The Pitt, YouTube Shorts & Stoic Dads

1) Limiting YouTube Shorts

If you’ve been a long-time reader, you know I’m deeply concerned about how screens are impacting our kids’ attention spans. YouTube is finally taking note, expanding parental controls specifically for Shorts. Anything that helps “slow the scroll” and protect a child’s focus feels like a win… even if the solution is coming from Big Tech itself.

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2) The Pitt

I’ve been watching The Pitt lately, and I walk away from every episode with a sense of deep gratitude. The pace, pressure, and emotional weight doctors carry is staggering. While it’s dramatized for TV, the core of it feels rooted in reality. Half the time I’m thinking, “There’s no way I could live that life,” and the other half I’m thinking, “There is something very attractive about that level of purpose and teamwork.” Either way: thank you, docs!

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3) How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie

I spoke with a college student this week who asked for advice on becoming a personal trainer. My first recommendation wasn’t a textbook on anatomy or biomechanics. It was How to Win Friends and Influence People. This classic teaches that strong relationships are built on genuine interest, active listening, and sincere appreciation rather than manipulation. To me, mastering those “soft” skills is a prerequisite for being a great coach, leader, or teammate, long before you worry about workout programming or physiology.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.”

— Viktor Frankl

“You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

— Marcus Aurelius

Stoic Dads

I sent the message below to my kids recently. When I re-read it later, something hit me: we dads probably need this just as much as they do.

Lately, Mom and I have been stressed about things that are mostly out of our control—from coaches to teachers to schedules. It’s been messing with our inner peace, especially when it feels like we’re constantly in conflict, even when we’re absolutely justified.

One thing that helps me reset is leaning on a stoic mindset.

Stoicism is an ancient way of thinking that emphasizes staying calm, steady, and in control of yourself, especially when life gets messy.

Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Seneca all taught the same core idea:

You can’t control what happens to you. You can control how you respond.

Here are a few stoic mindsets that could be useful to your teenage life:

• You don’t have to have an opinion about everything.
• Someone despises me. That’s their problem.
• Pause before you react.
• Do the right thing, even when it’s not popular.
• It’s not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, who is poor.

For us dads, being a good father doesn’t mean fighting every fight. It means choosing the right ones while refusing to let everything else steal our peace. And if you’re a parent, you know how often the universe seems determined to test that resolve.

The more we learn to control our reactions, the more peace we create.

And just as important, we model that posture for our kids in the middle of chaos. They’re always watching, and more often than not, that quiet steadiness teaches them more than any speech ever could.