If you’ve ever joined us at End Well, you already know that our founder, Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider, believes the way we talk about death changes the way we live.
Her work—as a physician, science journalist, documentary producer, and founder of End Well—has always centered one radical idea: that honest conversations about mortality are really conversations about meaning, connection, and love.
That same spirit infuses her acclaimed podcast, Before We Go, now in its second season.
From One Family’s Story to All of Ours
Season 1 followed Shoshana through one of the most intimate and formative experiences of her life: her father’s terminal cancer diagnosis.
In those early episodes, she invited listeners into her family’s story—not to offer easy answers, but to ask the kinds of questions that open us up. What does it mean to care well? To let go? To love someone through the end of their life without losing yourself?
That season was both a personal reckoning and a cultural mirror, showing how unprepared most of us are to talk about death—and how freeing it can be when we finally do.
Now, the Circle Grows Wider
Season 2 widens the lens. This time, Shoshana sits down with people from all walks of life to explore what it means to live alongside mortality—how we carry it, talk about it, laugh through it, and keep choosing to love anyway.
Among this season’s guests:
- Yvette Nicole Brown, on the beauty and burden of caregiving.
- Patton Oswalt, on grief, humor, and parenting after loss.
- Alexandra Breckenridge, on how loss reshapes identity.
- Mark Cuban, on the urgent need to rebuild healthcare with compassion and equity at its core.
- Alua Arthur, death doula and End Well favorite, on why talking about death is really about choosing life.
- BJ Miller, palliative care physician and End Well co-founder, on how to find beauty, even when things fall apart.
- Nikki Boyer, host of Dying for Sex, on how radical honesty and humor can help us navigate impossible moments.
Threaded through their stories are insights from clinicians, spiritual leaders, ethicists, and storytellers who help us ask deeper questions about resilience, meaning, and what it really means to face the inevitable with grace.
A Conversation That Mirrors the Mission
If End Well is a movement to reimagine how we live and die, Before We Go is one of its most intimate expressions.
The podcast brings the End Well ethos—courage, compassion, radical curiosity—to your headphones. It’s a space where story, science, and soul meet.
And like every End Well gathering, it reminds us that when we speak honestly about the end of life, we open the door to living more fully.
Listen Wherever You Are
Season 2 of Before We Go is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you listen.
Listen to Before We Go Season 2
Follow @ShoshanaUngerleider and @EndWellProject for behind-the-scenes moments and reflections from this season’s guests.