LIVE AT THE WHEELER CENTRE: BEN SHEWRY IS GOING TO DIE

Recorded live as part of The Wheeler Centre's Spring Fling program, this conversation features renowned Chef and memoirist Ben Shewry as he unpacks a lot more than the food and bev service at his Dream Funeral. Ben was born in New Zealand in 1977 and moved to Melbourne in 2002. He worked with chefs David Thompson and Andrew McConnell before taking on his first head chef role at Attica in 2005. Originally obsessed with the detail and balance of Thai food, Ben began to develop a style at Attica that reflected his rural New Zealand upbringing and, increasingly, a fascination with Australian indigenous ingredients.

Ben is a passionate, sensitive, reflective human being whose vulnerabilities and openness about life (and death) make him an ideal candidate for a deep dive into mortality.

His latest book, Uses for Obsession, can be purchased here.

Instagram: @BenShewry

This podcast was recorded at The Wheeler Centre as a part Spring Fling, a celebration of books, writing and ideas. Explore more conversations like this on The Wheeler Centre podcast — available wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow @wheelercentre for new releases

Marieke Hardy Is Going To Die is a podcast made by Marieke Hardy (IG @marieke_hardy).
You can follow at IG @GoingToDiePod

Music by Lord Fascinator (IG @lordfascinator)
Produced by Darren Scarce (IG @Dazz26)
Video edits by Andy Nedelkovski (IG @AndyNeds)
Artwork by Lauren Egan (IG @heylaurenegan)
Photography by Eamon Leggett (IG @anxietyoptions)

With thanks to Amelia Chappelow (IG @ameliachappelow)
Camilla McKewen (IG @CamillaLucyLucy)
and Rhys Graham (IG @RhysJGraham)

Drop an email to [email protected]

Whilst acknowledging the privilege that comes with having the space to discuss death and mortality, we want to also recognise that discussing these topics can raise some  wounds. Should you wish to seek extra support, please consider the following resources:

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/online-grief-support-groups

https://www.grief.org.au/ga/ga/Support/Support_Groups.aspx

https://www.headspace.com/meditation/grief

https://www.mindful.org/a-10-minute-guided-meditation-for-working-with-grief/

https://griefline.org.au/get-help/

CELEBRATING JOHN CLARKE

John Clarke was a pioneering comedian, actor and writer, whose television appearances as farmer Fred Dagg in the 1970s marked the emergence of a distinctive home-grown style of New Zealand comedy. In 1977 Clarke moved permanently to Australia, where he was best known for the popular television series The Games and a series of satirical mock interviews with Australian Bryan Dawe. His wide-ranging talents included scriptwriting, music, documentary presenting, and literary pastiche, and his comic performances encompassed pratfalls, parody and political satire.

John died of a heart attack in 2017 aged 68 whilst hiking in the Grampians with his wife and friends.

Celebrating John is his daughter Lorin Clarke - herself no stranger to life in the creative arts. Lorin wrote, directed and narrated the award-winning ABC RN audio fiction serial, The Fitzroy Diaries (originally aired on ABC RN's Life Matters), which you can find here. It won the Best Fiction award at the Australian Podcast Awards in May 2019. 

Lorin also writes for television and is a regular columnist for The Big Issue.

Her recent memoir, Would That Be Funny? Growing Up With John Clarke is out now.

Lorin is currently directing a documentary film about her Dad.

