The Ordinary, Extraordinary Cemetery

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. What if you knew the exact date of your own death? For Samuel P. Golden, a series of prophetic dreams foretold his passing...or so he believed! Join Jennie and Dianne as they uncover the Ordinary Extraordinary life and death of Samuel P. Golden, a charismatic man whose obituary described him as...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Join Jennie on this week's Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery podcast as she explores the incredible story of William R. Harland, whose cremains were discovered 85 years after his death in an Oregon hospital's 'Room of Forgotten Souls.' Learn how Life Forest Whistle Ridge, a co...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Step into the enchanting world of Italian cemeteries with Jennie, Dianne, and special guest Tui Snider who shares her adventures as a tour guide in Italy's iconic Monumental Cemeteries, visiting Milan, Genoa, Bologna, and Florence. From 19th-century widow sculptures to groundbreaking Jewis...

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Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Join Jennie and Dianne for the annual "Beyond the Grave" episode of the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery, just in time to put you in a spooky mood for Halloween! Wrap yourself cozy, dim the lights and let Mary Shelley's haunting masterpiece envelop you as you venture into 'Fr...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Beyond the ornate 19th century headstones and crumbling mausoleums lies a world of custom and superstition that dictated death and mourning for more than eighty years. This week on the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery Podcast Jennie and Dianne explore the complex social norms dictating grief, th...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Step into history with Jennie and Dianne on the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery podcast! This week, they uncover the fascinating story of Pauline Cushman, a Union spy and actress who risked it all during the American Civil War. Joining them is living historian MJ Henion, who brings Pauline&apos...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. The story continues...Jennie, Dianne and Professor Jared Richman continue their discussion about the life and legacy of Mary Shelley. From the heartache of losing three of her four children in infancy, to the tragic drowning death of her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary was often forced to be...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. This year's Beyond the Grave event honors Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but who was the woman behind the iconic novel? Born to radical parents Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, Mary Shelley navigated a life of intellectual fervor, passionate relationships – including her tumultuo...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. This week on the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery podcast; while Dianne is away, Jennie welcomes a new guest, JoEllen Hundeland, to share her passion project, "Hillside Cemetery: Middletown, New York: Beyond the Graves". From school bus curiosity to researching incredible local stories...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Join The Ordinary, Extraordinary Cemetery podcast for a milestone episode - our 200th! For this special episode Dianne and Jennie welcome back returning guest Kristen Allen of Bloombridge, the cemetery flower delivery service, to share exciting updates on the organization's remarkable grow...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Jennie and Dianne are excited to share Part 2 of our discussion with author Joy Giguere on "Pleasure Grounds of Death: The Rural Cemetery in Nineteenth-century America". They explore how the rural cemetery movement transformed the funeral industry, especially following the civil war....

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. This week on The Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery, Jennie and Dianne welcome Joy Giguere back to discuss her new book "Pleasure Grounds of Death: The Rural Cemetery in Nineteenth-century America". They chat about the rise of rural cemeteries in the United States, including Mount Auburn...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Saddle up, partners as Jennie and Dianne 'shoot' the breeze with Josh Taylor of the Wild West Extravaganza Podcast (and YouTube channel) while they pay their respects at the graveside of infamous outlaw Billy the Kid and his Ordinary Extraordinary life and legacy that ended before it...

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Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. In part 1 of "The Great Eiffel Tower Swindle" Jennie and Dianne share the humble beginnings of a man who became known as one of the world's greatest swindlers, Victor "The Count" Lustig; and left listeners hanging after recounting his notorious first sale of the Eiffel...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. On this episode of The Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery, Jennie and Dianne pay a virtual visit to the graveside of a man who truly made a "splash" not only in America, but around the world. Join them as they relate the fascinating story of John Michael Kohler, the man credited as the i...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. This week on the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery podcast Jennie and Dianne review their recent "gravestone preservation workshop" after attending the "48 State Tour" hosted by Atlas Preservation at Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs, Colorado. They share what they learne...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. This week on the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery podcast Jennie and Dianne chat about Dianne's recent East Coast adventures in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Dianne shares about the many historical locations she visited including the Lizzie Borden house in Fall River Massachusetts, sites...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Happy Birthday America, or as Americans say, "Happy 4th of July!" Jennie and Dianne celebrate America's  birthday with author and presidential historian Kurt Deion as he recounts his adventures in his book "Presidential Grave Hunter: One Kid's Quest to Visit the Tombs o...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. In this episode of the "Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery" podcast, Jennie chats with Sandra K. Doyle, a former deathcare industry professional turned author. Sandra's book, "MY LIFE AT THE CEMETERY: IT'S NOT AS DEAD AS YOU THINK", is a heartwarming and sometimes hum...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. “Cemeteries are for the living. They’re there for us, they’re there to comfort us, they’re there to educate us, they’re there to provide peaceful meditative places to contemplate our own mortality and our own life." This is what Tui Snider told Dominic Genetti of the Midland Daily News and...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Join Jennie and Dianne on the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery podcast as they delve into the hidden histories of Charleston, South Carolina's iconic graveyards. This week, they're joined by Patrick Harwood, a man who's spent his career uncovering the truth. From his days as an in...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Ask and ye shall receive! This episode was made possible because several listeners reached out to this week's guest letting him know that Jennie and Dianne were eagerly hoping to speak with him. Get ready for a journey through history as Jennie and Dianne welcome Ed Breen, a descendant of...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Join Jennie and Dianne on the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery podcast as they welcome Mel Bennett, founder of Life Forest cemetery, for a heartwarming and insightful conversation. Mel shares the personal story of how Life Forest was born out of her desire to give her mother a better burial afte...