Dying to Tell You

—Call ‪(720) 600-7056‬ and leave a message for your loved ones—

Inspired by the beautiful idea behind Japanese wind phones, we want to welcome you to a new effort here at Dying To Tell You, a way for you to leave messages for loved ones who have passed on. It's called By The Way, and while it is a phone number and a voicemail box, it is also so much more. 

You are invited to use this number to leave a message for anyone who is no l...

Lisa Pahl, LCSW shares how a patient she encountered early in her hospice career taught her how even the worst experiences can help us grow.

Lisa is the co-creator of The Death Deck and The E•O•L Deck, tools that inspire meaningful conversations on what matters most in our lives and in our deaths.

As a licensed clinical social worker with over 17 years of experience within hospice and emergency medicine, Lisa helps people cope with...

"In this line of work, you can't see death as failure. But in this case…very much felt like a failure. I hadn’t controlled his pain.”

A brief note of caution: as the title suggests, this episode contains a story involving death by suicide.

Dr. Laura Kennedy, a palliative care physician, shares a tragic story with Cody from early in her practice—an experience that was, in her own words, "devastating." What sh...

This week, we check back in with former guest and irrepressible force Deanna! A few weeks back, we drove up to Casper, WY to meet Deanna in person for the first time. And during our lovely visit, we all decided it was time for a public update on Deanna, who was diagnosed with ALS at the start of 2024. 

Deanna has moved to in-patient hospice in recent months and, along with her husband Oren, wanted to share her experience with us an...

One question opened up a world of understanding for Dr. Andy Robinson early in his career: "What do you feel we should know that we don't?"

It was asked by social worker to a reticent patient, who then exclaimed how nobody knew who we WAS; they only knew who he is now...a patient who was dying.

This question and the response it created has stuck with Dr. Andy over the decades and underscored the importance of finding out not just w...

Sometimes fixing the problem right in front of us creates harm down the road, especially in healthcare and with patients who are facing the end of life.

Physician's Assistant Ryan English joins Cody this week on Dying To Tell You: The Caring Perspective to share the story of a patient that inspired him to get into palliative care, a patient whose situation presented the challenging decision to forego surgery to address an immediate...

Healthcare educator, social media influencer, and good friend of the podcast Hospice Nurse Julie shares the formative story of a patient who changed her perspective forever.

Working in the ICU as a young nurse, Julie started to see a pattern that disturbed her, an unwillingness at times to help patients and their families face what seemed inevitable to everyone on the healthcare staff but was never said out loud—that sometimes prol...

It can be a difficult idea to engage with, but children face terminal illnesses and life-limiting circumstances too. And it takes vastly empathetic healthcare professionals like Dr. Jared Rubenstein to help them navigate their experience with grace, intention, and peace.

Dr. Rubenstein shares his perspective with Cody for this week's episode and talks about how his team came to institute Dignity Therapy Inte...

Wellness Nurse, Life and Death Educator, International Speaker, and Author of the new book "The Good Death," Suzanne B. O'Brien, RN, has helped train over 360,000 people globally in how to care for loved ones at the end of life and how we can all prepare ourselves for a "good death."

In this episode of Dying To Tell You: The Caring Perspective, Suzanne joins Cody to share what she's experienced by caring for literally thousands of ...

In this episode of Dying to Tell You: The Caring Perspective, (E07) Cody interviews his long-time friend Garrett Price about his journey from chaplaincy to becoming a licensed professional counselor specializing in trauma, grief, and loss.

Garrett shares a touching story about his time as a hospice chaplain, including his experience with a terminal patient we’ll call Doug. It reveals the powerful human connections formed in end-of-...

Dying To Tell You: The Caring Perspective E06: Clinical Chaplain Aaron

Aaron Metcalf is a board-certified Clinical Chaplain at a Level 1 Trauma Center nestled in Portland, Oregon. Aaron has lived in Oregon most of his life and enjoys the northwest outdoorsy life along with the intense and meaningful work of chaplaincy. He especially loves working with amazing nurses and doctors as the...

Dying to Tell You: The Caring Perspective—E05 with Dr. John Mulder

Dr. Mulder shares his incredible story of a patient who was at the end of her life but, beyond medical explanation, not yet ready to go. And how he stumbled quite by accident on what seemed like the answer.

Dr. John Mulder currently serves as the Executive Director for Trillium Institute, Chief Medical Consultant for Hospice and Palliative Care for Holland Home, and...

This week, Cody sits down with @Hospicehalley, a Hospice Social Worker and co-host of the Death Happens, An Insider’s Guide to Dying podcast with @hospicenursepenny. She previously hosted the Someday We’ll All Be Dead podcast from 2018–2024.

Halley tells the story of the very first time a patient of hers took Medical Aid In Dying (M.A.I.D.) and how despite her strongly held beliefs on personal agency and the right to die with digni...

Dr. Matthew Tyler on the "hidden curriculum" of healthcare professionals—lessons they learn about some of the most difficult parts of their jobs, lessons they learn not in a classroom but by simply living through them.

Matt is board certified in internal medicine and hospice & palliative medicine with more than a decade of experience helping people living with a serious illness create personalized medical care plans centered ar...

"She left this world feeling comfortable with who she was."

Jeff Manuel is a palliative care physician in Denver, Colorado, and joins Cody to share his personal story about what he learned from one patient in particular—a young woman diagnosed with metastatic uterine cancer—at the end of her life.

Jeff has been practicing as a palliative care physician and educator for 16 years. He has had roles as a palliative medicine fellowship ...

This week on our very first Dying To Tell You: The Caring Perspective, Hospice Nurse Penny shares her experience with a patient whose spirit had seemingly left them but whose body was still there "doing the work of dying." This moment changed forever how Penny approached her patients, her practice, and even her own belief in the afterlife.

Penny is a nationally certified hospice and palliative care registered nurse with over 17 yea...

A brief (3 minutes!) update after our Season Two finale!

It's Giving Tuesday and if you love the show, we have a humble request. If you believe in our mission to normalize death and dying and have the means, we'd like to ask for your support this Giving Tuesday. We are not a nonprofit, but even a small gift helps with production costs that include software licenses, stock music licensing, distribution platforms, and so much more.

C...

For the finale of Season Two, we invited back a few previous guests for a very special Thanksgiving episode...with video! 

Riyaz, Rachel, and Javeeda joined us live and on-camera to share how they're doing and what they're grateful for. Join us around the virtual Thanksgiving table for this lovely hour of reconnection, gratitude, and life.

If you're listening to the audio podcast only, head over to YouTube to see the video version ...

Between each episode, Cody offers a brief reflection on the themes he discussed with his guest the week before.

Today, Cody reflects on his conversation with Jackie & Shannon, and what can happen to our identity—our sense of self—when we begin to lose memories, shift roles, and face what sometimes seems like a stranger in the mirror. What mak...