Our dead are usually dealt with by strangers in the West now, but until quite recently this wasn’t so. Ruth Copland features her conversation with Caitlin Doughty, bestselling author of mortician’s memoir Smoke Gets inYour Eyes, and host of Ask The Mortician. Caitlin founded The Order of the Good Death to bring realistic discussion of death back into popular culture and owns her own alternative funeral home to assist people take care of their own loved ones in death.
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Caitlin Doughty, New York Times bestselling author talks about her experiences, and her desire that we not fear death, ageing or the body disposal process. Born and raised in Hawaii, Caitlin attended the University of Chicago from which she graduated with a degree in medieval history. Stalked by the idea of death from an early age due to a childhood trauma, Caitlin moved to California after graduating, with the intent of entering the funeral industry. She has worked as a funeral arranger, and a body-van transport driver, and attended Cypress College for her second degree, in mortuary science. Currently she works as a licensed funeral director/mortician in Los Angeles and owns her own alternative funeral home, Undertaking LA, to help people help themselves (handle a corpse). She founded The Order of the Good Death in 2011 with the goal of bringing the realistic discussion of death back into popular culture. Caitlin has a web series entitled Ask The Mortician, and she has been featured on NPR and the BBC.
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