In this episode, Professor Tanya Marsh discusses the legal complexities of multi-jurisdictional death with her father, Professor Bill Marsh. They explain that ensuring one's wishes are followed after death involves navigating three types of state laws: the default "right of sepulcher" (which grants control to next of kin), appointing a "designated agent" to supplant that default list, and using "personal preference statutes" to specify desired outcomes, such as the method and location of disposition. A significant complication is that for funeral planning, the controlling law is that of the state where the remains are physically located, not the decedent's state of residence. Because states have different requirements (e.g., some require two witnesses, others a notary) and no universal "super form" exists, they advise creating a single declaration that is signed, witnessed by two unrelated adults, and notarized to maximize enforceability across states. The conversation also covers the domestic and international transport of remains, and how to navigate TSA, airline requirements, and the requirements of the receiving country.

In this episode, Tanya Marsh and Susan Hubbard discuss the law of cryonics and the five states which have either enacted a statute or considered a case regarding the legality of the process.

I really enjoyed being a part of this episode of the Legal Deac podcast — hope you enjoy it too! Death in the US can be one of the most complex aspects of modern life, and caring for the dead takes many forms that are regulated by some of the most complicated laws on the books. In this episode, we explore the history, nuances, and quirks of funeral and cemetery law in the US and talk to students and professors at Wake Forest Law who helped legalize human composting as a new method of disposition.

The death care system in the New York City metropolitan area is overwhelmed. In this episode, we speak with Phil Tassi, President of the New York State Association of Cemeteries (NYSAC), and David Fleming, legislative director of NYSAC, to better understand the challenges facing cemeteries and crematories in the state.

Recorded on April 18, 2020, Brooklyn funeral director Amy Cunningham explains how death care is being handled in New York City a month into the COVID-19 pandemic.

Estate planning should include planning for periods of incapacity prior to death. In this episode, Wake Forest Law students Jonah Bamel and Greg Volk discuss health care powers of attorney, living wills, and durable powers of attorney, and the needs that each document serves.

On this week’s episode, I am happy to share with you a conversation that I recently had with Barbara Kemmis, the Executive Director of the Cremation Association of North America, or CANA.

Jodi Hildebran Lee and Jordan Crosby Lee are the Couldn't Be Happiers. Check them out at www.couldbehappiers.com. On this episode, they play murder ballads The Long Black Veil and a feminist re-imagining of Pretty Polly, plus their original song Jackson Square (which may or may not be about reincarnation).

The Protestant Reformation of the early 16th century changed countless aspects of everyday life for every kind of person across Europe. One of the things most profoundly affected was the popular conception of death. On this episode, I will be speaking with third year Wake Forest University Law School student Jordan Artrip about how the theology of the Reformation caused a paradigm shift for how death and the dead were viewed by society, as well as the practical effects of that shift on life and religious practice.

In this episode, Tanya and Tim Mossberger explore how The Avett Brothers address grief and death in their lyrics.

In the first episode produced with students from Funeral & Cemetery Law class at Wake Forest University, third year law student Tyler Cunningham discusses death related holidays including Halloween, Dia de los Muertos, Famadihana, and Chuseok.

This hybrid episode combines Cemetery Tourism in Philadelphia and the music of recording artist Dan Zlotnick. In Part I, I discuss the history and some of the notable burials in Spruce Street Cemetery, the Old Pine Street Church churchyard, Christ Church churchyard and burial ground, the potter’s field in Washington Square, and Laurel Hill Cemetery. In Part II, singer-songwriter Dan Zlotnick shares two original songs, “Day 2 for Dina,” and “The Man Who Died Here Saved Me,” as well as his covers of The Avett Brothers’ “The Greatest Sum” and the folk song “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me.”

This is Tanya Marsh and you’re listening to Death, et seq. My guest this week is Sarah Crews, the director of Heart Land Prairie Cemetery in Salina, Kansas, the first all natural burial ground in Kansas, and the President of the National Home Funeral Alliance. Sarah also has a background in hospice and music.

My guest this week is my friend Josh Slocum, who is the Executive Director of Funeral Consumers Alliance and the co-author of Final Rights: Reclaiming the American Way of Death. Josh is a consumer advocate who is also willing to give consumers a little tough love in the face of what he refers to as learned helplessness. At the same time, he argues that the industry should be more transparent with pricing so that consumers are better able to make decisions that are meaningful and affordable.

Amy Cunningham is a progressive funeral director and the owner of Fitting Tribute Funeral Services in New York City. A former journalist, Amy co-authors a blog, The Inspired Funeral, with Kateyanne Unullisi.

This is the first episode in a series called "Cemetery Tourism," in which various cemeteries that have common characteristics are examined. This episode looks at the colonial cemeteries in two of the earliest urban centers in the United States -- New Amsterdam/New York City and Boston. Cemeteries discussed include Trinity Churchyard, King's Chapel Burying Ground, Copp's Hill Burying Ground, Granary Burying Ground, and Central Burying Ground.

Lee Webster discusses her educational and advocacy efforts in the "neo-traditional" home funeral and green burial movements.

Today’s podcast features my conversation with Bob Fells, General Counsel of the International Cemetery, Cremation, and Funeral Association, known as ICCFA. Bob was formerly the Executive Director and General Counsel of ICCFA, retiring from his role as Executive Director in 2017. Bob shares his perspective on the proposed changes to the Funeral Rule, the pressures facing the death care industries, and the value of a traditional funeral.

Megan Rosenbloom is Associate Director for Instruction Services at the Norris Medical Library of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and the co-founder and director of Death Salon, the event arm of The Order of the Good Death. Rosenbloom is writing a book called Dark Archives, anticipated to be published in 2019, which describes the history and discusses the ethics involved in "anthropodermic bibliopegy," books alleged to have been bound in human skin.

In this week’s episode of Death, et seq., I am talking to two of my favorite people about two very different topics. First, I’ll be talking to my uncle, Philip Chaney, about his experience growing up in a funeral family in a small town in Nebraska in the mid-20th century. Second, I’ll be talking to my friend David Childers, a recording artist on Ramseur Records, and the singer and guitar player that you hear along with my son Riley Sherman on the music that opens each episode of Death, et seq. Music is an important part of the rituals surrounding death, and I am looking forward to having a number of episodes in which I talk to musicians about the connection between music and mortality. So, today on Death, et seq. — history, music, and mortality.