Fear Is Like Fire: Steph Davis on Separating Risk from Fear

About this episode

Steph Davis discusses her unique experiences in climbing and wingsuit BASE jumping, emphasizing the relationship between risk and fear.

What does it take to step off a cliff in a wingsuit — and walk away calling it the most joyful thing you do? In this episode of True Alternatives , host Marc Feuerstein sits down with Steph Davis, one of the most renowned free climbers in history and one of the only people in the world to combine free solo climbing with wingsuit BASE jumping, for a conversation that has far more to do with discipline than daring. From a studious, piano-playing suburban childhood to her first climb at 18 and a life spent on the edges of mountains around the world, Steph traces the single thread running through it all: freedom. Steph dismantles the "adrenaline junkie" myth, walking through the preparation, precision, and patience behind every jump, and the critical difference between a safe environment, where you build skill, and a high-consequence one, where you intentionally hold a margin in reserve. She shares how her relationship with fear has evolved over decades — fear, she says, is like fire: enormously useful until it burns out of control — why uncertainty is the only real certainty, and how a lack of ego is what actually keeps you alive. The conversation moves through mortality, gratitude…

People in this episode

Host: Marc Feuerstein

Guest: Steph Davis

Topics covered

• risk management
• fear
• freedom
• discipline
• BASE jumping
• climbing
• mortality

Keywords

• wingsuit
• BASE jumping
• free climbing
• risk
• fear
• adrenaline
• discipline
• freedom
• mortality
• gratitude

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