The Mortals
Every episode.
Live every Tuesday at 7pm ET. Every live becomes a podcast episode.
Sep 29, 2026 · 1:17:51
I Owned Funeral Homes. Then I Mowed 87 Yards.
In the hardest stretch of my life, I mowed. Helping a friend with 67 yards turned into 87. Tonight is about what those straight lines did for me, and the thing you do when your head gets too loud.
Sep 22, 2026 · 1:15:52
The Back Parlor: The First 48 Hours After a Death
Hour by hour, what happens after someone dies. Who to call first, what you do not have to decide tonight, what the funeral home will ask, and what you are allowed to say no to. It starts with the night Lincoln was carried into a stranger's back bedroom.
Sep 8, 2026 · 1:11:03
I'm Glad You Stayed: The 92 Minutes That Saved a Stranger's Life
A highway patrol sergeant named Kevin Briggs walked up to a young dad on the wrong side of the Golden Gate Bridge rail and stayed for 92 minutes. Why the people we should worry about are rarely the ones crying, and why showing up, even empty, matters.
Sep 1, 2026 · 59:54
The Tribute Machines Can't Write
This week's most-played tribute songs were written by no one. AI grief songs, Dolly Parton planning her own goodbye, the work after the last car leaves, and a reading of the names you shared under Names I'll Never Lose.
Aug 25, 2026 · 1:12:50
Why a Stranger's Death Can Break You
Why does it feel like you lost a friend when someone you never met dies? Parasocial grief, a child's headstone found under a backyard deck, a village that tended an enemy airman's grave for nearly 86 years, and the names we refuse to put down.
Aug 18, 2026 · 58:42
What a Visitation Is Really For, and the Night I Almost Became One
A step-by-step walk through a funeral home visitation so it feels less scary: sign the book, say their name, and know there is no wrong way to pay respects. Then the season I almost became a name myself, and why I stayed for my four boys.
Aug 11, 2026 · 1:15:22
I Chose to Stay
Fifteen years in funeral service taught me exactly how much one person adds up to. The ones who add up to the most often die convinced they added up to nothing. Recorded the week Names I'll Never Lose came out.
Aug 4, 2026 · 1:04:05
The Night the Floor Opened Up
The whole story of the season I did not want to be here anymore, what kept me here, and the first time I played Names I'll Never Lose for anyone.
Jul 21, 2026 · 1:59:54
Three Directors. Zero Filters.
A crossover with As the Hearse Turns. Three funeral directors on the profession at its best and its worst: the competition, the gatekeeping, and what social media made louder. Plus what inspired Names I'll Never Lose.
Jul 7, 2026 · 1:00:23
He Died Forgotten. His Voice Left the Solar System.
Blind Willie Johnson sang on Texas street corners for coins and was buried in a grave with no name. Decades later NASA put his song on Voyager. The man the world decided was worth nothing, and how wrong the world was.
Jun 30, 2026 · 1:21:10
I'm Done Apologizing for Being Too Many Things
Funeral director, musician, dad, creator. People tell me to pick a lane. Tonight I'm done apologizing for being all of them, starting with Gordon Parks, who refused to be just one thing his whole life.
Jun 23, 2026 · 1:02:55
The Songs That Empty a Room
The funeral songs that undo a whole room, and the thing almost nobody thinks about. It is not which song you play. It is when.
Jun 16, 2026 · 1:02:29
He Composed Music on a NYC Sidewalk for 30 Years
Moondog stood on a Manhattan sidewalk dressed like a Viking for nearly thirty years while writing serious music in his head. What he teaches about dignity, mortality, and not dying with the music still inside you.
Jun 9, 2026 · 1:05:49
The Work Was Already Enough Before Anyone Clapped
Sixto Rodriguez made two records that disappeared, went back to tearing down houses, and never knew a country across the world was singing his songs. The quiet after you release something, and why the work was already enough.
Jun 2, 2026 · 1:06:04
Morbid Questions Live: The Truth About Cremation and Death
Every uncomfortable death question you have been afraid to ask out loud. Cremation, embalming, what the body actually does, and what families regret.
May 26, 2026 · 51:30
The Things You Won't Ask Out Loud
Morbid Questions Live, where you drive. Near-death, what really happens, what is left behind, and the questions you would never put in writing.
May 19, 2026 · 54:10
Career Grief: Walking Away From the Job That Defined You
What happens when the work you did becomes who you are, and then it is gone. Grieving a job, and finding out who is left.
May 12, 2026 · 40:15
The Doctor Who Wrote His Own Death
Paul Kalanithi, the Stanford neurosurgery resident who wrote about his own dying. Then what I have actually heard from the funeral home side: near-death stories and visits from loved ones I cannot explain.
May 5, 2026 · 1:00:55
The Work Nobody Will Clap For
Vivian Maier took about 150,000 photographs and almost nobody saw them while she was alive. For everyone doing work nobody is clapping for yet.
Apr 28, 2026 · 55:35
The Room After the Room
The Mortals comes back after a season away with the question that will not leave me alone: what waits on the other side of the door we all walk through?
Apr 22, 2026 · 1:06:28
They Took It All. So I Wrote This.
The song that came out of losing the title, the building and the identity, and finding out what was left.
Apr 7, 2026 · 48:49
The Ones Who Showed Up
For the person who shows up on a random Tuesday and just sits with you. What that kind of presence costs, and the first time someone showed up for me.
Mar 31, 2026 · 45:40
The Last Supper Table
Holy Week, for anyone with an empty seat at the table this year. Stories from my years in funeral service, and why the Saturday in between might be the most honest picture of grief there is.
Mar 24, 2026 · 54:23
The Chair
Some grief comes with a chair nobody sits in anymore. A story I had never told publicly, about a widow and seven words I have never forgotten.