When We Die Talks

Zach Ancell
  • 5.0 (8)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

When We Die Talks begins with a single question asked to an anonymous caller: What do you think happens when we die? From there, the conversation unfolds in unexpected directions. Touching on belief, doubt, loss, and the search for meaning. These aren’t experts or public figures. They are everyday people opening up about the things most of us keep quiet. The result is raw, unpredictable, and deeply human. New anonymous calls every Wednesday. Want to share your story? Apply to be a caller at whenwedietalks.com.

  1. Saturday Contemplation - A Year You’ll Never Get Back

    DEC 20 · BONUS

    Saturday Contemplation - A Year You’ll Never Get Back

    This week’s Saturday Contemplation, A Year You’ll Never Get Back, sits with a simple truth: this year is over, regardless of how it went. Instead of turning toward regret or self-judgment, this reflection invites you to look back gently at how you spent the time you were given. What filled your days, what quietly shaped you, and what this past year reveals about the life you were actually living. This contemplation is also the final release from the project this year. As the year comes to a close, it offers a moment to pause before rushing ahead, to acknowledge what’s been carried, and to consider how you want to meet the year to come. Wherever you find yourself listening, I hope this creates a little space to reflect, to breathe, and to mark the passing of another year. Wishing you a restful holiday season and a gentle start to the new year. Starting in January, Saturday Contemplations will be fully moving to Substack to keep things cleaner and easier to follow. If you’d like to continue receiving these reflections, you can sign up at https://whenwedietalks.substack.com/ Support the show Stay Connected 🌐 Website: whenwedietalks.com 📸 Instagram: @whenwedietalks ▶️ YouTube: When We Die Talks 🎵 TikTok: @whenwedietalks 📰 Substack: When We Die Talks 📚 Anonymous Book Recommendations ✉️ Email: zach@whenwedietalks.com Want to share your thoughts? We want to hear from you! Call our voicemail at 971-328-0864 and tell us what you believe happens when we die. Your message might be featured in a future episode and could help inspire someone else on their journey. Or, if you're interested in having a full conversation, you can apply to be an anonymous caller at whenwedietalks.com. Have feedback about the show? Questions? Suggestions? Feel free to send a text or email—we’re always open to hearing what’s working and what’s not.

    9 min
  2. #40 - Four Deaths and a God Named George

    DEC 17

    #40 - Four Deaths and a God Named George

    What if your afterlife looks exactly like what you expect to find? That question sits at the center of this conversation with our caller who has died more than once and come back with stories that challenge the script many of us inherit about death. She begins with a fire-breathing accident that leads to severe burns, an awake surgery, and a coma where there is no tunnel of light—only darkness without walls, filled with taunting voices. She runs for days inside that void before turning to fight, and everything changes. What follows is survival without a roadmap. The medical system saves her life but offers little help for the trauma that comes after—the nightmares, the identity whiplash, the sense of not quite being back. Years later in Costa Rica, another threshold appears: the sun opens, her mother steps through it, and tells her it’s not time. More recently, a 911 dispatcher’s voice pulls her back from the tunnel once again, and the medical truth finally catches up—severe deficiencies, fibroids, numbers hanging by a thread. Threaded through all of this is a larger belief: that experience, even at the edge of life, is shaped by the mind we bring with us. Drawing from Buddhism, Taoism, and her own spiritual practice, she speaks about agency in death, the difference between organized religion and ways of life that protect free will, and the permission to borrow what works without forcing a label. And yes, there’s humor. Lots of it. It’s how fear loosens its grip. The conversation ends not in dread, but longing for ancient places, altered states, and a way of talking about death that makes life feel more livable. Book Recommendation: The Child Thief by Brom If you’d like to watch this conversation instead of just listening, you can find the video version on YouTube. Woven Word PressCapture your memories, honor your journey, and create a legacy for the generations who follow.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show Stay Connected 🌐 Website: whenwedietalks.com 📸 Instagram: @whenwedietalks ▶️ YouTube: When We Die Talks 🎵 TikTok: @whenwedietalks 📰 Substack: When We Die Talks 📚 Anonymous Book Recommendations ✉️ Email: zach@whenwedietalks.com Want to share your thoughts? We want to hear from you! Call our voicemail at 971-328-0864 and tell us what you believe happens when we die. Your message might be featured in a future episode and could help inspire someone else on their journey. Or, if you're interested in having a full conversation, you can apply to be an anonymous caller at whenwedietalks.com. Have feedback about the show? Questions? Suggestions? Feel free to send a text or email—we’re always open to hearing what’s working and what’s not.

