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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Secular Buddhism podcast. I am your host, Noah

Roshetta. Today I'm doing something a little different instead of my usual solo format where I share

a concept or idea. I'm bringing you a conversation.

I recently had the chance to sit down with Andy Chalif to discuss his new book, Dying to

Live. Now, I'll be honest, death isn't a topic most people want to explore. It's the elephant

in every room we walk into, yet we've somehow agreed not to talk about it.

We change the subject. We avoid it at funerals. We even tell grieving loved ones not to cry too much.

But here's what I've come to understand through my own experiences, losing a childhood friend when I was young,

a close business partner and friend in my 20s, and more recently my dad. When we avoid thinking

about death, we're actually avoiding being fully alive. The two are inseparable. Our resistance to one becomes resistance to the other.

Andy's book dives right into that discomfort and shows how our mortality, rather than being something to dread,

can become one of our greatest teachers. We talk about those 3 a.m. moments of

existential panic, the little deaths we experience throughout life, like graduations and transitions,

and what it really means to live each day as if it could be your last. So without further ado, here's my conversation with

Andy Chalif. Welcome, Andy. You've written a book on a topic that most people spend their

entire lives trying to not think about. Tell me a little bit about that. What was the catalyst for you?

What draws a person to dive so deeply into the subject of death?

You know, I've often found that I go to discomfort.

That's sort of what I'm drawn to.

And the vulnerability in discomfort is sort of what I'm drawn to. And the vulnerability and discomfort is sort of,

...