Massimo Pigliucci on Why Virtue Matters

Ryan speaks with Professor Massimo Pigliucci about his new book The Quest for Character: What the Story of Socrates and Alcibiades Teaches Us about Our Search for Good Leaders, what Alcibiades’s magnetism and lack of moral compass can teach us about what we look for in leaders today, the tension between being virtuous and being pragmatic, and more.

Massimo Pigliucci is Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York, the former co-host of the Rationally Speaking Podcast, the originator of Neoskepticism, and an advocate and popularizer of Stoicism. He wrote a viral piece in The New York Times called How to Be a Stoic as well as two books on Stoicism titled How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life and A Handbook for New Stoics: How to Thrive in a World Out of Your Control a Stoic handbook. He also explores Stoic philosophy on his podcast Stoic Meditations.

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Massimo for National Teacher/Philosopher... and Philosopher and Ryan for the Nations Scholar.

OOPS!! I had not finished listening to the podcast when I commented and said Massimo for President!🤗Please forgive!
Thank you for this interview, for your knowledge, experience, and wisdom...Both of you are national treasures, in my opinion,...if only society would listen to the philosophers....
I would like to thank both of you, for helping me,,,,stoicism has saved me from staying on a maladaptive path and way of thinking and instead has given me freedom...I was listening to thIs podcast and Massimo's podcast during a traumatic time in life and they played a major role in helping me and I am happy to say I am probably more mentally healthy than I have ever been as a result...that is a priceless gift...Thank You from the bottom of my heart.