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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.
53 Episodes
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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 e...
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. Fr...
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 ever...
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 ...
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...
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 fro...
This week’s Saturday Contemplation looks at the heart of this entire project. Why we even choose to think about death in the first place. It’s not about fear or morbidity. It’s about presence. When we turn toward death instead of away from it, life starts to look and feel different. The ordinary becomes sacred. The temporary becomes meaningful. And we remember what it really means to be alive. Normally, this would be a bonus episode exclusively for WWDT+ members but it felt important to share...
This week’s caller is a psychotherapist whose first brush with mortality came early—at just six years old, when her father was struck in the head by a baseball. He survived, but not as the same man. That experience became the quiet force behind a lifelong curiosity about loss, consciousness, and the fragile line between who we are and who we were. What begins as a conversation about death unfolds into an exploration of Buddhism, the bardos, psychedelics, and the ways grief lives in the body l...
This week’s Saturday Contemplation explores the miracle of simply being here — the cosmic chain of events that led to this single moment. From the vastness of the universe to the smallest details of daily life, we reflect on how awareness transforms the ordinary into something extraordinary. Because when you really stop to notice, even breathing can feel like a miracle. In honor of the two-year anniversary of When We Die Talks, all Saturday Contemplations from October are available to everyon...
This week’s caller, a father who lost his son to suicide eighteen months ago, speaks with rare clarity about grief, meaning, and why skepticism doesn’t have to harden into despair. The premise is simple and brave: if consciousness is a function of the brain and ends when the brain stops, how do we live with love and purpose anyway? We trace the moment death moved from abstract to intimate, and how that shift rewired his priorities. Together, we explore the boundaries between belief and eviden...
This week’s Saturday Contemplation invites you to notice what often goes unseen — the quiet moments that make up a life. From the hum of a familiar room to the light shifting across a wall, we explore how impermanence turns the ordinary into something sacred. Gratitude, after all, begins with paying attention. In honor of the two-year anniversary of When We Die Talks, all Saturday Contemplations from October are available to everyone — a small thank-you for being part of this project and for ...
What would it mean to release your grip on the things you can’t control? This week’s Saturday Contemplation explores the quiet art of letting go — of expectations, identities, and moments that have already passed. Through breath and awareness, we reflect on how surrender can open space for peace, acceptance, and renewal. Available exclusively to WWDT+ members. Saturday Contemplations are a weekly practice designed to help you slow down, reflect on your mortality, and reconnect with what gives...
In this week’s call, an anonymous caller from Perth, Australia — with deep family roots in Colombia — shares how culture, belief, and experience shape the way we face death. She describes an Australia where humor keeps things light, sometimes at the cost of connection, and a Colombia where grief is collective — marked by candles, stories, music, and the warmth of family gathered to mourn and celebrate together. Those contrasts reveal not just different customs, but different ways of healing. ...
You don’t need another reminder that time is limited. But you might need a reminder to act like it. This week’s Saturday Contemplation explores what it really means to live as if your time mattered. Not in a rushed or panicked way, but with presence and intention. What would change if you stopped waiting for the “right moment” and started treating this moment as enough? Available exclusively to WWDT+ members. Saturday Contemplations are a weekly practice designed to help you slow down, reflec...
What if the clearest way to love life is to look directly at death? This week’s caller has lived with chronic illness, which has kept mortality close. But instead of fear, he’s found a deep sense of gratitude — for warmth, for connection, for the chance to still be here. We talk about the small joys that give life its texture, and the ways imagination can shape belief. He shares how, as a child, The Velveteen Rabbit made him believe that love could bring something to life — and how that same ...
If you knew you only had one year left to live, what would you do differently? This week’s Saturday Contemplation invites you to sit with that question — not as a thought experiment, but as a mirror. What truly matters when time becomes finite? What would you let go of? And what would you finally make space for? Available exclusively to WWDT+ members. Saturday Contemplations are a weekly practice designed to help you slow down, reflect on your mortality, and reconnect with what gives your lif...
A single question opens a door most of us avoid: what do you think happens when we die? For this caller, the answer comes not from theory but from experience. During a medical crisis, she finds herself floating above her body, greeted by family who had already died, and facing an ornate threshold she’s told not to cross. It’s a story that’s strange and tender, playful and grounded. Not a doctrine, but a report from the edge. Told by someone who has worked in hospice, studied death across cult...
This first Saturday Contemplation centers on the reality that each breath brings us closer to death. Our lifespan is ever-decreasing, and while that can feel heavy, it’s also what makes each breath, each moment, so precious. The first contemplation of every month will always be free. But if you want the full experience — every weekly Saturday Contemplation and early access to new podcast episodes — you’ll need to join WWDT+. It’s the best way to support the show, keep these conversations aliv...
This week (and episode) marks the one-year anniversary of When We Die Talks. Instead of an anonymous call, I’m taking time to pause and reflect. I share what this past year has taught me. About death, grief, connection, and even my own shifting beliefs. I talk about what I’ve learned from starting the podcast, the challenges and surprises along the way, and where things might be headed from here. I also introduce something new: Saturday Contemplations. These short weekly reflections are desig...
This week marks a few big milestones for the project. It’s Episode #30, the final full conversation of the podcast’s first year, and it’s also the very first international call. Our caller from Canada takes us through a wide-ranging conversation about death, culture, science, and what it means to see ourselves as part of something larger. From how the brain behaves in our final moments to how different cultures approach death, the discussion moves between the personal and the collective, the ...
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