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Paul and Stephen are into learning about death. Not just what happens after one departs, not just about ghosts and spirits and the afterlife, but what happens in the days that follow - to the bodies, and to the workers in the trenches of the death industry.

Enter journalist and author Hayley Campbell, who after a lifelong fascination with death, sought these answers from the hardworking people who make their living working with the dead. Learn about alkaline hydrolysis (water cremation), cryogenics, the euphemisms for embalming, crime scene clean up, and how women and men process death differently. Join Paul and Stephen as they dig into the different cultural traditions and attitudes around death, and discuss the merits of facing death directly as a means of fearing it less.

BONUS: Why Paul prefers female crime-writers to men!

Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art.

Hayley Campbell is a journalist and author whose work has appeared in WIRED, The Guardian, GQ, Empire, Vice, New Statesman, McSweeney’s, and more. Her books include All the Living and the Dead and The Art of Neil Gaiman. She lives in London with her cat, Ned.

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Vocab Word of the Week: ALKALINE HYDROLISIS

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