Death Becomes Us, Part 1
Death is called the greatest of equalizers -- the greatest of mysteries. At one time we tended to our dead with home funerals and mourning rituals. Over the last century we pushed death further from our collective mind by outsourcing our dead to mortuary professionals. But our thinking about death may be changing. In recent years, a new phenomenon has...
Death is called the greatest of equalizers -- the greatest of mysteries. At one time we tended to our dead with home funerals and mourning rituals. Over the last century we pushed death further from our collective mind by outsourcing our dead to mortuary professionals. But our thinking about death may be changing. In recent years, a new phenomenon has taken hold: the rise of Death Cafes -- a place where citizens can explore their fears and concerns about any aspect of death. In Part 1 of Death Becomes Us, IDEAS producer Mary O'Connell explores this growing trend. Part 2 airs Wednesday, May 7.
Listen to Death Becomes Us Part 2
Participants in the program:
Josh Slocum, executive-director of Funeral Consumers Alliance, South Burlington, Vermont.
Rebecca Daum, death midwife, grief and bereavement counsellor, host Hamilton Death Café, Hamilton Ontario.
Kory McGrath, licensed funeral director, student midwife, Bowmanville, Ontario.
Aspen Heisey, lay chaplain at Unitarian Church, life celebrant, Guelph Ontario.
Jerrigrace Lyons, director/founder of Final Passages in Sebastopol, California.
Related Websites:
The Natural Death Centre
Dr. Hannah Rumble
Death Cafe - Impermanence
Final Passages
Beyond Yonder - Death Midwifery
Funeral Alternatives
Funeral Watchdog
Funeral Consumers Alliance
Grave Matters
Final Rights - Reclaiming the American Way of Death