Best Life Best Death

Author, speaker and grief specialist Gary Roe and I discuss the topic “Grief: It's Everywhere!" From humanity living with the COVID pandemic to personal losses of all magnitudes, grief is everywhere. It matters what you go through -- and it matters what you do with it. Gary talks about the "ABCs" of loss and how to make connections despite this toughest of human experiences.

Co-creator of The Death Deck, Lori LoCicerco describes how she and Lisa Pahl decided to bring conversations about death to the fore by making a game that helps anyone talk about “the most universal yet rarely talked about topic of all.” 

David Wilcox and I talk about "cardio spelunking" and how creating songs is way to move emotions. Includes an unrecorded song about his father's death.

Monotasking expert and founder of Juniper Books, Thatcher Wine and I discuss the concepts in his book "The Twelve Monotasks: Do One Thing at a Time to Do Everything Better." Drive when you drive!

Hospice nurse and growing public figure (450K TikTok followers, 30K+ on Instagram) Julie McFadden and I discuss the topic, “What Makes a Peaceful Death?” This impassioned nurse uses social media as a way to reach people with simple tips to better understand the end of life, make sense of what is happening to a loved one, and be better prepared for the inevitable.

What are some of the ways that we can capture family history and stories? Ann Whitehill and I discuss her experience using ancestry.com , and talk about other services that guide individuals and families on how to create something new from memories and photos.

Jennifer Caroll - author, journalist, biographer, and artist - chats with me about tributes, memoirs and even obituaries. How do people get started? Why bother to tell about my "ordinary" life? What does it mean to write your own story?

Singer songwriter David Wilcox joins me with two unique songs and some ruminations on gratitude, death and love.

Johanna Lunn - director, producer, exquisite human! - talks about the When You Die Project and how the documentary film "In the Realm of Death and Dreaming" came to be. How hard could it be?!

Minoti Rajput - wealth advisor, author, & financial advocate for women of all ages and means - discusses how parents of special needs children can think about planning for long term care. Her book is Beyond a Parent's Love: Lessons Learned in Life-Planning for Special Needs Children.

Guest Lynn Golden, an end-of-life doula and educator, discusses hospice and doula support at the end of life. Through powerful stories, she shares the benefits of having this kind of guidance for both the dying and the living.

Family communication in crisis can resemble an aviary, with squawking visitors and pecking orders. Learn about seagull syndrome and the ring theory of kvetching, in which we complain/vent in a specific direction, so as not to overwhelm those most in need.

Barbara Karnes, hospice pioneer and author of "Gone from My Sight," inspires me to explore palliative care, hospice and end-of-life doulas. And thanks to Russ for the new guitar segments!

Zak Foster - visual artist, teacher, and creative community builder - shares his thoughts on memorial, burial and funeral quilts + sewing as a metaphor.

I read an excerpt from Being Mortal , in which a town improves the lives and deaths of residents by having conversations. Author Atul Gawande says, if the FDA could approve conversations they would be -- that's how big of a difference they can make!

Katy's Butler's book "The Art of Dying Well" offers one sentence that may answer the question: Why think about all this aging and mortality stuff?

My friend Adam Kimberly shares his powerful experience around his father's death - what it means to say everything you need to say, and how chance encounters can change everything.

Welcome to Best Life Best Death's new podcast!