Tig Notaro wants to destigmatize cancer conversations
Comedian Tig Notaro shares her journey with breast cancer, from diagnosis to dealing with stigmas around difficult conversations about illness.
Harry Hudson: A young songwriter’s cancer journey
Singer Harry Hudson was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 20. Harry reflects on the hurdles he faced during this time and the impact on his brother, Remington.
Do patients talk to deceased loved ones before death? | Hadley Vlahos
Hadley Vlahos, a hospice nurse, recounts patients seeing and talking to deceased loved ones and how it shaped they way she views death and the afterlife.
Lessons from a children’s TV writer turned death doula | Darnell Lamont Walker
Darnell Lamont Walker, a children’s television writer, infuses his characters with the qualities that he believes, as a death doula, serve us well at the end of life.
What a doctor learned from taking psychedelic medicine | Anthony Back
Anthony Back, the 1st physician to publish a firsthand account of psychedelic meds, leads a clinical trial into the benefits of psilocybin-assisted therapy for clinicians experiencing burnout.
Why human composting is a sustainable burial method | Katrina Spade
Katrina Spade, inventor of human composting, shares how she brought body composting to the world and why it is a sustainable alternative to conventional death care.
How making friends with your future self can make living & dying better | Hal Hershfield
Pioneering psychologist Hal Hershfield shares how making friends with our older selves can help us make better decisions about living & dying.
What losing a child taught a mom about death stories | J.J. Duncan
Bereaved mother and producer, J.J. Duncan, wants our culture to “grow up” about death. The showrunner for “The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning,” knows that the stories the media presents are powerful agents for change.
Devin Moss: A humanist chaplain for death row
Humanist Chaplain Devin Moss shares his experience providing spiritual care to death row inmate, Phillip Hancock, who at the time was two weeks away from execution by lethal injection. Moss learned that while we can never truly walk in another’s shoes, by accepting our own fear and vulnerability, we can learn to reach across the […]
How nature heals | Louie Schwartzberg
Award-winning filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg shares how gorgeous imagery of nature and beautiful sound can enhance healing.
How music and art transformed grieving in Belgium | Pieter Deknudt
Musician and movement builder Pieter Deknudt shares how what began as a solitary concert in a neighborhood cemetery has given rise to a vibrant cultural transformation around loss and grief in Belgium.
Hospice and Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
This February, as the nation commemorated Presidents’ Day, we also marked a noteworthy occasion for one of our leaders: Jimmy Carter, the country’s oldest living former president at 99, has now surpassed a year in hospice care. Through this time, Carter is showing us the value of hospice in ending life well. President Carter’s choice highlights […]
End Well Stories: Touching Life
by Addie Hahn, Hospice Massage Therapist “When I tell people what I do for a living, they often respond with sympathy. “That must be so sad!” My client lay under a pale duvet in her bedroom at the top of a creaking staircase in an old Victorian house. Her smile was both warm and weary […]
Practical Solutions: Community Member – Sarah Grifferty
At 23, entrepreneur Sarah Grifferty saw first hand how difficult and complicated the practical side of settling an estate after a loved one dies can be. She founded LooseEnds to help make the process easier for others. Sarah will be leading a lunchtime conversation at End Well 2023 on November 16th in Los Angeles. Q: […]
Empathetic Technology: Community Member – Daniel Shaw
After losing several family members, entrepreneur Daniel Shaw decided to devote his life to building an enduring business that would effectively address the needs of bereaved people. Daniel will be leading a lunchtime conversation at End Well 2023 on November 16th in Los Angeles. Tell us a bit about yourself. I’m the co-founder and CEO […]
The Mourning Revolution: Reframing Grief with Music and Connection
Pieter Deknudt is a Belgian singer-songwriter who transformed personal loss into a movement. He is at the forefront of Belgium’s ‘Mourning Revolution’. We had the pleasure of asking Piete a few questions in advance of his appearance at the End Well Symposium on November 16th in Los Angeles. “In good times, humans have a great talent […]
Bringing Medicine and Spirituality Closer: Community Member – Brad Stuart, MD
Dr. Brad Stuart has been practicing internal medicine for decades, spent twenty-five years as a hospice medical director and founded a national model of care to assist people with serious illness at home. During this time, he’s come to believe that healing and spirituality – no matter how you define or connect with it – […]
An Interview with Chaplain Devin Moss – Updated
Devin Sean Moss is an atheist chaplain and the host of The Adventures of Memento Mori podcast. Soon after our symposium, Phillip Hancock, who Moss spoke about on our stage, was executed by the state of Oklahoma. See Moss’s End Well talk about this experience HERE. You can also read more about the journey in […]
The Art Of Beginning Again: An Interview with Tembi Locke
Tembi Locke has spent a decade as an advocate for greater grief awareness and the issues facing caregivers. Now, after having written and adapted her memoir From Scratch for screen, she also speaks about the art of beginning again, rebuilding, and reimagining after loss. We had the joy of learning more about Tembi in advance […]
Leaning Into Grief: An Interview With Claire Bidwell Smith
“Healing from loss means making our lives worth the pain we endure when we lose someone we love. And that transforming through grief is an opportunity afforded to all.” Claire Bidwell Smith is a renowned therapist, grief expert, and author. After losing both of her parents at a young age, Claire was drawn to helping […]
The Imperative For Indigenous Wisdom To Inform Modern Psychedelic Therapies
Expanding on the western notion of what constitutes ‘medicine,’ Patricia James shares her understanding of the traditional use of sacred plants and other practices to connect with the cycles of birth and death and the healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness.
