The Adventures of Memento Mori

Do you believe in destiny? In the season finale, Moss's journey at Bellevue comes to an end with the realization that the path he never could have predicted is the only one that could have happened. But just when the path behind him starts to make sense, a phone rings and the next adventure begins. Please join us for the final episode of Season 3 of The Adventures of Memento Mori. Host: D.S. Moss...

What does a dying man's dream of coconut ice cream, an incarcerated high school reunion, and a Marine getting dragged face-first across a lake have in common? In the penultimate episode of the season, D.S. Moss confronts this riddle with the help of his Zen Master mentor. Now nearly finished with his chaplain internship at Bellevue Hospital during the global pandemic, Moss notices something that k...

Moss makes the rookie mistake of thinking a chaplain's job is to absorb the suffering of strangers. Soak it up like a sponge, room after room, story after story. Sounds noble until four months in, when the weight of it starts showing up in places you didn't invite it: your shoulders, your sleepless nights, your ability to be present with the people you love. So how do you sit with someone in their...

Does refusing to face a difficult reality become the thing that saves you from it? Or is denial what ultimately takes you down? Moss is three months into his chaplaincy and handed a new framework for caring: hope, meaning, and connection. But when he walks into the rooms at Bellevue, hope is the one box that won't check. The harder he reaches for it, the more fraudulent it feels. How do you projec...

What does a Nazi, an ancient prophecy, and a pack of gum have in common? When beautiful philosophy meets overwhelming suffering, what holds you together when you're falling apart? How do you practice compassion when you're faking it—when you're standing in a room you're supposed to care about, but you feel nothing? Moss learns the difference between an open heart and a bleeding heart, discovers he...

Moss thought the hardest part of being a chaplain would be sitting with the dying. He was wrong. It was contextualizing people's suffering. At Bellevue, he meets a man so broken by life he swallowed razor blades just to get medical treatment for hemorrhoids—a man convinced God is actively torturing him, questioning how he could possibly love a God that doesn't love him back. Having experienced hun...

Faced with the daunting task of responding to his first pager call, D.S. Moss confronts fear and uncertainty, struggling to define his role as a humanist chaplain without religious frameworks. Zen Master Trudi offers insights on authenticity and human connection, emphasizing the importance of vulnerability and presence. Through encounters with patients, Moss grapples with questions of authority, i...

WE'RE BACK! The last time you heard from D.S. Moss, he was in Hawaii taking surfing lessons and contemplating taking a giant leap of faith to become a Humanist Chaplain? But what in the f*ck is a chaplain? And can you be one without believing in God? In Season 3, Moss takes us back to 2021 to his chaplain internship at Bellevue Hospital during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic as he searches for...

The Adventures of Memento Mori:  A Seeker's Guide for Learning to Live by Remembering to Die , is a podcast that explores the cosmos of death and how it shapes life. Part existential scavenger hunt, part philosophical chinwag, and part spiritual quest this off-beat and heartfelt the show follows host, D.S. Moss, as he attempts to reconcile his own impermanence in order to become a better human whi...

In the podcast finale of The Adventures of Memento Mori, host D.S. Moss travels to the Catskills of New York, Chicago, Harvard, and Hawaii following a calling six years in the making - becoming a nontheist chaplain. Is the understanding that we're not entitled to tomorrow enough to truly put his money where he mic is and take a leap of faith? And is it possible to be both rational and spiritual at...

Can a dinner party help Americans to die better? According to Michael Hebb, creator of Death Over Dinner, it certainly can. D.S. Moss didn't win the "he'll try anything once trophy" for nothin', because that's exactly what he wants to find out. Besides, what's the worst that can happen when you give 8 strangers steak knives, pickle them with wine, and push the boundaries of death dialogue in betwe...

A s part of the ReImagine virtual festival celebrating Life, Loss, and Love, and in collaboration with Keeper Memorials, Death Doula LA, and Compassion and Choices , The Adventures of Memento Mori hosted a conversation about Medical Aid In Dying. Joining me were two family members whose terminally ill loved ones decided to peacefully end their own lives: Myra Shulman, daughter of Beverly, and Dan...

