Death: the podcast

Death: the podcast

New Orleans has a unique relationship to death: we have a ridiculously high murder rate, we party at funerals, and we end up above ground. Death: the podcast tells the stories of personal experiences of death - fear of it, laughing at it, life-changing brushes with it, dealing with lost loved ones, and our own inevitable and unknown heart-stopping moment. Through confronting death we learn what it is to be alive.

Episodes

Let Him Get the Pretzels - Death: the podcast - It's New Orleans

February 1, 2019 • 34 mins

Jill Farbarik and her husband Ray were dining with friends and watching their children play. Jill had no idea this would be her last dinner as Ray s wife, her last night of co parenting their two daughters, the last night as the matriarch of their happy, healthy family of four. The following morning Jill s husband collided with a tree while skiing. On March 22, 2014, surrounded by his loved ones, Ray Farbarik died at the age of 47....

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Comparative Death - Death: the podcast - It's New Orleans

March 21, 2018 • 34 mins
Ferrai shaped coffins Narco tombs Yes, they do exist. Justin Nobel travels the world investigating diverse death practices in places you ve heard about, and many you haven t. Justin chronicles his cross cultural death discoveries in his unique blog, Digital Dying. On this edition of Death the podcast, Arian talks with Justin about how various death rituals have evolved over the years. What compels a young guy like Justin to travel ...
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It's Never Too Late - Death: the podcast - It's New Orleans

January 2, 2018 • 30 mins
When Holly Pruett s father died fifteen years ago, she found a unique way to honor his physical and spiritual presence. Now, as a Certified Life Celebrant, Holly helps others craft personalized rituals to witness, celebrate, and mourn their loved ones and life events, sometimes even years after the fact. In our busy, hurried lives, it is important to slow down, take stock, and practice grief. Join Arian and Holly as they discuss th...
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The Potential In Suffering - Death: the podcast - It's New Orleans

May 22, 2017 • 53 mins
After a life threatening accident claimed three of his limbs, hospice and palliative care specialist Dr. BJ Miller decided it was time to get busy living. He set a course for deeper connection, both with himself and his fellow humans. From our wallets, to our health, to our loved ones, we all will experience loss. When we tune into our heart and to our senses, we are more likely to benefit from the wisdom that surrounds us. What do...
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Through Death's Lens - Death: the podcast - It's New Orleans

April 17, 2017 • 28 mins
Only two things are guaranteed to happen but once in a lifetime birth and death. Emmy award winning cinematographer and occasional churchyard dumpster diver Bob Perrin beautifully captures the latter with indelible images of his region s most notorious burial grounds. Now battling prostate cancer while losing his own wife to Alzheimer s Disease, Bob joins Arian for a poignant discussion on the inherent sadness and beauty of loving ...
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Natural Inevitability - Death: the podcast - It's New Orleans

April 3, 2017 • 26 mins
In medical school, Shoshana Ungerleider was primarily focused on curing disease and prolonging life. However, as her medical training progressed, Dr. Ungerleider noticed that a preponderance of incurably ill people were spending the last of their precious days hooked up to life sustaining machinery, isolated from friends and family, with little to no information about the available care options. Thus began a mission to change all o...
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One by One - Death: the podcast - It's New Orleans

March 20, 2017 • 28 mins
By the late 1980s, psychologist Greg Shrader s life as a gay man was in full bloom. Unfortunately, it was also at that time that AIDS began impacting those whom he knew and cared for. While other, heterosexual twenty somethings were bar hopping and starting families, Greg and his comrades were writing eulogies and attending funerals. To lose one peer in the prime of life is tragic. To lose fifty is unfathomable. "It was like th...
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1.5 Seconds - Death: the podcast - It's New Orleans

March 6, 2017 • 27 mins
Paul David had it all A loving wife, two beautiful daughters, a great job, and a vast network of family and friends. When he hopped on his bike one sunny day in July of 2008, Paul had no idea he would soon be battling his way back from the brink of death. How did 1.5 seconds change the course of one man s life On the edge of a precipice, what are the things that keep us going Join Arian and Paul as they discuss how a life threateni...
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Extreme Measures - Death: the podcast - It's New Orleans

February 20, 2017 • 30 mins
In her book Extreme Measures Finding a Better Path to the End of Life, Dr. Jessica Zitter sheds light on how both patients and their doctors face medical decisions before death is imminent. For patients and loved ones, speaking up and asking questions about medical procedures can make the difference between feeling scared and feeling empowered. For physicians, talking directly to a patient about death is a skill as important as any...
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In the Land of Gray - Death: the podcast - It's New Orleans

February 8, 2017 • 31 mins
Dr. Judith Schwarz is the Clinical Director of End of Life Choices New York. She specializes in talking with the critically or terminally ill about how they wish to live the remainder of their days. Dr. Schwarz has devoted her career to navigating the gray areas that emerge when death is near. What obstacles do physicians and nurses face when they are enlisted by patients to hasten death What choices do patients have when death is ...
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Still Answering The Call After 100 Years - Death: the podcast - It's New Orleans

