September 08, 2025

Ep. 517 Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living with Diane Button

49 minutes

Learn about a heartwarming book of end-of-life teaching stories about the “little things” that make life meaningful.

My guest Diane Button is an end-of-life doula, a founding partner of the Bay Area End-of-Life Doula Alliance in Northern California, and an instructor for the University of Vermont’s End-of-Life Doula Professional Certificate Program. She has been a NEDA board member and a hospice volunteer and is the author of the newly published book What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living. She discusses the book and the importance of storytelling and legacy projects. Learn more at her website:

dianebutton.com

Get the book here

Watch on YouTube

Listen here:

This episode includes:

What inspired Diane to write this book

Why storytelling is important as we help our society become more death aware

The Joy Counter and other stories from the book

The value of “the little things” of life to help us create meaning

Why legacy projects are helpful as we approach the end of life

How Diane helps people create their own legacy projects

What is the “Final Checklist”

Who can benefit from reading this book

How this work has impacted Diane’s life

Links mentioned in this episode:

Relaunch of What Really Matters Podcast

Check out my Substack: Soulcode – where I share essays on AI, grief, shadow work, and spiritual reflection

View my new Patreon tier for Soul Supporters and receive extra reflections as a special bonus

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 Souloin 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!

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