Opinion | How Ben Sasse Is Living Now That He Is Dying – The New York Times

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How Ben Sasse Is Living Now That He Is Dying

The former senator wants to heal the America he’s leaving behind.

April 9, 2026

Hosted by Ross Douthat, Produced by Victoria Chamberlin

Mr. Douthat is a columnist and the host of the “Interesting Times” podcast. See more of our coverage in your search results. Add The New York Times on Google

Editor’s Note: The video portion is online, via the link at the bottom of my post, IF you can access the NYTimes behind their paywall. And if they allow you to view the video. It is a long interview video, 800MBs, and very good insights in the interview and discussion. –DrWeb

I had a pharmacist call me over there the other day. The former senator wants to heal the America he’s leaving behind. Credit …The New York Times.

How would you live if you knew when you were going to die?

When Ben Sasse announced last December that he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, he called it a death sentence, but he noted that he’d had one before the cancer too. We all do.

Sasse served the state of Nebraska in the U.S. Senate for eight years as a high-minded and, by his own account, sometimes ineffectual conservative. Then he quit politics to become the president of the University of Florida, pursuing a different model of civic reform.

Now he’s facing mortality.

For Sasse, the advance of his cancer has brought clarity, sharpening his focus on his wife and three children, and the God whom he expects to shortly meet.

At the same time, he’s doing a lot of talking. He’s running his own podcast, titled “Not Dead Yet,” and he’s doing interviews like this one about what life is like on the threshold of the undiscovered country.

Ben Sasse on How to Live While Dying

The former senator wants to heal the America he’s leaving behind.

Below is an edited transcript of an episode of “Interesting Times.” We recommend listening to it in its original form for the full effect. You can do so using the player above or on the NYTimes app, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.

Editor’s Note: I’ve included below in this repost the episode of “Interesting Times,” for easy access here. — DrWeb

Ross Douthat: Ben Sasse, welcome to “Interesting Times.”

Ben Sasse: These are interesting times. Good to be with you, Ross.

Douthat: It’s a pleasure to have you. I want to start with an important question, which is: Why are we here? And I don’t mean why we’re here in this physical location. We’re taping this in Austin, Texas. I also don’t mean the cosmic question. I think we’ll get to that at the end.

But here, taping this conversation — because people facing a terminal diagnosis have a lot of options: Travel the world, scratch items off the bucket list, seek out obscure therapies in western Tibet, just hunker down and spend time with their families.

And this is not the first interview you’ve done. You’ve chosen to spend time with journalists — and we’re grateful — but I want to know why.

Sasse: Well, you invited me, so I assume you had a cancellation. [Laughs.] Let’s be honest, the bar must be pretty low. I mean, I’m probably here for my looks.

Douthat: We actually had Clavicular, the looksmaxxer, scheduled, and he bailed.

Sasse: I don’t know that. “Cloaca” is a word I’ve been learning a lot lately, but I don’t know this fella.

Douthat: You don’t know about Clavicular? Then that is actually one of the small mercies of your own life. We’ll let viewers figure out for themselves who Clavicular is.

But in all seriousness, you’re doing a lot of talking. You’ve actually become a podcaster yourself, right? You have a podcast.

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