When You Die

Dr. Penny Sartori PhD is a skilled intensive care nurse, educator, and leading world expert on near death experiences. She has authored a number of books including The Wisdom of Near Death Experiences and also appears in the When You Die Trilogy.

Joél Simone Anthony, better known as The Grave Woman, is a licensed funeral director and embalmer, a sacred grief practitioner,  end-of-life educator, and so much more. We talk about the sacred nature of death care and the impact culture has on our views on death, grief, family roles, and our awareness of the cycle of life. Joél can be found at:  theGraveWoman.com

In At Heaven’s Door (Simon & Schuster 2022), William shares his research on the many ways the living can and do accompany the dying on their journey into the afterlife. He is the Founder of the Shared Crossing Project, whose mission is to raise awareness of the profound and healing experiences that can be available to the dying and their loved ones at the end of life

Is it possible that our fear of death prevents us from living fully? For over 20 years Sue Brayne has been helping people to transform their relationship with mortality as a therapist specializing in trauma, as well as through her end-of-life research, workshops and books on spirituality, consciousness, and dying.

Since 1993, The Sharing Place in Salt Lake City has had a mission to “provide a safe and caring environment for grieving children, teens, and their families to share their feelings while healing themselves.” Program director Jill MacFarlane talks to us about the value of this process and how telling the truth is the most important thing you can do when helping kids deal with their grief

After experiencing the devastating loss of their one-year-old baby boy, James and Catie Morgan found comfort in surrounding themselves with other couples who have also gone through the loss of a child. As a way of helping others, James devised the Buddys app, which allows people to connect with those who have had similar experiences.

For most of us, our own funeral is an afterthought or, even worse, something we avoid thinking about altogether. For Kathy Benjamin, the very thought of her own impending death brought on crippling fear. So she decided the best way to remedy that was to deal with it the best way she knew how. By writing something funny.


Loaded with resources, and easy to use tools for end of life planning, Farewelling is a one-stop online shop that lets users create meaningful memorial websites and live-stream ceremonies. Today I am delighted to be talking with the co-founders. Karen Bussen who came to the project with a solid career as a successful celebrity event planner. And Elizabeth Meyer Karansky a funeral industry superstar. Together they are transforming the experience of end-of-life planning. You can check out their website at MyFarewelling.com after the podcast!

Julie McFadden has been working as a hospice nurse for the past five years, and prior to that she worked in Intensive Care for close to a decade. Julie is passionate about educating people on what happens as we die. Her wonderful TikToc videos have made waves with over half a million followers, making her a viral sensation. She can be found on TikToc  @hospicenursejulie

Johanna Lunn speaks with Death Doula, Jill Schock, about what it means to be a death doula and death worker in the time of COVID-19.