Nine Keys & Co: the art, soft-business, activism, and mystery of death work

Narinder Elizabeth Bazen

Formerly known as Vulture Culture, this podcast is landing with full-hearted clarity as host Narinder Bazen refines her vision. Nine Keys is an exploration of death midwifery as an art form, a calling seen through the mystic’s soul-eyes, and a force for collective healing. Here, we weave together activism, art, grief literacy, soft-business structures, decolonized death care, and the deep wisdom of living in death awareness. This is a space for the sacred, the practical, the weird, and the revolutionary. Thank you for listening—welcome to the Keys. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. Jun 17

    Saying Hard Things: A Conversation About the Death Worker's Voice with Somatics Sam X

    In this episode, Narinder sits down again with trauma alchemist, death worker, and somatic coach Sam X to explore one of the most overlooked aspects of death work: the voice. Together they discuss why so many death workers struggle in their work with knowing how to find the right words - struggle with speaking up, with boundaries, advocacy, conflict, and showing up honestly in difficult moments. They explore where these patterns come from, how they show up in the body, and what practitioners can do when they notice themselves shrinking, freezing, people-pleasing, or asking for reciprocity in return for what they give and give. Learn more about Sam X here. Instagram: @somatics.sam Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  2. Jun 1

    Thresholds of Our Discomfort: Death Workers on Comfort Aesthetics, Difficult Conversations, and Staying at the Table

    What happens when death workers bring the same willingness for difficult conversations to each other that they bring to the families they serve? In this roundtable discussion, Narinder is joined by death workers, artists, and activists, Misha Murphy, Venessa Greenheron, and Rebecca Lopez Mullins for a thoughtful cultural critique on the death worker movement and an invitation to practice the skills we often ask of others. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  3. May 27

    The Somatic Realities of Death Work with Sam X

    In this grounding episode of Nine Keys & Co., Narinder sits down with somatic therapist, astrologer, and grief worker Sam X (xe/they) for a conversation about the somatic realities of death work. Together, they explore practitioner trauma, nervous system responses, imposter phenomenon, burnout, fear around speaking honestly in the death care field, and the grief death workers themselves quietly carry while supporting others. This episode opens up an important conversation around trauma care for the practitioners and what authentic, embodied support can look like for death doulas, grief workers, hospice volunteers, caregivers, and full-spectrum death workers navigating emotionally intense spaces. Sam offers 1:1 somatic support sessions online and is also hosting a collective healing portal, Rebirth Retreat, in Portugal this September. Connect with Sam: Instagram: Sam's Instagram Website: Sam's Website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  4. May 17

    The Liability of Comfort Aesthetics in the Death Doula Movement: A Conversation with Meghan Allynn Johnson and Rebecca Lopez-Mullins

    In this episode of Nine Keys and Co., Narinder Bazen sits down with death workers and artists Meghan Allynn Johnson and Rebecca Lopez-Mullins for a contemplative and unfiltered conversation about the modern death doula movement, comfort aesthetics, marketing, grief culture, trauma, and the growing pressure to make death look clean, palatable, and consumable. Together, they explore what gets erased when death work is flattened into soft branding, who becomes invisible inside “good death” narratives, and why death work must remain spacious enough to hold uncertainty, violence, beauty, mystery, and collective grief. This conversation touches on culture work, systems, art, care, and the ungovernable nature of death itself. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  5. Feb 25

    Tending the Collective: Grief Care and Death Preparation in Late-Stage Capitalism with Abby Goelzer & Venessa Greenheron

    What does it mean to tend grief, death ed, and end-of-life planning in late-stage capitalism? This is death work beyond the bedside. In this episode of the Nine Keys & Co. podcast, I speak with grief and death tenders Abby Goelzer and Venessa Greenheron about the evolving shape of death work in 2026. Together, we explore facilitating advance planning, death education, and collective grief spaces during times of political violence and systemic instability. When institutions feel fragile, when trust in medical systems is fractured, when the nervous system of a nation feels activated - advance care planning is no longer just responsible paperwork. It becomes sovereignty work. It becomes culture work. Abby and Venessa share about their co-facilitated offering: TenderNest Part 2: A Space for Witnessing and Awakening to the Grief of US Violence Tuesday, March 10, 2026 6:30–8:00 PM Central Time (4:30 PM Pacific) Online gathering TenderNest registration: garnetandthemoon.com/event-details/tendernest-part-2 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  6. Feb 14

    Facilitation in 2026: Tender & On High Alert

    Facilitators, space holders, death workers, grief workers - This episode is for you. People are raw. And they’re braced. Grief groups are everywhere, which I love, but the nervous systems walking into our spaces are more lit up than they’ve been in years. Triggers surface faster and repair feels urgent. And facilitators? We’re not outside of it. We’re grieving too. Watching the news. Paying bills. Holding our own lives together while holding space for others. In this episode, I’m talking candidly about what it’s actually costing to facilitate right now, and the one thing I keep returning to: boundaries. If you’re holding space in this moment and feeling the tremors underneath it all, this is a coach chat about how to last. www.narinderbazen.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  7. Jan 13

    Devotion Mode with Melissa Word + Death Work as an Art Practice

    Find Melissa Word's Devotion Mode here! In this episode, I get into why death work isn’t something you memorize, and why art, making, and creative practice actually train us for the parts of this work that can’t be taught. I talk about death work as a lived, hands-on practice and why creativity matters right now. Then I’m joined by Melissa Word to talk about death work as art practice, paper, what the hands can guide us to, and her new offering, Devotion Mode - a monthly, zine-style practice that brings making things back into the center of spiritual and death-adjacent work. Join Narinder's newsletter list here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  8. Jan 7

    The Rose Is a Key: Sympathetic Magic in Death Work

    Welcome back to the Nine Keys podcast. I’m Narinder, and this first episode of 2026 returns to death work as a path of devotion. After a quiet winter shaped by listening, rest, and a new diagnosis of moderate hearing loss, I reflect on the magic that lives inside death work, specifically sympathetic magic: the simple, often unspoken practices we use to communicate with the holy, the ancestral, and the unseen. I share how the rose has become a living symbol in my death work, appearing again and again in moments of grief, ritual, reassurance, and awe. I offer The Rose Beyond the Wall, a poem adapted from A.L. Frink. This episode is an invitation to notice the symbols that follow you, the quiet magic you may already be practicing, and the deeper relationship you live inside of with your death work. www.narinderbazen.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    The Rose Is a Key: Sympathetic Magic in Death Work
See All (73)

Trailer

5
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

Formerly known as Vulture Culture, this podcast is landing with full-hearted clarity as host Narinder Bazen refines her vision. Nine Keys is an exploration of death midwifery as an art form, a calling seen through the mystic’s soul-eyes, and a force for collective healing. Here, we weave together activism, art, grief literacy, soft-business structures, decolonized death care, and the deep wisdom of living in death awareness. This is a space for the sacred, the practical, the weird, and the revolutionary. Thank you for listening—welcome to the Keys. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information