Holy Mother Forking Shirtballs! Please join D.S. Moss in a fanboy conversation with Michael Schur, creator of the NBC sitcom The Good Place, about death, the afterlife, existentialism, deontology, utilitarianism, trolley problems, even bigger pandemic problems, and how to keep your sense of humor through it all.

It's amazing the way things come together sometimes. What seems to be a series of random encounters string together over time culminating into a predetermined life-affirming - or in this case, afterlife affirming moment. Fate, as some people call it. This spiritual road trip began with a near-death vision at a compound in rural Virginia, intersected with a death-themed Mardi Gras Krewe in New Orle...

How far would you go to honor a loved one who has died? Would you negotiate the distance of four rivers, through the wilderness of 2 countries, 1 province, and 13 states? Would you dedicate your life to a cause? D.S. Moss is joined by Dominique Leboiron, a Canadian who canoed from Saskatchewan to the Gulf of Mexico to honor the life of his Uncle Mitch . This is a story of love. It's a tale of the...

It's March 23, 2020, in New York, New York. The world is confronting a novel coronavirus pandemic and the world will be forever changed because of it. To what extreme that change will be we don't know yet. But that is what we're going to talk about. Joining the show is technology and healthcare futurist, geopolitical expert, and novelist, Jamie Metzl. 

D.S. Moss welcomes Mark Manson to the COVID 19 edition of The Adventures of Memento Mori to talk about death and hope in these strange days. Mark is a New York Times best-selling author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck , Everything Is Fucked: A Book About Hope, and Love is Not Enough . Visit markmanson.net to read more of his work.

As a culture, America does not live well with death. By the very nature of our colonial Protestant roots, this country has an inherent denial of death ingrained in our collective psyche. Throw in the social and psychological effects of the country's expansive size. Mix that with our compulsion to minimize, sanitize, romanticize, homogenize and capitalize – oh, yes – we don't live well with death....

Have you ever wanted to experience a "near-death experience" without having to experience nearly dying? The Monroe Institute offers a six-day course that claims to generate the same profound insights of an NDE. Participants will discover how to enter into the various states of consciousness associated with the near-death experience , come back safely, and then return to that non-physical world at...

D.S. Moss confronts what it means to pay the ultimate price. In this episode, Moss has been asked by a friend to "talk to" their nephew, who is contemplating enlisting in the United States Marine Corps, which implies talking him out of it. But Moss will not be trying to talk Thomas in or out of anything. His objective is to listen, answer questions, and share his experience honestly. Oh, and he's...

In the conclusion of this adventure, D.S. Moss confronts his food consciously and directly. But, is hunting the most ecologically benign way to feed himself? And even if it is, could I pull the trigger? Should he just say the hell with it and go find a local symbiotic farm? So. Many. Questions. Join him as he tries to answer them all beginning in Vermont with a conversation about hunting mindfulne...

Do you know how much death is in your diet? Neither did D.S. Moss. Wanting to face his food consciously and directly, Moss leaves no stone unturned to discover how much death is on his plate. He goes from Vegetarian to Vegan to Mindful Hunter to Conscientious Carnivore. This episode comes with a warning: If you're a human being who eats food it may make you uncomfortable because as D.S. Moss would...

Believe it or not, suicide has been the most requested podcast topics for  The Adventures of Memento Mori . However, D.S. Moss has been purposefully avoiding it. He likes to have a natural way into an issue, and he just never had the first-hand experience with suicide. Plus, it's a hard topic. But, after learning that suicide has been steadily on the rise in the United States for the last twenty y...

Are you the happiest version of you you can be? Are negative thoughts and feelings keeping you from this?  What if I were to tell you the only thing keeping you from living your true bliss is you! In this episode D.S. Moss gives you the secret  of how the practice of Memento Mori will help you achieve happiness beyond your wildest dreams. The happiness you can feel with every single breath you tak...

TThis episode is about Texas, a boy and his dog and the unthinkable and inevitable decision that comes to almost all pet owners. D.S. Moss confronts "How do you know when it's time to make the decision to say goodbye?"   to a four-legged family member. If you're a person with a pet, know a person with a pet, or just like a sad 'ol country song - this episode confronts the toughest conversation yet...