# 148 The Bizarre Life of American Death w/ Caitlin Doughty
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 28 October 2019
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Death is something that everyone has in common, yet most of us spend our lives trying not to think about it. Even as we buy our decorations and costumes for Halloween, we rarely consider that witches, skeleton and other symbols associated with the holiday have their own histories. In this episode, Caitlin Doughty takes Ben, Bob & Guest co-host Tanya Marsh on a conversational haunted trail that covers the history of witch hunts, the disposal of dead bodies, and how social norms surrounding death have come to shape the world around us.
Caitlin Doughty is a Los Angeles-based mortician, activist, and funeral industry rabble-rouser. Her books Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and From Here to Eternity were both New York Times bestsellers. Her newest book Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals about Death was released in September 2019. For more on Caitlin, check out caitlindoughty.com and visit her YouTube channel, Ask a Mortician.
All three of Caitlin's books (read by Caitlin herself!) are available on audiobook through Libro.fm. Click here and use promo code RTN to get 3 months of Libro.fm membership for just $15!
This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.
The Road to Now is hosted by Ben Sawyer and Bob Crawford. A member of the Osiris Podcast Network.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Oh, Cyrus. |
| 0:14.5 | Hello! |
| 0:15.0 | I'm Gary. |
| 0:16.0 | I'm Sean. |
| 0:17.0 | And I'm Brad, and together we cast a pod known as |
| 0:20.0 | Which is Better. You guys ever wonder which is better? Well, wonder no more. Join us as we tackle the topics. We seek understanding. And we settle the debate on all the subjects you care about. D.C. versus Marvel. Prince versus Michael Jackson. Liberals versus Conservatives. King Kong versus Godzilla. Bruce Lee versus Jackie Chan's. |
| 0:38.2 | Science versus religion. |
| 0:39.5 | And many more. |
| 0:41.0 | That's us. |
| 0:41.9 | Which is better? |
| 0:43.5 | Which is better? |
| 0:49.2 | I'm Ben Sawyer. And this is The Road to Now. |
| 0:58.0 | Today's guest, in the spirit of Halloween, and usually the only time of year that we talk about death, is an expert on that topic, death and how we deal with it. |
| 1:14.1 | Our guest is Caitlin Doty. She is a mortician activist and funeral industry rabble rouser. She's written several books on death and the funeral |
| 1:20.4 | industry, including smoke gets in your eyes and from here to eternity, which were both New York |
| 1:25.5 | Times bestsellers. and her newest book, |
| 1:28.2 | Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals about death just came out on September 10th. |
| 1:34.6 | A fantastic guest. We had so many wonderful moments where you kind of realize the way that we don't |
| 1:41.6 | deal with death. We don't like to talk about it. We'll dress up like it. But, you know, we don't deal with death. We don't like to talk about it. |
| 1:44.2 | We'll dress up like it. |
| 1:45.6 | But, you know, we don't always have the healthiest attitude in terms of dealing with the, |
| 1:51.6 | one of the few things that we all will experience one day. |
... |
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