Are you afraid of death?

Originally asked

The Talks, to its interviewees, its interview series

The Talks asks this directly or through an equivalent risk-and-mortality formulation across interviews.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Alex Honnold said elsewhere, not written here
I’ve had a couple of ex-girlfriends sort of accuse me of having a personality disorder! … No, I don’t know. I’ve always been afraid of death. I’ve never wanted to die. Last year, I watched this guy die in Red Rock. It was this horrible freak accident thing. He fell and he cracked his head and basically just bled out. That was the first time I’d ever actually seen a climbing accident like that. It was kind of sobering — he was even wearing a helmet — it was a reminder of how dangerous climbing can be if things go wrong even when you have all the ropes on.

The Talks, 6 February 2019 source ↗

Others on this question

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Henry Marsh Neurosurgeon and writer
It was fear of suffering before dying, and of, you know, lingering on, being in a hospital bed. And I hate hospitals, always have done. I think they're horrible places, even though I spent most of my life working in them. No, it's really - death itself holds no fears for me at all, as far as - I love the famous 18th century philosopher David Hume, who on his deathbed was asked, aren't you terribly worried about what will happen after death? And he said, no, I'm no more worried about not existing after death than I'm worried about not existing before I was born. And that is my view about death. I don't believe in an afterlife. But I know, as a doctor, that dying can be very unpleasant.

Recorded Terry Gross, Fresh Air, NPR, 30 January 2023 source ↗

Yes, these are subjects that we think about all the time but don’t necessarily talk about. Everybody has thought about if they want to be cremated, buried, or whatever.

Recorded The Talks, 29 June 2011 source ↗

Simon Boas Aid worker; executive director of Jersey Overseas Aid
I'm sort of - not looking forward to my final day - of course that's the wrong way to see it. But I'm kind of curious about it, and I'm happy and I'm ready. As Julian of Norwich said: "All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.

Recorded Emma Barnett, BBC Radio 4, Today, as published by BBC News, 4 July 2024 source ↗

Maurice Sendak Children's author and illustrator
Yes. Of course. And since I don't believe in another world, in another life, that this is it. And when they die they are out of my life. They're gone forever. Blank. Blank. Blank. And I am not afraid of death. And I begin to - as maybe a good many elderly people do. Who knows? When I did "Bumble-ardy" I was so intensely aware of death. Eugene, my friend and my partner, was dying here in the house while I did "Bumble-ardy." And I did "Bumble-ardy" to save myself. I did not want to die with him. I wanted to live, as any human being does.

Recorded Terry Gross, Fresh Air, NPR — recorded by telephone in September 2011, his last interview, 20 September 2011 source ↗

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Christopher Hitchens, Clive James, Desmond Tutu, Diana Athill, Henry Marsh, Jack Nicholson

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