    44 min
  3. Saturday Contemplation - Claiming the Life That's Yours

    DEC 13 · BONUS

    Saturday Contemplation - Claiming the Life That's Yours

    This week’s Saturday Contemplation turns toward the stories we inherit (from others and ourselves). The ones we pick up early, absorb quietly, and sometimes mistake for who we actually are. It invites you to notice what in your life feels genuinely yours, what feels borrowed, and what becomes possible when you begin setting down the stories that no longer fit. Saturday Contemplations are a simple way to pause, reconnect, and reflect on the parts of life we often rush past. They won’t appear every single week, but they’ll show up regularly alongside the podcast. And if you’d like to support the project, you can do that through the donation link below. Every bit helps keep this work going. Support the show Stay Connected 🌐 Website: whenwedietalks.com 📸 Instagram: @whenwedietalks ▶️ YouTube: When We Die Talks 🎵 TikTok: @whenwedietalks 📰 Substack: When We Die Talks 📚 Anonymous Book Recommendations ✉️ Email: zach@whenwedietalks.com Want to share your thoughts? We want to hear from you! Call our voicemail at 971-328-0864 and tell us what you believe happens when we die. Your message might be featured in a future episode and could help inspire someone else on their journey. Or, if you're interested in having a full conversation, you can apply to be an anonymous caller at whenwedietalks.com. Have feedback about the show? Questions? Suggestions? Feel free to send a text or email—we’re always open to hearing what’s working and what’s not.

    7 min
  4. #39 - Death Taught Me I Wanted to Live

    DEC 10

    #39 - Death Taught Me I Wanted to Live

    Death wasn’t an idea for her growing up—it was something that walked beside her. In this call, we trace a life shaped by early violence in South Africa, a strict Catholic upbringing that equated identity with sin, and a long stretch of years where death felt more like an exit than a fear. She talks about grooming, a marriage built on uneven power, the mental health system that kept missing the mark, and the small, steady voices that helped her stay alive long enough to want to keep living. From there, the conversation opens into what comes after leaving religion—not certainty, but curiosity. She describes finding a home in the space between belief and unbelief: agnostic, imaginative, drawn to science, and deeply connected to dreams. We talk about grief as something that keeps reshaping itself, why kindness has boundaries, and how repeated loss can change the way you weigh a single day. Discworld’s Death even makes an appearance, offering humor as the unlikely thread that carried her through some of the darkest places. One moment shifts the whole call: during a recent surgery, she stopped breathing under anesthesia and slipped into a dark, suspended stillness she’d met before in dreams. It didn’t give her answers, but it clarified what matters—write the will, tell people you love them, protect your empathy, and treat life like something you’re choosing, not something you’re surviving. Her belief now is simple and expansive: when we die, we return to a larger field of consciousness, and while we’re here, the only work that matters is how we show up for each other. Book Recommendation: Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett If you’d like to watch this conversation instead of just listening, you can find the video version on YouTube. Support the show Stay Connected 🌐 Website: whenwedietalks.com 📸 Instagram: @whenwedietalks ▶️ YouTube: When We Die Talks 🎵 TikTok: @whenwedietalks 📰 Substack: When We Die Talks 📚 Anonymous Book Recommendations ✉️ Email: zach@whenwedietalks.com Want to share your thoughts? We want to hear from you! Call our voicemail at 971-328-0864 and tell us what you believe happens when we die. Your message might be featured in a future episode and could help inspire someone else on their journey. Or, if you're interested in having a full conversation, you can apply to be an anonymous caller at whenwedietalks.com. Have feedback about the show? Questions? Suggestions? Feel free to send a text or email—we’re always open to hearing what’s working and what’s not.

