thegooddeath

Are the rumors true? Is my funeral home failing?

Ok, if you've watched the video, you know by now that I am a student in the sacred art of clickbait. I NEVER get to use it in my videos, so you have to indulge me this one time. Thank you.

I hope you like the new office!  If you follow us on Instagram (@undertakingla) we're always ...

How do you deal with the funeral industry as a fat person?

There is a lot of fear from fat people that they won't be treated with respect when they die.  As one activist we talked to said, "the fat body has been the hinge of too many jokes."

I hope this video explains the behind the scenes, lays out numbers, vocabulary, and options you have when deal...

This Ask a Mortician brought to you by Corpse Wax

You've been asking for a more traditional Ask a Mortician, and here we are!  Be careful what you wish for, this is a somewhat gross but MUCH requested topic, adipocere, or corpse wax.

It's a mummy of a soapy kind. 

We've got another highly requested video coming next week.  Gi...

Our new Iconic Corpse is a bit of a tall tale.

Hello deathlings!

This is the first Iconic Corpse we've done where the corpse in the MIDST of CONTROVERSY. 

Charles Byrne is the star of the Hunterian Museum's collection. But what if he didn't want to be?  Wildly didn't want to be? Went to great lengths not to be? And yet here we ...

It's a Cave of Glowing Skulls and You're Invited!

I like to open a video with Tonya Harding, and end it with an international skull controversy.

I had never heard of the Cave of the River Talgua and its alleged GLOWING SKULLS until it was briefly mentioned in the book The Lost City of the Monkey God. (That's a good book, I recommend it.)  On...

This is a Story About Control. CORPSE Control.

GOOD MOURNING, Deathlings!

You know I LOVE to talk about the rights you have when it comes to the dead body. But sometimes we also have to talk about the rights you DON'T have.  Especially when working with a funeral home. Can you see grandma whenever you want and do whatever you want with he...

Caring for the Bodies of Terrorists

Well... I released this video 3 minutes ago and the comment sections is already getting weird.  Am I PERSONALLY covering up the location of Osama bin Laden's body? I dunno, it's possible. RIP comment section.  

If you couldn't tell, today we're talking about what is done to the bodies of...

Recruiting Teens (Not as Creepy as it Sounds)

I may be running through the cornfields of Iowa right now (no, really) but last weekend I was at VidCon, the largest online video convention in the world. I was on 4 panels, including one called "How to Make Money on YouTube."  Answer: Uuumm, we don't really make money on YouTube, we use Patreo...

The Dead of Pearl Harbor

Morning deathlings!

I haven't done a video about the dead from a major disaster since the video about the bodies of Titanic.  That is one of my favorite videos and I'm surprised I haven't done one since then.  As I say at the end, let me know if you'd like us to explore more about the de...

7 Habits of Highly Effective Death Positive People

Alright, so I have never read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  Though I own a copy now, so I might!  I could stand to be more effective in general.  

But what I DO know are ways we can all (including me) be more death positive. We're still defining what death positive is as...

What Happens to a Body During Embalming?

People are surprised I've never done a video on this topic before.  I know!  I am too!  That's why we're doing these "back to basics" videos. Remember "What Happens to a Body During Cremation?" Just simple basics for people trying to decide on their corpse's destiny. 

You know ...

It's Finally Time to Talk Demon Babies.

Before death, I had one great academic passion- demonic babies.  I make passing references to them...my evil little friends... but now they finally get their own video, their moment in the sun.  Rise demon babies, rise!

I haven't done a Middle Ages Were Magic video in awhile, and this is...

Darling it's better, down where you're deader. PLUS LIVESTREAM.

After we decided to research burial at sea for a video, we started getting a flurry of questions about it.  Which means we're in a rhythm, riding the zeitgeist, giving the people WHAT THEY WANT.  WE WANT TO BRING YOU DEATH NEWS YOU CAN USE.

I'm glad there were so many people here yesterd...

LIVE Conversation with Author Colin Dickey about GHOSTS, ELISA LAM, HAYDN'S HEAD. Starts now!

Hello deathlings! 

Welcome to our conversation with Colin Dickey, author of Ghostland. Colin and I are old friends, and I'm excited to publicly harass him... I mean ask him questions.

It's 10:00 PST now, I'm going to be talking to Colin in the thread below for about 15 minutes, ...

Breaking: Don't Unwrap Ancient Mummies

It's not a good idea for many reasons. One, there is that whole "mummy curse of the ancients"... thing. But more importantly, it's just bad for archeology and good taste.  And yet, surprise surprise, the Victorians, debauched little suckers they were, were all about the Mummy Unwrapping parties...

