The audio companion to DailyDad.com’s daily email meditations on fatherhood, read by Ryan Holiday. Each daily reading will help you find the wisdom, inner strength, and good humor you need in order to be a great dad. Learn from historical figures and contemporary fathers how to do your most important job. Find more at dailydad.com.
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The Daily Dad podcast is a valuable resource for parents looking for insightful strategies and wisdom in navigating the challenges of raising children. Ryan Holiday speaks with thoughtfulness and insight, providing practical advice that helps listeners grow and mature while still embracing their playful side. The podcast offers daily reminders to be better parents and shows gratitude for the important role of parenting.
One of the best aspects of this podcast is Ryan's ability to connect ancient philosophical teachings with modern-day parenting experiences. He takes short thoughts from philosophers and applies them to current situations, offering guidance in a concise and relatable manner. The episodes are short, typically ranging from 2 to 4 minutes, making it easy to incorporate into a daily routine. The messages provide a positive start to the day, framing it with a focus on the most important job: being a parent.
One potential drawback of The Daily Dad podcast is that there are frequent advertisements throughout the episodes. While these ads help support the podcast as a free resource, they can sometimes disrupt the flow of the content and feel obtrusive to some listeners. However, considering the valuable insights provided by Ryan's messages, many listeners are willing to accept this trade-off.
In conclusion, The Daily Dad podcast is an excellent resource for parents seeking daily inspiration and guidance in their journey of parenthood. Ryan Holiday's thoughtful approach and ability to connect philosophical concepts with practical parenting advice make each episode impactful and meaningful. Despite occasional interruptions from advertisements, the content provided far outweighs any negatives. This podcast has made a positive difference in the lives of many parents by helping them focus on their most important job: being a parent.
What actually makes a trip “successful” with kids? In today's episode, Ryan shares the ups and downs of his kids' first camping trip and the simple moment that reminded him what actually matters.
Fretting is not a substitute for true connection. It's not a substitute for real conversation.Give yourself the ultimate gift of parenting tools, structure, and community. Join The Daily Dad Society here: https://dailydad.com/society✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
Just like everyone can view the cup as half-full or half-empty, we have significant power over the lens we bring to each parenting situation, crisis, and potential frustration.Reading Marcus Aurelius can change your life, but only if you know how to read his work
You're traveling. You're far away. The kids are in good hands. This is your little break. But do you still need to be on top of it?
Tempus Fugit. Time flies. If we forget that, we'll miss too much.
Why do we put so much effort into everything except the job that matters most? In this episode, Ryan shares 7 reminders that will change how you react in tough moments and how you think about the time you get with your kids.
They are kids. This is what they do. Why are you surprised by it?
This is all new to them…and that's the timeless part about being a kid.
Commitments are important. Consistency matters. Learning matters. But your family is also a commitment
Parenting is hard. We're all trying our best…or so we'd like to think.
How are we supposed to communicate the most essential and important truths of life? How do we get them to remember what we tell them?
You start out guiding your kids through your world. Then suddenly you're trying to understand theirs.In this episode, Ryan talks with Chuck Klosterman about what it's like to raise kids in a culture that moves faster than you can keep up with and why knowing what your kids love matters more than judging it. Chuck is the author of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, But What If We're Wrong?, The Nineties, and now his latest book Football. Pick up a copy of Football by Chuck KlostermanFollow Chuck on X @CKlosterman
We never know when they'll find it, but we have got to make sure that they don't give up on it.
They're not supposed to be stressed about our problems or the problems of the world—not yet, anyway. Give yourself the ultimate gift of parenting tools, structure, and community. Join The Daily Dad Society here: https://dailydad.com/society✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
Soon enough, they'll be too cool. They'll be too shy. They'll be embarrassed.
Encourage. Support it. Make it memorable. Help build the habit.
Let them have–at least sometimes–a taste of the smaller, more intimate, less overwhelming childhood that you got to experience.Give yourself the ultimate gift of parenting tools, structure, and community. Join The Daily Dad Society here: https://dailydad.com/society✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
The goal isn't to teach your kids more. It's to make them want to learn. In this episode, Ryan talks with Kenny Curtis about how to spark real curiosity in kids. Not by forcing information on them, but by helping them ask questions, make connections, and actually care about what they're learning.
