Where to Begin: A Listener’s Guide
Finding a starting point that fits where you are
When We Die Talks is a podcast built around a single question: What do you think happens when we die?
Beginning with Episode #21, the podcast shifted into an all-anonymous format. Every conversation since then is with an anonymous caller. This allows people to speak openly about death, belief, fear, grief, and meaning without performing or protecting an identity. (Episodes #15, #17, and #19 also feature anonymous callers, recorded before the format fully shifted.)
Not every episode will be right for every person or every moment. This guide exists to help you choose where to begin.
There’s no correct order. No expectation to work your way through anything. These are simply different entry points, depending on what you’re drawn to or what you have space for right now.
Facing the Question - “I’m afraid to start.”
If you feel drawn to this project but hesitant to press play, this is a good place to begin.
These episodes stay mostly in the realm of ideas rather than lived loss. They explore death through curiosity, humor, and big-picture thinking. Fear may be present, but it isn’t the focus. Nothing graphic. Nothing overwhelming.
This is a place to look at the question of death gently. A place to acknowledge fear without being consumed by it.
Try starting here:
Episode #28 – Infinity Will Break Your Brain
A thoughtful, wide-ranging conversation about time, eternity, and the terror (and wonder) of infinity. Curious, honest, and surprisingly grounding.Episode #21 – Raised Mormon, Tripping at Burning Man, and Everything Will Be OK
A calm, generous conversation about living without answers and still finding peace. Ideal if uncertainty itself is what makes this topic hard.Episode #26 – You Never See An OK Vampire—They’re All Sexy
Offbeat, funny, and unexpectedly wise. A reminder that conversations about death don’t have to be solemn to be meaningful.
You don’t need to finish these. You don’t need to agree with them. Just notice what comes up.
Living With Mortality - “I’ve started… now what does this change about how I live?”
These episodes explore how awareness of death reshapes daily life.
They focus less on fear and more on integration. Values, presence, gratitude, and the subtle recalibration that happens once mortality stops being abstract. There may be emotion here, but it’s reflective rather than overwhelming.
This is a good place to listen if you’re less interested in answers and more interested in how death sharpens what matters.
Try starting here:
Episode #33 – God Exists in the Space Between Us
A deeply human conversation about illness, gratitude, imagination, and the way awareness of death can make life feel more vivid.Episode #36 – Is This a Free Therapy Session?!
A grounded exploration of grief in the body, spiritual practice, and how facing death can loosen perfectionism and reshape purpose.Episode #30 – I Am a Universe in and of Myself
A wide-lens conversation about culture, science, consciousness, and what it means to belong to something larger without losing yourself.
These episodes aren’t trying to resolve anything. They’re simply sitting with the question longer.
Belief & Mystery - “I’m open to the unknown.”
These episodes center on moments when something happened. Experiences that disrupted certainty and reshaped how the question of death is held.
They may touch on religion, spirituality, intuition, near-death experiences, or moments that resist explanation. Some callers speak with certainty. Others with doubt. None are trying to convince.
This is a good place to listen if you’re open to perspectives different from your own, or comfortable sitting with uncertainty.
Try starting here:
Episode #32 – Cool, I’m Dead—and Other Things You Don’t Expect to Hear
A near-death experience told with warmth, humor, and clarity. Less doctrine, more humanity.Episode #40 – Four Deaths and a God Named George
A remarkable account of multiple brushes with death, shaped by Buddhism, Taoism, and lived experience. Heavy on insight, light on dogma.Episode #23 – We’re All Just Microbiome in the Gut of God
A nurse and Reiki practitioner shares mystical experiences around dying, presence, and the sense that consciousness continues.
You’re not expected to adopt any of these beliefs. Listening is enough.
Living With Loss - “I want to hear from someone who understands.”
These episodes carry more weight.
They involve lived loss, the death of someone close, and the way grief alters time, identity, and meaning. They are more intense and ask more of the listener.
This section is here for when you feel steady enough to sit with grief, or when grief already lives close by. They are incredibly powerful and moving when you are in a place to sit with them.
Try starting here:
Episode #24 – I’m the Ghost That Haunts My Own House
A raw, darkly funny conversation about sudden loss, optimistic nihilism, and the danger of saving life for “someday.”Episode #35 – So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
A father reflects on losing his son to suicide, and what it’s meant to keep living without easy answers.
Only listen when you have the space. It’s okay to save these for later. Only listen when you have the space. It’s okay to save these for later.
A Final Note
These categories aren’t definitions. Episodes overlap. People do too.
You don’t have to listen in order. You don’t have to finish anything. You can stop partway through an episode and come back weeks later… or not at all.
This project isn’t here to provide answers. It’s here to make space for reflection, curiosity, and honest conversation around something we all share.
Start wherever feels right.