On the 14th episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast I am joined by Charlotte Wiedemann, who is a Journalist and a Death Doula. 

Through her journalism work, she is creating greater awareness of death, funeral, and grief issues, and at Ahorn Gruppe, where she currently works, she has helped to amass a following of almost 200k people on TikTok through discussing these themes.

In this episode we discuss our societal difficulties in talking about death, our repression of emotions, beautiful moments within suffering, how we can support people experiencing loss, the aliveness and gratitude for life Charlotte experiences through working with the dead, and how birth, life and death are so deeply intertwined. 

Charlotte also shares some profound exercises and thoughts with regards contemplating death to create a better life.

Paradoxically, I found this discussion around death to be extremely enlivening, and it further enhances my perspective that the more we avoid acknowledging death, the more we fear fully living. This conversation left me with A LOT to contemplate, as I’m sure it will for you too.

Subscribe for weekly episodes, every Tuesday, and check out my YouTube channel (link below) for daily clips and weekly reflections.

Running Order: 

01:23 Podcast Begins

02:16 Inquiry with death begins

04:46 Difficulties with talking about death

08:14 Repression of emotions

09:45 Picturing yourself on your own death bed

11:38 It’s ok to have regrets with the dying

16:21 Moments of beauty in sadness

20:23 You can’t fix death or make it better, just be there for people

22:55 There are many moments of loss in life

25:43 Prolonging of life

28:55 Magical moments in death

34:00 How the experience of birth led to deathcare

39:25 The effect of working with a dead body

42:07 Bringing the conservation around death to a wider audience

45:28 What is a good death?

48:42 What is a good life for Charlotte?

For further content and information check out the following: 

- For the podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos

- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/

- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/

- Charlotte's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotte-wiedemann-71614b17/