--- title: "Facebook Exec Warned Zuckerberg Might Have Panic Attack and Faint" description: "Mark Zuckerberg was a panicked, sweaty mess before he got into MMA and doomsday prepping — and his executives used to warn people about it." date: "2024-02-10" modified: "2024-02-10" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-exec-zuckerberg-panic" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "facebook" - "mark zuckerberg" - "Meta" - "the digest" --- # Facebook Exec Warned Zuckerberg Might Have Panic Attack and Faint ![Mark Zuckerberg was a panicked, sweaty mess before he got into MMA and doomsday prepping — and his executives used to warn people about it.]() *\Image: Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call via Getty / Futurism\* ## Back in the Day Before channeling his anxiety into [martial arts]() and [doomsday prepping](), Meta-formerly-Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was a panicked, sweaty mess — and at least one of his employees tried to warn a reporter about it. In an excerpt from her forthcoming book, as [published by *New York Magazine*](), veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher recounted many of her favorite anecdotes and encounters throughout her decades-long career. One such story involved her now-infamous 2010 interview with a visibly sweaty and much younger Zuckerberg, who apparently was the subject of a discussion she had with a Facebook executive years prior. "'He has panic attacks when he's doing public speaking,' one Facebook executive had warned me years before," the writer explained. "'He could faint.'" Indeed, as Swisher described the notorious interview, she was fairly concerned about the young man's well-being. "I remember," Swisher wrote, "wondering, as sweat poured down Mark Zuckerberg's pasty and rounded face, if he was going to keel over right there at my feet." Filmed at the All Things Digital conference hosted by the publication of the same name that Swisher founded, Zuckerberg is clearly uncomfortable being grilled about privacy. At one point, Swisher even asks him if he wants to take off his hoodie in a clear effort to help him cool — and calm — down. "No," Zuckerberg responded, "I never take off the hoodie." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXrKKwHmPz4 ## Moving On Up In the years after that ignominious exchange, Zuckerberg was, as the [*New York Times* reported]() back in 2018, given literal charm lessons to help him appear less anxious on camera — but that doesn't mean that energy has disappeared. Instead, the CEO has throughout the years invested in all sorts of increasingly-expensive coping mechanisms. In 2019, for instance, [*Business Insider* revealed]() in a deep dive into Facebook's intensive security practices that Zuckerberg not only had guards posing as security guards but also was said to have a "[panic chute]()" built to help him escape from his company's headquarters if need be. At some point in the past five years or so, Zuckerberg began channeling his uneasiness in a different direction: by getting [super into mixed martial arts]() and other [extreme sports](), which a different group of executives warned recently could [lead to his untimely demise](). Nevertheless, some of that old paranoid Zuck remains, as evidenced by what is perhaps the ultimate testament to the man's anxiety: his [$100 million doomsday bunker]() on Kauai that lives on the grounds of his top-secret island compound that [has its own luxury food sources](). More money, as the old saying goes, brings more problems — but it also brings more, uh, extreme solutions for anxiety, apparently. **More on Zuckerberg:** [*Mark Zuckerberg Still Bleeding Money on Metaverse*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()