Death Goes Digital
50 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 5 years ago - ★★★★★ - 3 ratingsDeath has gone digital! With the rise of online memorials, posthumous messaging services and buying a funeral online, the Internet is transforming end of life planning and funerals. In this podcast we talk about the latest trends, new products and ideas that are impacting this marketplace. My name is Peter Billingham and through speaking at conferences, writing books and consulting I help the funeral industry and the end of life planning marketplace change and adapt to an online world. Perhaps I can help you?
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Episodes
Podcast Series One Complete!
February 13, 2019 13:20That’s All For Now! We hope that you have enjoyed Series One of the Death Goes Digital Podcast! Thank you to all the guests who were part of these interviews, we are very grateful for your time and support. Though we are fascinated by the trends of digital legacy and online memorials, it is still a developing marketplace and area of interest. Possibly in the future when these issues become more mainstream, we may add new and updated information to the site. For now, thanks for listenin...
EP 49 - How Do You Edit & Curate A Life Online? with writer Rachel Connor
May 07, 2018 12:26 - 44 minutesRachel is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Leeds Beckett University. She is novelist, dramatist and prize-winning short story writer. She has published many novels among them Sisterwives, and The Properties of Water which was the Winner of the Linen Press Spring Shorts award in 2014. Rachel works freelance as a facilitator of writing workshops, an editor and mentor, and she is a panel member of the upcoming UK Storgy Northern Short Story Festival in June 2018.
EP 48 - Sending - "I Love You To The Future" with GabrielsVault
May 01, 2018 17:49 - 40 minutesFrom Kevin Hill - “GabrielsVault was conceived thinking about the past, but, in turn, we built a platform to easily capture our most treasured moments to send them into the future. To capture today what can be even more important tomorrow, when delivery of that message or memory to the right person at the right time can amplify its meaning. With the use of our resources, GabrielsVault helps you strengthen relationships with people who are most important to you. Along with our users, I’ve beg...
EP 47 - What Is The Soundtrack To Your Life? www.mylastsoundtrack.com
February 01, 2018 15:20 - 35 minutesCheck out My Last Soundtrack
EP 46 - Is This How Celebrants Are Growing Their Business Online Quickly? - The Celebrant Directory
January 04, 2018 07:46 - 38 minutesCheck out The Celebrant Directory at: www.thecelebrantdirectory.com
EP 45 - How Would You Answer The BIG Questions of Death When You Are Alive? with Jane Duncan Rogers
December 04, 2017 18:21 - 35 minutesCheck out Jane's work at: http://beforeigosolutions.com/ http://giftedbygrief.com/
EP 44 - How Do You Deal With Life When The Dead Speak Back? with Paula Kiel
November 27, 2017 07:49 - 28 minutesPaula Kiel is a PhD candidate in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. She is thinking and researching how contemporary media blur boundaries and challenges established categories such as local and global or presence and absence - and even life and death. Her curiosity with these issues brought her to consider how digital media is involved in death-related practices (such as public mourning and memorialisation) today.
EP 43 - Rituals of Past & Present with Toby Angel - Sacred Stones
November 13, 2017 12:38 - 38 minutesToby and I chat about how to bring together the ancient rituals of life and death, and the digital age of communication online can work together incredibly well-helping families find new ways of expressing and remembering the loss of someone they love.
EP 42 - Dr. Elaine Kasket- "Speaking to The Ghost in the Machine." Questions of life and death in the digital age.
November 08, 2017 07:11 - 43 minutesPsychologist & author, Dr. Elaine Kasket is currently hard at work on All the Ghosts in the Machine. Researching the issues of death and digital legacy for 12 years, this book brings together many questions about what it means to be human in a digital age.
EP 41 - What Do Wise Estate Planners Do In A Digital Age? - They Use AfterVault
October 25, 2017 15:31 - 37 minutesWill your family know where to find all your vital estate planning information? Centralise and organise all your vital documents with AfterVault and when you move on they will pass them on to the people you’ve designated.
EP 40 - What Makes An Award Winning Celebrant with Justine Wykerd
October 09, 2017 08:15 - 39 minutesJustine Wykerd is a civil celebrant based in Warwickshire. In September 2017 she was awarded "Celebrant of the Year" at the Good Funeral Awards. In this episode, we chat about what it takes to be a successful celebrant and how having an online presence is becoming critical to run your business. We also get a guest interruption from you deaf dog! Makes for a fun episode.
