The plot thickens

Outside/In

NHPR

Society & Culture, Documentary, Natural Sciences, Nature, Science

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 1 February 2024

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A lot of discussion about sustainability revolves around the trash and waste we leave behind. But at some point, every human being will die and leave behind a body. So what should we do with it? Casket? Cremation? Compost? And does our choice actually have a meaningful impact on the soils and skies around us? Today, we’ve got another edition of our segment, “This, That, or the Other Thing”, where Outside/In’s unofficial decomposition correspondent Felix Poon investigates how we can more sustainably rest in peace. Featuring Regina Harrison, Katrina Spade, and Matt Scott SUPPORT Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. Subscribe to our newsletter (it’s free!). Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook. Submit a question to the “Outside/Inbox.” We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to outsidein@nhpr.org or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837). LINKS Find how you can help with climate solutions by drawing your Climate Action Venn Diagram. Learn more about Project Drawdown’s Drawdown Solutions Library. Tag along on a visit to the Recompose human composting facility (Youtube). CREDITS Host: Nate Hegyi Reported and produced by Felix Poon Edited by Taylor Quimby Our team includes Justine Paradis. Rebecca Lavoie is NHPR’s Director of On-Demand Audio. Music for this episode by Blue Dot Sessions Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio Submit a question to the “Outside/Inbox.” We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to outsidein@nhpr.org or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, are you on speakerphone or are you on regular phone?
0:03.5	I'm on regular phone.
0:05.0	Is that side in? I'm Nate Hedgy and this is my friend Felicia Cecilia.
0:09.5	Oh, I'm stop boiling the water.
0:13.0	Felicia lives in Fairbanks, Alaska.
0:15.4	But a few months ago, she was visiting my wife and I in Montana.
0:18.7	We were on a run.
0:19.7	I don't know how we started talking about it. But I think I don't know we were thinking about death.
0:25.8	Death specifically burials cremation and you're talking about ashes being spread and I was like well there's also the option to be composted.
0:37.0	Yeah, you heard that right human composting.
0:41.0	Felicia guessed that composting a body has to be better than burning it and sending CO2 into the atmosphere.
0:48.4	You know, there's minerals in your body that could be especially be useful for the ecosystem, but I don't really know.
0:54.4	So what's better for the environment and our planet's soil?
0:58.0	Cremation, burial, human composting? I didn't know the answer, but I knew exactly who to call.
1:13.7	Hello, Nate Hedges. Hey, buddy, how you doing?
1:15.7	Producer Felix Poon.
1:17.1	You're like our resident Deathbeat reporter, right?
1:20.1	Like how many episodes have you done about death now?
1:22.0	I think I have to count, right?
1:25.0	So there was a, there's a decomposing squirrel story,
1:29.0	there was the body farm story,
1:31.0	the suicidal story.
	...

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