January 16, 2017 • 28 mins
When his beloved grandfather suddenly died of a heart attack, Stephen Sontheimer, the young heir apparent to the Tharp Sontheimer Funeral Home, was excluded from the rituals associated with the end of his grandfather s life. Eager to follow in the footsteps of his forefathers, Stephen was not deterred from learning the family business and familiarizing himself with death. Since 1962, Stephen has continued the family legacy by helpi...
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The sculptured mind of Beverly Morris - Death: the podcast - It's New Orleans

January 2, 2017 • 34 mins
It s one thing to be recognized as an artist, a yoga instructor, and a successful copywriter, but being a brain cancer survivor takes life to a new level. Beverly Morris is a survivor. She has had three surgeries, four years of chemotherapy, and a lifetime dose of radiation. What she takes away from all of this is a great appreciation of life, and the discipline to say "no" a whole lot more. In this edition of Death the pod...
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It's All Bonus Time Now - Death: the podcast - It's New Orleans

December 19, 2016 • 28 mins
Twenty nine year old, Jake Densen s life was like that of any other Los Angeles twenty something a blossoming career in the television industry, great friends, and a supportive family. All of that was suddenly put to the test when, in March of 2015, an unusual skin rash led to a diagnosis of Acute Myeloid Leukemia or AML. In just two weeks, Jake s life went from the carefree enjoyment of cheeseburgers and LA beaches to doctors appo...
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Did They Have a Good Death? - Death: the podcast - It's New Orleans

December 5, 2016 • 33 mins
Most of us will eventually reach a point where medical intervention is outmatched by advanced age, illness, or both. It is at this point where meaningful conversations between physicians, patients and their families are crucial. Why then do medical schools and residencies offer their trainees little to no formal guidance on how to facilitate end of life conversations What steps should we all consider taking now to make our end of l...
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Allison Durant's Motherless Daughters - Death: the podcast - It's New Orleans

November 21, 2016 • 33 mins
Allison Durant s mother died on the heels of her high school graduation. For years before, Jane had been absent from Allison s life, mostly in hospitals, fighting a losing battle with lung cancer. Allison s teenage invincibility gave her the strength to brush her mother s death aside and throw herself wholeheartedly into her own hectic life. Soon enough Allison was married and had 3 kids. It wasn t until Allison s own children ente...
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Grief After Stillbirth - Death: the podcast - It's New Orleans

November 7, 2016 • 32 mins
In 2001, David Hlavsa and his wife, Lisa Holtby, lost their first son, James, at 20 weeks gestation. In 2007, this loss inspired David s first essay, "My First Son, A Pure Memory," which was featured in the "Modern Love" column of the The New York Times. He later penned the critically acclaimed memoir, "Walking Distance Pilgrimage, Parenthood, Grief, and Home Repairs," which chronicles David and Lisa s journ...
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Speaking to the Unspeakable - Death: the podcast - It's New Orleans

October 24, 2016 • 33 mins
Growing up on the family rhubarb and pumpkin farm, Shannon Ritscher s life was like that of most small town teenagers. In 1986, all that changed when Shannon s brother, Steve, killed himself. Devastated by the loss of his son, four years later, Shannon s father David, also took his own life. Despite these set backs, Shannon found a way to move forward. She earned an art degree, married, became a mother, and started the eco friendly...
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The Living Urn - Death: the podcast - It's New Orleans

October 10, 2016 • 30 mins
Co founders Mark Brewer, Mike Walas and Brandon Patty were on a mission to create an eco friendly way of honoring the dead. After years of working with leading soil scientists and arborists, The Living Urn was born. With its biodegradable planting systems now available online and in over 250 Funeral Homes nationwide, The Living Urn is transforming the death care industry, one memorial tree at a time. Join Arian s conversation with ...
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The Gift of Song - Death: the podcast - It's New Orleans

August 29, 2016 • 34 mins
When Annie Garretson and Sally Rothstein met, they never imagined their friendship and love of music would find them at the bedside of those at life s precipice. The Pikes Peak Threshold Singers aren t just any choir. They are a group who share the final moments of strangers, community members, and, even their loved ones lives, with soft, gentle messages of peace and grace. Listen in as Arian explores with Sally and Annie the gift ...
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Death Becomes Us - Death: the podcast - It's New Orleans

June 20, 2016 • 31 mins
Pamela Skjolsvik never dreamed that a misrouted phone call would change the course of her master s thesis and, ultimately, her life. When the call, originally intended for her graduate advisor, was mysteriously redirected to a funeral home, a seed was planted. That seed grew into the now critically acclaimed book, "Death Becomes Us." What if we could schedule our own death How does a person cope with his or her impending ex...
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