Learn about breaking taboos around talking about death through a unique death education program in Australia.
My guest Samantha Waite is the quirky founding director of Taboo Education who works with individuals and groups in local, national (Australia) and international communities to resolve our taboo and confusion in talking about death. She is a long-time performing arts enthusiast as well as a trained counselor and youth worker with training in thanatology, psychotherapy and public health. She discusses some of the cultural differences around death and dying between the US and Australia and what Australia is doing right in terms of end-of-life care. Learn more at her website:
This episode includes:
- How Samantha started Taboo Education
- Why she chooses to dress in Victorian mourning clothes and how it serves her message
- Why we sometimes wish people still wore mourning attire
- Cultural differences between Australia and the U.S. in the death and funeral industry
- Which countries have the best end-of-life care (and why some wealthy countries are failing)
- Why the US is 43rd globally in providing care at end of life
- Issues for healthcare providers around seeing death as a failure
- The death doula movement in Australia
Links mentioned in this episode:
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