“Are there differences between boys and girls? Of course. Anyone that tells you differently either isn’t a parent or they have some agenda that’s blinding them. There are sex differences in every other animal that ever existed. Humans are no exception.” Ryan explains why there is no difference in raising different genders, the point is to raise them to be great, on today’s Daily Dad Podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps w...
Mar 08, 2021•3 min•Ep. 56
On today’s podcast, Ryan speaks to writer Allie Esiri about the Stoic’s infatuation with ancient poetry, how to read and find insight in poetry, how the greatest writing communicates to us on a subliminal level, and more. Allie Esiri is a writer and former actress in stage, film, and television. She has released several poetry anthologies including 2020’s, Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year , a collection of passages from Shakespeare's greatest works. This episode is brought to you by Harry’s...
Mar 06, 2021•18 min•Ep. 55
“This didn’t used to exist you know. Kids had it way harder before. Not just a hundred-plus years ago when they were valued most for their labor on the farm, but back further still—kids got married when they were still kids, they were exposed to the horrors of the world when they were still kids, they were forced to fight and fend for themselves while they were still kids.” Ryan explains how childhood was made up, and why it’s your job to protect it for your children, on today’s Daily Dad Podcas...
Mar 05, 2021•3 min•Ep. 54
“In Plato’s Phaedrus , Socrates tells the story of the god Theuth approaching the King of Egypt, hardly able to contain his excitement about sharing his latest and greatest invention: an innovative technology he called “writing.” The King was enthusiastically opposed.” Ryan discusses the timeless debate about the things that are negatively impacting children’s growth, on today’s Daily Dad Podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It h...
Mar 04, 2021•4 min•Ep. 53
“You hear it all the time. The voice in your head. You’ve heard it all your life. The one that tells you what’s right. The one that tells you what it thinks you ought to do. It can also turn nasty, whispering that you’re not good enough, that everyone sees through you, that you’ll never measure up.” Ryan explains how our internal narrative is largely developed during childhood, and why you should take the responsibility of molding your child’s inner voice very seriously, on today’s Daily Dad Pod...
Mar 03, 2021•3 min•Ep. 52
“Of course, your kids love you. They look up to you. They imitate you. They want to be around you. At the same time, it seems like they could not be less impressed or less interested in us.” Ryan uses a story from the Super-Bowl winning quarterback Phil Simms to illustrate why your kids won’t be your fans, but you should be their biggest one, on today’s Daily Dad Podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, ...
Mar 02, 2021•3 min•Ep. 51
“You’ve read plenty of bad books as a parent. The ham-handed kids books. The nonsensical ones. The vanity projects. The patronizing ones. Why are you reading to your kids? To teach them to read, of course. To spend time together, of course. But also to teach them about life.” Ryan explains the purpose that stories should serve in your children’s life, and launches his new book The Boy Who Would Be King , on today’s Daily Dad Podcast. Pre-order The Boy Who Would Be King , our newest release at Da...
Mar 01, 2021•3 min•Ep. 50
Today’s episode features a compilation of some of the best advice that we’ve found from great authors. Ryan revisits stories from Cormac McCarthy, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, and James Frey. This episode is brought to you by Ritual , a multivitamin that delivers high quality nutrients, including Vitamin D3, in just 2 daily pills. Your multivitamins are delivered to your door every month with free shipping, always. You can start, snooze, or cancel your subscription anytime. And if you do...
Feb 27, 2021•11 min•Ep. 49
“You used to think you had it so together. And maybe you still do. At work, you’re important and together. In relationships, you’re measured and firm. You’re an adult. You’re in charge right Nah. They are in charge.” Ryan explains why your children should hold as special place in your heart, on today’s Daily Dad Podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more ...
Feb 26, 2021•2 min•Ep. 48
“If you’ve ever watched Netflix’s The Crown , you’ve seen this lesson play out: Queen Elizabeth is strong. She’s stoic. She’s restrained. She’s got a profound sense of duty. And she is continually surprised to see others struggle or fall short of her standards.” Ryan discusses why the point is, as Marcus Aurelius said, to be “tolerant with others, and strict with yourself,” on today’s Daily Dad Podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts...
