November 03, 2025

Ep. 526 End-of-Life Planning: Small Steps to Complete the Work with Jennifer Tadjedin and Karen Callahan

1 hour 2 minutes

Learn how “peace-of-mind” planning starts with a few small steps that are doable and make a big difference.

My guests this week, Jennifer Tadjedin and Karen Callahan, are the co-founders of The Heartwood Collective where they guide people through all facets of developing a death plan (other than financial and estate planning.) They discuss how their paths crossed as they began exploring new meaningful work around helping other people with planning and preparing for the end of life. Learn more at their website:

theheartwoodcollective.com

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Listen here:

This episode includes:

The power of collaboration and synergy to create new ideas

Why we need to begin with death education and helping people get more comfortable with death before we can make other changes

How their workshops normalize talking about death

Breaking big tasks into small steps helps people actually get the work done

How planning ahead helps lessen stress and grief for loved ones

The biggest barriers to end-of-life planning for most people

Some people find it easier to discuss death as they get older

The benefits of working in a group on end-of-life planning

How to choose the best person as a healthcare proxy

Links mentioned in this episode:

Latest post on Substack: Top 5 Mistakes When Using AI for End-of-Life Issues

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