How To Die

The lights go down, people settle. A violin starts to play. Stage left, an elderly man walks onstage, alone, in a suit and tie, wearing a hat. This is John Cartwright, aged just 87 - The Performer. In this episode, we consider what performance means – on life as performance, and performance as life. How performance brings us alive, stretches us and helps us to grow. Punctuated by his poetry, John...

Zodwa Mabusela works for Khululeka, the only organisation in South Africa focused on children's grief. In this episode, she explains why it’s often difficult to help children in their grief, and what we can do about it. She shares her experience of working in some of our poorest communities, and what all children go through when it comes to death and loss of a loved one, regardless of your circums...

Dion Chang is a well-known trends analyst who has trained as a death doula. He uses his skills and insight both in the world of work and as a companion to those experiencing something called disenfranchised grief, which is often associated with the loss of a cherished animal companion. In this episode, he describes his journey, offering invaluable perspective on cycles of life and death in several...

Arabella Tresilian is an interpersonal mediator working in the medical care and end-of-life environment. She helps families find acceptance with each other and the challenges they face. Arabella’s nuanced understanding of how emotions manifest in people stems from an awareness of what’s at stake for people. She has a wonderful ability to integrate different stories into a bigger picture to help pe...

Rhiannon Thomas has learnt a new way of doing law. Guided by purpose and values, Integrative Law a radically different approach to the win/lose adversarial approach of traditional law. Instead, here is a process that is collaborative and reflective, integrating psychological, spiritual and cultural aspects of a person to discover what motivates their wishes and their actions. Because encountering...

In this episode, Warrant Officer Stephné Le Roux of the South African Police Service (SAPS) provides intimate detail of her fascinating work identifying skeletal remains. Frequently, this means determining whether these are perhaps from an ancient burial site or a more recent crime scene. In a country where endemic violence and poverty, migration, substance abuse and other factors tear families ap...

A whopper of an episode with an extraordinary guest, outgoing Emeritus Professor of Human Anatomy at the University of Cape Town Medical School, Dr Graham Louw. We discuss body donation and what it’s like for students to apprehend their first cadaver, and take a trip under the skin, besides discussing a whole pile of other things that Graham has learnt over his long career - a career which has ben...

Eric Adjetey Anang grew up playing in his grandfather's carpentry workshop in Accra, where he learnt how to make the distinctive Ghanaian abebuu adekai - or 'boxes of proverbs.' These are the fantastic customized coffins pioneered by his grandfather, Kane Kwei, who made the first one in the shape of an airplane for a neighbour who had always wanted to fly...

Kirsty Horn is a Breast Cancer Warrior, no mere 'survivor.' In this episode, she shares extremely useful insight gained during her diagnosis and treatment journey, with candour, energy and a great sense of humour. Tips for self-care, family relationships, support group formation for the help with the explicit nitty-gritty... as well as insider perspective to what kind of friendship and care helps...

Karen Borochowitz founded Dementia South Africa over 20 years ago, after caring for her mother who had Alzheimer's Disease. She shares a lifetime's worth of wisdom and insight into how to care for someone living with a dementia, how it impacts families and what they can do, and discusses stigma and the challenges experienced in South Africa.

Jill Katz is the person you want by your side to help navigate all the stuff a loved one leaves behind. Both super-practical and compassionate, Jill is blessed with intuition and a deep understanding of neurodivergent behaviour, and how we can all get stuck and overwhelmed. She provides a set of simple systems that help guide you through the clutter, and clear things away – materially, emotionally...

Keshnie Mathi is the Grief Companion - a human compendium of diverse emotion, humour, compassion and wisdom, wrapped in the professional ability to listen. In this episode, she details how she supports people in their grief. And at the end of the episode are a few ways you too can support someone experiencing the pain of loss.

Dr Ivan Schewitz is a veteran explorer of the thoracic cavity, having saved and improved many lives in his long and pioneering surgical career. In this episode, he reflects on what a lifetime's work has taught him about life and death, and the responsibility that he carries. He shares intimate experience about what it's like to save a life, and to lose one, and how best to communicate this to a fa...

Adriaan Bester has a clear eye and a steady hand, in a business that provides a service as old as time. His insight, compassion and sensitivity is perfectly suited to this culturally diverse country, steeped in traditional rites and rituals about death and dying. Yet Adriaan is an innovator, unafraid to introduce new technologies and new options for people who have lost a loved one. His experience...

Dr. Mary Ryan is a priest and soul carer, someone with great experience of providing spiritual care at the end of life. In this episode, she discusses her journey toward priesthood, and the challenges she experiences as a woman and feminist. She explains what is meant by soul care, and what it's requirements are, as well as sharing a useful model of the stages of dying which helps us understand th...

Ela Manga is an integrative medical doctor, highly attuned to the relationship between different systems in the body. She has a deep experience of death, and how breath plays a leading part in how we live and how we die. Her work is radical and gentle, profound and compassionate. She shares her insight, and some of the keys to using a healing tool that’s right under our noses.

Veteran teaching midwife Ciske van Straaten has vast experience of helping to bring life into the world, and has also been intimately involved in death. What has this taught her? What have these two moments got in common? How do they relate to each other, in the cycle of life?

Author of 'Crossing the River Styx - Memoirs of a Death Row Chaplain,' Russ Ford shares his experience of accompanying those condemned to die in their final years, months and earthly moments. A humble, courageous and powerful story of unlikely redemption, this is a record of a remarkable experience, a testament to compassion in the face of institutionalized savagery.

A brief yet comprehensive tour of the issues surrounding the legal challenge to grant South Africans the right to die, and autonomy over their own lives. For more, see DignitySA

Earth to earth, and dust to dust, right? Brie Smith from Return Home gives the lowdown on human composting, aka terramation, a process designed to enhance natural decomposition. No added chemicals, no fancy caskets.

Rabbi Belinda Silbert just happens to have explored her psychic abilities since childhood, and brings them to bear on her profound spirituality. This episode features Featuring ‘Lachaim’ by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Registered Financial Transitions Planner Louis van Der Merwe is compassionate, insightful, practical and down to earth when it comes to the big changes in life and what happens to money in their wake. Plus he’s got a sense of humour and a twinkle in his smile…

What is a forensic artist? In high demand due to the avalanche of unclaimed dead in our country, with its shockingly high numbers of unnatural deaths, this highly skilled practitioner provides a vital link between the worlds of justice and art, making meaning visible from the margins and in the shadows where so many people disappear.

What is aquamation and how exactly does it work on a human body after death? What are the byproducts and are they safe? Do you receive the ashes, or something similar? This is an in-depth discussion with someone who ardently believes in the green credentials of this alternative to burial or cremation, an insider who shares great perspective on respectful ways to honour our loved ones after death.

Cremation is a practice riven with misconception and superstition. It is taboo for many people, but also our obvious remedy to dwindling land available for burial. What happens when a body is cremated? What are the fears people have, and how can we address them?