This week, Death Party dives into the strange new world of grief tech — where people use artificial intelligence to chat with digital ghosts of their loved ones. From chatbots that mimic the dead to startups promising “eternal digital life,” this week we’re exploring how A.I. is reshaping grief — and maybe redefining what it means to stay dead.

Is it comfort, closure...or a new kind of haunting?

They say AI can do anything... but nobody asked it to raise the dead. 💀

Join us as we dive into the history, and the strange new world of grief tech — where people are using artificial intelligence to chat with the digital ghosts of their loved ones.

Is it comfort, closure… or a new kind of haunting?

Imagine the scene: 

There is no body to be found, and yet someone has gone missing. A loved one has disappeared and the longer they’re gone, the worse the imagined scenarios become. 

We’ve heard the stories, but do police actually seek out help from psychics? Or do psychics insert themselves into high-profile cases? Join your hosts Aratrice and Fae as we probe into these questions and more in our true crime-iest episode yet (but don’t expect it to become a trend).

American funerary ceremonies are so boring. Have you ever wished there was a way to observe a loved one's passing that didn't involve quietly sobbing in an unfamiliar room with the same drab pipe organ songs playing to a chorus of wet sniffles? Well then join Aratrice and Fae as they discuss a death party that puts the fun in funeral: jazz funerals!

Some bodies of water are used for mysterious things we've heard of like "fun" and "relaxation," but some are far better at killing the crap out of local wildlife and even melting faces or making your corneas fall right off.* Yet one surprising animal has adapted remarkably well to a particularly harsh lake environment, and even breeds new life there. In episode 25, your Death Party hosts Fae and Aratrice argue that some lakes are so inhospitable to life that we should probably just avoid all lakes everywhere. Just to be on the safe side.

*Some facts may be embellished for dramatic purposes.

What better way to adopt a whole new appreciation for your local, murky, gravelly swim spots than by learning about some truly treacherous things that live beneath the water? Grotesque creatures! Creatures with huge, pointy teeth! Creatures that most people never encounter in the wild, but some maniacs go out of their way to swim beside for thousands of miles in order to break some kind of record or make a point about besmirched bodies of water or something.

Join us for this episode wherein Aratrice and Fae cover five deadly water dwellers, all of which inhabit the same treacherous river, as well as one surprisingly deadly land dweller. And don't forget to like, subscribe, leave a review, and share the show with friends! After all, you do get to listen for free without ads so you owe us a liiiiiittle something in return. Actually, those four things are big somethings to us, but we didn't want put too much pressure on you; we're still in the early stages of this relationship.

The subject of this episode is one that has touched your hosts Aratrice and Fae and people that we have cared about. Death by suicide brings complicated feelings and questions that loved ones are left to cope with in the void that is the aftermath. We’re going to talk about how individuals can help a loved one who is suicidal later in the episode, but first we wanted to be clear that this is a very serious subject which has historically been dealt with as a taboo and is only recently being more responsibly reported, with, for example, the terminology surrounding suicide shifting from “committed suicide” to “died by suicide” to reduce associations with crime. 

So instead of giving you a bunch of depressing facts about suicide or covering it in a historical context—which, if you’re new to the show, that’s kinda Aratrice's jam normally—instead we’re going to use this episode to tell you about some amazing suicide preventers who are really fantastic, everyday people who made a difference by caring enough to intervene.

https://deathpartypodcast.wixsite.com/listen/show-notes

This episode is all about the guillotine; the classic, time-tested stress reliever of the masses! Your hosts Fae and Aratrice will be slicing off a piece of its history, its effectiveness, and some common myths surrounding it.

Beheading machines didn't start with the guillotine though, so first we'll introduce you to some of its precursors before cutting to the chase. We'll also explore why it has continued to persevere in the minds of the peasantry over the centuries because, uh, it's such a marvel of efficiency!

https://deathpartypodcast.wixsite.com/listen/show-notes

You've learned what defines an NDE (near death experience) and heard a couple of examples of them in parts one and two of our NDE series, now join us for part three, wherein Fae and Aratrice cover the research of Walter Pahnke. Pahnke conducted an experiment to see if it was possible to replicate the experience of an NDE without the pesky, almost-dying bit. Listen to this final episode in our NDE series to learn about his fascinating findings.

https://deathpartypodcast.wixsite.com/listen/show-notes

What happens when we die? Who do we meet? What makes some people come back from the brink of death? Join us for part two in a series about NDEs (near death experiences), wherein Fae and Aratrice cover the story of Dr. Mary Neal, a spinal surgeon who died in a kayaking accident and lived to tell the world about it.

Part three will be the final episode in the NDE series so check back for it. Subscribe and be the first to know when it's out. And while you wait, leave us a rating and review so we can find more listeners and thus the motivation to keep the episodes coming!

https://deathpartypodcast.wixsite.com/listen/show-notes

Here's a bonus spOOooOOky moody instrumental Spotify playlist curated by yours truly to help you embrace the winter darkness all season long. It really helped set the tone while writing our upcoming episode about government-sanctioned executions:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0IMPfRV0h4Nhuvhqbh0zPz?si=jv3sYnlTSMKlYyvIzw78ug