Peaceful Exit
We live in a culture that avoids death and Peaceful Exit is an invitation to be in candid conversation about it. Writer and host Sarah Cavanaugh believes talking about death will work to dispel our natural fear and build courage in the face of death. She’s talking to authors who have written extensively on the topic to help us normalize death as part of the human experience, no matter who you are, no matter your politics, spiritual faith or socioeconomic status. Peaceful Exit explores how to radically accept our eventual demise, how to talk about it and even plan for it. But it’s not all doom and gloom – there's joy, meaning and connection to be found in exploring the messiness of death, dying and grief.
- Update frequency
- every 14 days
- Average duration
- 34 minutes
- Episodes
- 66
- Years Active
- 2023 - 2025
Gut Wrenching Grief with Mira Ptacin
In her memoir, Poor Your Soul, Mira Ptacin explores the grief associated with losing a baby which is often hidden behind closed doors. Instead, she cracks it open and shares all the heartbreaking det…
Widowed Fathers Reimagining Life
Don Rosenstein and Justin Yopp are both psychiatrists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They started a support group for widowed fathers of young kids, whose partners died from canc…
The Art of Dying Well with Katy Butler
Katy Butler is a journalist and author of two books, who spent years listening to hundreds of people’s stories of good and difficult deaths. She’s talked to countless experts in palliative care, geri…
Death and Money with Lynne Twist
Lynne Twist is a globally recognized philanthropist and author of two books, including “The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Life.” Death and money are two of the most dif…
Palliative Care with Dr. Edward Creagan
Dr. Edward Creagan spent four decades at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, working as a cancer specialist and then helping to develop the Mayo Clinic’s palliative care program. In his book and our conver…
Choose Your Own Adventure Holiday Episode
In our holiday episode, we’re highlighting some of my favorite conversations from this year, in hopes that you hear what you need. The holiday season can be a hard one for many of us, for so many dif…
Life After Sudden Loss with Eirinie Carson
If you’ve ever felt like you needed permission to grieve, or your grief just wasn’t understood by others, this book and this episode is for you. In her first book, The Dead Are Gods, Eirinie Carson o…
Collective Grief and Community with Justine Mastin and Larisa Garski
Larisa Garski and Justine Mastin are practicing therapists who have authored two books together. Their narrative approach to therapy centers on rewriting the stories about our lives that aren’t worki…
The History of Hospice with Barbara Karnes
Barbara Karnes is a pioneer of the modern hospice movement in the United States. She got her start as a hospice nurse when medical professionals didn’t know how to pronounce the word hospice, let alo…
Poetry of Place with Claudia Castro Luna
Poems are tools for existential work and Claudia Castro Luna’s poetry is our guide to a deeper understanding of place and belonging. Claudia was born in El Salvador and fled to the U.S. in 1981 at th…
Death Care at Home with Lucinda Herring
Lucinda Herring has over 20 years of experience as a licensed funeral director and a home funeral guide. Her book, “Reimagining Death: Stories and Practical Wisdom for Home Funerals and Green Burials…
Everyday Awe with Dacher Keltner
Dacher Keltner is the founding director of the Greater Good Science Center and a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. He’s one of the world’s leading scientists who stud…
The Denial of Death with Sheldon Solomon
Sheldon Solomon, a professor of psychology at Skidmore College, has spent his professional life studying humans’ fear of death and the wide ranging implications it has on how we live. He and his coll…
Your Brain and Death with Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a Harvard-trained neuroanatomist who suffered a stroke at 37 and spent the next eight years working towards recovery. She details that experience in her memoir and viral TedT…
Death and Desire with Rebecca Woolf
Rebecca and her husband Hal were on the brink of divorce when Hal was handed a terminal cancer diagnosis. He died just months later. Her book gives us a really honest look at marriage, parenthood, ca…
Marriage and Mourning with Barbara Ascher
In the wake of a terminal cancer diagnosis, Barbara and her late husband, Bob, kept on living. In fact, they partied. Barbara details how she helped preserve Bob’s humanity in the face of death. Ever…
Sacred Service with Reverend Deborah L. Johnson
Reverend Deborah L Johnson (Rev D) shares the story of her remarkable call to ministry as a teenager and how she got there on her own time. Since then, she’s done extensive hospice work through her o…
The Dirt on Funerals with Todd Harra
Ever wonder why funerals look the way they do? Fourth-generation funeral director Todd Harra explains the evolution of the industry in America. Todd shares fascinating and little-known details of eve…
Removing Stigma from Schizophrenia with WJT Mitchell
Father and distinguished professor WJT Mitchell (Tom) lost his son, Gabe, to schizophrenia. Tom details how Gabe embraced the term “madness” in order to normalize the challenges of living with schizo…
Forgiving the Unforgivable with Anita Sanchez
Dr. Anita Sanchez shares Indigenous wisdom for living in today’s world. A big focus of the conversation is about forgiving the unforgivable. She explains how forgiveness can come even after someone h…