MrBeast Gets Real About His Death

YouTube fans know MrBeast as a guy who doles out fistfuls of cash and coordinates a massive team to put together life-changing challenges. His high energy videos and off-the-wall antics have translated into huge success for the YouTuber, to the point where he even has people trying to copy his style and build their own YouTube empires of one billion+ followers. And while his viewers may be used to the devil may care attitude that comes through in his more daring videos, MrBeast is well aware that the fun can't last forever.  On a recent "Lex Fridman Podcast" appearance, MrBeast went deep on the topic of death. What started as a conversation about his "buried alive" challenge video evolved into a philosophical conversation about mortality.

During the interview, the streamer touched on his history of filming videos and scheduling them to release years in advance. MrBeast's massive projects are always a huge undertaking, with some of them taking months to come to fruition. After all, someone doesn't just put together a real-life "Squid Game" overnight. In fact, he revealed that he once filmed a video for himself to watch after ten years had passed – a kind of video time capsule – which is currently set to release on his channel in two years. He has another video that is meant to go up in another two decades. In other words, he's always been preparing for an uncertain future in one way or another. 

This led to a discussion of whether or not MrBeast had ever given much thought to his own impermanence. Despite the morbid topic, it seems like MrBeast found it refreshing to be asked about something other than viewer counts and his income flow, embracing the questions with total candor.

MrBeast made it clear to Fridman that he doesn't take unnecessary risks for the sake of entertainment. For instance, the coffin in which he was buried alive was well-tested before filming began, so he was never in any serious danger during production. However, that doesn't mean that he hasn't wondered what would happen to his channel if he were to perish.

MrBeast explained, "If I knew I was gonna die of like, cancer or something [and] I had like three months to live, I would vlog every day. I would film so many videos, and then I would just schedule upload a video a week for like, the next five years, so it's like I'm still alive." He explained that he would carry on in these videos as though nothing had changed and he was still alive. "I don't know why ... but I've dreamt about that a lot," Mr Beast said. He said that he would make his best effort to put together enough videos to be able to continue automatically posting for at least ten years after his death. The idea would be to make it feel to his audience like he never left.

The conversation between MrBeast and Lex Fridman only got more real as it progressed, all while maintaining a sense of levity.

Lex Fridman seized on MrBeast's idea of recording years of content ahead of his death and discussed the concept of digital immortality. Fridman revealed that he had recorded a similar video at one point. Fridman said, "It was actually a really interesting exercise... Like, it shows like what you really care about. I guess it's like writing a will, but when you're younger, you don't think about that kind of stuff." MrBeast laughed at this and remarked that his own "in case of death" video was pretty silly. 

In a way, the two of them found making the video to be strangely fun and freeing. As Fridman put it, "It's a weird thing to address the world when you, the physical you, is no longer there." MrBeast loved the fact that they both had this strange exercise in common, but seemed to be unsure of Fridman's assertion that everyone should make a similar video. 

MrBeast also confirmed that he's afraid of death and the possibility of not seeing anything on the other side. He said he prefers to push these fears from his mind for as long as possible — or at least until someone invents a way to slow down and stop aging. "One of you smart people out there, figure it out," MrBeast quipped. "I'll keep you entertained, but I need you to figure out how to keep me alive! Give me 'til 200; that'll make me happy."

All in all, this interview revealed a very different side of MrBeast. It's unclear if fans will ever get to see this fabled "final" video from MrBeast, but it does sound like they have many more years of fun clips to look forward to.