Death Curious

This week we return to our conversation with Morgan Yarborough, Services Manager at Recompose, to talk about company culture in deathcare businesses and startups. We talk about the importance of clearly stating your company values, working to cultivate diversity and equity, and allowing employee voices to be heard. Our conversation explores finding concrete ways to grow your company which actively...

Barbara Kemmis, Executive Director of the Cremation Association of North America (CANA), about her 10 year anniversary in that role. The deathcare space has evolved over the past 10 years and Barbara talks with us what deathcare has learned specifically about cremation services in the last decade. In part 1 of our discussion, we talk about Barbara’s path to CANA, cremation as a consumer driven dis...

Kicking off the 2021 holiday season with this special episode of Deathcare Decoded, Alexandra explores the concept of gratitude, which is one of Parting Stone's four core company values. She explains how Parting Stone incorporates gratitude into day-to-day work culture through corresponding with families that choose solidification, and at the end of the episode she takes you inside the Parting Sto...

Morgan Yarborough, Services Manager at Recompose, on Natural Organic Reduction and community focused deathcare. We talk about how Recompose’s method of natural organic reduction was built around serving the needs of the company's specific local community. We also cover de-centering sales and re-centering experiences as a successful deathcare business model, how funeral services are opportunities f...

This week, Alexandra is interviewed by Justin about research she has been doing for the past few months for a Connecting Directors article and a presentation for the New Jersey State Funeral Directors Association Conference, about excess deaths in the US due to Covid-19 and what they mean for the future of deathcare. Alexandra jumps headfirst into the numbers, makes some predictions based on the c...

Darin Corbett, Owner of Corbett Funeral and Cremation and Oklahoma City Cremation discusses his intentionally designed and revolutionary cremation container engineered to meet families where they are and solve the inherent problems presented with traditional black boxes. Darin explains how listening to families and meeting their needs with intention helped drive this revolutionary container, and h...

Maggie McMillan, Vice President of The Wiefels Group of Companies and All Caring, discusses gender equity in the deathcare profession. With rising rates of women and non-binary individuals graduating from mortuary school, it’s time for our profession to understand how to support the success of these demographics and create equitable work environments for all genders. We cover why it’s important fo...

 Sam Funk, Order Manager at Parting Stone, discusses his project using “black box” temporary urns for hydroponic gardening. Black box temporary urns are made of thick, non-recyclable plastics, making them a problem throughout the deathcare space. Sam’s creative method of growing food and flowers using just water, plant nutrient solution, and black boxes is a solution with endless benefits. We...

Maggie McMillan, Vice President of The Wiefels Group of Companies and All Caring, talks about current trends in deathcare and moving the professional space forward. We talk about capacity limitations that have been highlighted during the Covid-19 pandemic, transforming the aesthetic appeal of funeral homes to help make millennial death planners more comfortable, and new ways to support the mental...

Joél Simone Anthony, sacred grief practitioner, licensed funeral director, and deathcare educator (also known as The Grave Woman), on grief as a sacred space. We discuss the necessity of serving grieving families from a place of deep authenticity and care, the importance of building rituals around grief as a way to move towards healing, and how to navigate compensation, personal boundaries, and se...

Maggie McMillan, Vice President of The Wiefels Group of Companies and All Caring, joins us to talk about running a multi-generational funeral home business and being an entrepreneur. We talk about the value of listening to colleagues and employees who have fresh perspectives on the death profession and the importance of cultivating a forward-thinking and supportive company culture for your employe...

Jason Engler, licensed funeral director, cremation specialist and consultant, and Director of Customer Experience at UPD Urns, talks about his path into deathcare and how when done right, representations of death in pop culture can influence this professional space through cultivating empathy in shared experiences of grief. Hosted by Justin Crowe, Founder & CEO of Parting Stone, and Alexandra...

Maggie McMillan, Vice President of The Wiefels Group of Companies and All Caring, talks about the difference between “traditional cremation” and “direct cremation,” and how rising cremation rates have changed the way that the industry should be thinking about cremation services. Asking questions and listening to your families will allow you to structure cremation services in a way that serves fami...

