Mortality Minded

Mortal Chats with artist Jak Ruiz

Jak Ruiz is a Brooklyn-based artist focusing on abstract and expressionist paintings. I spoke with him as part of my Mortal Chats series, a collection of wide-ranging conversations with people of all stripes about mortality and its corollaries: dying, death, grief, and the possibility of an afterlife.

Jak and I had an interesting chat about a plethora of topics under this umbrella, including how his mortality awareness catalyzes his creativity, the significant role suicide has played in his life, and his intergalactic travel plans if there's life after death. You can see his artwork and connect with him @jakruiz_art on Instagram.

And, as usual, I share my daily mortality mantras with you. I say both to myself every morning, usually during the ice cold shower I take shortly after getting out of bed to help wake my groggy ass up and start the day off right. I hope they help you as much as they help me.

Some things and people mentioned in this episode:

• Agnosticism/atheism, Catholicism, hell
  
• Alternate Endings: Six New Ways To Die In America documentary (HBO)
  
• Andre the Giant, Beetlejuice
• Consciousness
• Creativity
• Cremation, green burial
• Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY; Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France
• Jean-Paul Sartre: Being and Nothingness; No Exit
• Kali, the Hindu goddess of death
• Physician-assisted dying, suicide

Connect

Enjoying Mortality Minded? Please take a moment to rate the podcast and share this episode. It would be helpful and much appreciated as I continue working to turn my vision into reality.

You can join me in exploring mortality and its corollaries by subscribing to Mortality Minded wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes and other content are also available on Mortality Minded.

If social media's your thing, I’m @MortalityMinded on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Or if you prefer to kick it old school, email me at connect@mortalityminded.com

Thanks for listening. Until next time, stay mortality minded.

(Music: Brass Beat by Blake © 2011 licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.)

A candid look at suicide—and suicide prevention

Suicide is a leading cause of death and major public health problem in the United States.

Its consequences often go well beyond the person who acts to take their own life: it can have a lasting effect on family, friends, and communities.

Since September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month here in the U.S., it’s a good time to shed light on this topic, which can be especially difficult for many people to talk about.

In this episode—part of my End Points series, a mix of end-of-life topics intersecting with culture, science, and more—I speak to some surprising stats about suicide and what’s behind the numbers. Then I dive into risk factors, warning signs, ways to help, and additional resources you may find interesting and useful.

And, as usual, I share my daily mortality mantras with you. I say both to myself every morning, usually during the ice cold shower I take shortly after getting out of bed to help wake my groggy ass up and start the day off right. I hope they help you as much as they help me.

Sources and other resources: here (scroll down once you're there)

Connect

Enjoying Mortality Minded? Please take a moment to rate the podcast and share this episode. It would be helpful and much appreciated as I continue working to turn my vision into reality.

You can join me in exploring mortality and its corollaries by subscribing to Mortality Minded wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes and other content are also available on Mortality Minded.

If social media's your thing, I’m @MortalityMinded on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Or if you prefer to kick it old school, email me at connect@mortalityminded.com

Thanks for listening. Until next time, stay mortality minded.

(Music: Brass Beat by Blake © 2011 licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.)

Catharine DeLong on music as medicine at the end of life

Catharine DeLong is a music thanatologist—thanatology is the interdisciplinary study of dying, death, and grief—who plays the harp and sings for hospice patients as they approach the end of life.

She's also the facilitator of the Integrative Thanatology Certificate Program, which I completed last year, at The Open Center in New York City.

In this episode, I speak with Catharine about her compassionate and compelling work at the bedside of people who are dying, including her visit with my grandmother just hours before she died last year. You can connect with her at DeLong Harp or by email.

And, as usual, I share my daily mortality mantras with you. I say both to myself every morning, usually during the ice cold shower I take shortly after getting out of bed to help wake my groggy ass up and start the day off right. I hope they help you as much as they help me.

Connect

Enjoying Mortality Minded? Please take a moment to rate the podcast and share this episode. It would be helpful and much appreciated as I continue working to turn my vision into reality.

You can join me in exploring mortality and its corollaries by subscribing to Mortality Minded wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes and other content are also available on Mortality Minded.

If social media's your thing, I’m @MortalityMinded on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Or if you prefer to kick it old school, email me at connect@mortalityminded.com

Thanks for listening. Until next time, stay mortality minded.

(Music: Brass Beat by Blake © 2011 licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.)

What is Mortality Minded?

Episode one of Mortality Minded is here!

Find out how the podcast will work, what it means to be mortality minded, and why we generally have so much trouble thinking and talking about the end of life—yet how that’s been slowly changing in recent years. You’ll also get to know me, Thomas Gaudio, and how I became interested in a subject most people avoid.

Below are links to some things and people I mention in this episode:

Books:

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

The American Way of Death by Jessica Mitford

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl

On The Shortness of Life by Seneca

Other:

Catharine DeLong, music thanatologist

Death Cafe

Endwell

Integrative Thanatology Certificate Program

Reimagine End of Life

Terror management theory

And I share my daily mortality mantras with you. I say both to myself every morning, usually during the ice cold shower I take shortly after getting out of bed to help wake my groggy ass up and start the day off right. I hope they help you as much as they help me.

Connect

Enjoying Mortality Minded? Please take a moment to rate the podcast and share this episode. It would be helpful and much appreciated as I continue working to turn my vision into reality.

You can join me in exploring mortality and its corollaries by subscribing to Mortality Minded wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes and other content are also available on Mortality Minded.

If social media's your thing, I’m @MortalityMinded on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Or if you prefer to kick it old school, email me at connect@mortalityminded.com

Thanks for listening. Until next time, stay mortality minded.

(Music: Brass Beat by Blake © 2011 licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.)

Mortality Minded trailer

A preview of Mortality Minded, a podcast that explores life, death, and whatever's next through culture, science, personal growth, and more to shed light on this universal yet deeply personal subject. Hosted by Thomas Gaudio, whose endless mortal curiosity as a writer, journalist, and student of thanatology—the interdisciplinary study of the end of life—has led him here.

Connect

Enjoying Mortality Minded? Please take a moment to rate the podcast and share this episode. It would be helpful and much appreciated as I continue working to turn my vision into reality.

You can join me in exploring mortality and its corollaries by subscribing to Mortality Minded wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes and other content are also available on Mortality Minded.

If social media's your thing, I’m @MortalityMinded on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Or if you prefer to kick it old school, email me at connect@mortalityminded.com

Thanks for listening. Until next time, stay mortality minded.

(Music: Brass Beat by Blake © 2011 licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.)