death

Special Guest: Thomas Lynch

Arts, Culture & Media

Kurt Andersen and poet and undertaker Thomas Lynch talk about artists, writers, and moviemakers who deal with the dead. Thomas Lynch lives the real Six Feet Under. A poet and a professor of creative writing at the University of Michigan, Lynch runs his family’s funeral home in Milford, Michigan. He’s written several volumes of poetry […]

Disney & Death

Arts, Culture & Media

Morgue Photographer

Arts, Culture & Media

Finding poetry in a pine box

Arts, Culture & Media
Mexico City

When disaster hits home: The Mexico City quake one month on

Environment
A Muslim woman cries near the coffin of her relative

Should we tweet about illness or, yes, even death?

Culture

How we deal with death in the age of social media prevents vexing problems for people dealing with loss.

Hong Kong casket

Cheaper Chinese caskets get a chilly reception in the US market

Business

Death is expensive. The American casket industry is a $1.5 billion business, leading some families to seek out cheaper options from China. But the Chinese haven’t been able to bury the American competition.

My memorials

Social media is transforming the way we view death and grieving

Culture

One way the dead live on is in tangible memorials: gravestones, photo albums, commemorative celebrations — and even Facebook. But Facebook turns out to be one place where it’s actually kind of hard to die.

Matthew Sullivan working on a prototype operating table | Suspended Animation, Boytan Beach, Florida, USA 2010

Here’s what it looks like to be frozen

Culture

Cryonics is far from proven, but the possibility is out there. And it’s a tantalizing one for some people.

Hospice hands

A new husband’s care for his father’s dead body changed his wife’s view of death and dying

Belief

After someone you love has died, the first of so many difficult tasks you face is deciding how to deal with what they’ve left behind: their body.