How to die (and live) well - with Ivor Williams

Why do those of us in western societies find it so difficult to face the prospect of our deaths, or to grieve collectively for experiences of shared loss? How does unprocessed collective grief - for instance about the pandemic - show up politically? And might changes in how we think and feel about death make it easier for us to confront existential risks like climate breakdown?

Ivor Williams is an old friend of Larger Us’s (he co-wrote This Too Shall Pass, our report on collective grief written at the height of the pandemic), a healthcare designer working at the cutting edge of end-of-life care, and now founder of Mortals, an extraordinary small group journey into our attitudes to both death, and everything that happens before it.

Featuring:

Alex Evans is founder and director of Larger Us, writer of the Good Apocalypse Guide on Substack, Professor in Practice at Newcastle University, and author of The Myth Gap.

Elizabeth Oldfield is chair of Larger Us, host of The Sacred podcast, author of Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times, and was formerly director of Theos, the UK's leading think tank on religion in public life.

Ivor Williams is designer and founder of Mortals, a small group programme that explores questions around dying and living well. He has worked as an end-of-care designer with Imperial College and the NHS, is an end-of-life doula, and was co-creator of Cove, one of the first mental health apps to be recommended by the NHS.