Ben Shapiro Reacts To Alex Honnold Videos

Summary

Podcast Summary: Ben Shapiro Reacts To Alex Honnold Videos

Podcast: The Ben Shapiro Show
Date: February 14, 2026
Host: Ben Shapiro (The Daily Wire)
Guests/Voices: Alex Honnold, Jimmy Chin, Matt, Emily, Narrator

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Episode Overview

In this gripping episode, Ben Shapiro watches and reacts in real-time to clips of world-renowned climber Alex Honnold, particularly his breathtaking—and nerve-wracking—free solo ascents, notably in Yosemite National Park. Ben, joined by commentators (including Emily and Matt), balances admiration for Honnold's physical prowess and fear management with deeply conservative, pragmatic concerns about risk-taking and the value of human life. Alongside Honnold's own insights and behind-the-scenes input from filmmaker Jimmy Chin, this episode becomes a philosophical debate over the meaning of greatness, risk, and inspiration.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction to Free Soloing and Alex Honnold (00:11–01:24)

• Ben establishes the premise: reacting to footage of Alex Honnold, famed for climbing dangerous cliffs without ropes.
• Ben: “We will view some of these clips and decide whether this is brave or simply stupid.” (00:17)

2. Initial Reactions and Laying Out the Stakes (01:07–01:24)

• The video establishes the extreme danger: Honnold free soloing thousands of feet above the ground.
• Ben is viscerally uncomfortable: “I hate this so much.” (01:07)
• He weighs the thrill versus value of life:

  “I’m very much into people pushing the limits of human endeavor. Also, your life is worth more than climbing a rock… one day that will happen, you will slip and you will die.” (01:24)

3. Alex Honnold on Adrenaline and Process (03:33–03:43)

• Honnold counters the expectation of thrill-seeking:

  “There is no adrenaline rush … if I get a rush, it means that something has gone horribly wrong, you know, because the whole thing should be pretty slow and controlled and like, I mean, it's mellow.” (03:33)

4. Reflecting on Achievement & Risk (04:01–05:10)

• Ben and his guests debate Honnold’s greatest achievement; Matt quips:

  “That he's still alive.” (04:14)

• Discussion transitions to the history of free solo climbers, many of whom are deceased from their pursuits.

5. Fear, Preparation, and Focus (04:52–05:26)

• Honnold on managing fear:

  “The correct way to manage fear … is to gradually broaden your comfort zone, until your comfort zone includes things that seemed previously impossible.” (04:52)

• Ben acknowledges value in this as a general life lesson, but questions it as a philosophy for actual life-risking behavior:

  “It is a good approach to fear in… your everyday life… It is a very bad approach to being alive.” (05:10)

6. Climbing Details and Physicality (05:38–06:49)

• Honnold describes recalling hard moves, improvising, and facing uncertainty mid-climb.
• Ben is blown away by the minuscule holds Honnold uses:

  “Look at these holes. These are insane … These are, like, centimeters wide. This is so close.” (06:09)

7. Jimmy Chin’s Perspective on Inspiration (06:59–07:21)

• Jimmy Chin notes Honnold’s broader significance:

  “Alex's ability to manage fear and to free solo the biggest walls in the world is truly remarkable. But what inspires me the most is the intention and purpose that he brings to his life. He pushes us to all ask ourselves, are we living the life that we want to live?” (06:59)

8. Philosophical Tension: Worth of a Human Life (07:21–08:05)

• Ben returns to the key philosophical debate:

  “I don't know how you can do this and not bring up the question, what is a human life worth? Like, truly, you only get one of them.” (07:21)

• Emily attempts to contextualize the risk (“... you’re also taking a risk driving to work.”), but Ben distinguishes the extreme stakes of free soloing:

  “If this dude falls off a 2,000 foot high wall, he's dead.” (08:01)

9. Technical Focus – The Boulder Problem (08:05–08:52)

• Emily and Honnold explain the infamous “boulder problem” move in the film Free Solo.
• The group reacts to Honnold’s consideration of jumping without a rope:

  Alex: “The idea of jumping without a rope. Seems completely outrageous.” (08:32)
  Ben: “Yes.” (08:35)

• Ben’s response is incredulity mixed with logical critique:

