We Are All Dying

Too Poor To Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins with Amy Shea

Amy Shea is an essayist and the author of Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins, a powerful collection of interconnected essays that examines the unequal realities of death, dying, and after-death care for society’s most vulnerable people. Drawing attention to those who die while experiencing homelessness or who become indigent or unclaimed at the end of life, the book challenges mainstream conversations about end-of-life planning by revealing how privilege and access shape what people are able to choose in death. Through compassionate and unflinching storytelling, Shea asks readers to reconsider assumptions about dignity, care, and equity at the end of life. Her work has appeared in publications including The Missouri Review, The Massachusetts Review, and the Journal of Sociology of Health & Illness. In addition to her writing, Shea serves as the Writing Program Director for Mount Tamalpais College, a free community college serving incarcerated students at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. Website: https://amysshea.com IG: @amyshea_author

Last Rites and Rituals of India's Major Faiths with Minakshi Dewan

Minakshi Dewan is an independent researcher and author based in Gurugram, India. Her work has appeared in several Indian and international publications. She possesses years of grassroots experience in women's health, gender, and community mobilization in rural India. In this conversation Minakshi shares what she learned and experienced during her research on last rites and rituals of major faiths in India. We also talk about how the caste system plays a role in death care and reflect on digital deaths and the grieving process.

Learning Disabilities and End Of Life Planning with Andrea Bruun

In this episode, I speak with research fellow Andrea Bruun about her work improving palliative and end-of-life care for people with learning disabilities. Andrea shares insights from The DAPPLE Project, which focuses on developing better service models, and reflects on her work co-designing end-of-life planning tools with people with learning disabilities and social care teams. We explore the importance of communication, inclusion, and shared decision-making in healthcare, and why this work is essential for creating more compassionate and equitable end-of-life experiences. Access the toolkit for: end-of-life care planning with people with learning disabilities [https://www.victoriaandstuart.com/end-of-life-care-planning-toolkit] DAPPLE (on palliative care for people with learning disabilities): https://www.dappleproject.com/ [https://www.dappleproject.com/] The Victoria & Stuart Project (on end-of-life care planning for people with learning disabilities): https://www.victoriaandstuart.com/ [https://www.victoriaandstuart.com/]

How Animals Grieve With Barbara King

From the time of our earliest childhood encounters with animals, we casually ascribe familiar emotions to them. But scientists have long cautioned against such anthropomorphizing, arguing that it limits our ability to truly comprehend the lives of other creatures. Recently, however, things have begun to shift in the other direction, and anthropologist Barbara J. King is at the forefront of that movement, arguing strenuously that we can—and should—attend to animal emotions. With How Animals Grieve, she draws our attention to the specific case of grief, and relates story after story—from fieldsites, farms, homes, and more—of animals mourning lost companions, mates, or friends.

Death Stories: Darnell Lamont Walker

The Death Stories events are a monthly opportunity to practice sharing a life experience that folks typically don’t get a chance to talk about. Each month, we’ll also be joined by a very special guest whose work touches on death, storytelling, and meaning-making. Darnell Lamont Walker was our special guest for April. Darnell is an Emmy-nominated children’s television writer, author, and death doula whose work explores how we make sense of complex emotional experiences through story (both at the start and end of life). For more Darnell check out: https://darnellwalker.com IG: hello.darnell