When You Die

Rosie Grant is a writer, baker, and traveler who journeys across the world with an unusual guide: gravestones. In cemeteries from small towns to far-off countries, Rosie searches for recipes carved into headstones — instructions left behind as acts of love, memory, and hope. She then brings those recipes back to life, baking and cooking them exactly as they were written. What began as curiosity ha...

When we hear the word "witch" we think of fairy tales . But witches (yes they are real!) are rooted in the "natural" instead of the supernatural. Sian Sibley is a traditional witch, animist and a lover of the green world. She embraces ecological death culture and draws on the ancient beliefs to create sustainability  in modern life. 

Using her skills as a CEO in health care management combined with her experience as a caregiver, Jennifer O'Brian shares advice from her latest book  Care Boss , about how to balance providing a dignified death for our loved ones with a smooth transition from caregiver to griever.

Social media star Nurse Penny Smith talks about her new book  Influencing Death , her transformation from addiction to celebrated hospice nurse, the state of hospice, and so much more.

Palliative care pioneer, and passionate death educator Dr Cathryn Mannix shares beautiful stories from her decades of practice at the bedside. Not to be missed!

While grief is universal, it is also personal and unique to each to each of us. Gabby Jimenez is a hospice nurse, and end-of-life doula, and educator who uses her experience to improve end-of-life care and support grief. She talks about the need to address unresolved grief, otherwise it can be come staked, one experience after another like a pancake; the role of ritual and ceremony to help process...

Death is in the cards, so why not deal yourself a hand and have a laugh? That's what the Death Deck is about. Created by Lisa Pahl and her business partner Lori LoCicero,   The Death Deck   offers a creative way to have those difficult conversations. As a Hospice and Emergency Medicine Social Worker, Lisa saw first hand how people avoid the topic of death, even those who work in end of life ca...

Hospice physician, Dr. Karen Wyatt has been widely recognized for her compassionate presence with patients and her deep understanding of the spiritual aspect of health, illness and dying. In this episode, Johanna Lunn talks with Hospice physician Dr Karen Wyatt about Seven Lessons for the Living from the Dying, a beautiful book about Dr Wyatt's entre into hospice work after her father died and...

Carol Reid and her husband were looking forward to spending their retirement together. But when Jim was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia , Carol found that although she had worked as a palliative care nurse, it did not prepare her to deal with the gradual loss of her own loved one. 

Michael Brooke is a skateboarding historian and publisher who worked as an Assistant Funeral Director during the Covid pandemic. These experiences inspired his recent book Endless Wave: Skateboarding, Death and Spirituality and the creation of Time for My Story which works with individuals to record stories and memories of their life though words and pictures. The result is a beautiful magazine to...

Briana Simmons is a lifecycle facilitator for black and LGBTQIA+ communities. She is also the founder of Unearthing Tradition, and works to reclaim dignified life cycles, and offering lifecycle support that creates unapologetic healing spaces for black folks.

When Nefertiti Moor first began her work in death care, she had originally planned to focus on being a Death Doula. But within her community she saw a need for so much more. It was because of this need that Nefertiti founded Dearly Bereaved, where she can help people in many aspects, from green burial support, grief support and home funeral guiding. In doing so, she has been able to revisit ancien...

Alica Forneret's work focuses on how we can support each other through death-related loss and the grief sparked by, and before, end-of-life experiences. She is the Executive Director of PAUSE which supports Communities of Color through grief and end of life by hosting a mentorship/incubator program for individuals, business owners, artists, and concept creators working in the end-of-life space...

Nicola Nuttall's daughter Laura was just starting University when she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. We talk about how the family has been living with this diagnosis, their drive to help others and the gratitude they feel for the many people have come forward to help Laura fulfill her bucket list - which includes driving a tank, a plane & a subway car! Since recording this podca...

Day Schildkret is internationally renowned as an author, artist, and teacher behind the Morning Altars movement, inspiring tens of thousands of people to make life more beautiful and meaningful through ritual, nature and art. Ritual is a powerful way to make meaning in times of grief and times of joy. More than ceremony, rituals can mark our experiences and open us to the wonder of life itself. Au...

Grief is both emotional and felt experience. If we have the courage to really feel grief, feel our humanness, then we can process it more fully - even though we don't really know when it will end. Rev Olivia was trained in the 80's as a Death Midwife during the AIDS crisis and has been supporting people at the end of life ever since. She is founder of the Sacred Crossings Institute, which...

Our animal companions mean the world to us. They are part of our family and our support system. Letting them go is never easy, but it is necessary. Veterinarian Dr. Emily Reiner knows that compassion for pets at their end of life is crucial, for them and for their humans. She operates  Forever Loved , a vet service that focuses on end-of-life care and euthanasia. For Dr Reiner, it is an honour to...

Death Doulas are important members of the team that make up, “Last Responders.” Jude Higgins is an Educator, Spiritual Care Coordinator, and Clinical Chaplain at Quality Home Health & Hospice in Salt Lake City, UT.  As such, she has much insight into the role Death Doulas play in end-of-life care.

When we talk about the role of end of life doulas we primarily think that they offer support to prepare for death, provide comfort, help with grief. But there's an aspect that we don't often realize is necessary and that is  advocacy within the health care system. When facing death, many feel helpless and unsure of what steps to take. In her work, Diane Gray focuses on advocating for patie...

Art and movement therapy can be a powerful ally on the grief journey. Integrating the death of a loved one can be overwhelming, but somatic movement and art therapy can often help.

In this episode host Johanna Lunn and Barbara discuss the future of dying. How hospice has changed. How to pick a hospice (not all hospices are the same.) The important role of end-of-life workers, and so much more.

Dr. Penny Sartori PhD is a skilled intensive care nurse, educator, and leading world expert on near death experiences. She has authored a number of books including The Wisdom of Near Death Experiences and also appears in the When You Die Trilogy.

Joél Simone Anthony, better known as The Grave Woman, is a licensed funeral director and embalmer, a sacred grief practitioner,  end-of-life educator, and so much more. We talk about the sacred nature of death care and the impact culture has on our views on death, grief, family roles, and our awareness of the cycle of life. Joél can be found at:   theGraveWoman.com

In At Heaven’s Door (Simon & Schuster 2022), William shares his research on the many ways the living can and do accompany the dying on their journey into the afterlife. He is the Founder of the Shared Crossing Project, whose mission is to raise awareness of the profound and healing experiences that can be available to the dying and their loved ones at the end of life

Is it possible that our fear of death prevents us from living fully? For over 20 years Sue Brayne has been helping people to transform their relationship with mortality as a therapist specializing in trauma, as well as through her end-of-life research, workshops and books on spirituality, consciousness, and dying.