Death at 40

Death comes for us all—but what happens after we go is surprisingly full of choices. In this episode, we dig (pun fully intended) into the many ways people exit this earthly realm, from the conventional to the compostable.

We start with the classic: conventional burial. Picture embalming fluid, caskets that outlast your family name, and enough formaldehyde in the ground each year to pickle a city. Then there's cremation—a hot topic with a carbon footprint the size of a road trip to grandma’s.

But wait, there's hope! We explore greener, cleaner options like natural burial, aquamation (yep, liquefying Grandma is a thing), and human composting (goodbye body, hello flower bed). We also get into high-tech alternatives like mushroom suits, donating your body to science (arguably the most useful thing you can do after death), and—because no death discussion is complete without some sci-fi flair—cryonics and space burials.

We round things out with a world tour of cultural traditions that make Western burial practices seem...well, a little extra.

Whether you're planning for the future, morbidly curious, or just love weird facts about death, this one’s to die for.