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The Daily Stoic

The Daily Stoic

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

Jun 21, 2026 · 13m

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About this episode

Bruce Springsteen once said we can be an ancestor for our children, or a ghost. Father’s Day is a good time to ask which one we’re becoming. In today’s episode, Ryan talks with Lieutenant General Mark Hertling about the lessons we hope our children inherit from us. Mark’s book, If I Don’t Return: A Father’s Wartime Journal , began as a way to pass down guidance to his sons during a deployment he knew he might not come home from. Ryan and Mark discuss the idea of an ethical will, the responsibility parents have to talk openly about failure, and the importance of teaching children what our own scar tissue has taught us. Lieutenant General (Ret.) Mark Hertling served 38 years in the U.S. Army,…