Season 5, Episode 3: Emily Nagoski PHD on Burnout

This is a conversation about how everything is connected. We speak with Emily Nagoski about burnout, that feeling of overwork and overwhelm and how it connects to things far outside of stressful jobs and schedules. It comes down to, she argues, how we buy into major wrong assumptions about our world. Nagoski wrote this book with women in mind but we think the book and this conversation is for everyone.


Listen: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wecroak/id1436133118

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Guest Website: https://www.emilynagoski.com/home

Ask Death Advice Column: https://askdeath.substack.com/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Season 5, Episode 2: The History of Vaccines with Dr. René Najera

Season 5, Episode 2: Dr. René Najera on the History of Vaccines

When we forget our history, we lose our context for the present and the future. The past year has been a return to humankind’s historic relationship with mass death caused by disease. Early vaccines were a breakthrough that picked winners in fights for global power and helped a lot of people reach adulthood and live healthier happier lives. I thought I knew a lot of history but this conversation blew my mind.

Listen: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wecroak/id1436133118

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Guest Website: https://www.historyofvaccines.org/timeline/all

Ask Death Advice Column: https://askdeath.substack.com/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/


Season 5, Episode 1: Dr. Nikki Mirghafori on Death & Mindfulness Retreats

Today we talk about Buddhism, Technology and why you might want to go to a seven day death and mindfulness retreat with meditation teacher Dr. Nikki Mirghafori. 

Listen: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wecroak

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Guest Website: https://www.nikkimirghafori.com/

Ask Death Advice Column: https://askdeath.substack.com/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Season 4, Episode 5: Casper Ter Kuile on The Power of Ritual

Six years ago, Casper Ter Kuile started reading the Harry Potter series as a sacred text on his hit podcast downloaded over 22 million times. Now he has a whole lot more rituals inspired by practice that can be adapted to our more secular lives in his new book. We talk about the benefits and the downsides of DIY ritual and why the phenomenon is here to stay.

Listen: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wecroak

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Ask Death Advice Column: https://askdeath.substack.com/

Guest Website: https://www.caspertk.com/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Season 4, Episode 4: Heather Christle on Crying

In this conversation we look at crying and tears in countless ways good and bad with poet Heather Christle. It’s about why we do it, what it feels like, and how tears bring out both the best and the worst in us. 

Listen: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wecroak

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Ask Death Advice Column: https://askdeath.substack.com/

Guest Website: https://heatherchristle.tumblr.com/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Season 4, Episode 3: Massimo Riva on The Decameron

In 1348 the Black Death Plague took as a third of the population. In Florence Italy, Giovanni Boccaccio wrote The Decameron in response to the plague, a classic that has lasted down the ages. We have on Professor Massimo Riva to talk about this book which has so much wisdom for the present day. 

Listen: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wecroak

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Ask Death Advice Column: https://askdeath.substack.com/

Guest Website: https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Season 4, Episode 2: Long Litt Woon on Mushrooming and Mourning

This is a conversation about grief and how Long Litt Woon found her way back to feeling alive by following forest paths looking for mushrooms. It’s about how only knowledge can protect you from a poisonous mushroom and how one needs all the senses to find the delicacies they seek on this path. Really, it is a personal discussion about finding our way again once everything is upended. 

Listen: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wecroak

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Guest Website: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/591642/the-way-through-the-woods-by-long-litt-woon/

Ask Death Advice Column: https://askdeath.substack.com/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/


Season 4, Episode 1: Donald Robertson on How to Think Like a Roman Emperor

You know who else thought about death often? Ancient Roman Stoics including the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. In this episode we chat about what practical philosophy meant to these powerful practitioners and why it feels so modern. A not to be missed discussion.

Listen: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wecroak

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Ask Death Advice Column: https://askdeath.substack.com/

Guest Website: https://donaldrobertson.name/

StoicCon: https://modernstoicism.com/stoicon-2020-toronto/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Season 3, Episode 8: Dr. Sunita Puri Talks That Good Night

Dr. Sunita Puri is the Medical Director of the Palliative Medicine and Supportive Care Service at the Keck Hospital and Norris Cancer Center of the University of Southern California. We talk on this episode about her new book, “That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour.” The conversation is about how medicine is changing to meet new challenges like Covid19 and how it must change to serve the living and dying better.

 

Listen: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wecroak

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Guest Website: https://sunitapuri.com/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

 

Season 3, Episode 7: Alex Ebert Contemplating Zero

Alex Ebert is the lead singer of the band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and an American singer songwriter and composer. The first rock star on the WeCroak Podcast, Alex Ebert talks about how important contemplating death has been to his creative process.

