How should we treat the dead?

This hour, we look at our cultural fascination with dead bodies. What do we owe the dead? What can the dead teach us? What does a body represent to you?

We talk to a death investigator who observes what the dead can teach us about living, a poet / mortician, who laments our growing estrangement from our dead, and a reporter who has investigated the large — and legal — market for body parts.

GUESTS:

• Barbara Butcher: A retired New York City death investigator and the author of What the Dead Know: Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator
• Ally Jarmanning: A senior reporter for WBUR; she’s the host and reporter for Season 4 of the podcast Last Seen: Postmortem
• Thomas Lynch: The author of six collections of poems, six books of essays, and a book of stories; he worked as a funeral director for over 50 years

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Colin McEnroe, Eugene Amatruda, Jonathan McNicol, and Bradley O’Connor contributed to this show, which originally aired July 18, 2024.

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