Peaceful Exit

Hospice nurse Barbara Karnes helped set the standard for end-of-life care 35 years ago, when she wrote "Gone From My Sight." It's a little blue pamphlet that uses simple, straightforward language to explain the dying process - and it is still widely used today by hospice agencies across the country. In this episode...

Michelle Hord has lived through any parent's worst nightmare: her ex-husband murdered their seven-year old daughter Gabrielle. She talks about her book, "The Other Side of Yet," and tells Sarah how she transformed her grief into action, hope, and resilience, particularly through founding the nonprofit Gabrielle's Wings. Michelle also discusses the impact of other significant deaths in her life, the unexpected gifts loss can bring, ...

This week, we’re re-releasing an episode featuring Sarah's conversation with Michael Wiegers, who gives us a masterclass in poetry. He's the editor-in-chief at Copper Canyon Press, an independent nonprofit press that publishes award-winning poetry. Under his leadership, CCP has published over 400 titles, including winners of the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes, as well as the National...

This week, we’re re-releasing an earlier episode featuring Sarah's conversation with Episcopal priest, playwright, and former economist Steven Tomlinson. He tells Sarah about his personal journey through grief and healing after the sudden loss of his partner, David. Tomlinson reflects on how community, faith, and the process of writing...

Basil Twist is a world-famous puppeteer. His first full-length production, Symphonie Fantastique, flipped the audience's concept of the art form by existing entirely underwater in a massive tank. As he looks back on his decades-long career, we talk about what aging feels like, how losing a mentor changed him, and all the wonderful live shows he has collaborated on, and why seeing performances in-person matters. We explore the world...

Quan Huynh's story details the resilience of the human spirit. His book, "Sparrow in the Razor Wire: Finding Freedom from Within While Serving a Life Sentence," is an open, honest look at his life while incarcerated for committing murder. Quan was paroled in 2015, and, just six months later, he started his first company. He has devoted his entire career to helping incarcerated people have the best shot at a second chance. His lesso...

This mother-daughter, writer-illustrator duo, has created two illustrated books together. The first stemmed from Hallie's painful realization that her mother would die someday. The second from Suzy's heartbreak when her husband of 30 years unexpectedly left her. The three of us talk about the ways that a break up is like a death, all the feelings that come with grief -- including rage -- and how to make your own ritual as a healing...

In my conversation with poet Danusha Laméris, we talk about art, poetry, grief, and language. She reads from her latest collection of poems, "Blade by Blade," which is described as a book of hungers. We talk about what that means, how it relates to grief and how grief is rarely isolated. It's always connected to so many other human experiences and feelings. And she would know. We talk about two big losses in her life -- her brother...

Lauren Canaday has lived quite a life. Two lives, if you ask her. In her memoir, Independence Ave: How Individualism Killed Me and Community Brought Me Back, Lauren recounts her dating life and career from statician to hair stylist to hair industry executive. Then the moment that changed everything -- Lauren suffered sudden cardiac arrest and didn't have a heartbeat for 24 minutes. By her husband's quick action and one fierce EMT, ...

Oliver Burkeman's latest book, "Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts," is a guide to embracing what he calls the imperfect life. It's the realization that you're never going to sort your life out. So instead of attempting that futile task day after day and viewing your limitations as a human as obstacles to a meaningful life, you embrace them. In our conversation, Oliver and ...

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer knows grief. Her dad and son died in the same year. Like her latest book, The Unfolding, if this interview were music, it would be in the key of grief. Rosemerry shares how her daily writing practice helped her navigate the days and weeks following her son's death. She also explains how we can hold opposite things that may both be true. We can let go of the tired stories we tell ourselves and find new meta...

Joél Simone Maldonado is a licensed funeral director and embalmer, spiritual death care educator and the founder of the Multicultural Death & Grief Care Academy. She's helping to revolutionize the death care industry by educating practitioners about culturally sensitive protocols and death care for communities of color. In this episode, we talk about everything from restorative art, to various disposition methods, to how Covid ...

Rabbi Neil Blumofe is the senior rabbi at Congregation Agudas Achim in Austin, Texas, and has been part of that community for 26 years! Rabbi Blumofe and I talk about how music can help facilitate community and spirituality. If life is improvisation, then Judaism is jazz. And sometimes rock 'n roll. We also talk about forgiveness, belonging, what makes something sacred and how forgiveness is possible at any time.

You can learn m...

Daryl Horton is the senior pastor at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Austin, Texas. He explains why community is a key tennant of his faith and why it's so critical that we preserve Black churches. We also talk about the death of his brother, getting the call to ministry and how the church can be a critical voice in the conversation about racial justice.

You can learn more about Pastor Horton's work here: https://www.mtzion-baptist.o...

Like authors, faith leaders are a great source for language about life and death. Venerable Jue Ji is a Buddhist nun who grew up in Taipei, Taiwan, and now calls Austin, Texas, home. Death is a key focus in Buddhism and Venerable shares ways that we can incorporate the idea of impermanence in our daily lives. We talk about how nature reflects impermance back to us, the afterlife, the death of her mother, and how her take on meditat...

Dr. Michael J Moore is a veterinary scientist who spent his entire career studying and advocating for the North Atlantic Right Whale. This is a critically endangered species, on the brink of extinction, due in large part to commercial fishing and shipping in the waters where they live. We talk about the critical role right whales play in the ocean's biodiversity and why biodiversity is so important to human survival. We explore wha...

We live in a culture that avoids talking about death and Peaceful Exit is an invitation to be in candid conversation about it. In season five, host Sarah Cavanaugh is talking with writers, artists, musicians and other creatives who have explored death through their art, to help us demystify and normalize this very human experience.

There's no guarantee of a peaceful exit, but imagining into the experience you want can help buil...

As the show begins to switch gears a bit, from talking with authors to talking with artists, theologians, musicians, poets –creatives of all kinds – we take a moment to reflect on what we’ve learned over the years making the show. Sarah talks with Larj Media’s Principle Creative, Tina Nole, to talk about why she began these conversations and the many ways making the Peaceful Exit podcast has impacted her.

This podcast is produce...