Joanna Ebenstein is the founder and creative director of Morbid Anatomy, which is the world’s leading community that focuses on, among other things, the culture and contemplation of death. Morbid Anatomy has taken many forms since its founding in 2007. It’s been a wildly popular blog, a library, a museum, a project-in-residence at Green-Wood Cemetery, just to name a few, and it’s currently both an in-person gathering space in Brooklyn’s Industry City, as well as a thriving online community that features lectures, workshops, and merch, as well as in-person experiences including field trips, conferences, and other events.

An internationally recognized death expert, Joanna is the author of several books, including Anatomica: The Exquisite and Unsettling Art of Human Anatomy, Death: A Graveside Companion, and The Anatomical Venus. Her newest book is Momento Mori: The Art of Contemplating Death to Live a Better Life. She is also an award-winning curator, photographer, and graphic designer, and the teacher of the many times sold-out class, Make Your Own Memento Mori: Befriending Death with Art, History and the Imagination.

On this episode, Joanna discusses the value of ancestor veneration, her research on varying cultural attitudes about grief and loss, and how befriending death can lead to a better life.

Pam also talks about Samhain as time to contemplate the divinity of death, and answers a listener question about activism and the Goddess.

Our sponsors for this episode are Ritual + Shelter, TU·ET·AL soap and skincare, BetterHelp, Secrets of Romani Fortune-Telling out now from Weiser Books, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, Mithras Candle, and the Missing Witches Deck of Oracles out now from North Atlantic Books.

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