The Dying Matters Podcast

Gary Andrews didn't expect to have to face the fact of death as soon as he did. He was away on a business trip when his wife Joy died suddenly, and he and his two children had to face grief head on. 

As an illustrator and an animator, Gary had already been working on a 'Doodle a Day' series to share with friends and family. After Joy died, the drawings became a way to for him to process his grief and chronicle his new life as a wido...

For the first episode of our new season, we're talking to Dr Rachel Clarke, a palliative care doctor and former journalist who gained widespread notoriety as a leading campaigner in the junior doctors dispute of 2016. 

We chat to Rachel about what it's like to be a doctor who works with dying people every day, and why she believes it's so important for all of us to talk more openly about death and dying. 

Follow Rachel @doctor_oxford...

The theme of this year's Dying Matters Week was 'What Can You Do in Your Community?' It's a question we ask to challenge people to think about ways they can help the people in their lives to talk more openly about death and dying, and make plans for the end of life. Most Dying Matters events are structured with this goal in mind, but they will vary hugely depending on the community they take place in. 

Our guests this week are the o...

Most of us are more likely to only start talking about death and dying as we get older - as the prospect gets nearer, more familiar, maybe even more relatable. However, as we all know, death doesn't just come for us at the end of a long life. It happens to the young too. 

Our guests this week passionately believe that it's really important to include the voices of young people in conversations about death and dying. Lucy Watts was t...

If you've been to a hospice before, then you'll know that they are amazing places. Hospices don't just provide nursing care for the dying, or the terminally ill. Since the founding of the first modern hospice in 1967, their work has grown to encompass rehabilitative therapies, emotional counselling, and even bereavement support for families, alongside excellent clinical care. The mission of a hospice is to improve quality of life a...

Dealing with the death of someone you love is one of the hardest things each of us will ever have to do. Grief can affect us in strange and frightening ways, some so strange and frightening that it's incredibly difficult to talk about them, and if you can't talk about them, then it can feel impossible to find the help you need.

Linda Magistris, our guest on this episode, wants to make it as easy for you to find help as possible. Aft...

Have you ever pictured what your own funeral will look like? The stock image we're given in films and popular culture has all the mourners dressed in black, facing a coffin at the head of a church or standing around it in a graveyard. But funerals are becoming increasingly diverse, as people move away from the traditional models towards something that is much more bespoke and personalised. 

Jane Harris, one of our guests this week, ...

What songs do you want played at your funeral? Whether you have a full playlist already planned, or are planning on using a book of hymnals, we can all agree that music is incredibly important to us.

This week, we talk to two people who are using music to help people at the end of life. Andy Lowndes is the founder of Playlist for Life, an organisation that uses music to help improve the care for people with dementia, and helps them ...

What do you want to do before you die? Maybe you have a bucket list you're working through, or a set of goals you want to achieve before the end. But would those goals be the same if you found out you only had a few weeks left to live? What would really matter to you? 

Ian Leech, our guest this week, never expected to have to discuss that question. But when his daughter, Mel, received a terminal diagnosis, he found that he had to. I...

Why should we be talking about death and dying? For the first episode of our new series, we talk to two people who have decided to spend their time helping others to have those difficult conversations. Megan Mooney, who runs a death cafe, and Barbara Altounyan, the Hospice Biographer, tell us about their work and explain just why having these conversations is so important for all of us.

Theme music is by Bernadette Ryan.

Find out mor...