Death Curious Death Curious

This week we return to my conversation with Christopher Stoll, artist, illustrator, and my very dear friend. Chris is the owner and creator behind Multiverse Books and, as a very important person in my own life, is one of the people I most frequently talk with about hard things– like death. I wanted to have Chris on the show because until now, we’ve only featured people within the death care profession as guests. I thought it would be insightful and balanced to provide space for conversations about death with people who have experienced grief from the other side of things. Chris has a unique perspective because, like me, he is queer and polyamorous. This means that also like me, Chris has a unique take on traditional funerals and memorial services that aren’t necessarily designed with people like us in mind. In this conversation, we talk about funeral planning and traditional memorial services from a queer and polyamorous perspective.

Created and hosted by Aries Jo (they/them), Director of Outreach and Education at Parting Stone. Produced by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Parting Stone⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

For more Death Curious content get our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠newsletter,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Death Curious is produced by Parting Stone. To learn more about Parting Stone and solidified remains visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Parting Stone's website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

This week I have the pleasure of talking with Faith Haug (she/her) Program Chair of the Mortuary Science program at Arapaho Community College. This conversation covers unique aspects of the Arapaho Mortuary Science program and more general mortuary program requirements. We also discuss the fact that Colorado doesn’t require funeral directors to be licensed individually. This conversation happened at the end of 2023, just a few weeks after a funeral care disaster was discovered at Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs. Since then, colorado lawmakers have presented a bill to require individual funeral director licensing, like every other US state. However, my conversation with Faith will reveal, that licensing might not be the only answer to preventing tragedies like the one at Return to Nature.



Created and hosted by Aries Jo (they/them), Director of Outreach and Education at Parting Stone. Produced by ⁠⁠⁠⁠Parting Stone⁠⁠⁠⁠.

For more Death Curious content get our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠newsletter,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Death Curious is produced by Parting Stone. To learn more about Parting Stone and solidified remains visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Parting Stone's website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

This week we return to my conversation with Chase Downs (he/him), Demand Gen Specialist at Gather, an innovative technology platform built specifically for funeral homes, that helps both funeral directors and families. In this part of our conversation, Chase and I discuss AI and the future of Death Care… how AI could impact death care workspaces, the death planning process, memorial services, and more. We talk about the absolute necessity of personalization in death care practices, and where AI might fall short in delivering the services that grieving families deserve. 

We recorded this episode in the spring of 2023, and a lot has evolved in AI and its role in our world since then, so stay tuned after our convo for some extra content from me. 

Created and hosted by Aries Jo (they/them), Director of Outreach and Education at Parting Stone. Produced by ⁠⁠⁠Parting Stone⁠⁠⁠.

For more Death Curious content get our ⁠⁠⁠⁠newsletter,⁠⁠⁠⁠ and follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠. Death Curious is produced by Parting Stone. To learn more about Parting Stone and solidified remains visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠Parting Stone's website⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Content warning: this episode is all about suicide, and grief from suicide loss. This topic might be triggering or challenging for some people, so if that’s you, skip this one and join us next month. If you or a loved one struggle with suicidal ideation, call or text 988 to reach the national suicide and crisis hotline.

This week I’m so excited to bring Dr. Sara Murphy (she/her) back to the podcast to talk about destigmatizing suicide, suicidality, and surviving the loss of a loved one to suicide. Dr. Murphey is a death educator, Certified Thanatologist, and suicidologist with fifteen years of scholarly, pedagogical, and professional experience in the field. She is a faculty member at the University of Rhode Island where she teaches undergrad and graduate courses in the fields of thanatology and suicidology. In this episode, we dive into why suicide has always been a stigmatized cause of death (even though suicidality is a widespread occurrence across humanity) and ways that we can work toward dismantling that stigma. We also cover how dismantling suicide stigma helps folx who ideate suicide feel safer seeking and getting help, and also allows us to better support people who are grieving the loss of a loved one to suicide.

Created and hosted by Aries Jo (they/them), Director of Outreach and Education at Parting Stone. Produced by ⁠⁠Parting Stone⁠⁠.

For more Death Curious content get our ⁠⁠⁠newsletter,⁠⁠⁠ and follow us on ⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠. Death Curious is produced by Parting Stone. To learn more about Parting Stone and solidified remains visit ⁠⁠⁠Parting Stone's website⁠⁠⁠.

This week, I welcome Jennifer Muldowney (she/her), also known as The Glam Reaper, onto the podcast to talk about how death care is evolving around the world today. Jennifer founded Muldowney Memorials a death planning company that offers celebrant services and specialized memorial planning. She is also the creator of the Glam Reaper Podcast. In this episode, we talk about how Jennifer found her way into death care, the differences between the funeral service profession in America, and Ireland, where Jen is from, and the directions we see death care going in in the near future. 

This is part one of my talk with Jennifer.

Created and hosted by Aries Jo (they/them), Director of Outreach and Education at Parting Stone. Produced by ⁠Parting Stone⁠.

For more Death Curious content get our ⁠⁠newsletter,⁠⁠ and follow us on ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠. Death Curious is produced by Parting Stone. To learn more about Parting Stone and solidified remains visit ⁠⁠Parting Stone's website⁠⁠.

This week, I have the absolute pleasure of talking with Kiki Klonis (she/her) from Burning Sentients taxidermy. Kiki and I talk about processing grief in tangible ways, like creativity, art, and, for Kiki, taxidermy. We discuss how grieving actually led to Kiki’s career as a taxidermist, what that journey has entailed, and how, for many people, getting to have a continued relationship with the remains of our loved ones and pets can be a huge aid in moving through the grief process. Kiki is actually based here in Santa Fe, NM (Unceded Tewa Land) so this interview takes place in her home, which is full of truly incredible taxidermied animals. You’ll hear us reference some of her amazing pieces throughout the episode. Content warning: suicide, and details about the taxidermy process are talked about in this episode.



Created and hosted by and Alexandra Jo (they/them), Director of Outreach and Education at Parting Stone. Produced by Parting Stone.

For more Death Curious content get our ⁠newsletter,⁠ and follow us on ⁠TikTok⁠ and ⁠Instagram⁠. Death Curious is produced by Parting Stone. To learn more about Parting Stone and solidified remains visit ⁠Parting Stone's website⁠.