Love is in the air, candy is in the store, and death, as ever, is on our brains. In this installment of your favorite podcast, we investigate the origins of the beloved holiday (they're weird!), talk about the true definition of love (hint: it's not keeping their corpse around the house), and read some very graphic poetry (it's French, and only graphic if you take issue with maggots). Break out the blood-red wine, it's the disgustingly romantic Valentine's Day episode.

Move over, hygge! The new hot trend from Scandinavia is all about confronting your mortality through tidying up. In this episode, we chat about Margareta Magnusson's international bestseller The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning and how to tackle the task on your own no matter your age. (Hint: Don't start with photos, do get rid of naughty things so your kids/friends don't have to deal with them.) As they say, you can't take that seventh toaster with you.

Music has a long history of flirting with the devil and embracing the subversive. In the '80s, though, a bunch of kids in Norway took that to a new extreme, linking metal with an obsession with death, Satan, and even murder. Why there? Why then? What's with the makeup? Let's discuss.

Nuri McBride is a writer, researcher, and speaker who is an expert in the relationship between death and scent. If you never thought of the connection, or if you have and think it's as cool as we do, you can't miss this conversation. We cover everything from using scent to meditate on death acceptance to the smell of a dead body to scent in mourning and religious rituals to a fascinating phenomenon called the Odour of Sanctity. Listen and smell along!

Bundy. Dahmer. Kemper. Doss? Cotton? Eh? You might know a thing or two about Aileen Wuornos or even Countess Erzsébet Báthory, but what do you really know about female serial killers, their motives, and their means? In this episode, we take a look at some of latest research in this still-new field to try to understand these murderous women a bit better (and why we're so enthralled by serial killers in general).

We have visions of grim reapers dancing in our heads! ​It's officially the holidays, mortal friends, and if you tend to get a little sick from all the sugar and spice and everything nice, we've got the cure for what ails ya. Christmas, in fact, has a long history of the dark, deep, and death-related. Listen for the scoop on Christmas ghost stories, Krampus, H.P. Lovecraft Christmas carols, The Nightmare Before Christmas, dead Finnish people coming to Christmas Eve dinner, and more — plus our death-friendly gift guide and heavy metal carol picks!

It's the first interview of I Heart Dead Things! We hung out with photographer and researcher J.R. Pepper and were treated to some of her expertise on spirit photography, post-mortem photography, and lots more. In fact, we touched on so many death-centric topics that one could (and should) call the conversation a death salon. Vive le death talk and get to know J.R. Pepper!

Madagascar's Malagasy people have a longstanding ritual called Famadihana, or turning of the bones. It's a beautiful custom that reunites the living with the dead and celebrates generations of ancestors — but this year, it's being blamed for a bigger-than-usual outbreak of the Bubonic plague. How do we find the compromise between allowing a people to continue their traditions and maintaining public health?

Are you just dying to know what will become of your earthly remains? Well friend, you are in luck! #deadbodypositivity is back and we've got even more suggestions for making the most of your corpse. Whether you long to soar through space or explore the ocean's depths, all your wildest dreams can come true (when you're dead).

Everyone knows about the Donner party — or thinks they do, anyway. The real story is more complex and tragic than the sensational cannibalism tales associated with this ill-fated group today. Join us as we dive into what really happened, how many other families were involved, and where the heck the Continental Divide is.