Lorin Clarke (IG Lorin Clarke Official)
Lorin Clarke's website (LorinClarke.com)

Marieke Hardy Is Going To Die is a podcast made by Marieke Hardy (IG @marieke_hardy).
You can follow at IG @GoingToDiePod

Music by Lord Fascinator (IG @lordfascinator)
Produced by Darren Scarce (IG @Dazz26)
Video edits by Andy Nedelkovski (IG @AndyNeds)
Artwork by Lauren Egan (IG @heylaurenegan)
Photography by Eamon Leggett (IG @anxietyoptions)

With thanks to Amelia Chappelow (IG @ameliachappelow)
Camilla McKewen (IG @CamillaLucyLucy)
and Rhys Graham (IG @RhysJGraham)

Drop an email to [email protected]

Whilst acknowledging the privilege that comes with having the space to discuss death and mortality, we want to also recognise that discussing these topics can raise some  wounds. Should you wish to seek extra support, please consider the following resources:

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/online-grief-support-groups

https://www.grief.org.au/ga/ga/Support/Support_Groups.aspx

https://www.headspace.com/meditation/grief

https://www.mindful.org/a-10-minute-guided-meditation-for-working-with-grief/

https://griefline.org.au/get-help/

PHIL JAMIESON IS GOING TO DIE

Phil Jamieson has spent the last quarter-century fronting one of Australia’s most popular and successful bands. An accomplished singer, songwriter and guitarist, Jamieson’s generation-defining lyrics and vocal melodies first became etched into rock fans’ DNA in 1995, when the Lismore-born quartet he helped form as an 18-year-old - Grinspoon - rode a new wave of alternative music to become the first act Unearthed by national youth radio station triple j with its debut single “Sickfest”.

 
So began a love affair that maintained its heat and passion for over one thousand live shows, six consecutive Top 10 debuts and multi-platinum album sales. 

Phil's also had tackled some incredibly public challenges - including an infamous battle with addiction and an ensuing media frenzy that saw him in deep confessional mode on Andrew Denton's Enough Rope in 2007.  It's perhaps these experiences which have made him more reflective than others when it comes to thinking about death and mortality...though when it comes to planning his dream Funeral, Phil's ready to get the party started.

Jamieson’s live performance talents have continued to diversify and develop as he has explored new stages and formats. Embracing a solo career, Jamieson also made the transition from live music venues to the boards of theatres around the country in 2017, being cast as St. Jimmy in the Australian stage production of American Idiot. The Broadway musical made an impactful debut with its initial Australian premiere in Brisbane, leading to a national tour in 2018 - a performance that earned Jamieson acclaim: “Phil Jamieson carried the role in Perth, and absolutely nailed it. Jamieson has more of a swagger than an in-your-face psychopathic Jimmy, which I enjoyed more than I expected...whenever Jimmy is on stage, it’s difficult to focus on anything else.” - SYN MEDIA

Jamieson has also been involved in several philanthropic and industry-specific initiatives.

Instagram: @PhilJamieson
Facebook: PhilJamiesonMusic

As well as spending time in the studio, writing his next solo album, Phil is currently working on the release of Grinspoon’s 8th studio album, first new music in 12 years: ‘whatever, whatever’ released August 9

Also touring Nationally with Grinspoon from September 17 - December 6 on a 45 date album tour.

Grinspoon website has tour dates + album info / pre orders

https://www.instagram.com/grinspoon_band/

https://www.facebook.com/Grinspoon

Facebook:

Marieke Hardy Is Going To Die is a podcast made by Marieke Hardy (IG @marieke_hardy).
You can follow at IG @GoingToDiePod

Music by Lord Fascinator (IG @lordfascinator)
Produced by Darren Scarce (IG @Dazz26)
Video edits by Andy Nedelkovski (IG @AndyNeds)
Artwork by Lauren Egan (IG @heylaurenegan)
Photography by Eamon Leggett (IG @anxietyoptions)

With thanks to Amelia Chappelow (IG @ameliachappelow)
Camilla McKewen (IG @CamillaLucyLucy)
and Rhys Graham (IG @RhysJGraham)

Drop an email to [email protected]

Whilst acknowledging the privilege that comes with having the space to discuss death and mortality, we want to also recognise that discussing these topics can raise some  wounds. Should you wish to seek extra support, please consider the following resources:

