LIVE: ND Humanities and Mortician Caitlin Doughty

The author of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" with an eye-opening look at how we look at death and dying.

Dying, and death, is one of the top taboo topics in our culture.

But an expert on death and funeral practices who’s coming to Fargo this week says treating it that way might be a mistake.

Humanities North Dakota is bringing author and mortician Caitlin Doughty to Fargo next month.

Doughty is credited as having helped launch the modern “death positive” movement, and runs a funeral home in Los Angeles.

She’s the author of a memoir, “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes,” about how the modern funeral industry compares with other death practices around the world.

There’s a broad variation, and some practices, like the one in which friends and neighbors are invited to the home of the bereaved family to consume part of the late loved one’s body, are surprising to Western eyes.

Humanities North Dakota’s Dennis Cooley joined the Morning Show for a live talk with Emily Welker about death and our fears and discomfort around it, what he got out of Doughty’s book, and why it might be time to start taking a closer look at how we can incorporate some other types of wisdom into the little we know about death and dying.

For more details about the event April 20th:

https://www.humanitiesnd.org/caitlindoughty