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The Daily Stoic

You Need An Ethical Will | Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling

21 Jun 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What is the significance of an ethical will in parenting?

0.031 - 29.725 Ryan Holiday

Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. Hey, it's Ryan. Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast. Today is Father's Day. Yesterday, we did a deep dive into Marcus Aurelius and Antoninus, what Marcus learns from his stepfather. That was a sort of how-to father episode.

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29.745 - 51.369 Ryan Holiday

And then the second half of that episode was maybe a little bit what not to do about Tom Junod's complicated relationship with his father when he came on the Daily Stoic Podcast. Today, I am talking to Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. He spent almost 40 years in the U.S. Army. He started as a tank platoon leader, became commander of U.S. Army Europe and the Seventh Army.

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51.79 - 74.217 Ryan Holiday

He did combat tours in Desert Storm and Iraq. And then he helped support military transformation across Eastern Europe. Spent many years in uniform, many years deployed, was in combat many times. Thankfully, he came home. But there were many moments, I'm sure, where he didn't know if he would return. And he has this great book called If I Don't Return...

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74.197 - 97.335 Ryan Holiday

father's wartime journal, which was the thoughts that he put down on his first deployment when he was told there'd be casualties as high as 50% in his unit. You know, what did he want to leave to his two young sons? Sort of an ethical will. It's a great book. You should definitely read it. And I'm going to bring out a fuller episode later, but he and I wanted to talk about some fatherhood stuff.

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97.315 - 110.259 Ryan Holiday

I think you're really going to like it. It's a palate cleanser after Tom Junod's sort of complicated relationship with his father. But you should definitely read Tom Junod's book, In the Days of My Youth, I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man. It's a great book. And so is Mark's book.

Chapter 2: How can parents effectively communicate lessons learned from failure?

110.279 - 132.902 Ryan Holiday

So two great fatherhood books for today. And it doesn't hurt always to reread Mark Cerullo's passage on Antoninus either. Happy Father's Day, everyone. Enjoy. Hey, it's Ryan. I'm on the road right now doing talks all over the country. I love traveling. I love going to new places.

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133.423 - 141.159 Ryan Holiday

The thing I don't like about it, though, is I don't get to sleep in my bed at home, which I like not just because it's home, but because I have an eight sleep on my bed.

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Chapter 3: What insights does Lt. Gen. Hertling share about character and leadership?

141.239 - 159.981 Ryan Holiday

I've had an eight sleep on my bed, I don't know, five years. I love it. My wife loves it. We love it because it cools the mattress. It heats the mattress. You can have different sides cooled at different temperatures. It's even how I wake up in the morning. Instead of an annoying alarm clock or that, you know, horrible sound on your phone, it lightly buzzes you awake.

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160.663 - 179.677 Ryan Holiday

And then when you're up, you want to turn it off, you just... tap the mattress. There's all sorts of awesome features in my Eight Sleep. It was worth every penny. The point is I love my Eight Sleep and the Eight Sleep keeps getting better. Eight Sleep users report up to 32% better sleep and up to 34% better deep sleep. This is all stuff you love.

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179.697 - 205.961 Ryan Holiday

You can use the code dailystoic at eightsleep.com slash dailystoic right now for up to $500 off. And this 4th of July sale ends on July 12th. So don't wait. And if you have an HSA or an FSA, some 8sleep stuff qualifies for that as well. Through TrueMed and qualified customers save about 30% on average. Check your eligibility at truemed.com slash 8sleep before you buy.

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206.402 - 225.782 Ryan Holiday

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225.902 - 243.476 Ryan Holiday

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243.937 - 267.081 Ryan Holiday

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267.061 - 295.696 Ryan Holiday

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295.716 - 321.407 Ryan Holiday

We write a will that says, hey, you get the house, you get the life insurance policy, you get mom's jewelry and dad's jackets, and then you got to decide... what to do with all these books that you don't want and all the other stuff, right? But the ethical will of like, hey, here's the character I'm trying to bequeath to you. Here are the values I want you to live by.

321.427 - 335.982 Ryan Holiday

It strikes me that was the primary reason that you're writing the book. And in the years since, what do you feel like you got right? And what do you feel like maybe you would emphasize more now as far as lessons? Let's say people are listening to this on Father's Day.

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