Episode

Crazy Town Classics - Terror Management Theory

Podcast
Crazy Town
Published
Feb 25, 2026
Duration seconds
3664
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://www.resilience.org/crazy-town-podcast/
Audio
https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/76c7134a-f108-496d-8e8e-f2c85dfdcefb.mp3
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/crazy-town-1164162/episodes/crazy-town-classics-terror-management-theory
Markdown
/podcast/crazy-town-1164162/crazy-town-classics-terror-management-theory.md

Actions

  • POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/crazy-town-1164162/episodes/crazy-town-classics-terror-management-theory/transcription-requests
    Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
  • GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/crazy-town-1164162/crazy-town-classics-terror-management-theory.md
    Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

Summary

What can we learn about death from the X-Men, small screaming rodents, and unwitting college students in psychology experiments? It turns out that the fear of death (or death anxiety) affects human behavior in all sorts of surprising and deeply troubling ways. Especially disconcerting is the way such fear entices people to cling to cultural beliefs so tightly that they will attack anything or anyone they perceive as a threat to their beliefs. And extra-super-duper disconcerting is how unaware most of us are that we are susceptible to such bad behavior when we’re reminded that one day we’ll die. Follow Jason, Rob, and Asher as they try not to deny climate change, vilify any out-groups, or assault one another while diving into the topic of death. In the Do-the-Opposite segment, Michael Hebb (author of Let’s Talk about Death over Dinner ) shares wisdom for developing a healthier relationship with death. For episode notes and more information, please visit our website . Originally recorded on December 22, 2020.