How To Die

Sean O'Connor chats with Peter Fox about his experience providing end-of-life spiritual companionship and support.

Susan Brice manages to blend compassion with practicality when it comes to burial, and is acutely aware of the challenges facing our communities when death comes.

Christine is a professional tea-drinker and part-time photographer who provides palliative counseling with such insight it will restore your breath. She discusses her experience living and working in Cape Town and shares a particularly lovely range of insights into the very meaningful relationships she enters into with those fortunate enough to spend time with her.

Ezelle Theunnisen has a contagious zest for life which derives from a unique South African heritage, coupled with a Buddhist approach to death and funerary practices. She radiates an aura of physical health and spiritual well-being, sharing her insight with humility and an energetic kindness. She also has a brilliant local solution for the growing shortage of space for our earthly human remains! Articulate and incredulous, passionate and curious, Ezelle is one of those people that makes you wonder where the time goes.

Spiwo Xapile is a self-described 'victim of exposure', someone who straddles different worlds and makes sense of them with gentle eloquence. He is frank and honest about some of the perverse anomalies thrown up by Christianity in the context of Apartheid, and the struggle to forge enabling narratives for community development. Spiwo shares his insight and experience of black South African death rites, and explains the powerful role of ancestors. A show not to be missed.

Mark Wortman blends his natural affinity for conducting interpersonal relationships with great integrity, with a rare sensitivity and understanding about death and loss. His experience, blended with a lively spark and easy demeanour, generates a freshness to his perspective about the world of funerals - what happens, what to be watchful of, what to celebrate. His background in psychology also equips Mark with useful tools to manage charged emotional situations. He recounts, with compassion and a mirthful shrug, some of the hidden things that only someone like him could be aware of, the behind the scenes shenanigans that happen when a loved one dies.

Ivor Gardiner's father opened the family business in the 1930s, making tombstones. Today, Ivor does the same... out of granite, marble and sandstone. This very gentle man has heard a few stories in his time. Together, I was privileged to reflect with him about his work and the deep meaning he derives from it, helping people find something solid in the time of their grief, and a way to dignify a life that's been lost.

It was in the blood - a powerful call from the spirit world. Heeding it, Lindy Dlamini left her 'old life' and, in a kind of rebirth, became initiated as a sangoma, or African traditional healer. She describes her work as a 'facilitator of healing', alert to the signs she's been both gifted and trained to read, always emphasizing the importance of our relationship with our ancestors, whether we are aware of them or not. She also discusses witchcraft and the practice of daily connection as a way to honour people and heal trauma. This is a fascinating account by someone with a rich spiritual life, whose compassion and insight are always in evidence.

Imagine being the principal on the scene of a road accident where there are multiple fatalities. When I sat down to interview Lloyd Castle, I had no idea that this is what he’d been responsible for, for many years, as a traffic officer. After a while he'd seen enough, to answer a new calling - teaching people how to stay safe on the roads - specifically, on motorcycles. In this episode, Lloyd discusses what goes on in the mind of a biker on the road. His insight into the behaviour of road users is instructive, as he shares many tips for staying safe on what he calls 'the road network', getting from A to B without incident. Mostly, they have to do with attitude. He also describes the unique culture that is biking, and the rituals involved in commemorating the death of one of the fallen. This is a cautionary tale, one which powerfully suggests that life is precious, and that we should cherish it while we can. Our choices on the road always have an impact on the people that matter - the people that love us. Start your engines!

Sheikh Sayed Imraan provides an incredibly detailed account of what happens when someone from the Islamic faith dies. In this episode, recorded in the mosque, he reveals not only what happens, but why, with compassion and an ever-present twinkle in his eye. From receiving the body and washing it, to shrouding it and burying it and praying over it at every step of the way, Sayed Imraan's generous explication is a rare glimpse into a set of holy practices with great implications for how Muslim people live their earthly lives.

How To Die is a death-positive podcast that promotes the idea that talking about death is good for life - it’s life-enhancing. Season 2 features a mortician, a forensic pathologist and others, launching on 8 April and thereafter every fortnight for three months.

An insider account of life as a paramedic, with decades of experience. Compassionate, insightful, passionate. What happens when the worst thing happens? Bradley Klein is the type of person you would trust with your life.

Providing compassionate professional care for twenty-five years in a well-known local hospice, Sr. Margot van der Wielen understands the challenges people and their families face with life-limiting illness. She shares her valuable perspective to help us apprehend our inevitable demise…

The Undertaker is a candid interview with a man who spends most of his days either fetching the deceased and transporting them, helping families face their grief, or preparing people for the final stage in their earthly journey. He shares his insights, challenges, and a bunch of no-no’s in dispelling myths and stereotypes about his craft, and teaches us that respecting the dead means respecting the living.

South Africa has just 50-60 state forensic pathologists serving almost 60 million people, plus a massive amount of unnatural death. What’s it like to work in this profession, and what does being so close to death teach you about life? Dr Linda Liebenberg has some great ideas about how NOT to die.

Reincarnation, cremation, the sacred passage of the soul.... this is an in-depth discussion of Hindu rites and rituals around death and dying, and why these are so important in the cycle of life. A deeply literate and erudite guest, Lokesh Maharajh has intimate understanding of the importance of these rituals and the correct way they should be performed for maximum karmic effect…

Cremation is a practice riven with misconception and superstition. It is taboo for many people, but also our obvious remedy to dwindling land available for burial. What happens when a body is cremated? What are the fears people have, and how can we address them?

What is aquamation and how exactly does it work on a human body after death? What are the byproducts and are they safe? Do you receive the ashes, or something similar? This is an in-depth discussion with someone who ardently believes in the green credentials of this alternative to burial or cremation, an insider who shares great perspective on respectful ways to honour our loved ones after death.

What is a forensic artist? In high demand due to the avalanche of unclaimed dead in our country, with its shockingly high numbers of unnatural deaths, this highly skilled practitioner provides a vital link between the worlds of justice and art, making meaning visible from the margins and in the shadows where so many people disappear.

Registered Financial Transitions Planner Louis van Der Merwe is compassionate, insightful, practical and down to earth when it comes to the big changes in life and what happens to money in their wake. Plus he’s got a sense of humour and a twinkle in his smile…