You’re Going to Die with Ned Buskirk | #78

Click here to access a written transcript of this episode.

CW: Discussion of miscarriage and parent loss

In the final episode of 2020, I'm welcoming Ned Buskirk, founder of the nonprofit, You're Going to Die, to the podcast. YG2D is about bringing communities creatively into the conversation of death and dying through things like open mic events and programs for hospice patients and people in prisons.

Prepare for all the feels as Ned and I talk about grief, loss, vulnerability, mortality, and befriending ourselves to close out this challenging year. And thank you for listening to the show throughout 2020. I can't wait to share with you more details about the podcast's upcoming evolution in 2021.

We discussed:

• Who Ned is and the story of how You're Going to Die became a nonprofit.
• The power contained in a name like You're Going to Die.
• People's reluctance to use the word grief to describe what they're experiencing.
• The ways we rush to minimize our own pain instead of making space for it.
• The expectations we have for how grief is supposed to look and how long it should last.
• The struggle to be vulnerable and how crying is looked down upon in our culture.
• Befriending ourselves and some of the nuances of the ways in which we pursue “health” as a way to live longer.
• Easing up on ourselves and pausing to make intentional choices.
• Creating meaning and impact while you're here and alive.

Mentioned in This Episode

• Reframing Health as a Resource and Redeeming HAES with Linda G. | #66
• The Netflix show, Evil
• The video Ned referred to where he's speaking about how Beyonce and us will all be the same in 4,000 years.

Featured in This Episode

Ned Buskirk (he/him) is the Founder and CEO of You’re Going to Die, a 501(c)3 nonprofit bringing diverse communities creatively into the conversation of death and dying, inspiring life by unabashedly sourcing our shared mortality. He believes that our community deserves ongoing and consistent opportunities to creatively and vulnerably show up for one another, to gather and grieve, to suffer the losses we’ve endured or stand to lose eventually, to be with one another in the so often unspoken truth that we ALL share: we are ALL going to die. You’re Going to Die has an active hospice program sending musicians to patients' bedsides, monthly sell-out live events facilitating creatively conscious mortality space for community, enlivening open mics for men inside the prison system, cancer patient workshops at UCSF for healing through creative writing, and an organizational branch offering safe space for Black & Indigenous community that's reparation-funded by non-Black/non-Indigenous contributions. You can keep up with You're Going to Die on the organization's website, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Did you benefit from this episode? You can show your appreciation by supporting Ned's work. Checking out You're Going to Die's monthly open mic night is a great place to start.