  “Why not? Just why we invented entire apparatuses to avoid this.” (09:01)

10. Risk, Ethics, and Spectacle (10:07–11:37)

• Matt raises a critique: Does publicizing such high-risk feats constitute ethical entertainment? Could it inspire copycats?
• Matt: “It's reckless… and it's unethical to air it live because part of the entertainment value … is, is the guy gonna fall or not? … there’s a worry that… we're going to have more of this kind of thing.” (10:13–11:03)
• Matt recognizes the inspiration: “I think we need examples of men who are willing to take extraordinary risks in pursuit of greatness.” (11:12)

11. Ben’s Closing Philosophical Stand (11:37–13:36)

• Ben firmly disagrees, dissecting the notion of “greatness”:

  “The reason that Matt is totally wrong about this is not because you don't need men taking risks in pursuit of greatness, but you have to define greatness in actual concrete terms.” (11:37)

• He differentiates between risky pursuits for humanitarian benefit (e.g., exploration, science) versus extreme danger for personal accomplishment or spectacle.
• Ben draws an analogy:

  “If you put your head in an oven and you just kept turning up the temperature and you were able to survive at a particular temperature, then I assume that's a form of greatness. I don't know what would make it so awesome, really.” (12:40)

• Ben closes with:

  “Is it worth the potential cost? Absolutely not.” (13:23)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Ben Shapiro: “I’m very much into people pushing the limits of human endeavor. Also, your life is worth more than climbing a rock… one day that will happen, you will slip and you will die.” (01:24)
• Alex Honnold: “There is no adrenaline rush… if I get a rush, it means that something has gone horribly wrong…” (03:33)
• Matt: “That he's still alive.” (04:14)
• Alex Honnold: “The correct way to manage fear, I think, is to gradually broaden your comfort zone, until your comfort zone includes things that seemed previously impossible.” (04:52)
• Jimmy Chin: “He pushes us to all ask ourselves, are we living the life that we want to live?” (06:59)
• Ben Shapiro: “I don't know how you can do this and not bring up the question, what is a human life worth?” (07:21)
• Ben Shapiro: “If this dude falls off a 2,000 foot high wall, he's dead.” (08:01)
• Ben Shapiro: “Why we invented entire apparatuses to avoid this.” (09:01)
• Matt: “I think we need examples of men who are willing to take extraordinary risks in pursuit of greatness.” (11:12)
• Ben Shapiro: “You have to define greatness in actual concrete terms.” (11:37)
• Ben Shapiro: “Is it worth the potential cost? Absolutely not.” (13:23)

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• 00:17 - Ben’s premise: Brave or stupid?
• 01:07 - Ben’s discomfort: “I hate this so much.”
• 03:33 - Honnold on adrenaline (or lack thereof)
• 04:14 - “That he’s still alive.” Matt’s wry summary.
• 04:52 - Fear management philosophy from Honnold.
• 06:59 - Jimmy Chin on inspiration and purpose.
• 07:21 - Ben: “What is a human life worth?”
• 08:05 - The “boulder problem” and potential for fatal failure.
• 10:13 - Matt on ethics of broadcasting life-risking feats.
• 11:37 - Ben’s counterargument on greatness and risk.
• 13:23 - Ben’s final verdict: Not worth the cost.

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Overall Tone and Takeaways

The episode maintains Ben’s signature fast-paced, analytical, and skeptical tone—mixing awe and exasperation as he dissects Honnold’s extraordinary accomplishments. While much respect is paid to Honnold’s skill, preparation, and philosophy, Ben ultimately lands on a socially conservative and pragmatic stance: that human life—and the responsibility to loved ones and society—is too valuable to risk for feats of personal greatness or spectacle.

For listeners interested in human endurance, risk, and the line between inspiration and recklessness, this episode offers both gripping commentary and a thought-provoking debate.

Transcript

[Ben Shapiro]

Hello? Hey Alex, any chance you can swing by the studio right now?

[Alex Honnold]

Yeah, sorry Ben, I'm kind of a little busy right now.

[Ben Shapiro]

Oh, gotcha. Well, don't die. Alrighty folks. So there is this guy. His name is Alex Honnold and he free climbs, meaning he climbs without ropes or any sort of supporting infrastructure. And he does this in some of the world's most dangerous places. We will view some of these clips and decide whether this is brave or simply stupid.

