Completed Life Initiative Podcasts

Paul Crawford, Curator of the Penticton Art Gallery in Penticton, British Columbia, curated in the Spring of 2024 the MAiD in Canada exhibit, where he invited family and friends of the 50,000 Canadians who have used MAiD to handwrite, type or email letters sharing feelings of grief and loss. Their stories shaped the exhibit and became the topic of many community-wide conversations.  Through interv...

Sangwa, an expert in creating international cultural and arts events, invited artists - dancers, sculptors, poets and painters - to use their craft to show ways in which the deeply held value of Ubuntu - the belief that “a person is a person through other people” - could help interpret the work of Palliative Care.   Through interviews with writers, musicians, visual artists and storytellers, The A...

Journalist Greg Melville, author of Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America's Cemeteries, shares how cemeteries functioned as the first public art museums, how Abraham Lincoln redefined the concept of “the Good Death” in his Gettysburg Address, and how Facebook has become the largest (digital) graveyard. Enjoy this fascinating interview of the history in America of honoring tho...

Catharine DeLong - harpist, hospice chaplain, interfaith minister, and music thanatologist- shares her thoughts on why the harp has long been considered an instrument of the gods. More Info: This episode from the Art of Grief podcast is with music Thanatologist Catharine DeLong. This week’s podcast features an interview with harpist, hospice chaplain, interfaith minister, and music thanatologist C...

Pianist, composer and visual artist, Adam Tendler, began to ponder the “gesture of responsibility with inheritances,” when he received a wad of cash in a manilla envelope upon the death of his father. Through his compositions, piano performances and work as the Artist-in-Residence at the historic Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY, he explores both the gifts we receive gratefully as well as those...

Author Cynthia Clark, coached a writing group of 17 storytellers who shared and explored the 68 emotions they experienced around their grief in losing someone who used Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). Their work was later compiled into the book, The Many Faces of MAiD: What to Expect When Someone You Know Chooses Medical Assistance in Dying.  Through interviews with writers, musicians, visual a...

Welcome back to Last Doctors,  a new podcast series in the Voices of the Completed Life where we will share conversations with physicians who listen to and care for patients in the last chapters of their lives – when a cure is no longer in sight and the comfort and dignity of the patient becomes the physician’s primary focus. Our final episode features an interview with Dr. Peter Reagan, a retired...

Welcome back to Last Doctors,  a new podcast series in the Voices of the Completed Life where we will share conversations with physicians who listen to and care for patients in the last chapters of their lives – when a cure is no longer in sight and the comfort and dignity of the patient becomes the physician’s primary focus. Our second episode features an interview with Dr. Christian Ntizimira, a...

Last Doctors  is a new podcast series in the Voices of the Completed Life  where we will share conversations with physicians who listen to and care for patients in the last chapters of their lives – when a cure is no longer in sight and the comfort and dignity of the patient becomes the physician’s primary focus. Dr. Jean Marmoreo, a Canadian physician and author, has helpfully called these remark...

In this latest episode, our hosts reflect on the word, “Mgbalu." Lexicon of Life and Death  is a new podcast series where  Lynn  and  Mark Barger Elliott  will explore the vocabulary we employ to express beliefs, hopes and attitudes towards life and death. While asking what it means to live a completed life, they will probe ways that language guides us towards embracing full and whole moments in o...

In this latest episode, our hosts reflect on the word, “Transplant." Lexicon of Life and Death  is a new podcast series where  Lynn  and  Mark Barger Elliott  will explore the vocabulary we employ to express beliefs, hopes and attitudes towards life and death. While asking what it means to live a completed life, they will probe ways that language guides us towards embracing full and whole moments...

In this episode, our hosts discuss the word "Suerza" – a combination of the Spanish words for luck and force: suerta and fuerza. It was coined by the author John Koenig in his book The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows . Lexicon of Life and Death  is a new podcast series where  Lynn  and  Mark Barger Elliott  will explore the vocabulary we employ to express beliefs, hopes and attitudes towards life an...

Welcome to Lexicon of Life & Death , a new podcast series from the Completed Life Initiative. In this series, Lynn and Mark Barger Elliott will explore the vocabulary we employ to express beliefs, hopes and attitudes towards life and death. While asking what it means to live a completed life, they will probe ways that language guides us towards embracing full and whole moments in our lives. In...

