The author of history's most influential piece of animal mourning literature had been lost...until now. Learn the incredible true story behind The Rainbow Bridge . Episode Guest Paul Koudounaris is a founding member of The Order of the Good Death. He has a PhD in Art History and has written three books about the use of skeletal remains in sacred spaces, Empire of Death, Heavenly Bodies, and Memento Mori. When he’s not hunting skeletons he moonlights as a cat historian, and his book co-authored b...
Apr 14, 2023•35 min•Season 3Ep. 10
A court case in California could force death doulas to become licensed funeral directors. We talk to the doula and the lawyer taking on California's Funeral and Cemetery Bureau. Episode Guests Akhila Murphy is one of the original co-founders of Full Circle of Living and Dying, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit located in Grass Valley, CA. She is a trained End-of-Life Doula and After-Death care educator. Currently she serves on the board of directors for Full Circle of Living and Dying as Founding Director a...
Mar 10, 2023•42 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Go behind the scenes with Cat Warren, who works with cadaver dogs to find the missing dead and locate Black and Indigenous burial grounds. Episode Guest Cat Warren is the author of the NYT bestseller What the Dog Knows, which explores how scent-detection dogs help find the missing and dead, sometimes even those missing for hundreds of years. She currently researches how best to use human remains detection dogs in archaeology and to help locate African-American burial grounds. Episode Resources C...
Feb 24, 2023•35 min•Season 3Ep. 8
From viral trends to new options for your future corpse, Caitlin and Sarah review the best and worst of the past year in death, revealing how the death positive movement is making an impact on the way we do death. Episode Resources To access The Year in Death Project, sign up to become an Order member , or make a donation of $50 or more to our nonprofit! Episode Credits: Hosted by Caitlin Doughty Co-Host Sarah Chavez Produced by the Order of the Good Death, Sarah Chavez and Lauren Ronaghan Edite...
Feb 07, 2023•37 min•Season 3Ep. 7
In a space of loss that is already difficult to exist in, we need to do more to understand how our language surrounding green burial can better acknowledge difficult histories and experiences. Episode Resources This episode is an audio version of the article “ Whose Green Burial Is It Anyway? ” by Corinne Elicona. Green Burial 101 Locate a Green Burial Ground So, You Want to Be a Tree When You Die? How to Green Your Funeral Episode Credits: Written by Corinne Elicona @CorinneElicona Narrated by ...
Jan 27, 2023•20 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Mortuary schools began as embalming schools, sponsored by embalming chemical companies. Today, mortuary schools are designed to be more holistic, covering everything a new mortician may face in the industry. But what groups are being left out of this education? The last decade has brought hard discussions around serious gaps in what is taught to students and if they're ready for the reality of working in the death industry. In this episode Caitlin talks with two funeral directors, Joél Maldonado...
Jan 20, 2023•39 min•Season 3Ep. 5
No matter how long you’ve been working with dead bodies, nothing can prepare you for working on someone you knew and loved. Episode Resources This episode is an audio version of the article “ Washing Kathryn, Touching Death ” by Nora Menkin for The Order of the Good Death. Helping to care for someone’s body in death can be a profound experience. Visit The Order website to learn more about your rights and options. Have questions about becoming a mortician, or wondering if a career in death is rig...
Dec 27, 2022•13 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Where would you even start in opening your own green burial ground? After all, every cemetery is a unique snowflake, with its own confusing blend of regulations. We speak with one expert who will cut through the confusion, and one practitioner who made it all happen. Episode Guests Tanya Marsh, a professor at Wake Forest University School of Law focusing on laws regarding the status, treatment and disposition of human remains. Sarah Wambold is a writer and funeral director in Austin, TX. Episode...
Dec 16, 2022•35 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Hot Take: We’re all afraid of death – whether it’s the actual state of being dead one day, the pain of dying, or how your remains will be treated. Death Positive or not, that anxiety is something that bonds us all – and while it’s scary, it’s important to know you’re not alone. Episode Resources This episode is an audio version of the article “ Life, Death, and the Anxiety In-Between ” by Louise Hung for The Order of the Good Death. What is Death Positive? ( https://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/d...
Nov 22, 2022•14 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Episode Description Our future corpses have more options than ever, with eco-friendly processes like aquamation and composting being legalized across the U.S. and Canada. Find out the nitty-gritty truths on what goes into making these death alternatives a reality where you live. Host, Caitlin Doughty talks to Recompose founder, Katrina Spade who has been the driving force behind legalization efforts, and Order of the Good Death Executive Director, Sarah Chavez. Episode Resources Stay up to date ...
Nov 11, 2022•39 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Welcome back for Season 3 of the Death in the Afternoon, a podcast from the Order of the Good Death!
Nov 07, 2022•2 min
In this audio preview of her new book Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?, Caitlin is sharing whether swallowing popcorn before you die will indeed make your cremation epic (spoiler: no) and whether your sweet cat or dog will indeed eat your eyeballs (spoiler: yes). The book will be out in print and audiobook on September 10th in the US, September 19th in the UK. Thanks deathlings! www.caitlindoughty.com
Sep 05, 2019•13 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Today we're talking corpses as entertainment. Not the idea of a corpse (sorry, horror fans) but real live – or should we say real dead– bodies. From 18th century Rome, to 19th century Paris, to 20th century Hollywood, when can corpses be important educational tools, and when are they only tasteless shock value? Who gets to decide? Enjoy, and thank you for your support of season two of DITA.
