Hey, true weirdos, at the end of this episode, stick around if you want for a little bonus

content and conversation.

Death. It's something we don't like to talk about or think about in American culture.

So we maybe never stop to consider what giant weirdos we are when it comes to death. We call cemeteries memorial gardens,

and then we try hard not to think about what's planted there. We get through our death rituals

as best we can, and then we move on. We don't dwell on the specifics, the satin-lined casket, the embalmed remains, the cold, hard hands folded in what's supposed to be a sign of eternal rest.

Because if we did focus on that stuff, we'd realize just how weird it all is.

And they got a small beam of light against the mirror.

True, stuff.

Death in America is big business.

How big?

Try $23 billion a year in revenue big.

That's spread out across roughly 19,000 funeral homes,

and about 80% of those remain in private hands,

family businesses, mom and pops,

doing the work that was once done by families in the home. The Civil War changed all that. Not because

that's when embalming was invented. The ancient Egyptians figured that stuff out a long time ago.

The Civil War just created an enormous need for the preservation of the dead. And an industry was

born.

What did people do before there were morticians and undertakers and funeral parlors and crematoriums?

How did they handle the death of a loved one in the days before 911 and ambulances and coroners? Death used to be a private personal affair, something that was taken care of at home.

The custom was for the body of the deceased to be carefully washed, usually by women.

...