    48 min
  5. Saturday Contemplation – Letting Things Stay Unfinished

    DEC 6 · BONUS

    Saturday Contemplation – Letting Things Stay Unfinished

    This week’s Saturday Contemplation sits with the truth that many parts of our lives don’t get the endings we hoped for. Conversations fade, relationships drift, and chapters close without warning. Instead of forcing closure, this contemplation explores what softens in us when we let some things remain unfinished. WWDT+ is being put on pause for now which means all Saturday Contemplations will be free moving forward (you can also listen to all of the old ones now too). They may not happen every single week, but the plan is to release one anytime there’s a new podcast episode. If you’d like to support the project, you can still do that through the donation link just below. Every bit helps keep this work going. Support the show Stay Connected 🌐 Website: whenwedietalks.com 📸 Instagram: @whenwedietalks ▶️ YouTube: When We Die Talks 🎵 TikTok: @whenwedietalks 📰 Substack: When We Die Talks 📚 Anonymous Book Recommendations ✉️ Email: zach@whenwedietalks.com Want to share your thoughts? We want to hear from you! Call our voicemail at 971-328-0864 and tell us what you believe happens when we die. Your message might be featured in a future episode and could help inspire someone else on their journey. Or, if you're interested in having a full conversation, you can apply to be an anonymous caller at whenwedietalks.com. Have feedback about the show? Questions? Suggestions? Feel free to send a text or email—we’re always open to hearing what’s working and what’s not.

    7 min
  6. #38 - The Other G-Word No One Wants to Talk About

    DEC 3

    #38 - The Other G-Word No One Wants to Talk About

    Mortality feels different when you’re sitting beside a parent and waiting for the breath that doesn’t return. In this call, we stay close to that moment—not with big theories or tidy comfort, but with the real stuff: complicated love, sudden anger, the guilt that shows up long after it’s “too late,” and the small rituals we use to get ourselves through the night. He talks about a fractured relationship, the final hours in the hospital, and the split-second when a kind nurse became the target of blame. From there, the conversation widens into the quieter parts of grief—how guilt can rewrite reality, why it hangs on longer than we expect, and how a little compassion for ourselves can change the shape of it. We also talk about the practical side of death that most people avoid: doctors bringing up end-of-life plans, families dodging hard conversations, and what it means to leave behind a simple manual so the people we love don’t have to untangle everything alone. (Yes, even down to the Costco casket.) Threaded through all of this is a deeper question: what does it mean to feel accomplished before our time runs out? For him, it's still unanswered—and maybe that’s the point. We build our worldview brick by brick: faith, science, memory, experience. Some bricks hold more weight than others, but together they’re what keep us standing. Book Recommendation: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky If you’d like to watch this conversation instead of just listening, you can find the video version on YouTube. The Death Deck: Talk About the FutureA Lively Party Game to Share Stories and BeliefsDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show Stay Connected 🌐 Website: whenwedietalks.com 📸 Instagram: @whenwedietalks ▶️ YouTube: When We Die Talks 🎵 TikTok: @whenwedietalks 📰 Substack: When We Die Talks 📚 Anonymous Book Recommendations ✉️ Email: zach@whenwedietalks.com Want to share your thoughts? We want to hear from you! Call our voicemail at 971-328-0864 and tell us what you believe happens when we die. Your message might be featured in a future episode and could help inspire someone else on their journey. Or, if you're interested in having a full conversation, you can apply to be an anonymous caller at whenwedietalks.com. Have feedback about the show? Questions? Suggestions? Feel free to send a text or email—we’re always open to hearing what’s working and what’s not.