Welcome back to Gifts of the Completed Life : Transitions and Transformations . In this episode, Executive Producer Lynn Barger Elliott reflects upon transformations - when we no longer find ourselves in that in-between space. Inspired by the works of Rebecca Solnit and Eric Carle, this episode considers the gift of "instarring" and what emerges on the other side of life's transitions. Gifts of th...

Welcome to this special Valentine's Day episode of Voices of the Completed Life . In this episode, we will hear the “voice” of New York Times -Bestselling Author of In Love , Amy Bloom – from our 4th Annual Fall Conference – with additional commentary by Executive Producer, Lynn Barger Elliott . Voices of the Completed Life will highlight the lives and work of those who are exploring End of Life o...

Welcome back to Gifts of the Completed Life : Transitions and Transformations . In this episode, we explore the external and internal signs, and the “complete moments,” that indicate it is time to leave the “in-between spaces” of our lives. Gifts of the Completed Life will include reflections and interviews with authors, artists, physicians and philosophers who help us explore the many ways of ans...

Welcome back to Gifts of the Completed Life : Transitions and Transformations . In this episode we discuss Visions, Perfume, and How the Heart Heals , by continuing to explore “in-between spaces" – and specifically the liminal space between life and death. Gifts of the Completed Life will include reflections and interviews with authors, artists, physicians and philosophers who help us explore the...

Welcome to a new Gifts of the Completed Life podcast series – Transitions and Transformations . Join us as we begin with In Between the Tides , an exploration of the “in-between spaces” that we experience in our families, health, workplaces, and relationships. These are transitions that can be unsettling, challenging, and yet, there are also gifts that can be discovered in that space between where...

The end of the year can prompt us to reflect upon the past year and to gaze towards what is to come. Join us for a special podcast series with Director of Outreach Lynn Barger Elliott and Executive Director Mark Barger Elliott as we reflect on the completed life and the gifts it offers of grief, unfinished business, and open windows. In this episode, our hosts consider the words of our Fall Confer...

The end of the year can prompt us to reflect upon the past year and to gaze towards what is to come. Join us for a special podcast series with Executive Director Mark Barger Elliott and Director of Outreach Lynn Barger Elliott as we reflect on the completed life and the gifts it offers of grief, unfinished business, and open windows. In this episode, our hosts draw on insights from several of our...

The end of the year can prompt us to reflect upon the past year and to gaze towards what is to come. Join us for a special podcast series with Executive Director Mark Barger Elliott and Director of Outreach Lynn Barger Elliott as we reflect on the completed life and the gifts it offers of grief, unfinished business, and open windows. In this episode, our hosts draw on insights from several of our...

To conclude our series, Women's Voices of the Completed Life | What Matters Most: Believing Beyond Borders , we welcome Rachel Timoner . She is the Senior Rabbi at Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, New York, a graduate of Yale University and Hebrew Union College, and in 2022, she was featured in the Emmy-nominated film Last Flight Home . The film, which was written and directed by her sister,...

In the second episode of Women's Voices of the Completed Life | What Matters Most: Believing Beyond Borders , Completed Life Initiative Advisor, Didi Sanchez, interviews Beatriz Pizano . She is a Colombian-born Canadian actor, director, and playwright. In 2019, she was recognized as one of TD Bank’s 10 Most Influential Hispanic Canadians. Pizano tells the story of her life, including the death of...

Our podcast returns with a new series, Women's Voices of the Completed Life | What Matters Most: Believing Beyond Borders , and a brand new episode featuring social media influencer, model, and life coach, Ali Tate Cutler . With over 250,000 Instagram and 50,000 TikTok followers, in May 2023 her videos went viral when she shared her last conversations with her grandmother, who had chosen to use Me...

In this episode of Voices of the Completed Life, we interviewed Fred Philippi. Fred reached out to the Completed Life Initiative to share his own story. He does not have a terminal diagnosis, chronic aches and pains, or any other notable physical or medical conditions. He has lived a meaningful life: done everything he wanted to do, said everything he wanted to say, and said goodbye to the people...