Feb 25, 2021•3 min•Ep. 47
“You think they’re not watching, but of course they are. What else do they have going on? You’re the most entertaining and strange show in their lives. They watch what you eat...and how you eat. They watch how you treat your partner. They watch how you drive. They watch how you treat people. They see your habits. They live in your lifestyle. They feel what you value and what you don’t.” Ryan explains why you must model the behavior that you want to see your kids reciprocate, on today’s Daily Dad...
Feb 24, 2021•2 min•Ep. 46
“Nobody wants to think about this. We love our kids too much. We love our lives too much. We have too much to do. But we have to stop. We have to stop and think about this unpleasant fact: We will not be here forever. Nobody will be.” Ryan explains why you need to be with your children in the present moment, on today’s Daily Dad Podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the p...
Feb 23, 2021•3 min•Ep. 45
“The fact that there are so many memes about this shows how widespread the problem is. ‘Another day without using the Pythagorean theorem,’ reads one. Another jokes about a kid wanting to learn how to balance their finances who is instead taught ‘Hot Cross Buns’ on the recorder. Another has a totally unprepared adult repeating the one thing they learned in school: ‘Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.’” Ryan why you need to instill good character into your children, on today’s Daily Dad P...
Feb 22, 2021•2 min•Ep. 44
Today’s episode features a compilation of some of the best advice that we’ve found from athletes and coaches. Ryan revisits stories about Kobe Bryant, Jack Harbaugh, Archie Manning, and Jim Valvano. This episode is brought to you by Harry’s , the best subscription service where you receive new razor blades, shaving cream, and other grooming products by mail. For a limited time, Harry’s has an exclusive offer for listeners of the Daily Dad Podcast. New customers can get a Harry’s Starter Set and ...
Feb 20, 2021•12 min•Ep. 43
“We’ve talked before about F. Scott Fitzgerald. He was a great writer who wrestled with many demons. He was spoiled by his parents. He inherited alcoholism. He struggled valiantly at the end of his life to be a good father, but it was an uphill battle. Even the times were against him—society tolerated selfish, immature fathers. Especially high-achieving ones.” Ryan encourages you to be present with your children, and explains the consequences of neglecting them, on today’s Daily Dad podcast. ***...
Feb 19, 2021•3 min•Ep. 42
“It’s time for us to review your multiplication tables, you tell them. Let’s look over your vocab flash cards. Or maybe you’re one of those parents that makes your kids recite poems or plays, that signs them up for performances. Maybe you’re drilling them for a spelling bee right now.” Ryan discusses why the goal in teaching your children lessons should be to instill the knowledge in them, not just to get them to remember it, on today’s Daily Dad podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, ...
Feb 18, 2021•2 min•Ep. 41
“Aesop’s Fables are silly stories about dogs and mice and foxes and lions. Children love them. But are they ‘for kids?’ No, they are for human beings. They are designed to teach lessons. Bad stories pander. Good stories entertain. Great ones teach while they do it. The question is, what kind of stories are you filling your kid imagination with? What kind of stories are you filling your own life with?” Ryan explains why the stories that you expose your children to should be teaching them timeless...
Feb 17, 2021•3 min•Ep. 40
“Cynicism is easy. Being jaded is easy. Being tired—tired of other people, tired of life—is easy. Hope? Hope is hard. Earnestness is hard. Caring is hard. But that’s the whole thing: Nobody said being a parent was easy.” Ryan explains that raising children is challenging but also rewarding, on today’s Daily Dad podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more w...
Feb 16, 2021•2 min•Ep. 39
“They don’t listen. They make bad choices. They don’t give their best efforts. Your kids can drive you nuts. After all, isn’t mimicry pretty aggravating?” Ryan explains how your children are an opportunity for you to understand your own flaws, and to help them overcome them, on today’s Daily Dad podcast. This episode was brought to you by Magic Spoon . Magic Spoon makes delicious cereal just like you remember from when you were a kid—only this version has only 3g carbs and 11g of protein. Use co...
Feb 15, 2021•3 min•Ep. 39
On today’s episode Ryan speaks to professor and author Agnes Callard about pulling children towards philosophy, how to popularize philosophy in your own household, and how to set the stakes higher when teaching your kids. Agnes Callard is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago (ancient philosophy and ethics). She wrote Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming and wrote the lead essay in On Anger , one of the New Yorker’s top books of 2020. This episode is brought to you by R...
