End of Life Conversations: Normalizing Talk About Death, Dying, and Grief

Send us Fan Mail Twana Sparks MD is a semi-retired ear, nose and throat surgeon and writer.  She is a native New Mexican and 1986 graduate of the University of New Mexico Medical School.  Dr. Twana Sparks excels at oral histories mixed with scientific information. Her books on Medical Aid in Dying (2024) and Tuberculosis treatment (2013) blend the personal with the process. She was raised in a lar...

Send us Fan Mail   On today’s episode we have a wonderful conversation with Isabel Knight. Isabel is the Founder of The Death Designer, a company that provides end-of-life planning services, including funeral and vigil planning, digital account password management, advance directives, and assistance with reconciling fears of mortality. She takes a human-centered design approach, with a focus on pr...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we got to spend time with Brie Smith. Brie is the longest-standing employee at Return Home, a leader in the new (but old) practice of terramation or body composting. She first served as Director of Services, then as COO, and now she is responsible for overseeing Return Home’s community outreach initiatives, including both their in-person and online efforts. She is...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode you can view as a video podcast on YouTube or on Spotify   Annalouiza and Wakil discuss the first twenty episodes from Season One and all of the profound and inspirational insights that we learned from our guests. We also talk about what is coming in Season Two, including a new website and new video offerings for paid subscribers that will include discussions of so...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we meet Dr. Janice Lundy, who is a grief support specialist and a grief educator. She is the founder of the Metta Center, which offers specialized training in spiritual direction, also known as spiritual companionship, including one-of-a-kind grief companionship training. Having experienced a great deal of loss in her own life, she knows firsthand the transformativ...

Send us Fan Mail Paul Minor is a transpersonal and spiritual counselor and a Thanatologist. He shares his personal experiences with death and how they influenced his career path. Paul's work involves transpersonal spiritual counseling and Thanatology, the study of death, dying, and bereavement. He emphasizes the importance of addressing death anxiety and grief in a holistic and sacred way. Pa...

Send us Fan Mail Gary Sturgis, a grief specialist, speaker, and bereavement facilitator, shares his personal experience with loss and his journey to support others through grief. He discusses the importance of providing resources and support for the LGBTQ+ community, who often face unique challenges in their grief. Gary emphasizes the need for understanding and respect when supporting someone who...

Send us Fan Mail For this unique episode, we will be interviewing Professor Harald Walach PhD. Professor Walach is a clinical psychologist, philosopher of science, and researcher at the interface between medicine, psychology, and consciousness studies. He is a professorial research fellow with the Next Society Institute at Kazimierash Simonavichius University in Vilnius, Lithuania. He is the found...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we talk with Julie Lockhart, a retired academic. During the last years of her career, she led a grief support nonprofit called WinterSpring, where she discovered the beauty and depth of personal stories. There she shared her own experience, which helped grieving people feel less alone.  Julie loves an adventure, especially in wild places. She spent most of her car...

Send us Fan Mail Arlene Hoag, a hospice volunteer and co-chairman of the Mountains of Courage conference , shares her experiences and insights on death and dying. She discusses her early encounters with death, the grief she experienced when a friend passed away, and the importance of communicating with loved ones who have passed. Arlene also emphasizes the significance of supporting grieving indiv...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we speak to Laura Davis, author of The Burning Light of Two Stars, The Courage to Heal, and four other books. In addition to writing books that inspire, the work of Laura’s heart is to teach. For over twenty years, she’s helped people find their voices, tell their stories, and hone their craft. She teaches online and at retreat centers around the world. She's...

Send us Fan Mail We were honored to meet and talk with Jill McClennen in this episode. She is a certified death doula, a non-medical professional specially trained to provide holistic care for individuals in their final stages of life. She offers comprehensive support, preparation, and deep soul healing to her clients and their families, whether in person or through virtual sessions, as she works...

