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From Here To Eternity

W. W. Norton & Company
from Caitlin Doughty's book "From Here to Eternity," illustrated by Landis Blair

There are death rituals around the world you might find offensive, but mortician Caitlin Doughty says they give families space to mourn. She argues that's something missing in American culture today.

RadioWest divider.

There are death rituals around the world that might strike you as morbid, disrespectful, or downright gross. In Japan, survivors pick through their loved one’s cremated ashes with chopsticks to find bone fragments. In Tibet, bodies are eaten by vultures. Friday, mortician Caitlin Doughty joins us to talk about the rituals she chronicles in her latest book. Doughty says these traditions give families time and space to mourn, something she argues is sorely missing in American culture today. (Rebroadcast)

On Thursday, October 18 at 7:00 p.m., Caitlin Doughty will give a reading at The King's English Bookshop [1511 South 1500 East, Salt Lake City] as part of the Utah Humanities Book Festival.

Caitlin Doughty is the author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes [Indie bookstores|Amazon|Audible] and her latest From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death. [Indie bookstores|Amazon|Audible]

Doug Fabrizio has been reporting for KUER News since 1987, and became News Director in 1993. In 2001, he became host and executive producer of KUER's RadioWest, a one hour conversation/call-in show on KUER 90.1 in Salt Lake City. He has gained a reputation for his thoughtful style. He has interviewed everyone from Isabel Allende to the Dalai Lama, and from Madeleine Albright to Desmond Tutu. His interview skills landed him a spot as a guest host of the national NPR program, "Talk of the Nation." He has won numerous awards for his reporting and for his work with RadioWest and KUED's Utah NOW from such organizations as the Society of Professional Journalists, the Utah Broadcasters Association, the Public Radio News Directors Association and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
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