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/online-grief-support-groups

https://www.grief.org.au/ga/ga/Support/Support_Groups.aspx

https://www.headspace.com/meditation/grief

https://www.mindful.org/a-10-minute-guided-meditation-for-working-with-grief/

https://griefline.org.au/get-help/

CELEBRATING JASPER HAIGH

Jasper Haigh was a lively and troubled seventeen year old when he drove his car through an intersection in Geelong in 1987, dying soon after. His older brother Gideon - compartmentalising his shock and grief - grew up to be an esteemed writer.
He has published more than fifty books and contributed to more than a hundred newspapers and magazines in a decades-long journalism career. His cricket books include The Cricket War, The Summer Game and On Warne, and he has written on subjects from abortion, asbestos and architecture to incest and HV Evatt. The Office: A Hardworking History won the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction, and Certain Admissions won a Ned Kelly Prize for true crime. 

37 years after Jasper’s death Gideon found he was unable to keep his internal tumult at bay any longer, sitting down to write about Jasper in a 72-hour burst. The result, a small but deeply powerful memoir called My Brother Jaz, is out now.

TW: Suicide, eating disorders, grief

Website: GideonHaigh.com
Substack: Cricketetal.com

Marieke Hardy Is Going To Die is a podcast made by Marieke Hardy (IG @marieke_hardy).
You can follow at IG @GoingToDiePod

Music by Lord Fascinator (IG @lordfascinator)
Produced by Darren Scarce (IG @Dazz26)
Video edits by Andy Nedelkovski (IG @AndyNeds)
Artwork by Lauren Egan (IG @heylaurenegan)
Photography by Eamon Leggett (IG @anxietyoptions)

With thanks to Amelia Chappelow (IG @ameliachappelow)
Camilla McKewen (IG @CamillaLucyLucy)
and Rhys Graham (IG @RhysJGraham)

Drop an email to [email protected]

Whilst acknowledging the privilege that comes with having the space to discuss death and mortality, we want to also recognise that discussing these topics can raise some  wounds. Should you wish to seek extra support, please consider the following resources:

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/online-grief-support-groups

https://www.grief.org.au/ga/ga/Support/Support_Groups.aspx

https://www.headspace.com/meditation/grief

https://www.mindful.org/a-10-minute-guided-meditation-for-working-with-grief/

https://griefline.org.au/get-help/

BEN LEE IS GOING TO DIE

Ben Lee began his career as a young teenager in the early 90’s, in the Australian lo-fi punk band Noise Addict, who were discovered by taste-making artists Sonic Youth and the Beastie Boys.

That began an extraordinary career that has been both eclectic and eccentric, and still growing more strange and fascinating each day. Whether collaborating in one-off projects like the Bens (with Ben Folds and Ben Kweller), producing a Grammy award winning music/comedy album for Margaret Cho (“Cho Dependent”), duetting with Sarah Silverman, writing a psychedelic children’s musical with American literary legend Tom Robbins, or simply strumming away on his guitar and putting out over 20 solo albums of songs that have made romantics swoon for multiple generations, Ben’s career is always (to quote his song “Ache 4 You”) “confusing...but never dull”.

As a curious explorer of religion and philosophy, Ben has cultivated a comfortable relationship with mortality - and his experiences as a death midwife have only deepened his understanding of a journey through lived existence. What better person to plan a dream Funeral with?

Now, collaborating with his wife, actress Ione Skye, on their company Weirder Together, Lee is supporting other artists in creating bizarre and beautiful content spanning everything from podcasts and music, to events and fanzines, as well as film projects.

