The When You Die Project:
Hosting the conversation you've been avoiding.
Latest
Why Everyone Needs an Advanced Directive (And Where to Get Yours)
Advance Directives save families a lot of strife when planning end-of-life care — here’s your guide to choosing the right one.
When You Die Sits Down with Dr. Jessica Zitter
This doctor wants to keep you off the ‘end of life conveyor belt’ where, she warns, most wind up.
When You Die Sits Down with Death Salon Director, Megan Rosenbloom
The director of the worlds top #DeathPositive gathering is demanding a death revolution.
When Death Is Not Separate
The way of death in North America is not the way in other cultures. Anthropologist Kelli Swazey asks, “What would life be like if the dead literally lived alongside you?”
What Happens When You Die in Winter: Icy Green Burial
Green burial is affordable and eco-friendly—but what happens when you die in winter? Here are 5 ways to conduct a green burial in the cold.
Features
Saying Goodbye – Is it possible that ritual can help us face our own death and the death of a loved one? Death Midwife, Olivia Bareham shares a story of one person’s living funeral, explains the importance of preparing the deathbed and the power of sitting vigil. Just enter your email here for access to the full video.
Can Children Handle Death?
We want to protect our children, but if we don’t talk to them about death, are we hurting them instead of helping?
Death, Virtual Grief, and Your Digital Footprint
There is no discrimination int he digital world. When a person dies, their virtual selves can remain, existing in the same online space used daily by millions of people.
Introducing In the Realm of Death and Dreaming, our 2019 Documentary
Since its origin, humanity has posed the question, ‘what really happens when you die?’ The presumed answers have defined culture, religion and community as we know them. Through a combination of near-death experiences, personal stories and scientific research, the documentary explores whether consciousness survives death, and why it matters when choosing end of life care.
Stories
‘In the Realm of Death and Dreaming’ Producer/Director Johanna Lunn on the 2019 Documentary
Johanna Lunn is the creator of WhenYouDie.org and the producer/director of the upcoming documentary feature film In the Realm of Death
20-Somethings Think About Death, Too
Given her willingness to talk about any topic, it’s perhaps no surprise that writer and TV star Lena Dunham experiences more flashes of what she calls “mortality awareness” than the average 20-something. But thoughts of death are not reserved for the aged.
8 Ways to Be There
Teacher, writer and coach, Heather Plett found herself in the role of student when her mom was dying and her family brought her home to do so.
A Child Shows Us How to Mourn
Kate Braestrup shares the story of Nina, a five-year-old who insisted to her parents that she needed to visit her dead cousin and best friend Andy, a four-year-old, at a nearby funeral parlor.
A Matter of Death and Life
The Harley School in Rochester, N.Y., wanted students to excel in their academics — but also in life. That’s why the private school offered a class called “hospice.”
The When You Die Project: Hosting the conversation you’ve been avoiding.
From existential afterlife questions to palliative care and the nuts-and-bolts of green burial, if it has to do with death, we’re talking about it. We believe death awareness brings a happier end to a fuller life.
WhenYouDie.org is where you’ll find clips from our upcoming documentary along with stories that inspire us, intrigue us, and help further a healthy discussion about death in our culture.
We don’t endorse every point of view in these stories but respect them and offer them up in the spirit of reclaiming death as a rich, challenging, rewarding, exhausting, heartbreaking, heart-filling, integral part of our human journey.
