Podcasts

Death in the Afternoon; a podcast about all things mortal from The Order of the Good Death.

Welcome to your mortality, humans! The first two seasons of this deathcast dispelled myths about death and dead bodies, dived into history and dark tales you’ve never heard before, and hopefully made you less afraid to talk about the inevitable.

Your death nerd hosts, Caitlin Doughty, Sarah Chavez, and Louise Hung, are the same team behind the web series Ask a Mortician, whose aim is to educate their audience about death in a unique, relatable, and entertaining way; and sometimes (ok, all the time) they let things get delightfully bizarre.

The first two complete seasons of Death in the Afternoon spanned seventeen episodes that were downloaded by well over 1 million listeners, and garnered rave reviews. You can find transcripts of all season one and two episodes, plus extras and behind the scenes info for each episode on the Death in the Afternoon section of our website.

In 2022 we returned for a third season, with a new format featuring conversations with the fascinating people working in the death space (not outer space), to make our end-of-life experience more accessible, eco-friendly, and affordable. Episodes also include audio versions of of your favorite articles from the Order Archives. Find current episodes on our website or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, with new episodes dropping every month.

Terrible, (Thanks for Asking)

You know how every day someone asks “how are you?” And even if you’re totally dying inside, you just say “fine,” so everyone can go about their day? This show is the opposite of that. A funny/sad/uncomfortable podcast about talking honestly about our pain, our awkwardness, and our humanness, which is not an actual word.

The Unmarked Graveyard: Stories From Hart Island

This series tells the stories of seven people buried on Hart Island through a range of circumstances. Some were lost in the system after their deaths, while others had been cut off from family and friends for years. One chose Hart Island as his final resting place. Each story is told by the people who knew them best, some of whom overcame tremendous obstacles to uncover what happened to their loved ones.

The Kaddish Podcast

A podcast that focuses on mourning rituals and customs, and holds space at the intersection of life and death. You can expect topics like reproductive loss, illness, suicide, queer and trans burial, tattoos and conversion status, and state violence.

Here After

Order contributor and psychotherapist Megan Devine helps us explore one of the trickiest parts of being human-grief-and what to do when life goes horribly wrong.

Play Dead Podcast

The podcast that talks with game devs on how they’re using death in their games.

The Death Studies Podcast

As theories and ideas around death and dying are always changing, this podcast aims to serve as a starting point to ongoing dialogue between the range of people involved in researching dying, death and the dead.

We Need to Talk About Death

This podcast series from the BBC asks questions about death and explores various choices at the end-of-life.

In Sickness + In Health

A podcast about chronic illness, disability, healthcare and mortality.

Death, et seq.

A podcast about law, and the relationship between the living and the dead, hosted by Founding Order member Tanya Marsh.

Parting

Is a podcast about grief, death and dying that is led by young people so the stories and conversations are open and entertaining, but have a clear, simple message; it is ok to talk about grief.

Grave Matters

A podcast exploring death care with experts and practitioners.

The Moth

• The House of Mourning
• Homegoings
• Carry Him Shoulder High

PRX

• Bringing Wes Home

Radiolab

• The Bitter End
• Border Trilogy

Freakonomics

• The Suicide Paradox

The Longest Shortest Time

• The Accidental Gay Parents
• Kids Ask About Death
• A Grief Counselor On Talking to Young Children About Death

Latino USA

• Segregated, Six Feet Under

Always Already Podcast

• BLACKLIVESMATTER

The Rise of City Charm

• A Series of Burial Plot Twists

This American Life

• The Secret of My Death

Codeswitch

• A Decade Of Watching Black People Die

In The Thick Podcast

• Full Spectrum Of Grief 

The Memory Palace

• Elmer McCurdy Rides Again and Again

Betwixt the Sheets

• Sarah Baartman: A Life on Show

This is Uncomfortable

• Finding Michael Part I

Grief Out Loud

• Suffocating Grief and Supporting Black Youth

The Guardian: Today In Focus

• One Man On His Grief For Gaza

Into America

• Bethesda’s Lost Colony

Fresh Air with Terri Gross

• A Mortician Talks Openly About Death, And Wants You To, Too

Science Vs

• Should We Compost Human Bodies?

The Pulse

• From Fears to Fascinations, What Exactly is a Death Salon?

Ted Radio Hour

• Rethinking Death

Unladylike

• How to be Positively Morbid

Adam Ruins Everything

• Death Acceptance with Caitlin Doughty

Storycorps

• For Morbid Anatomy Museum Founder, Spooky Things Are Life’s Work

Ologies

• Anthropodermic Biocodicology

NPR Next Generation Radio

• Urban Death Project

TED Radio Hour

• Is There a Better Way to be Buried?

Fresh Air

• Rest in Pieces: The Curious fates of Famous Corpses

NPR Marketplace

• Finding Ways to Mourn Online

The Really Big Questions

• Death in Seattle

Science Friday

• Burying Green: Eco-Friendly Death Care on the Rise

NPR Here and Now

• Human Composting Offers an Environmentally Friendly Alternative to Cremation and Standard Burial