Rodale died of a heart attack at the age of 72 while participating as a guest on an early-evening taping of The Dick Cavett Show slated to be aired that same night, Tuesday, June 8, 1971. Rodale was still on stage, having finished his interview, and was seated on a couch next to the active interviewee, New York Post columnist Pete Hamill. Rodale had stated during his just-completed interview on the show, "I'm in such good health that I fell down a long flight of stairs yesterday and I laughed all the way", "I've decided to live to be a hundred", and "I never felt better in my life!"[12] He had also previously said, "I'm going to live to be 100, unless I'm run down by some sugar-crazed taxi driver."[13][14]

According to Dick Cavett, Hamill noticed something was wrong with Rodale, leaned over to Cavett, and said, "This looks bad." According to others, Cavett asked, "Are we boring you, Mr. Rodale?" Cavett himself said that he "emphatically" did not recall saying this, but one of the two physicians in the audience did remember this. The physicians (an internist and orthopedic surgeon, both in residency) rushed onto the stage to try to revive Rodale with cardiopulmonary resuscitation, including mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. (During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson that originally aired on February 5, 1982, Cavett stated "firefighters from across the street" also attended the patient.) Although an electrocardiogram continued to show cardiac activity, they were unsuccessful; Rodale was pronounced dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital.[15][16] The episode was never broadcast, although Cavett has described the story in public appearances and on his blog.[12]