Best Life Best Death

What are some of the ways that we can capture family history and stories? Ann Whitehill and I discuss her experience using ancestry.com, and talk about other services that guide individuals and families on how to create something new from memories and photos.

Jennifer Caroll - author, journalist, biographer, and artist - chats with me about tributes, memoirs and even obituaries. How do people get started? Why bother to tell about my "ordinary" life? What does it mean to write your own story?

Singer songwriter David Wilcox joins me with two unique songs and some ruminations on gratitude, death and love.

Johanna Lunn - director, producer, exquisite human! - talks about the When You Die Project and how the documentary film "In the Realm of Death and Dreaming" came to be. How hard could it be?!

Minoti Rajput - wealth advisor, author, & financial advocate for women of all ages and means - discusses how parents of special needs children can think about planning for long term care. Her book is Beyond a Parent's Love: Lessons Learned in Life-Planning for Special Needs Children.

Guest Lynn Golden, an end-of-life doula and educator, discusses hospice and doula support at the end of life. Through powerful stories, she shares the benefits of having this kind of guidance for both the dying and the living.

Family communication in crisis can resemble an aviary, with squawking visitors and pecking orders. Learn about seagull syndrome and the ring theory of kvetching, in which we complain/vent in a specific direction, so as not to overwhelm those most in need.

Barbara Karnes, hospice pioneer and author of "Gone from My Sight," inspires me to explore palliative care, hospice and end-of-life doulas. And thanks to Russ for the new guitar segments!

Zak Foster - visual artist, teacher, and creative community builder - shares his thoughts on memorial, burial and funeral quilts + sewing as a metaphor.

I read an excerpt from Being Mortal, in which a town improves the lives and deaths of residents by having conversations. Author Atul Gawande says, if the FDA could approve conversations they would be -- that's how big of a difference they can make!