I talk with Robert A. Jensen, author of the new book Personal Effects: What Recovering the Dead Teaches Me About Caring for the Living. Over the past three decades Jensen has travelled to every major disaster you’ve heard of, and many you haven’t, to help recover bodies and the personal effects of the deceased. We discuss the importance of recovering “fragments”, the role played by local customs in his work, the politics of dead bodies, and why the British Empire buried their citizens wherever they died.

Related links:

• Jensen’s former company, Kenyon International Emergency Services

• Robert A. Jensen homepage

• Personal Effects for sale at Barns & Noble