Fear Less

Real Truth About Risk, Safety, and Security in a Time of Terrorism

By: Gavin de Becker

Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte

Gavin de Becker, author of the bestseller The Gift of Fear, is America’s foremost authority on managing violent behavior. In this time of great anxiety and uncertainty, his guidance is needed more than ever.

De Becker addresses the concerns many have raised since the terrifying events of September 11, 2001. Is air travel safe? Are we at risk of chemical or biological weapons attacks? Can further acts be prevented by our government and military?

How should parents discuss these concerns with their children? These and other vital questions are answered with the expertise only de Becker can bring to the table.

A reassuring, empowering guide, Fear Less offers specific recommendations for improving the security of our nation—and ourselves.

©2002 Gavin de Becker (P)2002 Recorded Books, LLC

Good stuff

I’m not sure what book I like more
This or the gift of fear
Give it a listen

Safety and Security Nerds Unite

I recently read "The Gift of Fear" by the same author. While I did pull a few nuggets of new wisdom from this book, much of it was either a repeat of "The Gift of Fear" or focused heavily on terrorist attacks and the mass hysteria following 9/11.

Slightly dated, but interesting nonetheless. If safety and security is your jam, especially for a business or a large group of people, this is probably worth your read. Otherwise, I would just recommend everyone in the world read "The Gift of Fear".

The couple nuggets of truth I really enjoyed were: 1) how he broke down the blatant fear-mongering and sensationalizing the media pedals (specifically, key words to look out for and how to interpret them rationally). For example, "Doctors admit they are not prepared for a mass casualty event...blah-blah" means they kept feeding irrationally hypothetical situations to a doctor who finally said, "Sure...I guess if 5,000 victims came through our door in the next 4 minutes, we wouldn't be ready for it." This turns into, "Local doctors admit they are not ready..." Or another example: "Possible connection/potential link between...." means, "Sure, there could be a connection between this person's truck breaking down and the climate change." In other words, they've found no evidence this individual's truck had anything to do with CLIMATE CHANGE or they WOULD have led with that.

Also, the bit about navigating how to talk to a child about tragedies and mental bullying from news' outlets was wonderful!

The author sneaks in a fair bit of political bias. Calling CNN fair and least prone to sensationalizing made me choke on my spit. But it wasn't constant, so it can slide.

I'd rate this a PG-13 for thematic/mature topics.

A Healthy Perspective

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I recommend this book to friends, colleagues, students and even people I have just met. I have my college students read this book, and recommend de Becker's

What did you like best about this story?

True to the book's title, de Becker encourages a healthy outlook on life in general and our fears. He discusses risk and illustrates that those things that we consider

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

In both

informative

as always enjoyed the book. not to level of his other books but well worth the time

Useful information even in 2015.

The author offers a reasoned approach to dealing with fear of both our own creation and that of the media. Even in 2015, 14 years after September 11th, the information is still as applicable today as the day it was written.