thegooddeath

My Mother the 19 Billion Year Old God

Hello Deathlings! 

So a couple weeks ago we were all set to start editing a different video to release today. It was one that we were excited about (and one you will see) but Team Death Video was itching for some NEWSY story. We wondered if we were ignoring some big mummy jamboree somewhere. 

Well, ask and you shall receive. All three women of the Order -- Sarah, Louise, and myself went down the wild COSMIC rabbit hole which is MOTHER GOD and Love Has Won, and when we em...

But Will There Be Corgis?

Good Day Deathlings, 

Here's a little insight into how we figure out video titles. 

Yesterday Louise and I were figuring out last minute edits and details for this royal funeral video when the topic of the title came up. 

Make it wacky? Something...something...corgi procession...custom Range Rover...royal funeral. 

No, too odd. A person did die after all. 

Keep it simple? A Primer to the Royal Funeral. 

Again,...

Холод меня никогда не беспокоил or The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway (in Google Translate Russian)

Hello Deathlings!

Greetings on this fine Tuesday. Team Death Video is messing around with release dates, do not adjust your devices or clocks. 

When news hit a little while ago that Frozen, that Disney juggernaut about the sister who was never bothered by the cold and the sister that helps/saves/stops her, might have helped solve the mystery of the Dyatlov Pass deaths, well, you can imagine the messages we got. 

Basically, dozens of versions of, "CAITLIN, ...

I LOVE PUPFISH

Hello Deathlings, 

As some of you may remember, a while ago I went on a little writing retreat to the middle of the desert. While I was out there I got a chance to explore one of the most inhospitable places on earth, Death Valley. To the naked eye, life resists in Death Valley. It's ungodly hot, bone dry, and most any water you find seems unlikely to sustain life. 

Most any water. 

Hello Devils Hole! 

While wandering Ash Meadows National W...

Just a Little Gentle Roasting Among Friends

Hello Deathlings, 

Surprise Monday video for you!

Maybe it's a little meta to react to a video where someone is reacting to you, but as soon as I saw this "ASK A MORTICIAN PARODY" by Novympia I knew I wanted to respond, praise Queen Olympia, and give my humble thanks. 

Yes, yes, when I first saw that there was a PARODY VIDEO about me, I braced myself. This giant pendant we...

Shroud Me in Cheese, Toast Me with Fanta

Hello Deathlings!

For the record, lots of thought, and care went into the making of this video. It took weeks for Queen Sarah Chavez to research, design, and prepare the feast I gobbled down. Team Death Video was a well oiled machine, like the line in a kitchen. 

But I'll fully admit that in my head, I feel like my part of this video went a little something like this:

Caitlin: I'm hungry. [EMAILS LOUISE, "Dear Louise, I'm hungry."]

Louise: So you want t...

Herbs, Snow, and Human Flesh

Hello Deathlings! 

Today's video is exciting for a number of reasons:

1) It's the third video in the cannibalism trilogy we didn't set out to make but here we are!

2) This video has been a long time in the making and I can't tell you how good it feels to release a long historical video after months of ALL COVID ALL THE TIME. (OK, It's still mostly Covid, most of the time, but getting to turn my attention to a CANNIBALISM video was such a relief. File that under things I...

An Update on What's Happening in Los Angeles

Hello Deathlings, 

We're dropping a new video today because I wanted to update you on how things are going in Los Angeles since our last video. 

Spoiler: things are still bad. People are still dying at a shocking rate. Or as officials have called it, "uncomfortably high". 

What continues to be the most frustrating and infuriating part of this situation is that amidst all this death, the gover...

Things Are Bad in Los Angeles.

Hello Deathlings, 

Today's video is a video I wish I didn't have to make. As a funeral director, never in my wildest nightmares did I think I'd be making a video like this. 

But here we are. 

I'm operating a funeral home in the midst of a humanitarian disaster. COVID deaths have overwhelmed Los Angeles funeral homes and there is no government help in sight. 

To the people out there who still think COVID is a hoax, there is nothing more real than wha...

Stand By Me...While I Feed Your Remains to This Deer

Greetings Deathlings! 

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me to critique a corpse they'd seen in a movie or their favorite Netflix show, I would never have to monetize another video. So after almost a decade of growing up before your very eyes (from a 20-something to a 30-something) on YouTube, I'm finally doing the corpse reaction video you've always dreamed of. 

