Don't Be Caught Dead

What do you do with a loved one’s ashes when scattering them doesn’t feel like quite enough? In this episode, I’m joined by Keri East, founder of Ashes2Art, an Australian memorial art service that transforms a loved one’s cremation ashes into a bespoke piece of art. Working from her home studios on the Bellarine, Keri creates resin beach memorials, trees of life, jewellery and other keepsakes for...

What happens when someone you love is dying—and how can a little preparation make an already difficult time less uncertain? In this episode, I’m joined by Stephanie Wood, an award-winning Australian long-form feature journalist who writes for The Good Weekend, The Guardian and Vogue. Stephanie is the author of Fake: A Startling True Story of Love in a World of Liars, Cheats, Narcissists, Fantasist...

What if the wishes you express about your funeral and what happens to your body after death aren’t legally binding? In this episode, I’m joined by Dr Kate Falconer, a Senior Lecturer at the School of Law and Radical Humanities Laboratory at University College Cork, where she teaches Trusts Law, Property Law and Death Law. Kate’s research explores the law of the dead, bodily disposal, and the way d...

What happens at the end of life when the systems we rely on don't recognise who we are, or who we love? In this episode, I'm joined by Zoe Hinton, ACON's Community Health Promotion Officer for End of Life and Palliative Care. Zoe works within The LOVE Project (Living Older Visibly and Engaged), ACON's initiative supporting older LGBTQ+ people to stay socially connected, visible...

What can a cemetery teach us about the people who came before us — and what can the history of poison and medicine tell us about the way we understand death today? In this episode, I'm joined by Rae, who is completing a Master of Ancient History specialising in poison and medicine. Her research spans death and dying across the ancient and more recent historical world. Rae also gives cemetery...

What if the phone in your pocket is one of the most meaningful grief objects you own? In this episode, I'm joined by Distinguished Professor Larissa Hjorth, a digital ethnographer and socially engaged artist at RMIT University here in Melbourne, where she holds an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship in the School of Media and Communication. For two decades, Larissa's work has e...

Losing a child, a parent, a distant cousin: the data says your grief isn't the same, and neither is what helps. In this episode, I'm speaking with Dr Candice Mace, a clinical psychologist, research supervisor and sessional academic at Deakin University and The Cairnmillar Institute, where she also completed her Doctorate of Psychology (Clinical). Candice's clinical and academic work...

What if you spent your whole childhood feeling something you couldn’t name, only to discover the answer on your mother’s deathbed? In this episode, I sit down with Nikki Domeney, a Project Coordinator at Social Engine and board member of Black Duck Group, whose own story of discovering her Indigenous heritage just eighteen months before her mother passed away has shaped everything about how she no...

Did you know that around sixty percent of burial disputes that end up in Australian courts involve an Aboriginal person, and that appointing an executor can be the one thing that prevents it? In this episode, I'm speaking with Professor Prue Vines, a leading Australian legal academic at the Faculty of Law, UNSW Sydney, where she has taught since 1990. Prue is co-author, with Rosalind Croucher...

In this episode, I'm joined by Ben Kelly, CEO of the Australasian Cemeteries and Crematoria Association (ACCA), the peak body representing the cemetery and crematoria sector across Australia and New Zealand. Ben takes us behind the gates of an industry most of us never think about until we have to. We talk about why cremation now accounts for 75 to 85 per cent of dispositions in Australia, wh...

What if there is no such thing as a child being too young for a funeral? In this episode, I sit down with Gail Eaton-Briggs, a Tasmanian author, celebrant, leadership coach and founder of EveryWhen Solutions. With more than 40 years of experience in early childhood education, child safety and leadership, and as an authorised celebrant since 2006, Gail has supported hundreds of families through fun...

“What’s your pain scale?” “A nine.” “Okay, miss.” “No. Mister.” In this episode, I’m speaking with Thy O’Donell, a PhD researcher at the Australian National University in Canberra. Thy’s research explores end-of-life and palliative care for trans and gender diverse people, looking at how gender affirming care can extend into hospitals and hospices. The study has ethics approval through ACT Health’...

