Funeral Planning

PBS Frontline: The Undertaking

 

The Coffin Club

 

TED Talk: How to Write Your Own Obituary

 

TED Talk: My Mushroom Burial Suit

 

Why You Should Spend Time with a Dead Body

 

A Burial Practice the Nourishes the Planet

 

TED Talk: What I Learned from 2,000 Obituaries

 

Leaving a Legacy Through Intent

 

Our recommended reading list for funeral planning:

• Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty
• Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals about Death by Caitlin Doughty
• Rest In Peace: A Cultural History of Death and the Funeral Home in the 20th Century by Gary Ladermann
• The Good Funeral: Death, Grief and the Community of Care by Thomas Long & Thomas Lynch
• On Our Way: The Final Passage Through Life and Death by Robert Kastenbaum
• The Undertaking: Life Studies from a Dismal Trade by Thomas Lynch
• The Perfect Strangers Guide to Funerals and Grieving Practices by Stuart Maltins
• When We Die: The Science, Culture and Rituals of Death by Cedric Mims
• The American Way of Death Revisited by Jessica Mitford
• The Good Death: An Exploration of Dying in America by Ann Neuman
• Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
• Death, Mourning and Burial: A Cross-Cultural Reader by Antonius C. G. M. Robben
• Death, American Style: A Cultural History of Dying in America by Lawrence R. Samuel
• Awaiting the Heavenly Country: The Civil War and American Culture of Death by Mark Schantz
• Death’s Summer Coat: What the History of Death and Dying Teaches us about Live and Living by Brandy Schillace
• Confessions of a Funeral Director: How the Business of Death Saved My Life by Caleb Wilde
• The American Resting Place – 400 Years of History Through our Cemeteries & Burial Grounds by Marilyn Yalmon

 

Our recommended reading list for obituary writing:

• The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries by Marilyn Johnson
• If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name by Heather Lende
• Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer by Heather Lende
• The Last Word: The New York Times Book of Obituaries and Farewells by Marvin Siegel
• The Very Best of the Daily Telegraph Books of Obituaries by Hugh Massingberd