Death, et seq.

Today we're talking about something that sits in closets, on mantels, and even on kitchen counters across the country: urns holding the cremated remains of people we love, often with no plan for where they will finally rest. By one estimate, 25 million homes in the United States have an urn in them. My guest today calls that a crisis, and after our conversation, I think you'll see why. My guest is...

Today we're talking about something that sits in closets, on mantels, and even on kitchen counters across the country: urns holding the cremated remains of people we love, often with no plan for where they will finally rest. By one estimate, 25 million homes in the United States have an urn in them. My guest today calls that a crisis, and after our conversation, I think you'll see why. My guest is...

Today, more than 90% of mortuary school students are first generation funeral directors. Three out of four of them are women. And increasingly, there are people in mortuary school who are in the middle of their lives, coming to this work as a second career because something about it called to them. But at the same time, people are leaving the funeral profession through retirement and burnout. Recr...

On this week's episode, Caitlin Doughty discusses the most recent scandal in the funeral industry and what regulatory structures could be used to prevent this from happening again. On August 7th, Chicago police, acting on a tip, entered a funeral home on the Far South Side called South Chicago Chapel, at 2939 East 95th Street in the South Deering neighborhood. What they found inside was the stuff...

On today’s episode, I’m joined by Anna Jordan. Anna is a funeral director and a certified life cycle celebrant and a member of the board of the Home Funeral Alliance. I’ve had the opportunity to work with Anna on a couple of projects with the Home Funeral Alliance. For the past couple of years, a group of students at Wake Forest Law School have researched and assembled state statutes relevant to h...

If you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, you’ve heard from a lot of what I’ll characterize as “progressive” or “new” entrants in the death care space. We’ve had episodes on green burial, death doulas, natural organic reduction, home funerals, and more. The conventional wisdom that I hear a lot from critics of the funeral industry is that “traditional” funeral directors are rigid and u...

Anatomical dissection is a fundamental part of medical education. In this episode, medical student Emma Sherman walks us through the use and treatment of donor bodies in medical education in the United States.

Sam Perry is an Associate Lecturer at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, teaching in the Mortuary Science and Funeral Science program. He is also the President of the Green Burial Council International, 501(c)(3).

Alex Gracia, a third-year student at Wake Forest Law School, discusses the intersection between the Catholic practice of creating relics and keeping them in churches and the laws in the United States that forbid "abuse of corpse."

Do you have your documents in order to allow for a trusted person to make decisions about your health care and property if you become incapacitated? This episode walks through four important kinds of documents and explains what each does: (1) power of attorney; (2) health care power of attorney; (3) advance directive or living will; and (4) funeral planning declaration. Whether you have an estate...

In today's episode, I talk to Stephanie Hopp, EdD, RN, CPN, an Associate Professor in the Undergraduate Nursing Program at Clarkson College in Omaha, Nebraska. Professor Hopp talks about her experience as a nurse at Children's Nebraska Hospital and her scholarship on empathy in health care.

In this episode of Death et seq., Professor Marsh talks to Wake Law student Spencer Maher about Jeremy DeWitte, the man who turned a Florida funeral escort service into a viral masterclass in policy impersonation. As the owner of Metro State Special Services, DeWitte patrolled Orlando streets on decommissioned police motorcycles, wearing a badge nearly identical to the LAPD's and carrying a pepper...

In this episode of the Death Esq. podcast, Professor Marsh welcomes Jay Doshi to discuss the outdated regulatory structures of the American funeral industry. Doshi explains how the industry stubbornly protects traditional, full-service embalmed funerals while consumer preference is rapidly shifting toward cremation and non-traditional burials. This disconnect is largely fueled by outdated single-l...

On this episode, I talk to Suzanne Kelly, chair of the Town of Rhinebeck, New York Cemetery Committee about green burial. The Town of Rhinebeck Cemetery opened a Natural Burial Ground in 2014, only the second municipal natural burial ground in New York. Suzanne is also the author of the 2017 book "Greening Death – Reclaiming Burial Practices and Restoring our Tie to Earth." The research for this e...

“Riches do not so much exhilarate us with their possession, as they torment us with their loss.” This quotation comes from Robert Burton, a 17th century Oxford scholar and clergyman who understood that our attachment to possessions is often less about enjoying them and more about dreading their loss. This dread, or as he describes it, torment, persists for some in the face of death. In this episod...

In this episode, we discuss the retention and disposition of human remains after they are seized by law enforcement as part of a criminal investigation. We’re not talking about what happens to a body after an autopsy is conducted as part of an investigation. No, we’re talking about what happens to body parts (or things made from body parts) after they are seized as evidence of the crime itself. Fo...

When a person dies while incarcerated, what happens to their remains? Do incarcerated individuals receive as much respect in death as other individuals? Third-year Wake Forest Law student Katie Koesters explains the web of applicable state and federal laws and regulations.

In this episode, third year Wake Forest Law student Connor Crotty compares the processes of cremation and alkaline hydrolysis (water cremation), discusses the chemical composition of cremated remains, and describes a number of memorialization options.

Tanya talks to Erik Seeman, a history Professor at University at Buffalo and the author of several books on early American attitudes towards death and death care practices, including Speaking with the Dead in Early America. Dr. Seeman's work helps us understand the worldview of those who shaped American funeral and cemetery law, and he also has some insights on how those views have changed over th...

What death care practices are in line with the teachings of the Catholic Church? In this episode, Tanya talks to Wake Law student Andrea St. Paul about the historical evolution of Catholic death care practices.

In this episode, Tanya talks to Vivian Bolen about the law and death customs in Ancient Rome and Greece, and to Lillian Remler about death customs in Ancient Egypt. The echoes of this ancient law and these ancient practices can be felt in modern American law and social norms.

In this episode, Tanya talks to her friend Holly Swenson, walking her through the options for the disposition of her remains (cremation, casket burial, green burial, water cremation, and human composting). They also discuss who has the right to legally make disposition decisions and how to document your preferences. The bottom line is: people should be armed with information about their funeral an...

Since emerging tools like AI memorialization, grief bots, and digital afterlife platforms can essentially allow us to virtually resurrect the dead, they can provide support during times of intense grief, but they also raise a host of legal and ethical issues. This week I talk to second year Wake Lake student Manjot Kaur about these technologies and the thorny issues they raise.