AI and Grieving Series Part 2: StoryFile
It really is a great idea: StoryFile Life is an SaaS that creates an interactive icon of a loved one on video, allowing for on-demand dialogue-like exchanges with...
Green Embalming Fluids: Do They Get the Job Done?
Among widespread demand for green funeral options, traditional embalming stubbornly persists. Even as it falls further and further out of popular favor in an increasingly-environmentally-conscious culture, we need...
AI for the Grieving: Helpful or Harmful?
An Exploratory Review Series Did you know that artificial intelligence (AI) is now powering digital reanimations of the dead? It’s one of the ways technology is being tweaked...
The (Brain)Wave of Death
With a few sudden, traumatic exceptions (such as a fall from a great height or a catastrophic accident like a car wreck), death is a gradual process. It...
Is There a Number One Cause of Unsuccessful Embalmings?
After going down a few research rabbit holes while writing this recent piece on difficult embalmings, a seemingly natural, harmless question arose: is there a single obstacle death...
When Embalming Isn’t Possible: Trauma, Illness, Surprises
Editor's note: We writers don't claim to know exactly how you do what you do, but we're voraciously curious! Email us with your own embalming challenges so we...
Herodotus, Harvard, and a History of Human Hides
Ok, let’s be clear: nobody’s out here skinning people to turn into purses or stilettos or footballs for the sake of a death care blog post. We didn’t...
Philosophy vs Religion: Something to Believe
Nowadays, our memorial services and life celebrations are typically based on a framework of morality or belief. It’s by no means standard: while many such services may be...
Cold Water’s Effects on Decomposition, Part 2: Victims of the Titanic (Seawater) vs. The Edmund Fitzgerald (Freshwater)
A recent Connecting Directors article discussed how Lake Superior’s victims rarely emerge from her frigid depths. The freshwater Great Lake is notorious for “disappearing” her dead: in the...
Here’s Why Superior (It’s Said) Never Gives Up Her Dead
Lake Superior – the largest of the Great Lakes – is notorious for its reputation as a “watery graveyard” from which corpses are rarely recovered. Its fearsome profile...