S6 Ep3: Death, beauty and the macabre: a conversation with Joanna Ebenstein

Artist, curator and writer Joanna Ebenstein joins host Stephen Rumford to explore the rich, sometimes eerie, but always fascinating ways we try to make sense of death.

Joanna is the founder of the Morbid Anatomy project and author of Memento Mori, a beautiful collection of imagery showing how death has been depicted throughout history and across cultures. Her work invites us to consider what these depictions can teach us about grief, memory, and how we live alongside the knowledge that we’ll one day die.

Together, Joanna and Stephen talk about why people are drawn to the macabre, how rituals and aesthetics can help us process mortality, and what happens when we stop turning away from death, and start looking more closely.

This is a thought-provoking, tender conversation for anyone curious about the spaces where death, beauty and culture overlap.

Follow Ashgate on Instagram: @ashgate_hospice
Support resources: Ashgate Hospice Resource Centre
Explore Joanna’s work: morbidanatomy.org
This episode of The Life and Death Podcast was produced by Olivia Swift and it’s a Reform Radio production.