46: Learning to live by talking about death, at the death cafe

Pop into most cafes and you’ll quite easily find tea and cake. Pop into a Death Cafe and you’ll be served much more.

At a Death Cafe people, often strangers, gather to eat cake and drink tea – as you might expect – but they also gather to discuss death.

Death has a stigma of being morbid to bring up and especially to talk about. There’s that superstition that you are inviting death closer by discussing it. However, over 9,000 groups in 65 countries have met up with one another to discuss our finite lives and the inevitable.

Death Cafe co-founder, Sue Barsky Reid joins me on the podcast. Sue is a psychotherapist and counsellor, skills she used to the full when creating the Death Cafe concept with her late son, Jon Underwood.

Sue tells us why they founded Death Café and how and why this social enterprise has gone from strength to strength.

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I’m Justin King and I help people retire successfully.

As a Chartered Financial Planner, Chartered Wealth Manager and SOLLA Accredited Later Life Adviser with MFP Wealth Management I believe that retirement is more than just an economic event. It’s a life event. One that brings with it a huge variety of challenges and opportunities.

As host of The Retirement Café Podcast I aim to bring insight and inspiration from a wide range of experts to help you create and live a meaningful retirement.