EP 39 - Life, Death, Whatever with Louise Winter from Poetic-Endings
October 02, 2017 09:46 - 39 minutesBefore becoming a funeral director, Louise was the editor of the Good Funeral Guide. She's also the director of Life. Death. Whatever. - An award festival and community that exists to change the dialogue around death and dying. In 2017, Louise won a Death Oscar at the Good Funeral Awards. She loves food, fashion, poetry and just about everything else. Poetic Endings is founded on the belief that a good funeral can be profound and transformational in helping to accept and acknowledge that s...
EP 38 - Harbour Funerals - Is Direct Cremation For You?
September 25, 2017 10:18 - 25 minutesIs direct cremation a growing trend? Some people think so. In this episode of the podcast, I chat with Steven Cains, one of the founders of the new online direct cremation service, Harbour Funerals.
EP 37 - Qeepr - Ensuring A Loved One's Legacy Lives On(line) Forever.
September 05, 2017 14:30 - 35 minutesThe Qeepr Team has created an interactive story-telling platform that allows you to fill in the “dash” of your life or a loved one with memories, messages, photos, smiles and laughter. You now have the ability to become a Qeepr to preserve and share the legacy of your predecessors. Qeepr is a social media site dedicated to memorialising the lives of the departed with the aid of modern technology.
EP 36 - Apart of Me - A Safe Virtual Place To Help Families Through Grief
August 28, 2017 09:37 - 34 minutes - 62.7 MBBounce Works have created an interactive game to help families cope with life limiting illness, death and grief. Apart of Me is a safe virtual space that helps families find their way through grief. Apart of Me is based on the research that shows talking with children openly and honestly but in an age-sensitive way about death and dying can prevent them from developing entrenched, complex feelings around their loss. Apart of Me helps families by developing emotional literacy and wisdom around...
EP35 - Live - Prepare - Remember with Memorialize Me
August 21, 2017 09:41 - 30 minutesWe have all been touched by the passing of someone we care about deeply. These experiences have highlighted how difficult and painful this can be for those left to mourn and grieve. Memorialize Me aims to help our users better prepare themselves and their loved ones for their inevitable passing. You can use MemorializeMe on your computer or download the free iPhone app to use your account wherever you are. Memorialize Me also provides a wealth of in depth, timely, and relevant death care rela...
EP34 - Securing Your Life Story Online with LivesArchived
August 14, 2017 13:46 - 28 minutesLivesArchived - Securing Your Life Story Online. You present the materials—personal papers, letters, clippings, art work, compositions, drawings, plans, photos and videos. LivesArchived provides a safe, permanent, public archive for them. They ensure transparency about where the information is stored and who stores it. Whether you want to create a work portfolio, family archive, ancestral history, personal library or loved one’s memorial, LivesArchived will meet your needs.
EP33 - When It Comes To Dying, Live A Little With Huunuu
August 07, 2017 13:57 - 39 minutesHuunuu believes in inspiring choices to create the life story you want to leave behind. The huunuu pipe dream had been around for many years and in July 2014 Co-Founders Clare and Steve Turner finally incorporated huunuu. Using huunuu helps create those crucial conversations and lets you enjoy some of the most amazing and inspiring businesses from around the world that they have brought into one place.
EP32 - The Musing of a Crematorium Worker with Kim Morris
July 31, 2017 11:07 - 32 minutesWritten in an honest, funny, poignant and revealing way, The Musings of a Crematorium worker is a new blog by Kim Morris. What happens behind the scenes day by day in a busy crematorium? Kim writes in the first person and with incredible insight on the events, process and thoughts as she works each day in a busy London Crematorium. Her blog is certainly worth a read for anyone who is interested in how working in this aspect of the bereavement industry is truly like.
EP31 - Creating A Unique Design For Funeral Order of Services Online with Devine Funeral Stationary
July 24, 2017 12:10 - 23 minutesEasy to Use Online Template Editor Allows You To Create A Unique Keepsake. The free online template editor allows you the freedom to personalise a funeral order of service exactly to your requirements. Insert cherished photographs and type or paste in your own text hymns, poems and readings. You can personalise the front cover, back and inner pages with ease.
