Andrew Weil: What is your greatest fear? — FLAPSS

The question

What is your greatest fear?

Originally asked

Vanity Fair, to its interview subject, The Proust Questionnaire

The exact prompt is fixed in Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire and independently sustained in The Guardian's The Q&A over multiple decades.

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

Andrew Weil

Physician; founder of the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Society’s inability to encourage people to make better lifestyle choices that really prevent disease and promote health.

Katy Koontz, Unity Magazine, 1 August 2022 source ↗

Others on this question

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Sally Field Actor

A bumpy flight … or driving with my son Sam, who drives great, but I still can’t believe he’s old enough.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, March 2016 source ↗

Dolly Parton American singer-songwriter, actress and businesswoman

Flipping my wig.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, November 2012 source ↗

Hans Zimmer Film composer

A world destroyed by science-denying mediocrity.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, January 2019 source ↗

Unemployment – I’m an actor.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 February 2025 source ↗

More from Andrew Weil

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Question Which trait do you most dislike in yourself? Identity & self

I had a family physician when I was growing up who was a mentor and steered me towards studying medicine.

Recorded Olivendo, Olivendo, 17 October 2022 source ↗

Question What did you want to be when you were growing up? Identity & self

I had a family physician when I was growing up who was a mentor and steered me towards studying medicine.

Recorded Olivendo, Olivendo, 17 October 2022 source ↗

Question How would you describe yourself in three words? Identity & self

I had a family physician when I was growing up who was a mentor and steered me towards studying medicine.

Recorded Olivendo, Olivendo, 17 October 2022 source ↗

Question Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought? Money & investment

I had a family physician when I was growing up who was a mentor and steered me towards studying medicine.

Recorded Olivendo, Olivendo, 17 October 2022 source ↗

Question What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months? Money & investment

Yes. Well, one of them I’m holding in my hand right now. And my daughter turned me onto these. She’s now 28. Computer glasses, which I got on Amazon. I don’t know. They were less than $20. But these are yellow-tinted glasses that enlarge things slightly. That has totally changed my comfort in sitting in front of a screen.

Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 10 December 2018 source ↗

Question Who do you turn to when you need advice? Relationships

I had a family physician when I was growing up who was a mentor and steered me towards studying medicine.

Recorded Olivendo, Olivendo, 17 October 2022 source ↗

More on identity & self

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Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Daphne Guinness, Tom Lubbock, Scott Mills, Sally Field, Serena Williams

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