Send us Fan Mail Please note this content warning for the following episode. In this episode our friend Kate speaks about her experience with putting down a beloved horse. Please take care of yourselves. Today we are excited to have a conversation with Kate Schuyler. She is an active student of life, self, and the heart, a mother, grandmother, partner, and loyal friend. She is a world traveler, a...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we are blessed to spend time with the Rev. Judith Laxer. She is a modern-day mystic who believes that beauty, humor, and the wonders of nature make life worth living.  The founding Priestess of Gaia’s Temple, Judith is a keynote and TEDx speaker, teacher of the magickal arts and mysteries, and author of Along the Wheel of Time: Sacred Stories for Nature Lovers [Ra...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we had the honor of sharing a conversation with Jeffrey and Stephanie, a married couple who live on an island near Seattle. Jeffrey has his master's and a Ph. D. in agriculture and has been working in food security in Sub-Saharan Africa for over 20 years. He has found that our humanity comes before our agendas, that we must connect as people before we work to...

Send us Fan Mail In this special episode, we bring you memorials to beloveds who have crossed over the veil ahead of us. Wakil and Annalouiza share memorial tributes to Wakil's Grandpa Herbert and Annalouiza's sister Vivian. We'll also hear from Jane Ellen Nickell whom we interviewed in our last episode who shares the story of her mother's end of life. Then, our friend Quan Yin...

Send us Fan Mail Jane Ellen Nickell is enjoying retirement, after serving 16 years as Chaplain of Allegheny College, which followed a career in performing arts management and marketing. A native of West Virginia, she currently lives in Meadville, Pennsylvania, with two feline companions. In retirement, she keeps busy gardening, cooking, doing yoga, making music, reading, and writing. She also work...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we speak with Yanna Hanson. Yanna is a death doula and currently specializes as a volunteer with end-of-life Washington. Helping terminal patients navigate the medical aid in dying process. She is often present when they take the life-ending medications. Yana also helps educate clients about another life-ending choice, that of V-S-E-D, which is voluntarily stopping...

Send us Fan Mail Ms. Margaret Johnson. Ms. Margaret is currently 101 years old. When's your birthday? So she just turned 101. Margaret has lived a very rich and varied life. She has been a homemaker, a wife, and a mother to two children. She lived all over the country due to her husband's career as a geologist. She went back to school at the age of 52 and became a clinical social worker....

Send us Fan Mail Patty Bueno is a certified grief counselor, dying consciously teacher, and creator of the Amorté podcast on death and grief education. She's currently training to become a somatic experiencing facilitator. Having accompanied three of her grandparents and later her mother through their dying process as a primary caregiver was an initiation and powerful call to serve and assist...

Send us Fan Mail “If you cultivate community in this life, you will pass into community.” In this episode we spend time with our dear friend and teacher, Rev. John Mabry. We met him when we were both seminary students in Berkeley, CA and have remained close. Reverend Dr. John Mabry is a United Church of Christ pastor and a spiritual director. He is a novelist and songwriter and lives with his vete...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Episode 3! Today we welcome Reverend Bodhi Be ‘Warrior of the heart, protector of the sacred’. Reverend Bodhi Be is an ordained interfaith minister and teacher in the Sufi lineage of Samuel Lewis and Hazrat Inayat Khan. He is the founder and executive director of Doorway Into Light, a nonprofit organization on Maui, which provides conscious and compassionate care for th...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we are blessed and honored to spend time with our friend Rev Ayah Shakur Sevigny. He is currently working as a palliative care chaplain at a large hospital in Seattle, and spent 20 years as a hospice chaplain. He shares with us his wisdom and insights about the work of an end of life caregiver. He mentioned two important resources - first this book by Carolyn Singh...

Send us Fan Mail In this first episode of our End of Life Conversations podcast, Rev. Annalouiza Armendariz, and Rev. Wakil David Matthews share their own stories and talk about their passion for normalizing the conversations around death and dying. In future podcasts, we'll share people’s experiences with the end of life. We have reached out to front-line workers, as well as friends, neighbo...