How To Die

How To Die is a death-positive podcast that promotes the idea that talking about death is good for life - it’s life-enhancing. Season 2 features a mortician, a forensic pathologist and others, launching on 8 April and thereafter every fortnight for three months.

Profoundly humble and incredibly kind, Maulana Sheikh Sayed Imraan is a respected Muslim leader and scholar based in Cape Town.

He invited me to visit him to learn more about Islamic rites and traditions concerning death and burial. Only after our interview did I learn exactly how venerated he is and in how many powerful circles his perspective is valued. We sat together talking in the mosque where I felt very welcome.

He has a few quirky insights, and great knowledge, which he shared in an accessible and always sacred manner. And when he shares words of prayer - oh my! - his voice is like honey.

With thanks, for the last episode of this series, if you’ve read and listened this far!

Imagine being the principal on the scene of a road accident with multiple fatalities. When I sat down to interview Lloyd Castle, I had no idea that this is what he’d been responsible for, for many years, as a traffic officer.

After a while he'd seen enough, to answer a new calling - teaching people how to stay safe on the roads - specifically, on motorcycles.  

In this episode, Lloyd discusses what goes on in the mind of a biker on the road. His insight into the behaviour of road users is instructive, as he shares many tips for staying safe on what he calls 'the road network', getting from A to B without incident. Mostly, they have to do with attitude.

He also describes the unique culture that is biking, and the rituals involved in commemorating the death of one of the fallen.

This is a cautionary tale, one which powerfully suggests that life is precious, and that we should cherish it while we can. Our choices on the road always have an impact on the people that matter - the people that love us.   

Start your engines!

Choosing just one word to describe Lindy Dlamini is easy. She’s spirited, right?

Trained as a sangoma or African traditional healer, Lindy describes her work as a 'facilitator of healing.' She is hyper-alert to the signs she's been both gifted and trained to read, and does much to emphasize the importance of our relationship with our ancestors, whether we are aware of them or not.

In our interview, she also discusses witchcraft, and shares insight about the practice of daily connection as a way to honour people and heal trauma.

This is a fascinating account by a compassionate and skilled individual, a woman with a rich laugh and much to share.

Ivor Gardiner is a Bob Dylan fan, which is enough for me.

Only when I was driving to his factory, Gardiner Stone, did I realise I should have been listening to Bob’s ‘Tombstone Blues.’ Heck, I didn’t even ask him if he knew it when we chatted. So many things to ask, really, that never see the light of day.

The song we discussed was the lesser known ‘Dignity.’ Listening to Ivor speak about the work he does, you’ll know why this song means something to him. He’s a gentle man, who has suffered many losses, and manages to muster a laugh about life.

He welcomed me, a complete stranger, into his home. Before we started speaking, I had never clapped eyes on him before. This is the magic of speaking about death - there’s no bullshit. We get straight to the point, which usually, is life.

Hope you enjoy the show!

Mark Wortman of Shoreline Funerals blends his natural affinity for good interpersonal relationships with a rare sensitivity and understanding about death and loss.

His experience, blended with a lively spark and easy demeanour, generates a freshness to his perspective about the world of funerals - what happens, what to be watchful of, what to celebrate.

His background in psychology also equips Mark with useful tools to manage charged emotional situations. He recounts, with compassion and the occasional mirthful shrug, some of the hidden things that only someone like him could be aware of, the behind the scenes shenanigans that happen when a loved one dies. Family members acting out, contested wills, private undercover security. You know, the standard stuff.

Enjoy!

Spiwo Xapile worked as a priest at JL Zwane Memorial Church in Gugulethu, Cape Town for 35 years, and now dedicates himself to community and leadership development. He helps change narratives to change lives, including his own...

Spiwo is a self-described ‘victim of exposure’, and perhaps because of it, a deeply critical thinker. He’s insightful about the anomalies thrown up by Christianity in the context of Apartheid, and reconciling his faith with a powerful set of black South African traditional rites and beliefs relating to death and dying.

He’s also a man who has been both excited and a little frustrated by life, but whose eloquence, like the gentle path of water, seems to finds it’s way toward peace and understanding. This is a rare conversation, frank and humane, not to be missed.

Ezelle Theunnisen has a contagious zest for life which derives from a unique South African heritage, coupled with a Buddhist approach to death and funerary practices. She radiates an aura of physical health and spiritual well-being, sharing her insight with humility and an energetic kindness.

She also has a brilliant local solution for the growing shortage of space for our earthly human remains!

Articulate and incredulous, passionate and curious, Ezelle is one of those people that makes you wonder where the time goes.

Christine Nachmann is the person you want to share tea with when you understand that time is all we are lucky to have - and not for long. The light dances in her eyes.

Her easygoing attention to detail, her comfortable sense of process - that this happens, then this happens… is an unfolding revelation. To spend time with Christine usually means to come to this place of calm gratitude.

Part of a palliative care team, Christine also teaches a community of professionals and lay counselors how to support each other in grief and loss, and does so with love and courage, never afraid to challenge. She laughs easily and often.