    42 min
  7. Saturday Contemplation - The Clock We Can’t See

    NOV 22 · BONUS

    Saturday Contemplation - The Clock We Can’t See

    This week’s Saturday Contemplation turns toward a truth most of us struggle to look at: our time is limited, whether we see it clearly or not. Some people learn this through illness or loss. For the rest of us, the illusion of “later” makes it easy to forget. Instead of treating that reality as something bleak, this contemplation explores how it can clarify what matters. What becomes precious when we acknowledge we won’t live forever and what quietly falls away when we stop pretending we have endless time? The first contemplation of every month is free for everyone. All others are available exclusively to WWDT+ members — a weekly practice designed to help you slow down, reflect on your mortality, and reconnect with what gives your life meaning. Support the show Stay Connected 🌐 Website: whenwedietalks.com 📸 Instagram: @whenwedietalks ▶️ YouTube: When We Die Talks 🎵 TikTok: @whenwedietalks 📰 Substack: When We Die Talks 📚 Anonymous Book Recommendations ✉️ Email: zach@whenwedietalks.com Want to share your thoughts? We want to hear from you! Call our voicemail at 971-328-0864 and tell us what you believe happens when we die. Your message might be featured in a future episode and could help inspire someone else on their journey. Or, if you're interested in having a full conversation, you can apply to be an anonymous caller at whenwedietalks.com. Have feedback about the show? Questions? Suggestions? Feel free to send a text or email—we’re always open to hearing what’s working and what’s not.

    7 min
  8. #37 - I Changed My Tastebuds, But I’m Still Me (ish)

    NOV 19

    #37 - I Changed My Tastebuds, But I’m Still Me (ish)

    This week’s caller has lived with death in the background for most of her life—first through migraines that began when she was six, and later through a brain tumor that went undiagnosed for more than twenty years. By the time doctors caught it, she had spent a full year in a migraine that never let up. Surgery changed everything: her mood lifted, her pain eased, and even her tastebuds shifted. But the possibility of recurrence remains, shaping how she moves through the world. What unfolds from there is part philosophy, part physics, part Wonderland. She talks about Alice in Wonderland Syndrome—the surreal way migraines can distort scale, shape, and the edges of the body—and how that lived strangeness pushed her toward math, spacetime, Flatland, and the comfort of unanswerable questions. Instead of trying to solve the mystery of death, she leans into the idea that some things can’t be known from this side of the line. We also talk about community, belonging, and the unexpected places spirituality can live. Her weekly gathering is a pagan group that meets—of all places—in a church basement, lighting candles, crafting together, playing D&D, and caring for one another in a way that feels more meaningful than dogma ever has. When strong emotions can trigger pain, moderation becomes a survival skill, but it doesn’t stop her from pursuing what she loves or finding wonder in the smallest things. The conversation circles around identity, too—how a person can wake up from brain surgery wondering if they’re still themselves, how preferences shift but the core stays intact, and how tiny we are in the universe without being insignificant. Her philosophy lands with a simple truth: sometimes the experience is worth the migraine. Even skydiving, if she can make it happen. Book Recommendation: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll If you’d like to watch this conversation instead of just listening, you can find the video version on YouTube. Link to the Instagram Giveaway. Entry ends 11/21/2025 at 11:59PM PST. Support the show Stay Connected 🌐 Website: whenwedietalks.com 📸 Instagram: @whenwedietalks ▶️ YouTube: When We Die Talks 🎵 TikTok: @whenwedietalks 📰 Substack: When We Die Talks 📚 Anonymous Book Recommendations ✉️ Email: zach@whenwedietalks.com Want to share your thoughts? We want to hear from you! Call our voicemail at 971-328-0864 and tell us what you believe happens when we die. Your message might be featured in a future episode and could help inspire someone else on their journey. Or, if you're interested in having a full conversation, you can apply to be an anonymous caller at whenwedietalks.com. Have feedback about the show? Questions? Suggestions? Feel free to send a text or email—we’re always open to hearing what’s working and what’s not.

    40 min
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Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

When We Die Talks begins with a single question asked to an anonymous caller: What do you think happens when we die? From there, the conversation unfolds in unexpected directions. Touching on belief, doubt, loss, and the search for meaning. These aren’t experts or public figures. They are everyday people opening up about the things most of us keep quiet. The result is raw, unpredictable, and deeply human. New anonymous calls every Wednesday. Want to share your story? Apply to be a caller at whenwedietalks.com.

Information

  • Creator
    Zach Ancell
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2025
  • Episodes
    55
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 When We Die Talks
  • Show Website
    When We Die Talks

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