OK, I admit I'm leaning into my curmudgeonly nature for some effect. It was fun. I was very impr...

Wild, Wild Horses Couldn't.... Cremate Me Legally?

My darlings, my angels, my pandemic pretties, 

We're back with another ICONIC CORPSE. 

For the moment, I only feel comfortable going to places that are one-shot, several hour driving distance away.  I know some people feel differently (and I'm not judging) but you'd really have to haul me kicking and screaming onto a plane. That's why I was so grateful to drive over to Joshua Tree (which I already love, and visit at least once a year) to film this new video.

I...

NEW Article: #MMIW: The Life and Death of Stolen Sisters

Hello Deathlings, 

Today we proudly publish another article in the Death Gap series. 

Since this article falls during the same the week as the National Day Of Mourning, we wanted to devote space to covering the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women epidemic. 

Using the extensive work and research of the 2020-11-25 22:57:25 +0000 UTC View Post

It Was Rats!

Hello Deathlings!

It's a video about the plague!

IN SAN FRANCISCO!

It sounds weird (especially right now) to be like, "We had so much fun making this plague video!" but we did! Maybe Team Death Video is getting a little slap happy?

It started back in July when producer Louise was like, "You know what I can't stop reading about? All the  wacky and sometimes terrible things...

New Article: Nana's Wig

Hello Deathlings! 

This article is part of our series The Death Gap: End-Of-Life Inequality, a collaboration between The Order Of The Good Death and The Collective For Radical Death Studies . The series examines the various ways in which systemic racism impacts the way BIPOC communities experience death and access...

New Article: Whose Green Burial Is It Anyway?

Hello Deathlings! 

This week we are launching our new series, "The Death Gap: End-Of-Life Inequality". 

In collaboration with The Collective For Radical Death Studies, this four-part series will examine the various ways in which systemic racism impacts the way BIPOC communities experience death and access end-of-life care.

2020-11-11 21:23:47 +0000 UTC View Post

The Story I've Been BURNING to Tell You

Hello Deathlings! 

I'm so excited about this week's video. From the very beginning of my death nerd journey I've loved just how absolutely koo-koo bananas this story is. I mean it's HISTORY with a capital "H", but the characters are so eccentric, the events are so fantastical, the public is so BRUTAL, you'd think I'd made it up. 

Friends, if I were this creative I'd have some high-concept corpsey prestige show on HBO or Netflix by now. 

I have a YouTube channe...

Oh To Be Alive! Medical Mistakes and Meat Showers

Hello Deathlings, 

Today's video brings you two troubling tales: one you have ALL been asking about and one well, I just wanted to talk about. 

We're talking about the case of how Timesha Beauchamp was taken to the funeral home instead of the hospital (truly troubling) and my favorite weather story, the Kentucky Meat Shower (troubling like when your weird cousin asks if he can chew your gum "after you're done with it"). 

The pairing may be odd, but I hope you ...

NEW Article: Why Are Ghosts So White?

Hello Deathlings! 

Louise here. Caitlin is off in Book Writing Land, so she asked me to tend to the dark flock. 

Not that y'all are sheep. 

Y'all have your own big, opinionated brains, and we love that. 

Has this post already gone off the rails? Don't tell. 

Just in time for spooky season, we've got a brand new article about ghosts!

I'm personally really excited about this article. There's nothing I love more than gh...

Video Collab with Dr. Mike!

Hello Deathlings!

May I present to you the video collab you didn't know you wanted (OK some of you Dr. Mike crossover fans did ask for this) but we went ahead and did it, and now we're like, "Why didn't we do this sooner?"

Dr. Mike AKA Dr. Mikhail "Mike" Varshavski D.O. asked me to come on his YouTube channel to react to scenes from Six Feet Under, and since you all having been asking me t...

New Article: Guided By Death and Flowers

Hello Deathlings! 

In case you missed it over the weekend, we have a new article on the Order website. 

At The Order we're frequently asked how to get involved in more practical ways in the death positive movement by folks who know they want to help but aren't sure how. In 2018 we created a resource guide providing a bit of guidance, but tldr: the best way you can pr...

All L.A. Needs is Water, They Said...

Hello Deathlings and welcome to another video! 

When I was a younger Caitlin living in San Francisco, I told a geology student friend of mine that I was planning on moving to Los Angeles. 

