Death & Disco

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Death & Disco is the podcast where we explore how truly embracing death can lead to a more meaningful, magical and radically alive life. Host Emily brings together researchers, healers, mystics, scientists and everyday people with extraordinary perspectives on mortality — because the conversations society avoids most are often the ones we need most urgently. We go deep on physical death and grief, the metaphorical deaths of ego and identity, and the profound cost of our collective denial — how running from death keeps us hustling, dividing, and sleepwalking through the one life we have. We sit with the evidence from near-death experiences, psychedelic research, ancient philosophy and neuroscience that facing death doesn't diminish life. It explodes it open. Because no one gets out of here alive. So we might as well enjoy the ride. Death & Disco — dance 'til you die vibes.

The Worm at the Core: Death Anxiety, Terror Management, and the Path to Radical Aliveness with Sheldon Solomon

Emily sits down with Sheldon Solomon, the legendary social psychologist and co-developer of Terror Management Theory, for a conversation that detonates the polite fictions most of us live by. Sheldon spent more than 40 years building the empirical case for what Ernest Becker proposed in The Denial of Death: that the uniquely human awareness of our own mortality is the hidden engine behind almost everything we think, want, and do. From courtroom judges setting bonds nine times higher after being reminded of death, to voters lurching toward authoritarian leaders after a terror attack, to our insatiable hunger for money, status, and stuff, Sheldon walks through the studies that show how unprocessed death anxiety quietly metastasizes into cruelty, consumerism, and cultural collapse. But this episode is not a doom scroll dressed up as science. Emily and Sheldon move from diagnosis to medicine, mapping what Sheldon calls the tripod of psychological fortitude: awe, humility, and gratitude. They get into the research on meditation, nature, psychedelics, and near death experiences, and why each one quiets our reflexive defenses against mortality through the same neuroanatomical pathway. Sheldon names the toxic meritocratic worldview that has turned us into "inebriated rats" chasing significance we can never catch, and offers a softer, fiercer alternative rooted in cosmic connection and the courage to feel small. This one is for the spiritually curious, the grievers, the academics, and anyone who has ever suspected that our cultural allergy to DEATH is exactly what is keeping us from LIFE. Sheldon's work cracked Emily wide open, and this conversation is the closest thing to a primer on Terror Management Theory you will find without buying the textbook. Key Takeaways ● Death anxiety is not occasional or optional. It runs underneath our politics, prejudices, purchases, and self-esteem projects, whether we are conscious of it or not. ● When mortality is on our minds, we cling harder to people who share our worldview and respond more harshly to those who do not. Demagogues weaponize this by turning fear into hatred aimed at scapegoats. ● The American meritocracy is a uniquely toxic immortality project. It sets standards almost no one can meet and manufactures chronic dissatisfaction, depression, addiction, and burnout. ● Awe, humility, and gratitude form a neurobiological tripod that dissolves our defensive reactions to death. So do meditation, nature, music, and psychedelics, all routing through the same brain pathways. ● Humility is not self-deprecation. It is the recognition that we are radically inconsequential specks of carbon dust AND intimately connected to every living thing that has ever existed. ● The fullness of life requires an awareness and acceptance of our transience. Engaging with mortality is not morbid, it is the doorway to meaning, connection, and fierce aliveness. Guest Sheldon Solomon, Professor of Psychology, Skidmore College. Sheldon Solomon is a professor of psychology at Skidmore College whose research on the effects of the uniquely human awareness of death on attitudes and behavior has been supported by the National Science Foundation and Ernest Becker Foundation. He is co-author of In the Wake of 9-11: The Psychology of Terror and The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life, and is a developer of Terror Management Theory. Resources Mentioned ● The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life by Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/220079/the-worm-at-the-core-by-sheldon-solomon-jeff-greenberg-and-tom-pyszczynski/ ● In the Wake of 9-11: The Psychology of Terror by Tom Pyszczynski, Sheldon Solomon, and Jeff Greenberg: https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4317016 ● The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Denial-of-Death/Ernest-Becker/9780684832401 ● The Birth and Death of Meaning by Ernest Becker: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Birth-and-Death-of-Meaning/Ernest-Becker/9780029021903 ● Escape from Evil by Ernest Becker: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Escape-from-Evil/Ernest-Becker/9780029024508 ● Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality (documentary): https://www.flightfromdeath.com/ ● Ernest Becker Foundation: https://ernestbecker.org/ ● National Science Foundation: https://www.nsf.gov/ ● The Tyranny of Merit by Michael Sandel: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250800060/thetyrannyofmerit ● Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer: https://milkweed.org/book/braiding-sweetgrass ● Being and Time by Martin Heidegger: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/being-and-time-martin-heidegger ● Skidmore College: https://www.skidmore.edu/ ● Works of Irvin Yalom (existential psychotherapy): https://www.yalom.com/ ● Works of Rollo May: https://www.wwnorton.com/books/Loves-Will/ Connect with Emily ● Website: https://iamemilybingham.com/ ● Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamemilybingham/ ● Join the YOLO Year Waitlist: https://iamemilybingham.com/yolo-waitlist Connect with Sheldon ● Skidmore College Faculty Page: https://www.skidmore.edu/psychology/faculty/solomon.php ● The Worm at the Core: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/220079/the-worm-at-the-core-by-sheldon-solomon-jeff-greenberg-and-tom-pyszczynski/ #DeathAndDisco #DeathMedicine #NoOneGetsOutAlive #EmilyBingham #LoveAndGrief #TerrorManagementTheory #ErnestBecker #SheldonSolomon #TheWormAtTheCore #DeathAcceptance #DeathAnxiety #ExistentialPsychology #MortalityAwareness #DeathPositive #ConsciousLiving

20 de may de 2026 - 1 h 7 min