In this Encore episode (recorded in 2020), Claire O’Berry speaks with Stephen Jenkinson about what we have lost culturally around dying, and what it might mean to recover death wisdom as a shared, communal responsibility.

Together, they explore why older and vulnerable people are so easily dismissed, the difference between a “personalized” death and a communal one, and why the work of dying asks more of us than a preference list. Stephen also reflects on fear, medicalized dying, and the long shadow a death-phobic culture casts over how we live.

Mentioned and recommended: Orphan Wisdom and the Orphan Wisdom School, Stephen’s home for teaching and writing.

For your next listen: “Matrimony, Patrimony & the Village We Need” (Claire’s more recent conversation with Stephen).