Jun 14, 2019•31 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Before zombies became the brain-eating pop culture phenomenon of the Walking (or Living) Dead, they represented something more complicated. From the procession of the Chinese dead, to hungry ghosts, to the enslaved people of Haiti, zombies say a great deal about a the country or culture where they appear. Perhaps our modern obsession with zombie films and video games also says a great deal about us? Louise and Sarah explain.
May 23, 2019•30 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Wills, advanced directives, emergency savings accounts – what's not to love? Ok, we get it, facing your mortality through piles of bureaucracy is about the least inspiring task on your to-do list. But paradoxically, these are the exact tasks that once you tackle them head on, put you on a one way train to chill town. In today's episode, Caitlin, with help from her friend Chanel Reynolds, takes us on a journey to clean up her own end of life messes.
May 09, 2019•21 min
The American Civil War left roughly 700,000 men dead and an entire nation devastated. With millions of pounds of rotting human flesh on the battlefields, burying the dead was a daunting, sometimes insurmountable task for the survivors. Bad when it was burying your fallen brethren, worse when it was burying the bodies of your enemy, unimaginable when it was burying the men who fought to keep you enslaved.
Apr 25, 2019•26 min•Season 2Ep. 4
We know who gets fancy monuments: politicians, military heroes, and so many men on horses. In cemeteries the playing field may be leveling, with faces and names showing up that have never been represented in public sculpture before. But in other areas, monuments are business as usual, the dead forgotten, the Lizard People left unhonored. (That's right... the Lizard People.)
Apr 12, 2019•28 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Two Manhattan tragedies, two miles and ninety years apart, that changed government policy forever. But the victims couldn't afford to step back and take this long historical view. They were caught in a horrific struggle between two paths, both leading to unimaginable death. Warning: Discussion of suicide.
Mar 27, 2019•25 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Cremation and burial are all well and good, but why aren't our dead bodies electroplated or cemented? In our first episode of Death in the Afternoon– Season Two, we're talking about the ridiculous funerary innovations that succeeded (see: the death-defying green parks of Hollywood) and the ridiculous funerary innovations that... didn't (see: coffin torpedoes.) Welcome back, deathlings.
Mar 14, 2019•26 min•Season 2Ep. 1
You asked for it, deathlings. A bonus episode on the mortuary and embalming scenes in Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House. Are they accurate? A hot mess? Is my job really filled with ghosts? All that and more in today's mini-episode with Caitlin.
Dec 19, 2018•17 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Ring ring. Hello? Who’s there? IT’S YOUR MORTALITY CALLING. In life, phones make everything easier– just “reach out and touch someone.” But in death, reaching out can be a little more complicated. This week we talk about accessing a dead man’s cell phone, texting from beyond the grave, and the grim origins of a certain red handset.
Dec 05, 2018•32 min•Season 1Ep. 8
A wisp of white. A voice in the dark. A lamp mysteriously turns on by itself. Few things capture our imagination like a good ghost story. But is there more to a spooky tale than thrills and chills? Perhaps we are less afraid of WHAT or WHO haunts us, than we are of what we’ve done to deserve that haunting. Join us for a very SPIRITED Death in the Afternoon.
Nov 28, 2018•35 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Embalming. It sounds like the stuff of horror movies: pump a dead body full of chemicals to make it look alive – ALIVE! Whose idea was this? Is there really such a thing as "extreme embalming"? And what about when embalming (allegedly) goes horribly, horribly wrong? We discuss these and other questions on this week’s episode of Death in the Afternoon.
Nov 21, 2018•28 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Ah, to die, to decompose, to become one with the earth. Most of us accept this as our fate. But what happens when that whole “decomposition thing” doesn’t go as planned? This week we discuss incorrupt corpses that inspire devotion, grant miracles, and just might help you to become a karate champion.
Nov 14, 2018•30 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Being in a cult... doesn’t always end well. This week, we confront the questions: Why not drink the Kool-Aid? How many puppies does it take to resurrect a teen queen? And, what shouldn’t you bring into a doomsday cave? (Spoiler: corpses)
Nov 07, 2018•37 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Generally speaking, we like our limbs in context. “The foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone, the ankle bone’s connected to the leg bone.” But what about when we encounter limbs that aren’t connected to anybody? Just out there, free and unattached? This week we talk about rogue and extra limbs that have been found by the sea, in the smoker, and in the grave as we answer the question: is that a…foot?
Oct 31, 2018•23 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Mistakes happen. Cremations happen. But few things capture our morbid imagination like cremation mistakes happening. Whether it’s the horror of cremating your coworker, a misplaced corpse on the way to America’s first modern cremation, or plumes of “human remains particulate” interrupting your Best Buy shopping experience, nothing fans the flames of our phobias like a cremation blunder. This week we talk about things that can go right, wrong, and sideways when you’re in the business of cremating...
Oct 24, 2018•32 min•Season 1Ep. 2
In our first episode, we take you on a magical (ok, not always so magical) journey of living with the dead. From an adorable 91 year old lady with a dark secret, to a rhinestone studded cult with resurrection ambitions, to a Japanese mummy collecting government assistance. Buckle up, and welcome to Death in the Afternoon!
Oct 15, 2018•35 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Welcome to your mortality, humans! It's a new podcast called Death in the Afternoon from the team that brings you Ask a Mortician. First episode is out on October 15th.
Oct 02, 2018•2 min•Season 1Ep. 1