A new (modern) morbid mystery!

There have been countless videos made on the death of Elisa Lam. You probably know her as "the young woman in the water tank." Most videos and blogs about her focus on the mysterious, the supernatural, the..... murder-y aspects of the case.  

If I didn't think I had something to add, I wouldn...

HAYDN'S HEEAAADDD

Iconic Corpse is back, baby!

This week made me SO grateful to Patreon. As you know, after talking to all you folks, we decided to monetize the channel on YouTube and donate the money to a different death related charity each month. It seems like YouTube, post Logan Paul, has a no corpses NEVER NO ...

Queer Eye for the Dead Guy

(Title of this post suggested by a viewer!)

I know I said I would never vlog again, but this was such an exciting day. I LOVE design and creating cozy environments for our families and the viewing room at our crematory was just NOT cutting it. Families should feel comfortable and held in their gri...

It's Mule Time! (And Death Time, and Tragic History Time)

For the first time I was able to visit (by mule!) the remote and tragic leprosy colony of Kaluapapa. It's a story that more people should know. A story I didn't know until I was an adult, even though I grew up nearby. 

This is the kind of video that is absolutely made possible by your support...

What goes on behind the cremation machine door?

We've been experimenting so much with video styles recently, it's time to go back to basics.  Like nitty gritty minute by minute descriptions of human flesh cremating! Fun, right?  Wait, where's everyone going?

We've talked about the steps of cremation, but after digging up some good aca...

Who even WANTS the Manson corpsicle?

Turns out A LOT of people want Charles Manson's dead body. I know what you're thinking. Why? Just toss that dude out to sea somewhere!  I hear you. But it's rare that there is good money to be made off of a corpse, and this is one of those times. 

It was fun to get in there and untangle ...

The Video No One Wanted!

We're ending the month on a video that no one "asked for" or "wanted" but here it is- a vlog of a week in my life!

Watch me take on the world, one corpse at a time! (Note: no corpses are shown in this video)

Vlogging is hard, folks. I have a new respect for it. It's hard to make your life se...

Funeral Strippers! (No, really)

This is one of those "Yahoo weird news too wild to be true" funeral traditions, but when you break it down, the funeral strippers of Taiwan and rural China actually sound pretty entertaining. There are giant puppets too, which frankly I'd like at my own funeral. Perhaps a giant grim reaper puppet? &...

BADASS DEATH WOMEN WEEK Comes to a Close

In our final video on history's badass death women we have arrived at my FAVORITE– the most iconic of iconic corpses, the goddess of rot, pioneer of exposure burial– Tachibana no Kachiko. 

I hope you liked this lil' experiment with shorter videos.  Obviously it won't be the new norma...

New Video Every Day this Week!

Surprise deathlings!

Every day this week we're releasing a short video about a BADASS WOMAN in death history. Today: Henrietta Duterte, the first female funeral home owner in America. 

Patron note: If you're someone who doesn't have a cap on pledges, worry not, all five videos will just...

A new. MORBID. MYYYYYYSSTTERRRYY. (+ Livestream Update)

One of our most requested videos!  Are you liking the Morbid Mystery series?  Blink twice if you're enjoying it. 

Patreon keeps emailing me about their new in-house platform for users to interact. Is anyone using this with other creators?  My instinct is that they don't want pe...

Let's get vertical, vertical! I want to die verrttiiccaalll!

Let's talk vertical cemeteries (...also cruise ships.  Let's not forget cruise ships.)

With burial space at a premium, where are we going to put all our dead?!  A question I just got was "if we don't have anywhere to bury urns, why don't families just take them home?"

Interestingly...

I visit the "Apache Death Cave"

At the Order of the Good Death we're doing #CemeteryWeek (get your favorite graves ready). We're launching it with this video where I visit the "Apache Death Cave" in Arizona and talk about some of the harmful myths that are created when we build up the trope of Native American burial ground curses....

Helping a Friend Through Grief

In this time of "thoughts & prayers" and "everything  happens for a reason" we need to develop our language around grief! I admit that I don't focus on grief as much as other death topics.  It feels obvious to me that what I advocate for: time with the dead body, open conversations, gr...

A fun Valentine's Day video (kidding NO NOOOOOOO!)

This is not a Valentine's Day video.  Far from it, in fact.  It's an Iconic Corpse video on one of the more disturbing stories we've done, on the exploited body of Elena de Hoyos at the hands of lonely radiologist Carl Tanzler.

People really wanted to hear this story. Interestingly enoug...