Feb 13, 2021•22 min•Ep. 37
“In 2013, two of Jack Harbaugh’s kids were coaching against each other in the Super Bowl. They had led their respective teams to the NFL promised land, achieving success at the highest level of organized football, and now they were going to play the game their family loved in front of 71,000 people inside the Superdome and more than 160 million viewers at home across the country.” Ryan discusses the predicament of watching one kid fail while the other succeeds, and explains how their happiness c...
Feb 12, 2021•3 min•Ep. 36
“We think we’re too busy. We think it’s impossible. We’re parents now. There’s no way we can start that company. There’s no way we can finish that project. We have to be realistic. We’ve got to put aside for now. There just isn’t enough time. ” Ryan explains why you don’t have to hang up your dreams when you have kids, you just have to be creative, on today’s Daily Dad podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibi...
Feb 11, 2021•2 min•Ep. 35
“The last pages of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road are about the hardest thing any father will ever have to read. The man is dying. He knows it. He knows it means leaving his boy alone—alone in a terrible world. He knows he has just a few minutes left to teach, to prepare his son for life without him. What does he does? What does he say?” Using this example from Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” Ryan explains why we should teach our children about the goodness that is already within them, on today’s Dail...
Feb 10, 2021•2 min•Ep. 34
“As we’ve said before, people have been complaining of the next generation...since well, generations. It’s an old cliche: There’s something wrong with our kids and their friends. They’re missing something. Ugh.” Ryan explains the tired cliche of complaining about the lack of understanding in younger generations, on today’s Daily Dad podcast. This episode was brought to you by Magic Spoon . Magic Spoon makes delicious cereal just like you remember from when you were a kid—only this version has on...
Feb 09, 2021•3 min•Ep. 33
“When you think of your own school days, what do you think of? What do the days at school of your own children look like? Certainly, very different from what school was ever intended or imagined to be. The root word of school— scholé— in Greek refers to the idea of leisure. It’s supposed to be a place of reflection.” Ryan discusses how we’ve distorted the nature of children's education throughout the years, on today’s Daily Dad podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you t...
Feb 08, 2021•3 min•Ep. 32
Today’s episode features clips from some of the best interviews about parenting from The Daily Stoic Podcast . Ryan talks to Jessica Lahey, Angel Parham, Brett McKay, and Dr. Harvey Karp about letting your kids fail, reading the classics to them, teaching them hope and decency, and how to approach parenting from a philosophical perspective. This episode is brought to you by Ritual , a multivitamin that delivers high quality nutrients, including Vitamin D3, in just 2 daily pills. Your multivitami...
Feb 06, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 31
“There’s been some iconic father-son moments in sports history. Tiger hugging his son Charlie after winning the Masters. Drew Brees lifting up his son Baylen after winning the Super Bowl. Michael Phelps running to kiss his son Boomer after making Olympic history. Now there is a new one.” Ryan explains how even amidst your greatest achievements, all that you want is what you already have, on today’s Daily Dad podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on ...
Feb 05, 2021•2 min•Ep. 30
“Life is easy now. We should just let them enjoy it right? Before they have to work for a living. Before they have to care about what’s going on in the world. While they can do whatever they want, while they can get away with eating whatever they want, and all the innocent freedoms that children are blessed with.” Ryan discusses why you should be sure that your kids are ready for the harsh reality of the world, on today’s Daily Dad podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for y...
Feb 04, 2021•2 min•Ep. 29
“They have questions. You have answers. That’s how this works? Sure, if you want to be a human form of a Google Search.” Ryan explains why you should let your kids figure things out on their own, on today’s Daily Dad podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better. Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com Foll...
Feb 03, 2021•3 min•Ep. 28
“The novelist John Steinbeck used to write his novels with pencils. In 1952, he was wearing himself out writing his greatest novel, East of Eden. He was also wearing down his pencils, one by one, as the words poured out.” Ryan discusses how the mundane can become treasure, but only if you look for it, on today’s Daily Dad podcast. *** If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast,...
Feb 02, 2021•3 min•Ep. 27
