Send us a text In this episode, Professor Sonia Kumar, founding Executive Dean of Medicine at St. Mary’s University's new School of Medicine, shares her vision for a more compassionate, values-driven approach to medical education. She discusses the importance of human connection, spirituality, and supporting both patients and doctors through death, dying, and grief. With moving stories from her career as a GP, Professor Kumar explains how the new school will prepare future doctors...

Send us a text The world is aging rapidly. People are living longer. Everyone wants their death to be calm, peaceful and reconciled - ideally at home, and in the presence of family and loved ones. End of life care, and in particular, specialised palliative care, is increasingly important and can radically enhance quality of life for both patients and their families. But how can you explain the merits of this compassionate care when in some countries, the sheer mention of the D-word is so ta...

Send us a text Understanding the shock, pain, and anxiety that comes after a terminal diagnosis is often best articulated through first-person stories. For the first Art of Dying Well podcast of 2025, we're speaking to Matt Parkes about how he cared for his dad, Jeff, at the end of his life. Jeff became aware something was seriously wrong health-wise in 2011. Something had changed. Something felt different. He had a number of episodes where he would lose his balance, and eventually he was dia...

Send us a text Since the dawn of time, people have been asking those huge existential questions: What comes next? What happens to us after we die? These questions have preoccupied artists, writers, thinkers, medics, teachers, religious leaders – pretty much all of us at one time or another. Art and the Afterlife was an event held at The Exchange, a theatre in Twickenham run by St Mary’s University. It was part of an ongoing project exploring the many ways people understand and reflect o...

Send us a text With parents, grandparents, and guardians all getting into the flow of the dreaded autumnal 'back to school' routine, it seemed appropriate for us to revisit a topic we first looked at back in September 2021 - bereavement in education. Earlier this year, St Mary's University and The Art of Living and Dying Well (note our new name) held a summit to gather experts from across the sector to examine how death literacy can be improved in our schools and colleges, and how policies a...

Send us a text Hospices - places you go to die, right? Horizontal in a bed for the last months of your life? Decades ago, perhaps, but the modern hospice offers a wide variety of services - all designed to provide high quality, compassionate care for the dying person. In fact, around 50% of people that use the facilities and treatments go home at the end of the day. It's time to challenge the stereotypes, bust the myths and go behind the scenes to find out just how hospices work and how they...

Send us a text On this episode of the Art of Dying Well podcast, we're breaking the taboo around end of life planning. Host James Abbott sits down with Matthew Hutton, the author of a very useful book called Your Last Gift - an accessible guide to getting your affairs in order. Matthew Hutton is a man who wears many professional hats – lawyer, one intimately acquainted with drawing up Wills and administering probate; tax adviser; estate planning expert; farmer (!) and Church of England mini...

Send us a text The first Art of Dying Well podcast of 2024 looks at coma recovery, second chances and spiritual awakening. James Macintyre, a freelance journalist and biographer, describes his extraordinary near-death experience giving a first-hand account of the life-threatening pancreatitis he endured in May 2023 that led to a five-week coma and four-month hospitalisation. James was admitted to the intensive care unit at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in a critical condition. Doctors in...

Send us a text Traditionally November is the month for remembering; for remembrance services; the lighting of candles; special prayers and the blessing of graves. In this special episode of the podcast, made in partnership with the Catholic Church in England and Wales, we offer an opportunity for reflection and remembrance in the company of Father George Bowen as he takes us on a tour of the beautiful London Oratory. And on Remembrance Sunday itself we pause to reflect on the armistice sign...

Send us a text In part two of our special episode in support of Baby Loss Awareness Week in the UK, our host James Abbott speaks to two wonderful people who took their own trauma and grief and did an incredible thing with it. They founded a charity to help people in the same painful position they were in – a position nobody wants to find themselves in - facing the death of a baby. Jo and David Ward went through the tragedy of the death of their daughter, Abigail, who was stillborn at 41 week...