EP30 - Swansongs - How To Send A Memory To The Future with Jason Moore
July 17, 2017 09:26 - 24 minutesSwansongs is a global service established for archiving and dispatching legacy letters for at least the next one hundred years.
EP29 - How To Write An Online Obituary with Melissa Jayne Kinsey
July 10, 2017 14:52 - 32 minutesWho Says a Good Obituary Has to Be Dull? The traditional obituary is a gloomy collection of dry facts and chilly clichés. The internet has swept away space restrictions and made newspaper deadlines irrelevant. Social media has encouraged us to swap stories and celebrate our loved ones’ lives. Why should today’s tributes rely on the same dull script we followed 30 years ago? It’s time for the old-school obituary to slip into something more contemporary. How To Write An Online Obituary is a ...
EP28 - How To Write Your Memoirs with Marnie Summerfield Smith from Yourmemoir.co.uk
July 03, 2017 17:08 - 44 minutesIn this interview, I chat with Marnie Summerfield Smith, a full-time memoir writer. We talk about how there is no such thing as an inconsequential life and no reason why everyone should leave some kind of record of their life story as a legacy for the future. Marnie explains a 3 step process to writing your memories and also options of what to do with the memoir when it is finished. If you have ever thought about penning a few lines of your life this episode will give you the tools and hopefu...
EP27 - How To Preserve Your Unique Life Story with TSOLife
June 26, 2017 09:45 - 28 minutesIn this episode, I interview David Sawyer the founder and CEO of TSOLife - The Story Of Your Life. TSOLife is a unique platform that allows you to create, store and share the story of your days. Whether it's your story or even that of a loved one, TSOLife makes it easy to preserve memories for future generations. Using TSOLife couldn't be simpler. For more information visit https://tsolife.com/
EP26 - This Is What 106 Funerals Taught Me About Life & Digital Legacy Lesson #4
June 12, 2017 09:21 - 11 minutesIn the last six months, I have written 106 funeral services. Wrapped up in the mystery of those unwelcome days, are four valuable lessons I have learned. Lessons about life and how you can leave a digital legacy for your family. Helping 106 families face death teaches you about life.
EP25 - This Is Lesson Three of What I Learned From 106 Funerals About Life & Digital Legacy
June 05, 2017 07:15 - 8 minutes"Talking about sex will not get you pregnant, neither will talking about a funeral kill you." Said Gail Rubin, founder of A Good Goodbye.
EP24 - This Is Lesson Two of What I Learned From 106 Funerals About Life & Digital Legacy
May 29, 2017 07:41 - 12 minutesLesson Two - Life Is Short We cannot judge a song by its duration Nor by the number of its notes; We must judge it by the way it touches and lifts our souls. Sometimes those unfinished are among the most beautiful.
EP23 - This Is Lesson One of What I Learned From 106 Funeral About Life & Digital Legacy
May 26, 2017 10:43 - 13 minutesHelping 106 families face death teaches you about life. Death comes to us all. It comes mostly at times when you least expect it. It comes to the old, the sick, the young and the healthy. It comes. It will come to you. In the last six months, I have written 106 funeral services. Wrapped up in the mystery of those unwelcome days, are four valuable lessons I have learned. Lessons about life and how you can leave a digital legacy for your family. This is lesson one - Share The Stories of Your ...
EP22- Every Person Has A Story Worth Writing - The Legacy Recorder with Gael Gilliland
May 08, 2017 08:00 - 31 minutesThe Legacy Recorder - We are working to support more people in documenting the people, experiences, and stories of their lives. The highlights, the low points and the seemingly mundane moments that combine to create a lifetime. Through one on one and DIY services, we aim to help you create a meaningful legacy.
EP21 - Vivala.Me "Let's Celebrate Life" & Secure Our Digital Legacy - Marcin Gnat
April 25, 2017 15:37 - 31 minutesSecuring Your Digital Legacy Vivala.me is an easy to use platform that allows you to control exactly what happens to all of your documents, images, videos and more after you have died.
EP20 - Controlling How Your Life Will Be Remembered with Stephanie Longmuir & myendnotes
April 10, 2017 10:56 - 27 minutesStephanie Longmuir is a Funeral Celebrant and founder of my endnotes.com, Australia's first digital funeral planning service. Over the last seven years, she has led over 900 funeral and memorial services. Myendnotes is developed in response to the hundreds of families that she met who wished they had asked all those important questions of their loved one while there was still time.
