Episode description

While some people shuffle off this mortal coil in rather ordinary ways, there are those adventurous souls who seem hell-bent on making the grim reaper scratch his head in confusion. Like drowning in a pool of beer, throwing dynamite out the window of a moving vehicle (but forgetting to roll the window down), tripping on your world record breaking beard, and death during sex. Yes, that’s right. As much as we all like getting it on, there are some people throughout history who literally went out with a bang. 

Like Pope John XII for example. He had his work cut out for him. Not only was he just 17 when he landed the gig as the supreme boss of the Catholic Church, but he also liked the ladies. A lot. 

Call him sensual, adulterous or depraved, but this guy knew how to have a good time right up until the moment of his death. Either he died of a stroke, was beaten to death with a hammer or was thrown out the window by the husband of the woman he was having… a good time with. What else would the richest and most powerful man-child of Rome be doing? 

Apparently, death in the saddle isn’t all that uncommon. 

Former Australian Prime Minister Billy Snedden succumbed to his fate during an adrenalin-filled evening with his son’s ex-girlfriend. There’s also 79-year-old Nelson Rockefeller, former US Vice President, who stayed back to work on a “project” with his 25-year-old research assistant. What a shame… He thought he was coming, but he was actually going. 

In 1974, Paris’ most respected senior churchman and the author of fourteen books on sexual morality, Cardinal Jean Danielou, also carked it on the stairs of a brothel. But of course, he was just on his way to offer “comfort” to a nice young lady in an official capacity only. 

There was also Felix Fauré, the President of France at the end of the 19th century who slipped away for some special time with his mistress. Let’s just say it didn’t end well… for either party. He died mid-act of a cerebral haemorrhage and she was left with nothing but trauma-induced lockjaw, requiring surgical removal of Felix’s lil’ friend from her mouth. 

Does this kind of thing just happen to old dudes who can’t handle the heat? Or are there other explanations for why some lovers seem to ride all the way to the pearly gates?

Well, turns out you’re more likely to die from the deed if it’s an unfaithful one. Also doing dumb stuff like sex on balconies or in a car filling up with carbon dioxide. 

So how common is it for people to die while doing it? Would it be less deadly if we did it more? And wait, Viagra is implicated?!

Word of caution to all those young (and old) lovers out there: Don't get naked near lions, steer clear of homemade electrical pleasure aids, and maybe don’t do it on a billiard table. 

SOURCES:

• 5 people who died during sex and 100 other terribly tasteless lists by Karl Shaw
• Association of Episodic Physical and Sexual Activity With Triggering of Acute Cardiac Events in JAMA by Issa J Dahabreh and Jessica K Paulus
• Lots of People Die Every Year During or After Having Sex. A Pathologist Explains Why on ScienceAlert
• Sexual and Cardiovascular Correlates of Male Unfaithfulness in The Journal of Sexual Medicine by Alessandra Fisher et al
• Thunderclap headache with Orgasm: A case of Basilar Artery Dissection in Clinical Communications by Elizabeth Delasobera

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.