There's so much we don't control as parents. But there is one thing we do control...TODAY IS THE DAY
You're going to have to find a way to focus on solutions, not your anger or your fear.1 DAY LEFT
You want to encourage them to learn, to enrich themselves, to stay curious, to build skills and find something they love. But what do you do for you?2 DAYS LEFT
Pretty soon, those little kids will not be so little. They will not even be kids.DON'T WAIT
Ryan and Sam sit down in the studio and attempt to have a normal conversation. Kids, animals, marriage, miscommunication… and plenty of unexpected turns along the way.
It goes by very fast…and when it's gone, it is gone.
When do you make time to do the things that you need to do? The things you want to tackle and clear out and fix up and organize Because those things start to weigh you down. They start to pile up.
If you're arguing or fighting with your kids about something, you're wrong, ok?
Our children aren't just observing our daily routines—they're being taught what it means to be an adult from our exampleSPECIAL OFFER exclusively for podcast listeners
There's a reason we don't always say what we think. There's a reason we keep our feelings hidden away.SPECIAL OFFER exclusively for podcast listeners
Ever wake up already feeling behind, before the emails, before school drop-off, before anything has actually gone wrong? In this episode, Ryan talks with Oliver Burkeman, bestselling author of 4,000 Weeks and Meditations for Mortals, about that “back foot” feeling so many parents live in. Ryan and Oliver talk about why we give our best energy to trivial things, why we say yes when we mean no, and how a small shift in how we think about time and trade-offs can change the tone of an entire day.Oliver Burkeman is the author of the New York Times bestseller Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, and Meditations for Mortals. Follow Oliver on Instagram and X @OliverBurkeman
Just as the flowers bloom and trees grow, our children are growing, too. SPECIAL OFFER exclusively for podcast listeners
Stop worrying what random strangers think. Worry what your kids will think.
They've literally never done this before. This is their first time on the planet.
It's kind of crazy how crazy things are right now. All that you have going on. All the stress that raising a family entails.
If you've ever been called “airport dad” or married to one, this episode is for you. From school attendance to airport stress to the worst-case scenarios we play out in our heads, Ryan and Sam talk about the cost of constantly expecting something to go wrong and what might change if you didn't.
Keep in mind how fast things pass by and are gone—those that are now, and those to come.
Take the opportunity. Encourage the interest. Show them that you're interested in what interests them.
Why is it that so many of us try to impress ambition on our kids? Why are we trying to push them to become famous or powerful? Have we not seen the people who tend to get to these positions? Have we not seen how it works out for them?
What matters is responding with kindness and love. What matters is knowing that they are good and that they are loved and nothing anyone else thinks can change that.
You might not be able to keep track of the time zone or the days anymore, but that's not an excuse for forgetting what's going on with them.
It's our job as parents to remind our kids that they're not powerless, that no matter what's happening around them, they can create change in themselves and in their communities. In this episode, Sharon McMahon, author of The Small and the Mighty, joins Ryan to talk about how we instill real, grounded hope in our kids and help them see that making a difference isn't reserved for someone else. It's within their reach.Sharon is known as “America's Government Teacher,” and after years as a high school government teacher, Sharon now runs the non-partisan, fact-based Instagram account @sharonsaysso. Sharon just released her book, The Small and the Mighty, where she proves that the most remarkable Americans are often ordinary people who didn't make it into the textbooks.
There are consequences to our decisions, the decision to work too much, to check out of a marriage, to not deal with our issues. The problem is that we fool ourselves believing that we can live with those consequences.
No one has ever looked back as their kids grew up or at the end of their own life and thought, “Perfect attendance was worth it.”
It's crazy. It's painful to think how little we have left, how little is left of their childhood, how little time there is left, period. You can let that thought depress you…or clarify.
It starts off so exciting. You're thrust into a totally new situation—you have a kid. And then so much happens and keeps happening. But then what happens?
Why do we tell our kids stories? Why do we tell them about history? Teach them about George Washington, Martin Luther King, Cinncinatus, Florence Nightingale, Jesus, Marcus Aurelius? Because it matters.
In this episode, Ryan and Sam talk about unspoken expectations, why they stopped doing big gifts, and and why fact-checking each other's memories might be the real Valentine's tradition.
Of course, we try to tell our children we love them. Sometimes they receive it. Sometimes they roll their eyes.
Which parent would you rather be, then? Imperious and impossible to please? Or fun and proud and loving?
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