Send us a text There can be few things more devastating than the death of a child. This incredibly emotive and difficult subject is the focus of this episode, which takes the form of two testimony-based podcasts. In part one we hear from Saskia Hogbin who tragically lost her baby, Josef, 28 weeks into her pregnancy. We are releasing this episode in Baby Loss Awareness Week in the UK (9th-15th October). Now in its 21st year, the week is an opportunity for everyone in the baby loss comm...

Send us a text This episode has the rather provocative title Listen to me, I’m dying! But what do we mean by that? Find out as host James Abbott discusses with our guests how much of a say do we really have over what happens when we die? Will our wishes be respected? And what about those emergency situations in case we change our minds over what happens next? Just like birthing plans at the start of life, shouldn’t we all have a plan for how we exit this world so we can be as reconciled and...

Send us a text This episode of the Art of Dying Well podcast sees us ponder one of those huge existential questions – a question that has surely preoccupied every single one of us at some point... What comes next? What is on the other side after we die? So our theme, today, is very much the concept of eternity. Followers of the world’s major faiths clearly have a view on the afterlife so whether our focus is the preparation to meet our maker or attaining a higher level of peac...

Send us a text In this episode we speak to Dr Leanne Griffiths, the Dean of Sport, Allied Health and Performance Science at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, and founder of Sophie’s Stars, a charity dedicated to supporting family and loved ones of people diagnosed with cancer. Leanne has a very personal story to share with us which is bound up together in her role as the founder of Sophie’s Stars and her work at the University, as it prepares to launch its new living well service. ...

Send us a text In this Art of Dying Well podcast, we're dipping into our audio archives to celebrate the ground we’ve covered in nearly five years of broadcasting. When we started the podcast, one of our main aims was to make living and dying well something we’re all much more comfortable talking about. Over the course of more than 30 episodes, we’ve discussed all manner of things… Bereavement and grief, deathbed etiquette, palliative care, remembrance, the role of end of life compani...

Send us a text What does it mean to live well and what impact can this have on our death? Can living well really help us achieve a so-called good death? These issues have preoccupied great minds throughout the ages, including Aristotle and Plato, beginning with the idea that living well, the good life, consists of happiness. However, in philosophical terms, happiness can be seen as less of a goal or an end state, but a manner of living; a subjective feeling. In this special episode of the A...

Send us a text Most of us would rather not be alone at the end of life, which is why so many organisations, charities and faith groups are coming together to find a solution. There are a number of very effective community groups, relying primarily on volunteers, that offer a valuable service befriending and walking with people approaching the end of their lives. Our first guest on this 'Art of Dying Well' podcast is Patrick Dollard of Compassionate Neighbours - a community proje...

Send us a text As we embrace the Spring sunshine here in the UK we're looking forward to spending more time outside, meeting up with friends and loved ones, and generally enjoying the warmer weather. Living well entails noticing when life is good and practicing gratitude. We recognise that being in a good place emotionally and physically – in essence living well - is also an intrinsic part of dying well. This podcast explores living well and companionship at the end of life. First we’...

Send us a text Well, we’re emerging into the light from the pandemic – much as it has not fully gone away - and we’re socialising and speaking to each other more. But how are our conversational skills? A bit rusty maybe? Conversing well requires a good listening ear and the ability to make good judgment calls before opening our mouths. This podcast looks at how we break bad news, console people, explore feelings and emotions, and everything that's involved in having those meaningful conversat...

Send us a text We've all heard the stereotypes... men aren't good with their emotions. Men don't talk about things close to their hearts. It's all 'stiff upper lip' and 'show must go on'. So what happens when a man's dying? Or suffers a bereavement? What's visible on the outside doesn't always reflect what's going on inside. When a loved-one dies, people rally around, offer their support and try to find some helpful words. It may be a generalisation but men don't find these things particular...