#151: In Search of the Good Death
Caitlin Doughty is the death professional behind the Internet\u2019s favorite show about death, Ask a Mortician, and founder of the Order of the Good Death, which works to overcome our culture\u2019s anxiety about dying, grief, and the afterlife. She runs her own funeral home, Undertaking LA, which offers alternatives to traditional, formaldehyde-soaked approaches to burial. In her book From Here to Eternity, she travels the world in search of the good death, from Mexico and North Carolina to Japan and Bolivia, learning about the ways in which other cultures have approached the end of life. We originally spoke to her in 2017, digging in to the subjects of corpse interaction, alternatives to the casket, and what death means to her.
Go beyond the episode on our website: https://theamericanscholar.org/in-search-of-the-good-death/
- Caitlin Doughty\u2019s From Here to Eternity
- Check out Landis Blair\u2019s illustrations for the book on our episode page
- Ask a Mortician all about coffin birth, ghost marriage, and the iconic corpses of the world on Caitlin\u2019s YouTube channel
- Read more about the Order of the Good Death, an organization of funeral professionals working to change attitudes about death
- Virtually visit the high-tech Ruriden Columbarium in Tokyo, Japan with head monk Yajima Taijun
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