What "near death" feels like

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Society & Culture, News, Politics, News Commentary, Philosophy

4.6 • 10.8K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sebastian Junger came as close as you possibly can to dying. While his doctors struggled to revive him, the veteran reporter and avowed rationalist experienced things that shocked and shook him, leaving him with profound questions and unexpected revelations. In his book, In My Time of Dying, he explores the mysteries and commonalities of people’s near-death experiences. In this episode, which originally aired in May 2024, he joins Sean to talk about what it’s like to almost die and what quantum physics can tell us about the afterlife. Host: Sean Illing (⁠⁠@SeanIlling⁠⁠) Guest: Sebastian Junger, journalist and author of ⁠⁠In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face With the Idea of an Afterlife⁠ Listen to The Gray Area ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members Help us plan for the future of The Gray Area by filling out a brief survey: ⁠voxmedia.com/survey⁠. Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this show comes from ServiceNow, a company that helps people do more fulfilling work,
0:06.4	the work they actually want to do. You know what people don't want to do? Boring, busy work.
0:12.2	But ServiceNow says that with their AI agents built into the ServiceNow platform,
0:16.2	you can automate millions of repetitive tasks in every corner of a business,
0:21.1	IT, HR, customer service, and more.
0:25.0	And the company says that means your people can focus on the work that they want to do.
0:30.0	That's putting AI agents to work for people.
0:33.0	It's your turn.
0:33.5	You can get started at servicenow.com slash AI-agents.
0:41.7	Hi, this is Ava from Vanta.
0:44.5	In today's digital world, compliance regulations are changing constantly,
0:49.0	and earning customer trust has never mattered more.
0:51.8	Vanta helps companies get compliant fast and stay secure with the most advanced
0:56.3	AI automation and continuous monitoring out there. So whether you're a startup going for your first
1:00.9	stock two or ISO 27,001, or a growing enterprise managing vendor risk, Banta makes it quick, easy,
1:07.5	and scalable. And I'm not to say that because I work here. Get started today at fanta.com.
1:12.9	What happens when we die?
1:16.5	I've always been a cold, hard materialist on this one.
1:24.5	Our brain shuts down, consciousness fades away, and the lights go out.
1:30.3	And beyond that, what else is there to say?
1:37.3	I had no experience of life before I was born, and I expect to have no experience of life after I die.
1:47.1	As best I can tell, that's the most reasonable assumption we can make about death.
	...

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