Website: Ben-Lee.com

Instagram: @BenLeeMusic

Marieke Hardy Is Going To Die is a podcast made by Marieke Hardy (IG @marieke_hardy).
You can follow at IG @GoingToDiePod

Music by Lord Fascinator (IG @lordfascinator)
Produced by Darren Scarce (IG @Dazz26)
Video edits by Andy Nedelkovski (IG @AndyNeds)
Artwork by Lauren Egan (IG @heylaurenegan)
Photography by Eamon Leggett (IG @anxietyoptions)

With thanks to Amelia Chappelow (IG @ameliachappelow)
Camilla McKewen (IG @CamillaLucyLucy)
and Rhys Graham (IG @RhysJGraham)

Drop an email to [email protected]

Whilst acknowledging the privilege that comes with having the space to discuss death and mortality, we want to also recognise that discussing these topics can raise some  wounds. Should you wish to seek extra support, please consider the following resources:

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/online-grief-support-groups

https://www.grief.org.au/ga/ga/Support/Support_Groups.aspx

https://www.headspace.com/meditation/grief

https://www.mindful.org/a-10-minute-guided-meditation-for-working-with-grief/

https://griefline.org.au/get-help/

LA PETITE MORT: MARYAM MASTER IS GOING TO DIE

Maryam Master is a playwright, screenwriter and author who loves creating stories for young people.

She wrote the acclaimed stage adaptations of David Walliams’ best-selling books Mr Stink, The Midnight Gang, Billionaire Boy and Ratburger – as well as Oliver Jeffers’ The Incredible Book Eating Boy, all of which premiered at the Sydney Opera House and toured across Australia.

She began her career in TV, writing for shows like Home and Away, Blinky Bill and the Jim Henson Company’s Bambaloo. In 2011 she was selected by Sesame Workshop as the writer for Elmo’s tour of Australia.

Maryam’s also a refugee who fled Iran as a child during the revolution and so much of her work reflects not just the lived trauma of growing up in conflict, but also what it was like to be an outsider in a brand new and unfamiliar country.

Maryam's first novel, Exit Through the Gift Shop, was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards, the CBCA Book of the Year for Younger Readers and the ABIA Book of the Year for Younger Children 2022. Her second novel, No Words, was winner of the Children's Peace Literature Award and the Readings Children's Prize 2023, and was a CBCA Notable Book for Younger Readers. Her third novel Laughter is the Best Ending will be published in August 2024.

Maryam Master (IG @MaryamMasterAuthor)

Facebook (facebook.com/MaryamMasterAuthor)

Marieke Hardy Is Going To Die is a podcast made by Marieke Hardy (IG @marieke_hardy).
You can follow at IG @GoingToDiePod

Music by Lord Fascinator (IG @lordfascinator)
Produced by Darren Scarce (IG @Dazz26)
Video edits by Andy Nedelkovski (IG @AndyNeds)
Artwork by Lauren Egan (IG @heylaurenegan)
Photography by Eamon Leggett (IG @anxietyoptions)

With thanks to Amelia Chappelow (IG @ameliachappelow)
Camilla McKewen (IG @CamillaLucyLucy)
and Rhys Graham (IG @RhysJGraham)

Drop an email to [email protected]

Whilst acknowledging the privilege that comes with having the space to discuss death and mortality, we want to also recognise that discussing these topics can raise some  wounds. Should you wish to seek extra support, please consider the following resources:

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/online-grief-support-groups

https://www.grief.org.au/ga/ga/Support/Support_Groups.aspx

https://www.headspace.com/meditation/grief

https://www.mindful.org/a-10-minute-guided-meditation-for-working-with-grief/

https://griefline.org.au/get-help/

TARA MOSS IS GOING TO DIE

Tara Rae Moss is a force and a shape-shifter. She is the bestselling author of 14 books of fiction and non-fiction, an experienced keynote speaker and documentary host, an award-winning advocate, holistic healer, funeral celebrant and practicing seiðkona.

Since 1999 she has written fourteen bestselling books under the name Tara Moss, published in 19 countries and 13 languages, including advocacy handbook for women and girls Speaking Out, her #1 non-fiction bestselling memoir The Fictional Woman, and the internationally bestselling postwar historical crime novels The War Widow and The Ghosts of Paris.

Tara Rae is an outspoken advocate for human rights and the rights of women and children, and has been a UNICEF Australia goodwill ambassador since 2007. In 2014 she was recognised for outstanding advocacy for her blog Manus Island: An Insider’s Report, which helped to break information to the public about the alleged murder of Reza Barati.

