How To Face Your Fear of Dying (Encore)

How To! with Mike Pesca

Peach Fish Projects

Education, How To

4.3 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Katie is terrified of dying. As the youngest in a big family, she can't stop thinking about the fact that all her loved ones may die before she does. Katie is a comedy writer who knows how to get laughs, but her obsession with death is real, and getting in the way of living. In this episode of How To!, we bring on Rachel Menzies, a psychologist and researcher at the University of Sydney and author of Tales from the Valley of Death, to share what she's learned about death anxiety. Exposure therapy is often the most effective way to overcome your fears, but how do you expose yourself to death? Rachel has some unusual ideas for Katie—and all of us—to take control of these intrusive thoughts, starting with lying in a body bag. Focusing deliberately on death, Rachel says, can actually help us appreciate life.

If you liked this episode, check out "How To Not Be Scared."

Are you afraid of something? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone, I'm Susie Weiss, and I've noticed there's just simply not enough podcasts in the world. So I'm launching my own. Let's go. Let's go, baby. Second Thought is a weekly show about pop culture. The stuff everyone's been binging, arguing about, obsessing over. Here's the thing about heated rivalry. I mean, even the most devoted swifties, I think we can agree, not our best work. We'll be hosting thoughtful conversations with culture's most important figures. Talk about genius.
0:22.6	Talk about generational talent.
0:23.7	Coming to headphones near you
0:24.8	on April 17th with a first guest you won't want to miss. Available wherever you get your podcasts.
0:30.1	Hey how-to listeners, spooky season is in full swing and Halloween is right around the corner,
0:35.7	as my daughters will not let me forget.
0:40.8	Everywhere you look, there are reminders of our mortality.
0:45.7	So, we thought it was a good time to unbury one of our favorite episodes from the archives.
0:48.5	It's all about facing your fear of death.
0:54.0	It features a comedy writer whose obsession with dying is getting in the way of living.
0:59.9	All right, I'm going to pass the mic to former host Charles Duhigg, and we'll see you back here next week.
1:08.7	I remember being as young as two years old and going into my parents' room and just hugging them and sobbing.
1:11.7	And they would be like, what's wrong?
1:16.9	And I would say, I'm going to be so sad when you die, as though I was predicting something.
1:20.5	Like I was one of those weird kids from a horror movie.
1:24.3	Welcome to how to.
1:25.7	I'm Charles Dupin.
1:30.9	During the past few months, as we all know, we have been constantly reminded of our own mortality. It happens when we leave the house or put on a mask or just
1:36.5	read the news. And many of us, unfortunately, have experienced loss in our own lives.
1:42.7	So what do you do when the fear of dying feels inescapable?
1:46.3	How do you live your life without always worrying about the end?
1:50.1	Our listener this week needs to know the answer.
	...

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