"Don't do it," he said. 

Aww. He'd miss me! 

"No, it's not that. LA was never intended for humans. If an earthquake doesn't detach it from the continent in our lifetime, the water supply will get decimated (again) and you'll be in a desert that never wanted to sup...

NEW Article: The Unbreakable Spirits of Black Gospel During Funerals

Hello Deathlings! 

Today we have a new article for you on the Order website on the power of Black song. 

Writer Danielle Broadway explores the history and importance of music in Black funerals in her guest post for us, The Unbreakable Spirits of Black Gospel During Funerals. 

During slavery, Black people weren’t all...

New Article: Therapy, Mental Health, and Death Positivity

Hello Deathlings!

Louise here – your loyal video producer, Patreon manager, and Order hag. 

I'm filling in for Caitlin today because THOSE VIDEOS AREN'T GOING TO SHOOT THEMSELVES. 

But honestly this is one of those articles that really resonated with me. I suspect, especially right now, it might resonate with you too. 

Telling your friends and family about death positivity is one thing, but sharing this world with our medical providers – especially o...

How (Not) to Get A-Head

Hello Deathlings! 

I cannot tell you how many times I've been talking with someone and they get this glint in their eye, like their about to tell me some SECRET plan. Which they are. 

"When my mom dies, we've decided that I'm going to keep her skull and put it on my mantle!"

or

"When I die I'm going to leave my skull to my daughter so she knows I'll ALWAYS BE WATCHING HER."

or 

"My family's not squeamish and they are really OK with d...

Those Girls and Their Ghosts!

Greetings Deathlings! 

For the last video of the summer (yes, yes *technically* summer is over on September 22, but come on – don't we all really think of the end of summer as September? THAT'S FALL Y'ALL) we bring you a video that ushers in the SPOOKY season. 

Big shout out to Sarah Chavez who co-wrote this episode with me, and to my friend Mara AKA the "Grieving Widow" for participating in my seance. All the death women were getting things done for this video! <...

Dead Inside

Greetings Deathlings! 

Today's video is about Cotard's syndrome AKA "walking corpse syndrome".  I know some of you know what this is as over the years many of you have requested that I do a video on it. 

Well, ask and eight years later you shall receive! 

This video was tricky. How do you talk about a rare and mysterious (and seemingly unfathomable) delusion that makes a person think they are the walking dead, without sounding dismissive or mocking, while...

David Koresh & the Branch Davidians: Way More Than a "Mad Man in Waco"

Greetings Deathlings, 

And welcome to another video! 

Y'all...when my team and I started this video, I had NO IDEA how complicated the Waco siege was. (And that David Koresh had a rock 'n' roll band with a song called "Man Man in Waco" that will get stuck in your head for days and days and...) My "stuck in the 90s brain" thought Waco was just the case of a "cult" going off the rails and needing government intervention. 

WOW. I didn't realize how much of an ove...

What the Cool Corpses Are Doing...In Theory

Hello Deathlings! 

May I present to you our video on freeze-drying a corpse AKA promession. 

After being asked about this process approximately 937 times, we thought it was time for us to devote a video to the concept of promession. 

Concept of promession. 

I really don't want to be a buzzkill and as I say in the video I'm all for ALL the green burial advances, but let's be clear: promession AKA freeze-drying your corpse so you can shake it...

Mini Vids For That Morbid Fix

Hello Deathlings! 

Have you seen our latest little video offerings?

This week we debuted Trivia Mortis: bite-sized videos delivering deathy fun facts certain to wow and delight:

• Your dinner party guests
• Your family
• Your Uncle Twill 
• Your Cousin Vill 
• Your dentist
• A friendly car mechanic
• Your dog who REALLY gets you
• Your friend from middle school
• Your teacher
• An acquaintance&...
  2020-07-11 19:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post

Is That a Mustache on Your Face? Or Are You Just Jesse James?

Hello Deathlings!

Today we bring you a video that would never have existed had I not been stuck in Texas for months. So...shout out to quarantine?

While passing through Granbury, Texas I learned that not only was Jesse James...uh, "Jesse James"...buried in the local cemetery, but that there was a whole THING about "Jesse James" being buried in the local cemetery.

I smelled an Iconic Corpse. 

Plus I got a pretty bonkers arm story from my visit to "Jesse James'" gra...