Seeing Death Clearly

Send us Fan Mail Death doula and funeral celebrant Jill McClennen hosts Philadelphia-based medical historian Brandon Zimmerman to discuss his 2024 book, “Dissection Photography: Cadavers, Abjection, and the Formation of Identity,” about medical students (1880–1930) taking souvenir photos with cadavers and what the images reveal about coping with death through humor, ritual, and discomfort.  Brando...

Send us Fan Mail Jill McClennen, a death doula and funeral celebrant, hosts Seeing Death Clearly and talks with Ralf Ellervee about preserving life stories as a lasting legacy that supports grief, healing, and conscious living. Ralph shares how interviewing his grandfather—an Estonian surgeon deported to Siberia at age nine—showed him how easily memories can be lost, especially with dementia, seri...

Send us Fan Mail On Seeing Death Clearly, death doula and funeral celebrant Jill McClennen speaks with transpersonal psychologist Dr. Irene Blinston about her research on grief healing, consciousness, and paranormal encounter experiences. Blinston explains the psychomanteum—an environment of darkness, quiet, sensory reduction, and angled mirror gazing originally developed by Dr. Raymond Moody—wher...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Seeing Death Clearly , I speak with Lori Rizzo, a death doula in the Philadelphia area, about her transition from corporate leadership and training into end-of-life care. Lori shares how her personal experiences led her to this work and why she has become especially passionate about supporting individuals living with dementia and the people who care for them. We...

Send us Fan Mail Death doula and funeral celebrant Jill McClennen hosts clinical psychologist Batya Ludman and Jewish educator Gina Junger to discuss their book, The Jewish Journey Through Loss: From Death to Healing, and how Jewish mourning traditions support grief and healing.  They explain active rituals like shoveling dirt at burial, tearing a ribbon or garment, and sitting shiva as a week-lon...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I talk with Alexander Josephson, a Toronto-based architect whose father's cancer diagnosis unexpectedly led him into the world of digital legacy and remembrance. When his father asked him to design a memorial, Alex began thinking about how we honor and remember the people we love. In a time when so much of our lives exists online, he wondered if there was a b...

Send us Fan Mail On Seeing Death Clearly, death doula and funeral celebrant Jill McClennen talks with Wendy Juergens about grief, dying, and healing through writing, including end-of-life planning and conscious living. Wendy shares the story of her son Nick, a Navy veteran who died by suicide nearly 14 years ago at age 32, and how writing her book, Hey, It’s Me, helped her stay connected to him, l...

Send us Fan Mail Jill McClennen hosts a conversation with David Zartman and Joanna Franco from Caring House, a nonprofit hospice home in Torrance, California. They explain that Caring House serves people in the final days or weeks of a hospice journey, staffed 24/7 by caregivers, and works with many hospice agencies because it is a non-medical residential care facility.  Families can visit freely,...

Send us Fan Mail Host Jill McClennen, a death doula, end-of-life care planner, and funeral celebrant, interviews Laurel Hill Funeral Directors Tasha Dugan and Amanda Kyle about what funeral directing looks like behind the scenes. They discuss embalming and body preparation, service planning, costs, flowers, paperwork, and supporting families from the first call through the funeral.  Amanda shares...

Send us Fan Mail Death doula and funeral celebrant Jill McClennen speaks with Matt Fogelson about growing up in 1980s Manhattan, then losing his workaholic father to lung cancer when Matt was 19 and his father was 46. Matt describes carrying unspoken grief for decades, using pain to stay connected, and how family silence around dying robbed them of meaningful end-of-life conversations. He shares h...

Send us Fan Mail Death doula and funeral celebrant Jill McClennen interviews Mel Bennett, founder of Life Forest in New Hampshire, a nonprofit cemetery and public arboretum where human and pet cremated remains are buried with newly planted trees. After caring for her mother through early-onset frontal lobe dementia, Mel received her mother’s ashes in a plastic bag and box, which pushed her to crea...

Send us Fan Mail Death doula and funeral celebrant Jill McClennen hosts Jermaine on Seeing Death Clearly to explore how talking about death can lead to more conscious living.  Jermaine shares how a conversation revealed his mother did not understand how her 401(k) connected to real choices, which led him to help her intentionally live out long-held dreams through travel before she died suddenly fr...

