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.
Listeners of The Daily Dad that love the show mention: daily stoic, reset, dads, ryan, great way to start, reflect, email, parenting, father, parents, kids, focus, morning, quick, short, advice, helps, wisdom, thank you so much, perspective.
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.
In today's episode, Ryan shares 10 powerful reminders that every parent needs to hear. Drawing from the lives of Queen Elizabeth II, Winston Churchill, and Archie Manning, he shares what it really looks like to put your kids first, even when the world is pulling you in every other direction. Tinker, create and innovate with KiwiCo! Get $15 off at KiwiCo.com with code DAILYDAD ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
For all time, parents have had to figure out ways to explain the reality of the world to their children—to make their children strong and resilient in a world which will try to break them down. Tinker, create and innovate with KiwiCo! Get $15 off at KiwiCo.com with code DAILYDAD ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
They need us. To stand firm. To stand with them. To stand closer.
Let's make a commitment today: to put down our phones, to be fully present, and to give our children what they truly want and need—our undivided attention and love.
They don't need our cynicism. They need our affection, our belief, our interest.
Books are a wonderful way to slip past your children's defenses. A wonderful way to indirectly give them advice. A wonderful way for you both to learn about something. Aura Frames | Save on the perfect gift by visiting https://auraframes.com/ to get $35-off plus free shipping on their best-selling Carver Mat frame with promo code DAILYDAD ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
We often think it's the big events that shape our kids, but bestselling author Daniel Pink reminds us it's the ordinary moments that leave the deepest impact. In this episode, he opens up about minimizing time away from home and why being there, even when nothing special is happening, might just be the most important thing of all. Daniel Pink is an award-winning author of five New York Times bestsellers, including his latest, The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward. His other books include the New York Times bestsellers When and A Whole New Mind — as well as the #1 New York Times bestsellers Drive and To Sell is Human. Follow Daniel on Instagram and X @DanielPink Sign up for Daniel's newsletter The Pink Report: https://www.danpink.com/
We're gonna mess up as parents. There are going to be things that don't go the way we want them to go. That's not ideal, but if we can focus on doing great repair after that's at least a start.
As Cheryl Strayed writes in Tiny Beautiful Things, “You don't have a right to the cards you believe you should have been dealt.”
It could be easier. But we do have it good. We really do. Tinker, create and innovate with KiwiCo! Get $15 off at KiwiCo.com with code DAILYDAD ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
The ancients knew that character was fate and we need to remember that with our own kids.
They need us to be the adult right now. They need us to love and support them. They need us to encourage and inspire them. Aura Frames | Save on the perfect gift by visiting https://auraframes.com/ to get $35-off plus free shipping on their best-selling Carver Mat frame with promo code DAILYDAD ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
Make the decision today that you would want another parent to make. To spare you weeks of runny noses and sneezes. Aura Frames | Save on the perfect gift by visiting https://auraframes.com/ to get $35-off plus free shipping on their best-selling Carver Mat frame with promo code DAILYDAD ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
It can be so frustrating to be a kid. The corrections. The confusion. Which is why we ought to make a little more effort to balance this asymmetry in wisdom and experience with our children. Aura Frames | Save on the perfect gift by visiting https://auraframes.com/ to get $35-off plus free shipping on their best-selling Carver Mat frame with promo code DAILYDAD ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
As parents we have a lot of power over the lens that we bring to each parenting situation, each crisis, each potential frustration. But there is one specific thing as parents that we should try to see, something that's beyond just the good in things.
This season of life, as exhausting and relentless as it feels, is also fleeting.
While so much of parenting feels out of our control—schedules, tantrums, illness, life's constant surprises—we can always control one critical thing...
There are some things that do not respond well to pressure. There are some things we do not control as parents. So let's back off a little. MasterClass | Get 15% off any annual membership at MasterClass.com/RYANHOLIDAY ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
"The world is at least fifty percent terrible, and that's a conservative estimate, though I keep this from my children," writes Maggie Smith in her viral poem Good Bones. Today, Maggie joins Ryan to talk about what it means to shield children from the world's harsh realities while still acknowledging its beauty and potential. They discuss how parents can balance hope with realism, the importance of instilling strong values, and the courage it takes to remain earnest and sincere in a cynical world.In 2016, Maggie Smith's poem Good Bones became a viral sensation. It was named the “Official Poem of 2016” by the Public Radio International. Maggie Smith is the New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful; My Thoughts Have Wings, a picture book illustrated by SCBWI Portfolio grand prize winner Leanne Hatch; the national bestsellers Goldenrod and Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change; as well as Good Bones, named one of the Best Five Poetry Books of 2017 by the Washington Post and winner of the 2018 Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal in Poetry. Maggie's latest book, Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life just released! You can grab signed copies of Dear Writer at The Painted Porch in addition to her books You Could Make This Place Beautiful and Keep MovingFollow Maggie Smith on Instagram @ MaggieSmithPoet
The little things bring us together. The little moments of joy and silliness. PESTIE | Protect your home from bugs with Pestie. Go to pestie.com/dad for an extra 10% off your order! ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
Meditations is a parenting book—one of the greatest ever written. Because at its core, it's about the transmission of wisdom and values from one generation to the next.
