PodcastThe Daily StoicSeptember 29, 2026
You Should Be In The Thick of It | How Oprah Discovered Stoicism
Stoicism's popular spread traces an informal word-of-mouth chain, most recently from novelist Maria Semple to Oprah to Ryan Holiday's bestselling books.
- Oprah picked a Stoic novel: Maria Semple's Go Gentle, about a fictional Stoic philosopher-tutor, became an Oprah's Book Club pick, which led Oprah to Ryan Holiday's work.
- Chain reaction to Holiday: Oprah then read Holiday's The Obstacle Is the Way (10th anniversary edition) and invited him to Maui for an in-person conversation on her podcast.
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Themes, sentiment and reasons are AI-written paraphrases, checked so they never quote an episode. They may contain errors. Not investment advice. Episodes remain the property of their creators.
