Exploring and improving our relationship with death through respectful enquiry. Here you’ll find conversations with those who work with the dead and grieving, in addition to episodes examining death through a lens of history & the arts, folklore and food.
We’ll take you from ancient funerary rituals to forensic anthropologists via green burials, disaster recovery and Persephone’s pomegranates. We hope the journey & stories will provide you with some of the knowledge and empathy you need to navigate this vast hidden world as well as shine a light on the kindness and tenderness displayed by those professionals who truly take care of our dead.
Contact: A Question of Death
About the Episode
Amy & I discussed her moving and enlightening new book released on 30 September in the UK.
About the Book
“Death is the great equalizer, but not all deaths are created equal. In recent years, there has been an increased interest and advocacy concerning end-of-life and after-death care. An increasing number of individuals and organizations from health care to the funeral and death care industries are working to promote and encourage people to consider their end-of-life wishes. Yet, there are limits to who these efforts reach and who can access such resources. These conversations come from a place of good intentions, but also from a place of privilege.
Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins, a collection of closely connected essays, takes the reader on a journey into what happens to those who die while experiencing homelessness or who end up indigent or unclaimed at the end of life. Too Poor to Die bears witness to the disparities in death and dying faced by some of society’s most vulnerable and marginalized and asks the reader to consider their own end-of-life and disposition plans within the larger context of how privilege and access plays a role in what we want versus what we get in death.”
About the Author
Amy Shea is an essayist, and is the author of Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins. Her work has appeared in The Missouri Review, Pangyrus, Portland Review, The Massachusetts Review, Spry Literary Journal, Fat City Review, From Glasgow to Saturn, & the Journal of Sociology of Health & Illness. She works as the Writing Program Director for Mount Tamalpais College, a free community college for the incarcerated people of San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.
About the Podcast
Exploring and improving our relationship with death through respectful enquiry.
Here you’ll find conversations with those who work with the dead and grieving, in addition to episodes examining death through a lens of history & the arts, folklore and food.
We’ll take you from ancient funerary rituals to forensic anthropologists via green burials, disaster recovery and Persephone’s pomegranates. We hope the journey & stories will provide you with some of the knowledge and empathy you need to navigate this vast hidden world as well as shine a light on the kindness and tenderness displayed by those professionals who truly take care of our dead.
Contact: A Question of Death