Against all odds, Tara Rae is now in remission for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) – a rare disease she lived with for nearly eight years, marked by constant burning pain that rates on the McGill Pain Scale as more painful than childbirth or amputation of a digit. Despite being told by multiple doctors that she would never recover, she was able to get her condition into complete remission in 2023 after years of debilitating pain that impacted all aspects of her being, including her mobility, causing her to require a wheelchair.

With her gothic sensibilities Tara Rae has always been fascinated by the creative aspects of mortality - so it make sense that she’s planned her dream Funeral with fine and brilliant detail.

Website: taramoss.com

Instagram: @taramossauthor

Marieke Hardy Is Going To Die is a podcast made by Marieke Hardy (IG @marieke_hardy).
You can follow at IG @GoingToDiePod

Music by Lord Fascinator (IG @lordfascinator)
Produced by Darren Scarce (IG @Dazz26)
Video edits by Andy Nedelkovski (IG @AndyNeds)
Artwork by Lauren Egan (IG @heylaurenegan)
Photography by Eamon Leggett (IG @anxietyoptions)

With thanks to Amelia Chappelow (IG @ameliachappelow)
Camilla McKewen (IG @CamillaLucyLucy)
and Rhys Graham (IG @RhysJGraham)

Drop an email to [email protected]

Whilst acknowledging the privilege that comes with having the space to discuss death and mortality, we want to also recognise that discussing these topics can raise some  wounds. Should you wish to seek extra support, please consider the following resources:

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/online-grief-support-groups

https://www.grief.org.au/ga/ga/Support/Support_Groups.aspx

https://www.headspace.com/meditation/grief

https://www.mindful.org/a-10-minute-guided-meditation-for-working-with-grief/

https://griefline.org.au/get-help/

LA PETITE MORT: ANITA ISALSKA IS GOING TO DIE

Travel enthusiast Anita Isalska is a freelance writer and editor who specialises in Eastern Europe, France, and Australia. Anita has  authored several Lonely Planet guidebooks, including their Malaysia, Israel & the Palestinian Territories, and Romania & Bulgaria titles - but her most recent book, Lonely Planet's Guide To Death, Grief and Rebirth - offers something a little more unusual.

The book is divided into four key chapters: Celebrating, Commemorating, Mourning, and Offering and covers everything from Jazz funerals (New Orleans); Turning of the bones (Madagascar); Burial beads (South Korea); Fantasy coffins (Ghana); Lakota soul keepers (USA); Islamic funeral customs; death wailing; the people paid to weep; Swedish death cleaning; Green burials; and more.

Anita approaches her subject with a respectful and curious eye, and it's a gift to share her deathly knowledge.

Anita Isalska (IG @lunarsynthesis)

Anita on Twitter

Read her stuff on anitaisalska.com.

Marieke Hardy Is Going To Die is a podcast made by Marieke Hardy (IG @marieke_hardy).
You can follow at IG @GoingToDiePod

Music by Lord Fascinator (IG @lordfascinator)
Produced by Darren Scarce (IG @Dazz26)
Video edits by Andy Nedelkovski (IG @AndyNeds)
Artwork by Lauren Egan (IG @heylaurenegan)
Photography by Eamon Leggett (IG @anxietyoptions)

With thanks to Amelia Chappelow (IG @ameliachappelow)
Camilla McKewen (IG @CamillaLucyLucy)
and Rhys Graham (IG @RhysJGraham)

Drop an email to [email protected]

Whilst acknowledging the privilege that comes with having the space to discuss death and mortality, we want to also recognise that discussing these topics can raise some  wounds. Should you wish to seek extra support, please consider the following resources:

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/online-grief-support-groups

https://www.grief.org.au/ga/ga/Support/Support_Groups.aspx

https://www.headspace.com/meditation/grief

https://www.mindful.org/a-10-minute-guided-meditation-for-working-with-grief/

https://griefline.org.au/get-help/

ANDY GRIFFITHS IS GOING TO DIE

Andy Griffiths is one of Australia’s most popular children’s authors. He has written forty books—many in collaboration with illustrator Terry Denton—which have sold over 12 million copies in Australia, won 90 children’s choice awards and 10 Australian Book Industry Awards—including Book of the Year for The 52-Storey Treehouse in 2015. 