EP19 - How To Do Social Media As A Funeral Business with Tina Shang & Jayson Davis
March 28, 2017 06:37 - 36 minutesTina Shang and Jayson Davis are the founders of Jang Consulting. They specialise in social media solutions for organizations based on each firm's unique business goals. In this episode we talk about how innovative funeral businesses are using a weekly live Facebook program to reach new customers and how to grow the digital impact of your funeral business using social media.
EP18 - Creating Strategic Partnerships For Digital Legacy Planning - Dov Sugarman Safe Beyond
March 20, 2017 09:04 - 21 minutesDov Sugarman is the Strategic Partnerships Manager at SafeBeyond. Safe Beyond is an advanced legacy management service. The platform provides an innovative online and mobile app solution for the easy and secure management of your life story and your meaningful digital content, with enhanced distribution capabilities for the future delivery of personalised messages, and digital assets. You decide when, where and with whom your messages and other digital assets will be shared. In this episode...
Ep17 - Digital Legacy Estate Planning with Tim Snaith - Private Client Lawyer
December 18, 2016 20:51 - 25 minutesTim Snaith is a Partner in Winckworth Sherwood’s Private Client team, regularly advising on trusts, estates and succession planning (including the many tax issues that arise with the same, along with the problems presented by the loss of mental capacity). Tim was recently named as one of the UK's top 35 private client lawyers under the age of 35. With a diverse client base including individuals, trustees, beneficiaries and executors, his clients are both UK-based and those with connections a...
Ep16 - Creating a "Memontage" for your Digital Legacy with Noa Zehavi Raz
December 05, 2016 13:51 - 21 minutesMemontage is a digital memorial platform where you can upload any kind of memory of a loved one who passed away, a photo that always makes you laugh, a link to a song they sang off key or a recipe of a cake that smells like home. This site invites you to invoke the senses and create a Memontage that tells a story using smells, tastes, sights, sounds and flavours. You do not need to have old memorabilia in hand but just think back and find representations of each memory. It's a new way to sto...
Ep15 - What Are Your Final Wishes? Telling Your Story Online With Andrew Smith
November 07, 2016 13:27 - 38 minutesIt all started in 2010 when Andrew Smith ended up in the hospital for 6 days. There is nothing like sitting in a hospital bed to get you thinking about life and death! Andrew decided he needed to write his final wishes down. He got to thinking about the celebration he would like, the photos he’d want shared, and the music he’d like played. But where can I write this all down? In that moment the Final Wish website and platform was born. A place to collect and share the stories of a life and mo...
Ep14 - Talking About Death Won't Kill You - Kathy Kortes-Miller
October 24, 2016 11:18 - 38 minutesKathy Kortes-Miller thinks about dying and death a lot! She knows it helps her to embrace life full on. She is an unconventional death educator with a passion for palliative care and improving the end of life care for all. Kathy has been teaching and researching at Lakehead University for over a decade inspiring and challenging the future healthcare providers of tomorrow to be prepared to care for individuals who are dying and their families in all healthcare settings.
Ep13 - This Is How To Create Memories Online & Help Charities - Echoleft
October 10, 2016 09:49 - 45 minutesIn this episode, I chat with Max Shelly of Echoleft. Echoleft brings together every part of a life story in one place. Photo albums in drawers and cupboards, family overseas, stories told in a forgotten email. Bring them all together for everyone to look back on through this online memorial site builder. Now, you can show children and grandchildren the impact of a loved one's life through a beautiful website. Unlike social networks, Echoleft keeps your memories private, in your control and f...
Ep11 - Using Digital Media In Palliative Care With Dr Mark Taubert
September 05, 2016 16:48 - 44 minutesDr Mark Taubert is Consultant physician and Clinical Director for palliative care at a Welsh cancer centre. In this episode we talk about the use of digital media in palliative care and the letter to David Bowie that Mark wrote published in the Huffington post.
Ep11 - Keeping Memories Alive - The Soldiers Box with Darren Richmond
June 29, 2016 12:15 - 23 minutesWe chat with Darren Richmond founder of The Soldiers Box The Soldier's Box - the secure cloud based service for storing, organising and managing your treasured photos, home videos, online accounts, household information or any other important digital file. Organise your digital world while you're alive and leave your files to loved ones when you're gone.
Ep10 - How Is Grief And Bereavement Expressed On Facebook?