We are joined again by Ryan Thogmartin, Founder and CEO of DISRUPT Media and Connecting Directors, to talk about moving the deathcare space forward through embracing adaptability and change in funeral business strategies. Ryan outlines why a shifting customer demographic means letting go of tradition and touches on the increasing vulnerability for disruption in the deathcare profession, and how fo...

In this episode, Barbara Kemmis, Executive Director of the Cremation Association of North America, and Don Fritz of the Cremation Society of Illinois give you an exclusive sneak peek into what you can expect at this year’s CANA Convention which takes place August 11th through August 13th in Seattle, WA. Learn about the pandemic precautions being taken to keep everyone safe, and some exciting new e...

Joél Simone Anthony, sacred grief practitioner, licensed funeral director, and deathcare educator (also known as The Grave Woman ) talks with Deathcare Decoded about institutionalized racism in the deathcare space. Our conversation covers micro and macro aggressions in the workplace, the historic whitewashing of mortuary training programs when it comes to caring for diverse populations, and the im...

Sandra Walker Vice President of Strategic Business at Fairmount Memorial Association returns to the podcast to talk about why she is passionate about cremation as a meaningful disposition option. Sandra shares her personal experience with cremating a loved one, and why it is important for funeral directors to give cremation families the same arrangement experience as burial families. Hosted by Jus...

This week, we return to our conversation with Eric Neuhaus, founder and CEO of Green Cremation Texas, to talk about looking forward to the future of the Death Care space. We cover consumer vs. industry-driven change, the funeral industry’s biggest imminent challenges, and how funeral directors can take simple steps to prepare their business for the future. Hosted by Justin Crowe, Founder & CEO...

We return to our conversation with Jason Engler, licensed funeral director, cremation specialist and consultant, certified celebrant, also known as The Urn Historian, to talk about the history of cremation in the United States including the different phases that cremation has seen over the last century, the current era of personalization that cremation is in today, and what that can tell us about...

This week Joél Simone Anthony, sacred grief practitioner, licensed funeral director, and deathcare educator, also known as The Grave Woman , discusses transhumanism. We discuss virtual extensions of consciousness, biological life-extending technologies, and how deathcare professionals can start looking ahead to caring for families as the concepts of life, death, and self continue to evolve. Hosted...

Tanya Scotece, Professor of Funeral Service Education at Miami Dade College, discusses all things mortuary science education. Our conversation covers why training is so important in the rapidly evolving field of death care, how funeral education is changing, and what funeral directors can expect from recent graduates of mortuary school. Hosted by Justin Crowe, Founder & CEO of Parting Stone, a...

Jody Herrington, Location Manager at Skylawn Memorial Park in Oakland, CA, talks about the rise of eco-friendly options in deathcare, the importance of considering the environmental impact of funeral businesses, and how funeral homes can build valuable connections with their local communities through local product sourcing and engagement. Hosted by Justin Crowe, Founder & CEO of Parting Stone,...

In celebration of PRIDE month, we talk with Jason Engler, who is a licensed funeral director, cremation specialist and consultant, and is also known as the Cremation and Memorial Urn Historian. Our discussion covers the abundance of gay funeral professionals and the historic lack of recognition, safety, and support for those individuals in the work place. We look at why so many queer folx are draw...

In this episode of Deathcare Decoded Justin Crow, founder at Parting Stone, Barbara Kemmis, Executive Director of the Cremation Association of North America, and Don Fritz, Operation Manager of the Cremation Society of Illinois, talk about the results of CANA’s 2021 Annual Statistics Report and the latest cremation rates and statistics in the US, the widely expected impact of the Covid-19 pandemic...

Larry Stuart, Founder of Cremation Strategies and Consulting, looks back on how the needs of grieving families have evolved, especially during Covid-19, and how the death care space has concurrently evolved to meet those needs. Larry dives deep into the philosophy of perceived value, the history of sales in the funeral industry, and how to feel confident in selling services, rather than products....