On Death and Dying
On Death and Dying by Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, one of the most important psychological studies of the late twentieth century, grew out of her famous interdisciplinary seminar on death, life, and transition. In this remarkable book, Dr. Kübler-Ross first explored the now-famous five stages of death: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Through […]
Five Wishes
Five Wishes is an advance care planning program trusted by more than 40 million people, created by Aging with Dignity to help people talk to their loved ones today about what matters most. Founded in 1996 by Jim Towey—who worked as Mother Teresa’s legal counsel and witnessed firsthand what was important to people before death—Aging […]
The Conversation Project
The Conversation Project is a public engagement initiative of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement with a goal both simple and transformative: to help everyone talk about their wishes for care through the end of life, so those wishes can be understood and respected. The Project believes these conversations should begin at the kitchen table—not in […]
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Caitlin Doughty’s darkly humorous and illuminating memoir launched the death-positive movement by taking readers behind the scenes of her work as a young mortician armed with a medieval history degree and flair for the macabre. Working at a crematory, Doughty cared for bodies of every description and became what she calls “an intrepid explorer in […]
Grave Matters
Environmental journalist Mark Harris explores the emerging green burial movement through compelling stories of families who chose natural, economical, and meaningful alternatives to conventional funeral industry practices that rely on chemical embalming, expensive caskets, and elaborate ceremonies. Following families who embraced various natural options—from home funerals and carpenter-built pine coffins to natural cemeteries and ocean […]
Recompose
Recompose revolutionizes death care through human composting—the natural transformation of human bodies into nutrient-rich soil that can nourish new life and restore damaged ecosystems. The process involves placing bodies in specially designed stainless steel vessels surrounded by carefully calibrated mixtures of wood chips, alfalfa, and straw, where naturally occurring microbes break down the body over […]
International End-of-Life Doula Association (INELDA)
Founded in 2015, the International End-of-Life Doula Association is a member-based nonprofit dedicated to meeting the non-medical needs of the dying by raising awareness of end-of-life doulas’ roles and providing education to support compassionate deathcare with the vision that “all individuals have accessible, equitable, and compassionate deathcare that holistically affirms one’s humanity and supports end-of-life […]
Being Mortal
Practicing surgeon Atul Gawande examines the ultimate limitations and failures of modern medicine when confronting the inescapable realities of aging and death, revealing how what medicine can do often runs counter to what it should do for patients facing life’s end. Through eye-opening research and gripping stories of his own patients and family, Gawande exposes […]
Death Cafe
Death Cafe creates accessible spaces where people, often strangers, gather to eat cake, drink tea, and engage in open discussion about death with the objective of increasing awareness of mortality to help people make the most of their finite lives. Operating as a “social franchise” since 2011, Death Cafe has spread to 93 countries with […]