Melissa Etheridge On Psychedelics and Healing
Musician, advocate and entrepreneur Melissa Etheridge is known for her rockin’ guitar licks and searingly honest lyrics. No stranger to life’s tougher challenges, Melissa offers her perspective on how plant-based medicines might heal our deepest hurts.
How Images Of Nature Can Heal
After decades of hearing from viewers that his images of nature changed their lives, filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg embarked on a mission to develop Visual Healing to bring life-like natural environments into the hospital setting. With several research studies underway, Louie is working closely with healthcare providers to better understand how images of nature may be […]
It’s Okay To Not Be Okay: Destigmatizing Mental Health Challenges For African Americans
Actor Taraji P. Henson witnessed her Vietnam Veteran father struggle with mental health issues. Taraji shares why it’s okay to not be okay and why she founded an organization to to fight the stigma and bring awareness to mental health issues within the African-American community.
Creating Monuments For Healing
Artist Hank Willis Thomas has long been fascinated by the power monuments and memorials have to shape and define culture. Hank shares his path to creating sculptures that reframe public spaces into places for private contemplation, civic engagement and healing. Grounded in universal themes of hope, love and unity, Hank’s talk asks us to participate […]
Larry King and Hollywood Elders On Living Well In Their Golden Years
Larry King, Marion Ross, Marla Gibbs, Norman Lear, John Amos and Carl Reiner share hilarious and heartfelt stories full of grit, stamina and resilience. Their secret to a life well-lived? Keep on keeping on—with humor and love as your guides.
Food, Community And Legacy
“High on the Hog” host, Stephen Satterfield talks with Osayi Endolyn and Thérèse Nelson about how what cook and eat can honor the legacy of those who came before and flavor our hopes and dreams for the future. As cooks, writers and activists, these three dynamic voices offer a vision for individual health and cultural […]
‘Til Death Do We Part: Intimacy During And After Illness
Psychotherapist Esther Perel explores the nature of the lifelong need for connection even as serious illness challenges personal notions of fidelity, companionship and identity. With her life’s work focusing on matters of intimacy, communication and the human condition, Esther shares the importance of love, humor and forgiveness throughout all stages of life.
Justin Baldoni wants to change how we talk about death | End Well
Actor & filmmaker Justin Baldoni shares the importance of end of life conversations and how End Well is changing how we speak about death with education and advocacy.
Why We Don’t Plan For End of Life
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An Oscar-Winner Reframes Death To See The Beauty of Life
Screenwriter David Seidler is best known for his Oscar-winning script, The King’s Speech, but what he hopes to be remembered for is helping to reframe the conversation about death and dying. David talks about his personal journey to film cultural pioneers talking about their perspective on mortality and how the shadow of death can enable […]
You Don’t Have To Find Out You’re Dying To Start Living
From a very young age, actor, producer and director, Justin Baldoni’s faith, family, and natural curiosity have led him to embrace the mysteries of our mortality and launch a quest to transform our death-phobic culture. Join Justin as he shares his eye-opening observations as an artist and director entrenched in finding and illuminating the beauty […]
What’s Love Got To Do With It? The Neuroscience Of Empathy
James Doty, MD, neurosurgeon, and Director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education shares the science on how the world not only becomes a better place when we practice prosocial skills like empathy and compassion but personal physiology also shifts in profound and healthful ways.
Why You Should Spend Time With A Dead Body
Mortician and death acceptance advocate Caitlin Doughty believes that safe, open interaction with death and dead bodies provides a sense of purpose for family and friends and creates a space for us to unburden our grief to discover a path toward healing.
A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad On Faith, Art And Mortality
Ali Shaheed Muhammad and A Tribe Called Quest infused hip hop with philosophical questions about what it means to stay human in the face of dehumanizing forces. As an artist, change agent and witness to the human condition, Ali shares his perspective on faith, art and mortality in conversation with writer/activist Courtney Martin.
Reclaiming The End of Life As a Human Experience
Palliative care physician and author BJ Miller measures the quality of end of life care by how much room it allows for beauty and joy. Informed by his own lived experience, BJ is at the vanguard of the movement to make ending well a measure of living well for all.