While most people avoid talking or even thinking about death, Clover, the protagonist in Mikki Brammer’s novel “The Collected Regrets of Clover,” is a death doula. She sits with people as they die, offering them conversation, company and compassion. Mikki and hospice and palliative care expert Dr. Ann Marie Chiasson join us to consider how we approach the deaths of our loved ones – and ourselves.

This episode was made possible by the generous support of Ken Stevens.

We talked with:

• Mikki Brammer is an Australian journalist and author from Tasmania, Australia. She is now based in Brooklyn, New York—by way of France and Spain—where she writes about design, architecture and art for publications such as Architectural Digest, Dwell and ELLE Decor. The Collected Regrets of Clover, her debut novel, is being published in 26 languages and territories and was named a Best Book of 2023 by NPR.
• Ann Marie Chiasson, M.D., M.P.H., is the Director of Education and the Fellowship at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine and an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Department of Medicine at the University of Arizona.  She is board certified in Integrative Medicine, Family Medicine, and Hospice and Palliative Medicine.  Dr. Chiasson currently serves on the American Board of Integrative Medicine.  She has practiced Integrative Family Medicine in the United States and Canada and has served as a medical director for Valor Hospice, as an associate medical director for Casa De La Luz Hospice, and as the medical director of The Haven – a Women’s Addiction Recovery Center in Tucson, Arizona.  

Resources:

• International End-of-Life Doula Association
• National End-of-Life Doula Alliance
• What are end-of-life doulas? 

Purchase “The Collected Regrets of Clover”

• From Bookshop.org
• From Amazon.
• From Barnes & Noble. 

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