Ryan Holiday reflects on his recent Australian speaking tour and upcoming October 2024 return dates across Auckland, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth. During his July 2024 visit, Holiday appeared on Australia's Today show to discuss his latest book Right Thing Right Now, which explores the stoic virtue of justice.

The episode features Holiday's interview with Australian author Bridget Delaney, whose book Reasons Not to Worry How to Be Stoic in Chaotic Times chronicles her transformation from stoicism skeptic to practitioner. Their conversation explores anger management, social justice tensions within stoic philosophy, and practical applications of ancient wisdom to modern political engagement.

Holiday draws insights from In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson to illustrate how geographical distance provides emotional perspective on news consumption, connecting this to Marcus Aurelius's teachings in Meditations about maintaining philosophical distance from overwhelming events.

The Perspective Medicine: Distance as Stoic Practice

In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson demonstrates how reading foreign news provides emotional relief: "What a comfort it is to find a nation preoccupied by matters of no possible consequence to oneself."

Holiday experienced this firsthand during Australia's 2024 election chaos, maintaining morning coffee routines that prevented him from "going crazy" while observing American politics from abroad.

Marcus Aurelius teaches in Meditations that perspective transforms experience - "Two armies battling each other is horrible thing up close. From the top of a mountain it looks like ants going after a piece of food."

Bridget Delaney's Stoic Conversion: From Skeptic to Practitioner

Delaney initially wrote a "piss take" about Stoic Week while hungover, dismissing stoics as "poe-faced and boring" before privately trying again the following year.

Her book Reasons Not to Worry emerged during Australia's severe COVID lockdowns when "people felt like they didn't have a lot of control" and needed frameworks for accepting unwanted realities.

The writing process reinforced her practice: "You can't write and talk and think and read about this stuff and not have it seep into you in some way" - Holiday.

The Modern Anger Epidemic and Stoic Solutions

Delaney identifies anger as "society's biggest problems right now" with increased domestic violence, road rage, and retail abuse requiring "don't abuse the staff" signs everywhere.

Seneca's De Ira takes an "unequivocal" stance against anger, which Delaney increasingly embraces: "there's no place" for anger in stoic practice.

Marcus Aurelius provides the framework in Meditations: difficult people "don't know any better" and "can't implicate you in their ugliness" - the choice of response remains yours.

Holiday advocates seeing angry people's suffering: "What is that person's life like? Their life must be a pressure cooker of stress and dysfunction because this is not how they want to be acting."

Social Justice Tension: Control vs. Moral Responsibility

The core tension: "Being angry all the time is exhausting and corrosive. Not being angry feels morally irresponsible" - Tim Grierson tweet that challenges stoic practitioners.

Delaney wrestles with climate activism and stoicism: "A pure Stoic would say no" to protest effectiveness, "but if everyone felt that way" nothing would change.

Holiday argues stoics were politically engaged: "Almost to a person, the Stoics are involved in politics" and Marcus Aurelius warns in Meditations that "you can commit an injustice by doing nothing also."

Modern democracy expands stoic control: "We live in a society where we get to elect our leaders" unlike ancient Rome where "you don't get to choose who the emperor is."

Practical Stoicism: Daily Applications and Customer Service Reality

Holiday's customer service representative Ashley receives angry emails from stoicism followers who "can't wrap their heads around the fact that we don't control the post office."

The airport delay test illustrates stoic practice: "Is this in my control? Is this who I want to be? What opportunity is this presenting me?"

Right Thing Right Now explores justice as personal standards: "Not what's legally allowed, but what am I okay with? What do I think the right thing to do is?"