The Stoics remind us that everything has its compensation…if we choose to see it, if we choose to welcome it. Tushbaby is here to make parenting a little easier—one day, or carry at a time. Visit Tushbaby.com and start customizing your own carrier. Make sure to use code DAILY DAD for 20% your first order. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
We have to remember that courage and justice—the two most essential Stoic virtues—demand that we open our hearts and direct our actions at a slightly larger purview.
These are the moments we have to hold onto—the ones we have to carry with us for all the times when it feels like we're falling short, when life feels overwhelming, or when we're caught in the endless grind of trying to do and be more.
Tag along as Ryan takes his oldest son to see Hamilton—his latest obsession. In this episode, Ryan reflects on how the father-son outing went, why it's crucial for parents to show genuine interest in their kids' passions, and even includes a few thoughts in Clark's own words along the way.
We wear any number of masks—one that covers up our pain, our fears, our doubts, perhaps even one that displays the person that we truly are.
Every family has them. The small but special little exchanges.
You have, right now, what your future self desires. Focus on what's right in front of you.
Yeah, these kids are crazy. Yeah, they are a lot…and take a lot out of us. But aren't they also the best?
It's the little things we do every day that shape our kids in big ways. In today's episode, Ryan shares 7 powerful ways to lead by example and become the best role model for your kids. Squarespace | Go to Squarespace.com/DOTHEWORK to save 10% on your first purchase of a website or domain! ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
We only get one go at this thing called existence. We have to show them what happens when you take the time to do things right.
It can be thankless. It is tough. It pushes you in ways you never could have imagined. Should it really surprise us that people are having fewer kids? Or that some people are deciding to not have them at all? Tinker, create and innovate with KiwiCo! Get 50% off your first crate at KiwiCo.com with code DAILYDAD ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
It's tempting to think that we're protecting their belief in the world and in humanity by shielding them from the horrors of the past, but real hope isn't built on illusions.
However old they are, whatever the activity is. Do it now. MasterClass | Get 15% off any annual membership at MasterClass.com/RYANHOLIDAY ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
They think they are sneaky but they are absolutely horrible at it. They have absolutely no future as criminals, that's for sure. MasterClass | Get 15% off any annual membership at MasterClass.com/RYANHOLIDAY ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
Bestselling author and artist Austin Kleon joins Ryan to discuss the challenges of raising kids in the digital age of social media and AI. He shares a recent Stoic lesson he taught his child about handling online validation, his strategies for making the most of car rides with his kids, and the key parenting advice he would offer to new parents.
Let them be bored. Let them cultivate some time with themselves.
How will we ever convince Google that we do not, in fact, like Mr. Beast or prank videos? Will our Netflix suggestions ever recover from the Cocomelon we have watched? It's annoying to be sure, but it's a small price to pay for them to discover their own interests. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
We owe it to them to show these branches of the family tree, to introduce them to the ancestors who planted the seeds that are now growing inside them.
Your kids probably know how tough they are on you. But do they also know what joy you bring them? How much better they make your life? Squarespace | Go to Squarespace.com/DOTHEWORK to save 10% on your first purchase of a website or domain! ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
Although parenting certainly adds a lot to our plate, it's also massively clarifying. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
Is a Hamilton phase a rite of passage for families? While kids get swept up in the music and history, the musical also reflects the deep emotions, sacrifices, and challenges of parenthood. In this episode, Ryan shares the parenting lessons hidden in Hamilton that have stuck with him and might just hit home for you too. PIQUE | Get 20% + a FREE starter kit at https://piquelife.com/DAILYDAD ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
Having kids makes you less available. Having kids makes you less up for certain things. Having kids costs you. Right now, you can get 20% off plus a FREE starter kit when you shop exclusively at Piquelife.com/DAILYDAD ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
We tell ourselves that when our kids are old we'll make more time for them, we'll have more freedom—and besides, they'll appreciate it more when they're older. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
This moment you have right now, even if it's stressful, even if it's exhausting, even if it's ordinary and humdrum…it won't feel that way almost immediately after it passes. Squarespace | Go to Squarespace.com/DOTHEWORK to save 10% on your first purchase of a website or domain! ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
If we want our children to embrace growth and challenge, we must model it ourselves.
It all becomes like a blur, the big moments and the small ones, one task from the next, one day to the next. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Dad email: DailyDad.com
Josh Brolin sits down with Ryan, fresh off a full-blown parenting meltdown. As he puts it, “I just had to read The Daily Dad to calm the f**k down.” In today's episode, Josh and Ryan dive into the raw realities of fatherhood, the influence of his own parents, and the timeless lessons that continue to shape him as a dad.Josh Brolin's breakout role was in The Goonies (1985), and after a hiatus from Hollywood, he made a powerful comeback in No Country for Old Men (2007). He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Dan White in the biopic Milk (2008). Brolin is also known for playing Thanos in the Avengers series, Cable in the Deadpool films, and Gurney Halleck in the Dune franchise.You can grab a copy of From Under The Truck by Josh Brolin at The Painted Porch. Follow Josh on Instagram @JoshBrolin and on X @TheJoshBrolin
You liked children. You cared about people besides yourself. But then you had your own kids, and something changed.
A family, like any great team, needs structure. It needs shared goals. It needs everyone to know their role.
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
