Nine Keys & Co: the art, soft-business, activism, and mystery of death work

Narinder sits down with death midwife and artist Venessa Greenheron for a grounded and quietly magical conversation on the Nine Keys podcast.

Venessa is a steward of land and hearts on Whidbey Island, Washington. Her days are spent working with her hands, whether in the barn, the kitchen, or her art studio.

Narinder and Venessa talk about practicing death care in a rural place, the magic in death work, what it means to have your hands literally in the seasons of the land, and how art and death work, though hard to explain, move together in quiet, powerful ways. Venessa shares about her cyanotype practice, the ephemera of light and time, and her death midwifery practice, Prism Death Care.

Find Venessa’s work here:

prismdeathcare.com

@prism_deathcare

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In this episode What Is So: The Nature of Grief and Surrender, Narinder talks with her friend Melissa Word (melissaword.com), a movement artist, your favorite coach, and death worker who moves like a poem, about what happens when we stop trying to manage life and actually let grief have us.

They get into that uncomfortable posture of being both soft and sturdy, spine intact, heart open. They talk about the exhaustion of performative sorrow, the psychic skills we're all going to need, AI as a weird mirror, and how to get the hell out of your echo chamber. 🤖🕯️📡 This one’s got bite and tenderness.

Be prepared for a conversation that might bring some clarity.

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What is a death doula, really?

In this episode, Narinder unpacks the limits of the most common definition, "non-medical support at the end of life", and invites listeners into a much deeper understanding. With tenderness and clarity, she explores how death work is inherently political.

Drawing from over a decade in the field, Narinder shares how her own practice began to reveal the inequities baked into our systems, how grief, care, and death are commodified, how the death and grief illiteracy of our society causes more harm, and how true healing comes to the collective when death workers take up space with their political work and name what’s been left out.

This episode honors the work of other political death workers, including Misha Murphy of Hafez Death Care, whose approach to end-of-life care is rooted in ancestral remembering and spiritual justice. Narinder lifts up Misha’s work as an example of how death care can become a site of radical love and collective liberation.

This is an invitation to all the grief tenders, death doulas, and cultural healers who know their work touches systems. Who light grief platitudes on fire and tend the sacred, raw, and real.

Whether you call yourself a death doula, a grief guide, or something entirely your own, this conversation is for you.

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In this episode of the Nine Keys podcast, Narinder speaks directly to death workers and grief workers who are ready to stop playing it safe with their offerings.

She shares why getting specific with your grief events isn’t restrictive, it’s magnetic.

From climate grief about plastics to grief groups for people who've endured a best friend breakup, Narinder offers real examples of how themed, boldly focused gatherings draw in exactly the right people.

She reflects on the success of her own event, The Collective Wail, and breaks down how to market your offerings in a way that feels alive, potent, and true.

This episode is a permission slip to stop diluting your work and start naming the grief you’re here to hold.

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In this episode of the Nine Keys podcast, Narinder reflects on an art piece by Mel Hsu from the Philadelphia Death and Arts Festival.

Watching art and death work weave together was a powerful experience for her, one she knew was potent but was still so deeply moved by in person.

Though the sound quality is a bit off as Narinder is recording with headphones instead of her usual microphone, she invites you to enjoy this raw and intimate reflection.

Check out Mel Hsu's work at melaniehsu.com.

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In this soul-nourishing episode, Narinder is joined by the luminous Arria Deepwater - intuitive healer, writer, and speaker - for a conversation that moves gently.

Together, they explore the radical power of deep rest, the wisdom of moving slowly, and the sacred choices we make to honor our bodies and spirits in a world that often demands speed and productivity.

They speak candidly about living with chronic illness and disability, the grief, the tenderness, and the unexpected beauty found in those liminal spaces.

Arria shares their own journey and offers insight into how we can all begin to reclaim rhythms that align with our bodies, and ultimately our inner worlds.

This episode is a soft landing for those who are soul-tired, body-weary, and longing for another way to live, one that centers slowness, intuition, and rest.

Arria is the author of Three Moons: A Grief Story and a contributor to Inbetween Spaces: An Anthology of Disabled Writers, and their presence in this conversation is a gentle invitation toward rest that restores.

You can find Arria at www.arriadeepwater.com

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In this episode of Nine Keys, recorded under the potent full moon in Scorpio with the Sun in grounded Taurus, Narinder gets bold, grounded, and beautifully honest.

She runs the numbers, yes, real numbers, on what a sustainable, abundant living wage can look like for death workers outside of institutions, outside of burnout, and outside of the myth that sacred work must mean self-sacrifice.

This is a taboo-tearing conversation about money, labor, and power in death work. Narinder makes space for the truth: that witches, healers, artists, and death doulas can, and must, build new economies rooted in care, rest, and cultural transformation. She shares personal insights, visionary math, and examples of what it means to build an income that centers the most vulnerable, honors your artistry, and refuses exploitation.

She also uplifts fellow new world builders like Ayana Zaire Cotton (For New World Builders Podcast), Daje Aloh (The Story Doula), and Bear Hebert, anti-capitalist business coach, as comrades in reshaping what livelihood means in the work of world-ending and world-beginning. All can be found on Instagram or through the links provided.

Tell the truth.

Tear it down.

Find stability, beauty, and abundance.

This is witch labor. This is how we live.

✨ Listen in and step into a bigger, more honest vision of what’s possible.

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In this episode of Nine Keys, Narinder explores what it truly takes for death workers to become solid infrastructure for new worlds.

What happens when our own bodies, soft-businesses, and inner-facing death work become the foundation for cultural transformation?

Narinder speaks to the necessity of being well-resourced, boundaried, creative, and in rhythm, so that our death work doesn't become stalled, but propagates futures. This is a conversation about sustainability, sovereignty, and the sacred responsibility of becoming the ground upon which new systems are built.

For support for your death work soft-business or inner-facing death work, go to narinderbazen.com and check out Study With Narinder.

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In this episode of The Nine Keys Podcast, I'm joined by Annie Wilson, the brilliant lead instigator behind the Philadelphia Death and Arts Festival.

MAY 29 - JUNE 1 2025

Our conversation is full of information, vision, and deep truth as we explore the beauty and power of weaving deathwork and art into a shared cultural experience, one that invites tenderness, provocation, and collective transformation.

After we spoke, I realized our conversation had unwittingly danced through almost every facet of The Death Healer’s Hexagon, from the Outer logistics and Inner stirrings, to the Cultural urgency and death/life-force behind this kind of work.

Annie’s shares are tender and insightful, and this episode is a reminder of how powerful the fusion of deathwork and art can be.

🌿 I’ll be at the Philadelphia Death and Arts Festival to teach a class and be on a panel, come find me!

🕸️ All artists and death workers mentioned in this episode can be found at philadelphiadeathandarts.com.

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In this episode, Narinder shares her personal journey with Instagram as a death worker; how it shaped, strained, and ultimately shifted her relationship to visibility and sacred work. You'll hear honest reflections on burnout, boundary-setting, and the quiet stepping back from the algorithm to give space and reclaim focus.

She also offers practical, heart-centered tips for navigating social media without wasting your efforts.

Podcasts mentioned in this episode are:

For the World Builders with Ayana Zaire Cotton

Botanical Studies of Internet Magic with Kening Zhu

Home-Body Podcast with Grace Allerdice

Brand new podcast: Halva For the Heart: Dying and Grieving in Diaspora with Misha Murphy

and the work of Death Worker and Human Design teacher: Cat Fitzgerald

www.narinderbazen.com

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