#44 - Multiple Heart Attacks and a Surprisingly Calm Relationship With Death
A heart attack isn’t the first thing you imagine at sixteen.
In this anonymous call, the caller shares what it was like to have a heart attack at 16, and then again years later, and how those experiences shaped their relationship with death. On paper, it sounds like it would be a heavy conversation. But the energy is surprisingly relaxed. The caller is calm, curious, and at times even playful about a topic most people can barely name out loud.
The conversation moves between the practical and the mysterious. The caller explains the heart condition behind their episodes and what it feels like to live with that kind of uncertainty in your body. At the same time, they explore a loose, pop-culture Buddhist view of reincarnation and why having a framework, even an imperfect one, can soften fear.
One of the most human moments comes when I ask how the heart attacks changed their life. The caller doesn’t turn it into an awakening story. They describe a brief stretch of urgency, the feeling that they should do everything now, and then something quieter: life gradually returning to normal. Not because it didn’t matter, but because that’s what life often does.
We also talk about the difference between fearing death and fearing pain, what helped them stay calm during a hospital visit that could have gone very differently, and how acceptance can show up without certainty.
Book Recommendations: My Side of the Mountain (Jean Craighead George); The Three Musketeers (Alexandre Dumas)
If you’d like to watch this conversation instead of just listening, you can find the video version on YouTube.
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