What do crime scene cleaners, morgue transporters and gravediggers know about death that the rest of us don't? In this episode, I'm joined by Tim Booth, a paramedic of more than nine years and the bestselling author of You Called an Ambulance for What? and You Went to Emergency for What?. His latest book, Post-Mortem, steps outside his own frontline experience to profile around thirty pr...

What happens when the document meant to protect your wishes is filed away where nobody can find it, or worse, ignored altogether when it matters most? In this episode, I'm joined by Distinguished Professor Ben White, Professor of End-of-Life Law and Regulation in the Australian Centre for Health Law Research at Queensland University of Technology. A Rhodes Scholar with a DPhil from Oxford, Be...

What if the choice to die could also be the choice to save someone else's life? In this episode, I'm joined by Jess Amsden, a senior nurse who holds a new and unique role at DonateLife Victoria as their Family Communication Nursing Coordinator. Piloted nationally over the past two years, the role is a first for Australia, sitting at the intersection of organ donation and voluntary assist...

What if the last thing you'd ever want for someone you love is a viewing at a funeral home? In this episode, I sit down with Bonita Ralph, a death educator, family support practitioner and former Holistic Funeral Director whose work spans home-based death care, infant and child loss, and paediatric palliative care. Bonita's journey began with a simple but profound question on a drive hom...

We talk a lot on this show about preparing for our own death. But what about preparing for the death of a pet, or making sure our pet is looked after if something happens to us? In this episode, I'm joined by Dr Alicia Kennedy, an end-of-life veterinarian of over 40 years and the founder of Cherished Pets, a veterinary social enterprise and B Corp based in the Geelong region of Victoria. Alic...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) What if the future of end-of-life care doesn't lie in hospitals, but within our communities? In this episode, I sit down with Professor Samar Aoun AM, internationally recognised palliative care researcher, Founder and Chair of Compassionate Communities Australia, and one of Australia's leading voices in grief, bereavement and public heal...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) Six babies are stillborn in Australia every day. Two babies die within their first 28 days of life, and a miscarriage occurs every three and a half minutes. Yet despite how common pregnancy and baby loss is, it remains one of society’s most misunderstood and least talked about experiences. In this episode, I sit down with Larissa Reinboth, artist,...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) When I first discovered Tinky’s tiny installations hidden throughout Melbourne’s laneways, I was instantly captivated. What looked like a whimsical miniature scene often revealed something much deeper: sharp observation, dark humour, storytelling, and a unique way of seeing the world. In this episode, I sit down with Melbourne-based artist Tinky,...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) When we talk about death, we often focus on what happens after someone dies. But what if we also talked about how we support the people left behind? In this episode, I’m joined by Robyn O’Connell, an experienced funeral celebrant, grief educator, author, speaker, and founder of the Rebecca Jane Foundation. For more than two decades, Robyn has help...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) What would you do if you were given a second chance at life? And then a third? For documentary photographer Andrew Chapman, surviving two life-saving transplants has given him a perspective few people ever experience. Rather than turning away from mortality, Andrew has spent decades documenting it, capturing the realities of organ donation, transp...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) Jean Kittson has spent a lifetime making Australians laugh, but behind the humour is a deeply personal and confronting exploration of death, dying, grief, and the aged care system. In this episode, I sit down with comedian, author, speaker, and Patron of Palliative Care Nurses Australia, Jean Kittson, to talk about how her own fear and avoidance o...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) In this episode, I’m joined by photographer and visual storyteller Julian Kingma, whose work has captured some of Australia’s most intimate and human stories across decades of journalism, portraiture, publishing, and documentary photography. But it was his deeply personal project The Power of Choice that drew me to his work. Through portraits and...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) What happens when a veteran crime journalist revisits one of Australia’s most haunting unsolved murders? In this episode, I sit down with Andrew Rule, one of Australia’s most respected crime reporters and storytellers, to talk about the unsolved murders of Margaret and Seana Tapp. Andrew shares what first drew him to the case decades ago, the trou...