[Narrator]

Here. Alex Honnold is 2,600ft above the Yosemite valley floor trying to haul himself up the slippery granite wall of Sentinel. He's so high he disappears into the mountain. Alex moves seamlessly across a section of flaky, unstable rock, pausing to dry a sweaty hand in his bag of ch. There's nothing but him, the wall and the wind.

[Ben Shapiro]

I hate this so much.

[Narrator]

He's up here without ropes or a safety harness. All he has is a pair of rubber climbing shoes. This is what climbers call free soloing. And it's so dangerous that less than 1% of people who climb attempt it.

[Ben Shapiro]

Right? Because it seems like not smart. So I listen. I'm very much into people pushing the limits of human endeavor. Also, your life is worth more than climbing a rock. It's not just a boulder, it's a rock. Okay, like take your life a little bit more seriously. You're obviously very skilled at this and it's great, but also like dying and leaving behind loved ones. And in order to do what? Feel the thrill of the possibility that you might die. Like one day that will happen, you will slip and you will die. And in that moment you might be thinking to yourself, man, I really should have headed over to Policy Genius for life insurance. So you know that guy who's like climbing gigantic, gigantic structures with his hands alone and his feet and like no netting and all of that? Well, if you are going to try anything like that, which I do not recommend, but if you are going to, then you really should have life insurance. In fact, you should have life insurance anyway because unfortunately the only thing inevitable about life is that eventually it will end. You need to make sure that your family is taken care of, whether you are climbing up like gigantic mountains at Yellowstone or whether you're just walking across the street. It's hard to find great life insurance, but our sponsor Policy Genius makes it easy. It's an online marketplace where you can compare quotes from top insurers side by side, completely free. No jumping around between websites, no endless phone calls. What really stands out is their team actually works for you. They're licensed agents who help you figure out what you actually need, not what some company wants to sell you. They walk you through coverage, amounts, prices, all of it. No guesswork, just straight answers. They handle the paperwork, they answer your questions. They honestly just take that weight off your shoulders. You get clarity on what you need and you can move forward fast. It's the perfect time to plan your year with real peace of mind. Check out Policy Genius. They've got thousands of five star reviews from people who finally found the right policy for their needs. You'll thank yourself later. Plan the year knowing you've protected what you built. With Policy Genius, you can see if you can find 20 year life insurance policies starting at just 276 bucks a year for a million dollars in coverage. Head on over to policygenius.com Shapiro to compare life insurance quotes from top companies. See how much you could save. That's policygenius.com Shapiro do you feel the adrenaline at all?

[Alex Honnold]

There is no adrenaline rush, you know, like if I get a rush, it means that something has gone horribly wrong, you know, because the whole thing should be pretty slow and controlled and like, I mean, it's mellow.

[Narrator]

This is Alex in the film Alone on the Wall. He's done more than a thousand free solo climbs, but none were tougher than this one. Here he is just a speck on the northwest face of Half Dome.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah, this is crazy.

[Narrator]

You can barely make out the assembly valley floor below.

[Matt]

No.

[Ben Shapiro]

Bad.

[Narrator]

As he pauses to rest and then.

[Ben Shapiro]

Man.

[Narrator]

He's the only person known to have free soloed the northwest face of Half Dome. What do you consider Alex's greatest achievements to date?

[Matt]

That he's still alive.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah.

[Matt]

If you look at the past, people that have made a real habit of soloing, you know, at least half of them are dead.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yes, that would be. Yes, that would be the thing. Yeah. That's the thing about climbing without ropes or a harness or a net. Yes.

[Emily]

So Jimmy Chin is like his producer.

[Ben Shapiro]

I know Jimmy.

[Emily]

You know Jimmy.

[Ben Shapiro]

Uh huh. Oh, wow, that's cool. Yeah, I'm pretty friendly with Jimmy actually.

[Emily]

Jimmy's incredible.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Chin]

You know, we spent days rigging on the root, trying to imagine something. Someone climbing it without a rope made us very nervous.

[Ben Shapiro]

Jimmy's an amazing, a great climber himself.