June 20, 2016 19:00 - 33 minutes"Expressions of grief on Facebook: Navigating discomfort, persistent identity, and public memorialization" was a qualitative study that explored concepts of online identity and memorialization in relation to Facebook users' mourning practices. In-depth interviews were conducted and analyzed for emergent themes as part of Molly Kalan's master's thesis. In this interview, we chat about how Facebook helps and sometimes hinders the mourning process for people today.
Ep9 - Does Digital Immortality Affect How People Grieve? - Debra Bassett Phd Researcher On Digital Immortality
June 06, 2016 11:15 - 28 minutesDebra Bassett a PhD research student from Warwick University, England chats about the development of social networks and websites that provide digital opportunities to remember loved ones. She is studying how these may or may not help with the process of grieving. "The fact that we are all going to die is an indisputable reality of the human condition. Whilst the beginning of our lives are celebrated, discussed and chronicled, death and dying have become medicalized, sanitized and whi...
Ep8 - Obituaries Online - Developing New Markets With MyNews & Sylvia Cordell
May 23, 2016 14:33 - 23 minutesMyNews is a family sharing website creating a space where people can share the sad news of a bereavement and in time create a loving memorial to share fond memories, photos, thoughts, and remembrances.
Ep7 - When Love Means More Than Fear - Caroline Whittle Funeral Celebrant
May 08, 2016 18:15 - 21 minutes - 28.6 MBBorn and raised in the West Midlands, Caroline grew up in the beautiful county of Shropshire and trained as a celebrant in 2012, several years after she experienced her first real grief due to the death of her Mother. She has journeyed and grown within her vocational profession and has gained experience of working with people from all walks of life, backgrounds and cultures. She is truly passionate about what she does and always takes something meaningful away with me from each family ...
Ep6 - Why SafeBeyond Can Help Heal Grief - Moran Zur
April 25, 2016 08:00 - 35 minutesMoran Zur is the CEO and Founder at SafeBeyond, a “digital time capsule” and online platform that allows users to record and store video, audio, and written messages to be accessed posthumously by their heirs and loved ones. The idea for SafeBeyond was inspired by the sense of tragic uncertainty faced by Zur when his wife was suddenly diagnosed with brain cancer. Concerned that his then three year-old son would miss out on a lasting relationship/connection with his mother, Zur left his ...
Ep5 - Storytelling Life - Linda Stuart Life Cycle Celebrant
April 09, 2016 16:11 - 25 minutesWhat Makes An Effective Funeral Celebrant? Stories have captivated mankind since the beginning of time. The art of the story is a skill and ability needed if you are a funeral celebrant. Being able to listen well, find the story and tell it with sensitivity and relevance is what makes an effective celebrant. In this podcast, I chat with Linda Stuart a Life Cycle Celebrant from Ontario, Canada. We talk about how Linda's creative website has driven new business, the use of social media ...
Ep4 - Creating Your Online Biography With Loggacy.com
March 28, 2016 08:15 - 23 minutesLoggacy is founded upon the notion that there is a perennial human quest for ‘immortality’ – to create a personal narrative, leave something behind, pass something on and make a mark on the world. Loggacy connects generations; enabling users the opportunity to share their experiences and memories with their loved ones on both a safe and secure digital platform.
Ep3 - Chatting about 3D Printed Urns & Funeraltech with Mike Hepburn
March 14, 2016 09:15 - 28 minutesDigital technology is transforming the funeral industry in ways never imagined a couple of years ago. One technology that is disrupting industry in all areas is 3D printing. In this episode, I chat with Mike Hepburn from EturnalMemories. Using the creativity and originality that 3D printing offers, they are creating one of kind urns that are gaining lots of interest. We also chat social media for funeral homes and the way that the industry is headning.
Ep2 - Once I've Gone with Founder Ian Dibb
March 09, 2016 17:24 - 25 minutesOnce I've Gone allows you to record your final wishes and important information so that it can be shared with your nearest and dearest when it's your time to go to the great gig in the sky. You can use the site to capture special memories and messages, record your life story for future generations and even start your bucket list.
Ep1 - The Podcast Begins!
March 09, 2016 17:24 - 8 minutesMy name is Peter Billingham and through speaking at conferences, writing books and consulting I help the funeral industry change and adapt to an online world. Perhaps I can help you?