The When You Die Project:
Hosting the conversation you've been avoiding.
From existential afterlife questions such as “What happens when you die?” 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.
Latest
Self-care in the Time of COVID-19
With COVID-19 very much a part of our lives, we have collective feelings of being uncomfortable or out of sorts. This feeling can be attributed to a global grief, and the antidote is being tender with ourselves – and others. Stressed out has become the new normal, and, clearly, it’s not healthy.
The world can certainly do with a little more kindness
“Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth.” —Naomi Shihab Nye
Protecting Our Kids From the Emotional and Physical Toll of COVID-19
“Teaching my children, and myself, that you can’t always have things your way.” Emily Dagostino writes about teaching her children
Racism and Death: Is it Possible to Die in Peace?
Death doula Alua Arthur brings six Black death positive leaders together to talk about racism in a predominately white industry and
Features
Michael Hebb — Death Over Dinner
“Death is the Medicine. We often think about medicine as a thing that staves off death, that keeps us from death, that battles death. And it’s a pretty powerful thing to invert that and to think that death itself is actually the medicine.” — Michael Hebb
Thanatophobia and How to Overcome the Fear of Dying
It’s not unusual to fear death. It is the great unknown, after all. It brings the ultimate sadness and enormous loss. But to carry that fear always, obsessively, makes it a phobia. And that phobia has a name: Thanatophobia.
The official trailer for In the Realm of Death & Dreaming.
In this documentary director Johanna Lunn explores what happens when you die – does consciousness continue or is it lights out?
Stories
What My Dad’s Death Taught Me About Life
Paul Ollinger didn’t shed a tear when his dad died. Instead, he was flooded with an overwhelming sense of gratitude for his father’s life and the lessons he left behind.
Fear of Dying Alone
In facing a world pandemic we face our greatest fears: dying alone. Psychologists say that there are two separate concerns.
We Are All Cheating Death
In her new book, Edwidge Danticat contemplates close encounters with death.
Coming Through the Fog: Coping With the Trauma of Loss
Unable to think, concentrate or remember things is not uncommon after the death of a loved one. It is all part of what has been called “widow’s fog.”
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 about death along with stories around death 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.
