teams have a captain who it's not who you think it was like Michael Jordan wasn't the captain of the bulls it was Bill Cartwright and that's the reason that they were able to do what they did but anyways he wrote another book or I think he's writing a book about it but he wrote an article about it it's about it was talking about Eisenhower like Eisenhower doesn't want to be president he's drafted like sort of called to be president and his point was that often the best leaders are people who don't want to be leaders like like it's not like they were like no give me the ball like I deserve to be in charge I'm better than all of you it's more the person who's like quietly working on their own stuff over here that everyone senses is capable of more and could do a really good job and the team kind of goes like we need more from you that's right that's what you want to be

Have you read the book The Capins Class by Sam Walker?

I think he would really like his point is that often great teams are more than the sum of their parts not because of a transcendent star like say Michael Jordan but because Michael Jordan is on a team with Bill Cartwright that the captain of great teams or businesses is often a less well-known individual a less talented individual but is the person that binds the culture together and allows what might ordinarily be a dysfunctional trio or a collection of individuals to come together as an organization and that person is credible with the star as with the case with Cartwright but is not always the case

Can you write *The Inner Game of Tennis*? No, who wrote that? In a very similar book...

One of my favorite sports psychology books is the inner The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Galway. Yes. And in the first couple of chapters he talks about, who are you going to be a player A or player B? And player A tries to outthink his body and player B trusts his body and just tells it the direction he wants it to move.

Have you read the intergame of tennis? No, I haven't. Okay. So one, you have to read it if you like tennis, but I believe it's Tom Brady's favorite book.

So, yes. And it's exactly what we're talking about. He says you basically can't think and play tennis at the same time. You have to get to a subconscious level. It's a fascinating book. I think you would really like it.

Thank you for the recommendation. I'll put it on my list now.

Well, have you read The Inner Game of Tennis? Yes, I have. Yeah. So I would recommend that book. It would be quite fitting here for an actual tennis player.

maybe you think you know him because you read meditations, maybe you think you know him because you read my biography of him in Lies of the Stoics but I'm pretty sure there's some things you don't know about him.

and I write about Musonius in lies of the Stoics if you're not familiar with him at all I was fascinated writing about him.

Then of course I have a chapter on Seneca in my book Lies of the Stoics

even now as I'm getting ready to gear up for the book launch of Courage as Colin, having just been through a virtual book launch last year for Lies of the Stoics,

my wife recommended Sorrow and Bliss which is this beautiful novel about depression surprisingly funny I read as well

In Meg Mason's hilarious and moving novel, Sorrow and Bliss and I interviewed her recently on the Daily Stope Podcast Patrick tries to convince his wife Martha who struggles with depression to get up and have some fun. We have to attack the day he tells her which was a reference to a podcast they had listened to and in it the guests had explained the need to attack the day so it doesn't attack you.

As Meg Mason explained in her interview on the Daily Stove podcast for a person suffering from depression even the thought of refilling an ice tray in the freezer might be too much.

It's called Sorrow and Bliss and it looked like a book I wasn't going to enjoy and I very, very, very much enjoyed it

It's been a huge hit and it is a fantastic book. It's based on her own experiences with mental health, but I don't know. It just, it really made me think it was a fantastic book.

It opens. The woman is at the party and she's shoving the egg roll in her mouth. It's like my favorite scene.

A lot of people's favorite scene in the novel and when my wife told me to read it, she was like, you're going to like this scene at the beginning. It feels like it should be on curb your enthusiasm or something.

This is actually her third book but it's the one that blew up.

I enjoyed his book, and then he has betrayed so many of the ideas in that book. I think he's a disappointing dude to say the least.

I enjoyed his book, and then he has betrayed so many of the ideas in that book. I think he's a disappointing dude to say the least.

I enjoyed his book, and then he has betrayed so many of the ideas in that book. I think he's a disappointing dude to say the least.

I enjoyed his book, and then he has betrayed so many of the ideas in that book. I think he's a disappointing dude to say the least.

For more than two centuries, the White House has been the stage for some of the most dramatic scenes in American history. Inspired by the hit podcast, American History Tellers, Wondery and William Morrow present the new book, The Hidden History of the White House.

Each chapter will bring you inside the fierce power struggles, the world-altering decisions, and shocking scandals that have shaped our nation.

You'll be there when the very foundations of the White House are laid in 1792, and you'll watch as the British burn it down in 1814.

Then you'll hear the intimate conversations between FDR and Winston Churchill as they make plans to defeat Nazi forces in 1941.

And you'll be in the Situation Room when President Barack Obama approves the raid to bring down the most infamous terrorist in American history.

For more than two centuries, the White House has been the stage for some of the most dramatic scenes in American history. Inspired by the hit podcast, American History Tellers, Wondery and William Morrow present the new book, The Hidden History of the White House.

Each chapter will bring you inside the fierce power struggles, the world altering decisions and shocking scandals that have shaped our nation.

You'll be there when the very foundations of the White House are laid in 1792, and you'll watch as the British burn it down in 1814.

Then you'll hear the intimate conversations between FDR and Winston Churchill as they make plans to defeat Nazi forces in 1941.

And you'll be in the Situation Room when President Barack Obama approves the raid to bring down the most infamous terrorist in American history.

For more than two centuries, the White House has been the stage for some of the most dramatic scenes in American history. Inspired by the hit podcast, American History Tellers, Wondery and William Morrow present the new book, The Hidden History of the White House.

Each chapter will bring you inside the fierce power struggles, the world-altering decisions, and shocking scandals that have shaped our nation.

You'll be there when the very foundations of the White House are laid in 1792, and you'll watch as the British burn it down in 1814.

Then you'll hear the intimate conversations between FDR and Winston Churchill as they make plans to defeat Nazi forces in 1941.

And you'll be in the Situation Room when President Barack Obama approves the raid to bring down the most infamous terrorist in American history.

Jonathan Haidt in here and he brought that book, The Coddling of the American Mind. He said there's these three great untruths that we tell young people.

I had Jonathan Haidt in here and he brought that book, The Coddling of the American Mind. He said there's these three great untruths that we tell young people.

The first is what doesn't kill you makes you weaker. So that basically like bad things happen, you break you. Which obviously isn't true. And the definition of stoicism is like, no, adversity makes you better if you let it. And then number two is like always trust your feelings.

And then the last one is like, the world is divided into good people and bad people. And it's actually much more complicated than that.

Jonathan Haidt in here and he brought that book, The Coddling of the American Mind. He said there's these three great untruths that we tell young people.

The first is what doesn't kill you makes you weaker so that basically like bad things happen to you break you.

And then number two is like always trust your feelings, you know, like if you feel it, it's right.

And the last one is like the world is divided into good people and bad people. And it's actually much more complicated than that.