Alexander the Great allegedly wept at 30 because he feared he'd never match his father Philip's accomplishments, despite having already conquered half the known world.

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius filled his private journals with anxious meditations about mortality and the fleeting nature of fame, writing that even the greatest empires would eventually crumble to dust.

Thomas Jefferson spent his final years obsessively rewriting and controlling the narrative of his life, terrified that future generations would judge him harshly for the contradiction between his words about liberty and his ownership of enslaved people. Even on his deathbed, he was dictating epitaphs and destroying correspondence, desperately trying to curate his image for posterity—a futile attempt to control the uncontrollable judgment of history.

Even Vincent van Gogh lived in constant anguish that his revolutionary art would die with him, selling only one painting during his lifetime while battling the terror that his creative vision meant nothing.

In this episode, Mike and Mark unwrap the common psychology behind their terror.