 

Listen: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wecroak

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Guest Website: https://www.instagram.com/alex_ebert/?hl=en

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Season 3, Episode 6: Shoshana Ungerleider- The People Trying to Change How We Die

Doctor Shoshana Ungerleider is the founder of the End Well Project, working to change how the medical profession treats the dying. We talk about her involvement in award winning Netflix documentaries and the End Well conference working to change the way we do death in America.

 

Listen: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wecroak

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Guest Website: https://www.endwellproject.org/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Season 3, Episode 5: Rebecca Goldstein- Why Mattering Matters

Rebecca Goldstein is an award-wining philosopher and novelist, an unexpected combination from an original thinker. We talk about her latest work on why mattering matters to us and how the search for a more meaningful life is essential to our mental health and well-being. We recorded this episode before the global pandemic struck the US but I think the themes are even more pressing in times of great change and fear.

 

Listen: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wecroak

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Author Website: https://www.rebeccagoldstein.com/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Season 3, Episode 4: Jay Michaelson- Enlightenment by Trial and Error

Jay Michaelson is a journalist, meditation teacher, and author of several books about the contemplative life. In this episode we talk about his latest book, “Enlightenment by Trial and Error” about the search for a meaningful life in a world that doesn’t always make it easy. We recorded this episode before it was clear we were headed for a global pandemic and I think the questions raised are even more relevant today.

 

Listen: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wecroak

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Author Website: https://www.jaymichaelson.net/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Season 3, Episode 3: Agnes Callard- On Anger

Anger is one of the most common and difficult human emotions and here, we talk about its hidden risks and benefits. After all, we are all going to have anger in our lives and what we do with it will determine much of who we are. This episode was recorded well before we knew about the global pandemic and now it’s more relevant than ever as millions shelter in close quarters.

 

Listen: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wecroak

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Further Reading: http://bostonreview.net/philosophy-religion/agnes-callard-angry-forever

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Season 3, Episode 2: Joseph Margulies- On The People We Torture

The WeCroak Podcast is the place we talk about all the things we don’t talk about enough and this week that means discussing torture. Our guest Joseph Margulies is an attorney with the MacArthur Justice Center and has represented prisoners who have been held and tortured at Guantanamo Bay Detention center for many years without trial. We talk about what the breaking of long-held norms in civil rights means for politics today.

 

Listen: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wecroak

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Guest Website: https://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/faculty/bio_joe_margulies.cfm

Further Reading: http://bostonreview.net/law-justice/joseph-margulies-us-judges-admit-enhanced-interrogation-torture

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Season 3, Episode 1: Jennie Dear- What Does It Feel Like To Die?

Journalist and Writer Jennie Dear is the author of the new book, “What Does it Feel Like to Die?” We talk in this episode about that essential question we’ve all wondered about but most of us have always been too afraid to ask. And Jennie Dear’s book asks and answers questions you may have never thought to ask.

 

Listen: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wecroak

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Guest Website:  https://jenniedear.com/

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

 

Season 2, Episode 8: Rachel Menzies– Death Anxiety and Mental Health

What does death anxiety have to do with mental health? According to some new studies by Rachel Menzies of The University of Sydney, death anxiety may be the “worm at the core” of several mental health conditions. We talk about the science as it stands today and more questions Menzies is looking forward to asking and studying in further research.

 

Listen: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wecroak

Support This Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wecroak

Guest Website:  https://sydney.edu.au/science/people/rachel.menzies.227.php

Further Reading: https://www.psychology.org.au/for-members/publications/inpsych/2018/December-Issue-6/Death-anxiety-The-worm-at-the-core-of-mental-heal

Sounds by James Mercer: http://jamesmercer.net/

Recode Decode: Why thinking about death five times a day is good for you

 

Recode Decode with Kara Swisher recently devoted an entire episode to WeCroak!

In the episode, WeCroak co-founder Hansa Bergwall talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about the app and why thinking about death is good for you. Also: how WeCroak got started; the “Emily Dickinson test”; why it’s called WeCroak; why Bergwall and his co-founder avoided ads and social media hooks; you’re going to die, but "do whatever you want” with that information; Steve Jobs’ speech about death; how the misguided ways we think about death affect our whole lives; Silicon Valley’s deluded attempts to cheat death; why almost every form of meditation can be “abused”; Kara’s favorite death quotes; and why WeCroak doesn’t talk about the afterlife.

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