Death: A Five-Part Series
Part Four
The Wake
How do we mark death and celebrate lost lives around the globe? In this hour, we hear stories from inside the funeral industry, wonder why dead bodies can compell or repell us, and learn about the new Ghanaian tradition of "fantasy" coffins inspired by people's work and dreams.
Segment 1: Tending to the Body
How do we mark death and celebrate lost lives around the globe? In this hour, we hear stories from inside the funeral industry, wonder why dead bodies can compell or repell us, and learn about the new Ghanaian tradition of "fantasy" coffins inspired by people's work and dreams.
Press Play to Listen (Running Time 5:04)
Alternative content
Download Audio Podcast (4.8MB mp3)
Segment 2: Ask a Mortician
When a loved one dies, most of us turn to a professional, someone like Caitlin Doughty. She's a licensed mortician, death activist, and creator of the popular webseries "Ask A Mortician". In this interview, she talks about what happens when a body is prepared for burial.
Press Play to Listen (Running Time 5:58)
Alternative content
Download Audio Podcast (5.6MB mp3)
Segment 3: Ghanaian Coffins are a Fantasy of Life and Dreams
Seth Kane Kwei launched a revolution in Ghanaian funeral practices in the early 1950s, when he redesigned a chief's traditional palaquin into a coffin. His grandson, Eric Adjetey Anang, is now carrying on his grandfather's work, making coffins that reflect the trades, accomplishments and dreams of the deceased.
Press Play to Listen (Running Time 7:33)
Alternative content
Download Audio Podcast (7.1MB mp3)
Segment 4: Does Caring for the Dead Makes Us Human?
According to historian Thomas Laqueur, neither sanitation nor the soul fully explain the rang of rituals we've developed for caring for dead bodies. For him, there is a deeper anthropological truth at work: caring for the dead marks the human transition from nature into culture.
Press Play to Listen (Running Time 11:17)
Alternative content
Download Audio Podcast (10.6MB mp3)
Segment 5: Coming of Age in a Funeral Home
Sheri Booker was terrified when she first started working at the Wylie Funeral Home at the age of 15. She was still grieving the death of a beloved aunt, and took the job in the hope of finding a sense of closure. After preparing her first client — a suicide victim with a gunshot wound to the head — something changed. As morbid as it may sound, she was hooked.
Press Play to Listen (Running Time 8:12)
Alternative content
Download Audio Podcast (7.7MB mp3)
Segment 6: "Death Doesn't Bother Me Anyway," Pt. 4
In the fourth episode of the story of Dan Pierotti's death, friends and family stay with Dan's body in the days before the funeral. Dan's wife Judy talks about her experience of the funeral and burial.
"Then it's final," Judy says. "There's no coming back from any of it. But just the first shovel full of dirt that hits that coffin... that's very hard to hear, very hard to experience."
Press Play to Listen (Running Time 10:54)
Alternative content
Download Audio Podcast (10.2MB mp3)
Segment 7: A Poet's Elegy to His Son
In 2011, as Hurricane Irene made landfall in New York City, poet Edward Hirsch learned that his 22-year old son Gabriel had died from a bad drug reaction and subsequent seizure. Later, Hirsch composed “Gabriel,” a book-length elegy poem about his relationship with his son, and his loss.
Press Play to Listen (Running Time :38)
Alternative content
Download Audio Podcast (0.6MB mp3)