June 02, 2025

Ep. 503 Taboo Education: Changing the Way We Talk About Death with Samantha Waite

1 hour 4 minutes

Learn about breaking taboos around talking about death through a unique death education program in Australia.

My guest Samantha Waite is the quirky founding director of Taboo Education who works with individuals and groups in local, national (Australia) and international communities to resolve our taboo and confusion in talking about death. She is a long-time performing arts enthusiast as well as a trained counselor and youth worker with training in thanatology, psychotherapy and public health. She discusses some of the cultural differences around death and dying between the US and Australia and what Australia is doing right in terms of end-of-life care. Learn more at her website:

tabooeducation.com

Watch on YouTube

Listen here:

This episode includes:

How Samantha started Taboo Education

Why she chooses to dress in Victorian mourning clothes and how it serves her message

Why we sometimes wish people still wore mourning attire

Cultural differences between Australia and the U.S. in the death and funeral industry

Which countries have the best end-of-life care (and why some wealthy countries are failing)

Why the US is 43rd globally in providing care at end of life

Issues for healthcare providers around seeing death as a failure

The death doula movement in Australia

Links mentioned in this episode:

NEW Gift Guides for Caregivers, People Receiving Care, and People Who are Grieving

Get my two newest books!! Stories from the Dark Night and The Tao of Death

Get EOLU Podcast Merch here

Conversations on Death with ChatGPT – Audiobook here; Print Book here

Leave me a message by email: [email protected], Twitter, Facebook or Instagram

Support your local bookstore by buying my books on Bookshop and Indiebound: 7 Lessons for Living from the Dying and The Journey from Ego to Soul

Subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Stitcher Radio

Check out the Series I’ve recorded in the past here

Join the team at Patreon.com/eolu and receive free gifts like the “Mind if we talk about death?” mini-poster or Love Your Life sticker or coffee mug. PLUS get our regular bonuses: the monthly EOL News Update, monthly What to Watch recommendations, Behind the Scenes Bonus content, and automatic access to A Year of Reading Dangerously!

Buy me a coffee

Donate on Paypal

If you enjoy this content please share it with others and consider leaving a review on iTunes. Thanks again to all supporters on my page at Patreon.com/eolu, and to Kristina Oswath, Christine Maleck, and Patricia Cates for donating on Paypal! Your contributions make all the difference and ensure this podcast stays ad-free.

...more

View all episodes

By Karen Wyatt MD

4.8

158158 ratings