Send us Fan Mail Death doula and funeral celebrant Jill McClennan hosts a conversation with Joy Jolie about how repeated loss, grief, and serious illness shaped Joy’s views on dying, healing, and end-of-life planning.  Joy describes multiple breast cancer diagnoses in her family, including her own, and shares how her mother declined chemo and radiation, while her sisters faced lasting harm and, in...

Send us Fan Mail Host Jill McClennen, a death doula and funeral celebrant, talks with Jessica LeBeau-Richman, a South Jersey pet death doula, about the often overlooked grief of losing an animal and how people can stay connected through ritual, keepsakes, and conscious goodbyes.  Jessica shares how her rescue cat Sammy led her from years of nonprofit social services into end-of-life doula work for...

Send us Fan Mail Host Jill McClennen, a death doula and funeral celebrant, speaks with Rae Dumont, a Belgian-born pediatrician turned family therapist, about caring for chronically ill children and why connection and honest, age-appropriate truth matter as much as clinical skill. Dumont discusses her novel, “In the Shadow of Silence,” about a father’s depression and suicide and the different ways...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Jill McClennen speaks with Philadelphia-area researcher and photographer Edward Snyder about abandoned and forgotten cemeteries and what they reveal about dying, grief, legacy, and conscious living. Ed explains how his interest in cemetery art grew into decades of documenting burial practices and the death care industry, including stories of cemeteries destroyed,...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode my guest Cristian Cibilis Bernardes, founder and CEO of Autograph and I explore how preserving memories can become a powerful part of legacy and end-of-life planning. The conversation highlights why hearing a loved one’s voice and stories can bring comfort, healing, and deeper understanding during grief. Autograph is a platform designed to preserve people’s life st...

Send us Fan Mail End-of-life doula Joy Rodriguez talks with me about death doula work and supporting people who choose medical aid in dying. Medical aid in dying is often misunderstood and can be hard to access even where it is legal, especially when it is difficult to find participating providers. Joy shares her path from hospice volunteering in Washington to serving as a volunteer client advisor...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, a palliative care physician explains how early support and thoughtful end-of-life planning can reduce fear, ease suffering, and improve quality of life for patients and families. Dr. David Casarett, chief of Palliative Care at Duke Health, describes palliative care as whole-person support that relieves symptoms and helps people make difficult medical decisions, ev...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, for Black History Month, Jill interviews her longtime friend Rashine Curry (Rah Rah), a mother of six from Atlantic City. Rah Rah describes how poverty, racism, and systemic bias shaped her life, including incarceration, untreated mental illness, and medical neglect in prison. She shares major losses: her daughter’s father was murdered when the baby was six months...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Seeing Death Clearly, host Jill McClennen, a death doula and funeral celebrant, speaks with Marcy Shrewsbury Lopez about her extraordinary love story and journey through grief.  Marcy shares her experience being married to her husband, who was 46 years older than her, and the deep connection they shared until his death at 98 years old.  She reflects on the chall...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Seeing Death Clearly , host Jill McClennen, a death doula and funeral celebrant, is joined by Ken Biery, a seasoned funeral director and founder of the Funeral Service Collective. Ken shares his journey from military service into the funeral profession and the experiences that shaped his commitment to innovation and family-centered care. Together, they explore h...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I’m joined by Thomas Dixon, a Philadelphia native with a powerful and deeply personal story. Thomas shares his journey from working in psychiatry research to teaching middle school in South Korea, and the life-altering shift that followed a near-fatal accident in 2010. After being hit by a car, Thomas developed epilepsy and a permanent episodic memory disability t...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of 'Seeing Death Clearly,' host Jill McClennen talks with Christian Millward, a mother of six from Idaho, about her journey with grief and spirit communication. Christian shares how the deaths of her mother and seven-week-old daughter, Indi, led her to discover her spiritual connection and create the Indie Star Cards, a tool to help people communicate wit...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Michael Williams, the founder of Memoir Studio, discusses his transition from end-of-life planning to helping people write their memoirs. They explore the therapeutic power of storytelling, especially for older adults, and how sharing personal stories can offer emotional and historical value. Michael emphasizes the importance of acknowledging life's ups and d...