[Alex Honnold]

I mean, if I didn't feel fear, I wouldn't have to do all the prep work. I would just go up and do the route. The correct way to manage fear, I think, is to gradually broaden Your comfort zone, until your comfort zone includes things that seemed previously impossible.

[Ben Shapiro]

I mean, actually, that is a good approach to fear. It is a very bad approach to being alive. Like, it is a good approach to fear in, like, your everyday life is to. Is to gradually, through exposure therapy, get used to doing more and more scary things. You can do public speaking, for example.

[Matt]

Do you know the F word?

[Ben Shapiro]

Fornication. When the stakes are you fall off a mountain and smush. I am less pro.

[Alex Honnold]

I'm treading lightly. Some climbers remember, like, every movement of every route. I'm definitely not gifted like that. I knew the hardest parts pretty well, but the rest of it was all a bit of a question mark. Slightly more pumped than I would have liked.

[Ben Shapiro]

How's he even finding footholds?

[Alex Honnold]

A lot of the lower climbing, I was thinking about it as I did it. Like, do I grab this one or is this secure? Is it that foot or this other foot?

[Ben Shapiro]

Look at these holes. These are insane.

[Alex Honnold]

Should I try a different foot?

[Ben Shapiro]

These are, like, centimeters wide. This is so close.

[Alex Honnold]

I got my finger stuck on one of the pockets. Which is one of the classic ways to yourself when you're soloing. In retrospect, maybe I could have given it another day or two of prep work.

[Ben Shapiro]

I'm glad he had a retrospect, which.

[Alex Honnold]

Really is part of the appeal of Free Solon, you know, is that level of focus.

[Ben Shapiro]

And he's doing it, and he's doing it like jeans and a T shirt. He got up that morning, rolled out of bed, and just put on whatever he was going to get to get coffee.

[Alex Honnold]

It's just this overhanging panel up high on the wall.

[Ben Shapiro]

Oh, my God, I can't watch this stuff.

[Alex Honnold]

It's more fatiguing than the other pitches because the angle kicks back.

[Ben Shapiro]

It's terrible. Also because it's steep fatigue, like your finger. His hand strength must be insane. His finger and hand strength must be just ridiculous.

[Jimmy Chin]

Alex's ability to manage fear and to free solo the biggest walls in the world is truly remarkable. But what inspires me the most is the intention and purpose that he brings to his life. He pushes us to all ask ourselves, are we living the life that we want to live?

[Ben Shapiro]

I mean, again, I think that watching people do incredible things does bring up that question, but it also bring. I don't know how you can do this and not bring up the question, what is a human life worth? Like, truly, you only get one of them.

[Emily]

Well, I mean, you're also taking a risk driving to work.

[Ben Shapiro]

I mean, he's so my risk driving to work, I promise you, is low. Like, here's the thing. If I'm driving to work and I get in a car crash, there's still a pretty good shot I'm gonna live. Son of.

[Emily]

That's a good point. Yeah.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay. Like if this dude falls off a 2,000 foot high wall, he's dead.

[Emily]

Okay, so the boulder problem, if you remember, in free solo, this is first him discussing the boulder problem and then we're gonna watch him actually can do it. But this was like the riskiest part of the climb.

[Alex Honnold]

Either karate kick or double Dino to an edge on the opposite wall.

[Emily]

So he was figuring out one of two ways to do it.

[Alex Honnold]

It makes more sense to do the big two handed jump because you're jumping into a good edge, so there's actually something to catch.

[Emily]

He seriously considered doing this without ropes to just catch the ledge?

[Ben Shapiro]

What the. Yeah. See? Okay, so he's practicing. Thank God he's got a rope on him. I mean, that's.

[Alex Honnold]

The idea of jumping without a rope. Seems completely outrageous.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yes.

[Alex Honnold]

If you miss it, that's that.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yes.

[Emily]

Really, Alex?

[Ben Shapiro]

Then this is another news.

[Emily]

Yeah, there. If he missed that karate kick there, he would have died. Just did the karate kick.

[Ben Shapiro]

What is happening?

[Emily]

It's the craziest piece of film ever.

[Ben Shapiro]

I. Oh my God.

[Emily]

Oh, he's way too relaxed. Just wait for some of these clips. Savvy. He gets so relaxed.

