Death Is the Last Enemy, Not the Final Word: A Former Senator on Borrowed Time
Ben Sasse, a former senator with late-stage pancreatic cancer, gives this interview on borrowed time: his tumor has shrunk by more than 80%, but the disease may not be curable. He calls death ‘the last enemy, but not the final word’, and traces executive overreach back to legislative retreat.
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The argument · timestamps estimated from transcript position
His tumor shrank more than 80% and may still be incurable
At the time of the interview (July 3, 2026) he had already lived about 6 months and 3 weeks past the verdict that he had ‘only 90 days to live’. Overall mortality for pancreatic cancer is 87%; for stage IV it is 97% within 12 months. His tumor has shrunk by more than 80%, but he says the disease may not be curable. He calls this stretch ‘borrowed time’: every extra week, every dinner, every July 4 with his three children, aged 15 to 25, is an enormous blessing. That premise governs everything that follows — how a man who has been told plainly when he will die looks at institutions, technology and faith.
— Ben SasseExecutive overreach is the symptom; legislative retreat is the cause
Sasse argues that executive overreach is a reactive problem, and that the underlying disease is legislative retreat. He cites the interviews with White House chiefs of staff done for a 2012 presidential transition project: senior senators from both parties would routinely ask the president to deliver a popular policy by executive order, because a legislative vote would offend the minority who opposed it. So Congress hands over its decision-making power and then complains that the White House has grown too large. He inverts the fashionable story about ‘constraining the president’: the first thing that has to change is lawmakers' habit of refusing to bear the political cost of policy.
— Ben SasseEntitlements are over 70% of federal spending and unsustainable
Asked what legislation he would still want to push, he says the first thing is reforming the welfare state: Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, Social Security and interest on the debt together come to more than 70% of federal spending, which is unsustainable, and it is unfair to hand the bill to the next generation. The second is the mid-career disruption brought by the AI revolution; he wants retraining rebuilt into something that actually works. What the two share is that today's institutional design is not ready for the next generation or for new technology.
— Ben Sasse1.5% of the faculty carries the whole university's research
He uses the University of Florida to show the structural distortion inside a large research university: about 85,000 people on the main campus, 6,300 instructional staff, and a median professor who spends 60% of their time on research release, so the actual teaching load is very low. Research funding runs to $1.3 billion, of which 80 professors account for more than 95% — 1.5% of the faculty carries the overwhelming majority of the research — while other professors produce nothing and still enjoy research release. His question: when research output is concentrated in so few hands, how is the university supposed to explain the way it spends its money?
— Ben SasseDeath shatters false idols and forces attention back to real relationships
He says the core of his faith is sin, grace and gratitude; the diagnosis did not shake that faith, and in fact left him calmer. He describes death as ‘the last enemy, but not the final word’ — enemy meaning you should not collaborate with it, not the final word meaning it does not get the last say. The side effects of treatment, the vomiting and the bleeding, made him see death as an injection of truth: it shatters false idols such as workaholism and online flame wars, and forces attention back onto real relationships.
— Ben SasseHe hates pancreatic cancer but would not go back to before the diagnosis
He hates pancreatic cancer and would not wish it on anyone; but he would not go back to the stage where he did not know ‘the power of pancreatic cancer prayer’. In the seven weeks before the diagnosis he was in severe pain all night, running hot water down his spine in the shower every night and crying out to God. The prayer practice is not mystified: the family prays aloud every day, and on his own he works through a structure of worship, confession, thanksgiving and petition. Every life, he says, comes with a terminal diagnosis; relationships — with God and with the people you love — are what matters most.
— Ben SasseHeaven or hell from the digital revolution? The right answer is both
He defines the present moment as an economic revolution set off by a technological one: both time and space will be reshaped, and a hundred years from now people looking back will not be talking about today's politics. He places himself between accelerationism and safetyism: Marc Andreessen's answer is too simple, while bureaucratic regulation out of Washington would only let the CCP win. Asked whether the digital revolution brings heaven or hell, he says the right answer is ‘yes’ — both, because everything humans do is going to get faster, cheaper and more widely available.
— Ben SasseDeath is an evil enemy and should not be accepted easily
At the end of the show, Russ quotes Dylan Thomas's poem ‘Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’, saying that Sasse is humble and yet still rages at the dying of the light. Sasse takes it up: death is an evil enemy and should not be accepted easily; late-stage pancreatic cancer often leaves people demoralized, with the abdomen frozen, but his choice is to fight as hard as he can while keeping the wisdom of ‘numbering his days’. That exchange keeps the whole conversation from collapsing into ‘accept reality’ comfort food, and leaves it instead in the tension of a person squared off against death.
— Ben SasseIn their own words · checked verbatim
I'm on borrowed time. We all are, in a sense, but we're here with three kids ranging from 15 to 25. Every extra bonus week, month, dinner, 4th of July to blow some stuff up for freedom--it feels like a pretty great blessing.
Ben Sasse0:52
I think executive overreach is a problem, but it's a reactive problem. The far bigger problem, in my view, is legislative underreach, which set up this moment.
Ben Sasse6:18
We have to fix our entitlements. Bankrupting the next generation is unfair.
Ben Sasse14:49
Death sucks, but it is a blessing to be able to view it as the final enemy, not as the ultimate word.
Ben Sasse51:03
I hate pancreatic cancer. I would never wish pancreatic cancer on anyone. But, paradoxically, I also would never want to go back to a stage in life where I didn't know the power of pancreatic cancer prayer.
Ben Sasse1:00:27
We are bodily. And, there has to be some reckoning with the question of, do we think from dust to dust means that's all there is?
Ben Sasse1:03:47
My sense is, if you're wondering, 'Does the digital revolution bring heaven or hell?' the right answer is Yes.
Ben Sasse1:09:00
Yes, death is a wicked enemy, and we should not accept easily the dying.
Ben Sasse1:20:18
Figures
| Overall pancreatic cancer mortality | 87% | 0:52 |
| Stage IV pancreatic cancer mortality within 12 months | 97% | 0:52 |
| Tumor shrinkage | more than 80% | 0:52 |
| Entitlement spending as a share of federal spending | more than 70% | 14:49 |
| People on the University of Florida main campus | about 85,000 | 37:09 |
| University of Florida instructional staff | 6,300 | 38:49 |
| University of Florida research funding | $1.3 billion | 41:21 |
| Health system share of the university budget | 65% | 41:21 |
| U.S. share of global GDP | 23% | 1:11:30 |
| U.S. share of world population | less than 4% | 1:11:30 |
Glossary
- Heidelberg Catechism
- A Protestant catechism of faith published in 1563; Sasse says the structure of his own faith comes from it.
- shared governance
- Running a university with authority divided among faculty, administration and the board; Sasse argues it has been hijacked by radicalized faculty senates.
- accelerationism
- The view that technological change should be accelerated without restraint, breaking up the old order.
- safetyism
- The stance that puts safety and risk reduction above freedom and leans toward regulation.
How to listen
People who work on policy and on university governance, and people who are currently facing serious illness; Sasse puts institutional critique and a dying man's testimony inside the same stretch of one life.
If you only care about public policy, the 1:06:14–1:09:00 stretch — small talk about his daughter flying planes and about reading — can be skipped.