His much loved Treehouse series has been embraced by children around the world and is published in more than 35 countries. The thirteenth—and final book in the series—was published in 2023. 

So what does one of the nation's most beloved and playful imaginations have to say about his own demise - and perhaps, the soundtrack that may accompany it?

Andy is currently working on a new series called Adventures Unlimited in collaboration with illustrator Bill Hope. The first book, 'The Land of Lost Things', will be published in August 2024 and—in response to many children’s requests to be included in the books—will feature the reader as one of the main characters (along with Andy) as they take a unpredictably silly adventure featuring the playful mix of left-of-centre comedy, fantasy, adventure and lavish illustrations that generations of his young readers—and their parents—have come to love so much.  

Andy is a passionate advocate for literacy and in 2015 was awarded the Dromkeen Medal to honour his outstanding contribution to Australian children’s literature. He is also an ambassador for both The Indigenous Literacy Foundation and the Pyjama Foundation.

Andy's funeral playlist can be found here.

Twitter: @andygbooks

Instagram: andygbooks

facebook: Andy Griffiths

Marieke Hardy Is Going To Die is a podcast made by Marieke Hardy (IG @marieke_hardy).
You can follow at IG @GoingToDiePod

Music by Lord Fascinator (IG @lordfascinator)
Produced by Darren Scarce (IG @Dazz26)
Video edits by Andy Nedelkovski (IG @AndyNeds)
Artwork by Lauren Egan (IG @heylaurenegan)
Photography by Eamon Leggett (IG @anxietyoptions)

With thanks to Amelia Chappelow (IG @ameliachappelow)
Camilla McKewen (IG @CamillaLucyLucy)
and Rhys Graham (IG @RhysJGraham)

Drop an email to [email protected]

Whilst acknowledging the privilege that comes with having the space to discuss death and mortality, we want to also recognise that discussing these topics can raise some  wounds. Should you wish to seek extra support, please consider the following resources:

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/online-grief-support-groups

https://www.grief.org.au/ga/ga/Support/Support_Groups.aspx

https://www.headspace.com/meditation/grief

https://www.mindful.org/a-10-minute-guided-meditation-for-working-with-grief/

https://griefline.org.au/get-help/

LA PETITE MORT: DAVID PARIS IS GOING TO DIE

As someone who has worked within political parties, unions and non-government organisations on social and environmental issues for the past 20 years, David Paris has been no stranger to the occasional brutality of public and private life. But when his health began deteriorating, he found himself facing an ongoing battle with chronic pain and fatigue - as well as feeling the slow and significant peeling away of a social circle unable to comprehend his at times invisible battle.

In darker moments, David has sought solace in those also delicately balancing across the see-saw of constant pain management - understanding that thoughts of death can be simultaneously confronting and comforting, and it's something we shouldn't be afraid to talk about.

TW: Chronic illness, suicide.

David Paris (Website: dp3.au)
Instagram IG DogsOfTheSuburbs

Marieke Hardy Is Going To Die is a podcast made by Marieke Hardy (IG @marieke_hardy).
You can follow at IG @GoingToDiePod

Music by Lord Fascinator (IG @lordfascinator)
Produced by Darren Scarce (IG @Dazz26)
Video edits by Andy Nedelkovski (IG @AndyNeds)
Artwork by Lauren Egan (IG @heylaurenegan)
Photography by Eamon Leggett (IG @anxietyoptions)

With thanks to Amelia Chappelow (IG @ameliachappelow)
Camilla McKewen (IG @CamillaLucyLucy)
and Rhys Graham (IG @RhysJGraham)