[Ben Shapiro]

What is happening? Oh, my God. That's crazy. Like if he had jumped, that's. Oh, but why you did this? For what? Why not? Why? Why not? Just why we invented entire apparatuses to avoid this.

[Emily]

Oh, it keeps you.

[Matt]

You tie in a rope.

[Alex Honnold]

This is a safety device.

[Matt]

Yes.

[Alex Honnold]

I don't want that track.

[Ben Shapiro]

And also airplanes and also cars. We have like so many cool things as human beings to avoid death and make our lives more comfortable.

[Narrator]

Climb.

[Emily]

This is the last.

[Ben Shapiro]

I mean, I know Mark was excited being up there. Oh, no, no, no, no, Emily, no. Why? No, no, why? Is the right question.

[Emily]

Because it's there and he has to climb it.

[Ben Shapiro]

He's done it. Well, there's an elevator inside that looks impossible.

[Matt]

The whole climb is like that. It's a sheer wall and he's like Spider man crawling up this thing with no rope. So this guy truly is, I think, the greatest athlete to ever live. A more reasonable critique that you also saw, which is that, well, it's reckless and suicidal to do this and it's unethical to air it live because part of the entertainment value of it, let's admit, is, is the guy gonna fall or not? You don't want him to, but that what makes it so captivating is that he might fall. And the fact that he doesn't have any harness ups the stakes and the ante quite a bit. So there's a reasonable critique that it's just not ethical to do this. And there's a worry that, well, now that we've done this and Netflix, I'm sure, got. I don't know what their viewership numbers were, but they were pretty substantial. Now we're going to have more of this kind of thing. We're going to have more stuff where people are risking their lives live on camera for streaming specials. But I understand that critique. I don't agree with it, though. I think. I think it's good. I think we need examples of men who are willing to take extraordinary risks in pursuit of greatness.

[Ben Shapiro]

So Matt is totally wrong about this. Okay? The reason that Matt is totally wrong about this is not because you don't need men taking risks in pursuit of greatness, but you have to define greatness in actual concrete terms. So if you're going to have people risk their lives to, say, discover a new continent, for example, which is Matt's typical example at Columbus, totally agree. If you're talking about people risking their lives in order to create new scientific discoveries or open new venues for investigation on behalf of humanity, like going to space, I totally agree. If what you're talking about is we have to have people do incredibly dangerous things to show that people can accomplish and do incredibly dangerous things on a sort of broad level, then I disagree, and I. And I strenuously disagree, because it turns out there are lots of things that you can do in life that are unbelievably dangerous and that you have a slim chance of survival, you could theoretically train to have a better chance of survival. But I'm not sure that that necessarily means, quote, unquote, greatness. Now, again, he is great at what he's doing, and it's unbelievable to watch, and it's extraordinary. And I see why Matt saying what he's saying. I mean, it can be inspiring, right? You can be inspired to be the best that you can be as long as you're not inspired to, you know, try to climb a rock with your bare hands and die. But it seems to me that there are better examples of quote, unquote, greatness than putting your life in a position to be taken from you and in pursuit of greatness. And I'm just thinking to myself, what do you mean by greatness again? Doing a thing that is very difficult to do. Like, there are lots of things that you could do that would be very difficult to do that Matt would not consider to be greatness. I would assume. If you put your head in an oven and you just kept turning up the temperature and you were able to survive at a particular temperature, then I assume that's a form of greatness. I don't know what would make it so awesome, really. Like, are you stretching the bounds of human endeavor? If the idea is that you're discovering new ways to do a thing that will then be applicable to more of humanity, I think that that's right. But I don't buy the idea that humanity's scope and scale have been broadened by this. Again, I think you can find it personally inspirational that a person can do a thing like this, but I think that on a moral level, is it worth the potential cost? Absolutely not. Well, that was terrifying to watch and raises serious life and death questions in a way I didn't think that we were going to in that video. You can leave your comments on it below. Lifelock how can I help? The IRS said I filed my return, but I haven't.

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[Ben Shapiro]

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[Alex Honnold]

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[Emily]

I'm so relieved.

[Ben Shapiro]

No problem. I'll be with you every step of the way.

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