When We Die Talks
When We Die Talks begins with a single question asked to an anonymous caller: What do you think happens when we die? From there, the conversation unfolds in unexpected directions. Touching on belief, doubt, loss, and the search for meaning.
These aren’t experts or public figures. They are everyday people opening up about the things most of us keep quiet. The result is raw, unpredictable, and deeply human.
New anonymous calls every Wednesday.
Want to share your story? Apply to be a caller at whenwedietalks.com.
Episodes
59 episodes
#44 - Multiple Heart Attacks and a Surprisingly Calm Relationship With Death
What if something big happens… and your life still mostly goes back to normal?This week’s caller has had two heart attacks, starting when they were sixteen. On paper that sounds intense. But this conversation isn’t heavy. The call...
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Episode 44
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38:22
#43 - The Conversation No One Wants to Have With a Child
What do you say to a child who asks, “Am I going to die?”This week's caller is a physician who works with children who have cancer and has training in pediatric palliative and hospice care. In this conversation, she shares what it...
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Episode 43
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38:25
#42 - The Ripple Effect: How Loss Continues to Shape the People Left Behind
Suicide touches more lives than we often realize. And yet, it’s still something many of us don’t know how to talk about.In this episode, an anonymous caller reflects on losing their brother to suicide and what it’s been like to live with...
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Episode 42
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39:08
#41 - Talking About Death Without Falling Apart: Where Grief and Laughter Coexist
Many people are curious about conversations around death but hesitate to listen because they worry it will feel emotionally overwhelming.This episode challenges that assumption.In this anonymous call, the conversation begins with ...
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Episode 41
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43:50
Saturday Contemplation - A Year You’ll Never Get Back
This week’s Saturday Contemplation, A Year You’ll Never Get Back, sits with a simple truth: this year is over, regardless of how it went. Instead of turning toward regret or self-judgment, this reflection invites you to look back gentl...
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8:34
#40 - Four Deaths and a God Named George
What if your afterlife looks exactly like what you expect to find? That question sits at the center of this conversation with our caller who has died more than once and come back with stories that challenge the script many of us inherit about d...
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Episode 40
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44:17
Saturday Contemplation - Claiming the Life That's Yours
This week’s Saturday Contemplation turns toward the stories we inherit (from others and ourselves). The ones we pick up early, absorb quietly, and sometimes mistake for who we actually are. It invites you to notice what in your life feels genui...
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7:28
#39 - Death Taught Me I Wanted to Live
Death wasn’t an idea for her growing up—it was something that walked beside her. In this call, we trace a life shaped by early violence in South Africa, a strict Catholic upbringing that equated identity with sin, and a long stretch of years wh...
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Episode 39
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48:04
Saturday Contemplation – Letting Things Stay Unfinished
This week’s Saturday Contemplation sits with the truth that many parts of our lives don’t get the endings we hoped for. Conversations fade, relationships drift, and chapters close without warning. Instead of forcing closure, this contemplation ...
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6:57
#38 - The Other G-Word No One Wants to Talk About
Mortality feels different when you’re sitting beside a parent and waiting for the breath that doesn’t return. In this call, we stay close to that moment—not with big theories or tidy comfort, but with the real stuff: complicated love, sudden an...
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Episode 38
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41:33
Saturday Contemplation - The Clock We Can’t See
This week’s Saturday Contemplation turns toward a truth most of us struggle to look at: our time is limited, whether we see it clearly or not. Some people learn this through illness or loss. For the rest of us, the illusion of “later” makes it ...
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6:35
#37 - I Changed My Tastebuds, But I’m Still Me (ish)
This week’s caller has lived with death in the background for most of her life—first through migraines that began when she was six, and later through a brain tumor that went undiagnosed for more than twenty years. By the time doctors caught it,...
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Episode 37
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40:05
Saturday Contemplation - Why We Contemplate Death
This week’s Saturday Contemplation looks at the heart of this entire project. Why we even choose to think about death in the first place.It’s not about fear or morbidity. It’s about presence. When we turn toward death instead of away fro...
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8:56
#36 - Is This a Free Therapy Session?!
This week’s caller is a psychotherapist whose first brush with mortality came early—at just six years old, when her father was struck in the head by a baseball. He survived, but not as the same man. That experience became the quiet force behind...
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Episode 36
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42:12
Saturday Contemplation - Finding Wonder in the Everyday
This week’s Saturday Contemplation explores the miracle of simply being here — the cosmic chain of events that led to this single moment. From the vastness of the universe to the smallest details of daily life, we reflect on how awareness trans...
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5:25
#35 - So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish: A Father’s Search for Meaning After Loss
This week’s caller, a father who lost his son to suicide eighteen months ago, speaks with rare clarity about grief, meaning, and why skepticism doesn’t have to harden into despair. The premise is simple and brave: if consciousness is a function...
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Episode 35
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50:34
Saturday Contemplation - The Things We Don’t Notice
This week’s Saturday Contemplation invites you to notice what often goes unseen — the quiet moments that make up a life. From the hum of a familiar room to the light shifting across a wall, we explore how impermanence turns the ordinary into so...
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8:07
Saturday Contemplation - Learning to Let Go
What would it mean to release your grip on the things you can’t control? This week’s Saturday Contemplation explores the quiet art of letting go — of expectations, identities, and moments that have already passed. Through breath and awareness, ...
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6:48
#34 - The Way We Mourn Down Under
In this week’s call, an anonymous caller from Perth, Australia — with deep family roots in Colombia — shares how culture, belief, and experience shape the way we face death.She describes an Australia where humor keeps things light, somet...
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Episode 34
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39:36
Saturday Contemplation – Don’t Wait to Live
You don’t need another reminder that time is limited. But you might need a reminder to act like it.This week’s Saturday Contemplation explores what it really means to live as if your time mattered. Not in a rushed or panicked way, but wi...
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7:58
#33 - God Exists in the Space Between Us
What if the clearest way to love life is to look directly at death?This week’s caller has lived with chronic illness, which has kept mortality close. But instead of fear, he’s found a deep sense of gratitude — for warmth, for connection,...
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Episode 33
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36:12
Saturday Contemplation – If You Had One Year Left
If you knew you only had one year left to live, what would you do differently? This week’s Saturday Contemplation invites you to sit with that question — not as a thought experiment, but as a mirror. What truly matters when time becomes finite?...
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5:34
#32 - Cool, I’m Dead—and Other Things You Don’t Expect to Hear
A single question opens a door most of us avoid: what do you think happens when we die? For this caller, the answer comes not from theory but from experience. During a medical crisis, she finds herself floating above her body, greeted ...
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Episode 32
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41:47
Saturday Contemplation – Each Breath Brings Us Closer
This first Saturday Contemplation centers on the reality that each breath brings us closer to death. Our lifespan is ever-decreasing, and while that can feel heavy, it’s also what makes each breath, each moment, so precious.The first con...
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6:59
