The Art of Dying Well
Our podcast aims to make death and dying something we can talk about openly without discomfort or fear. Presented by James Abbott, our award-winning show features James in conversation with a guest on a key topic related to the Art of Dying Well, taking in everything from being at the bedside of a dying loved one, to receiving a terminal diagnosis. Coping with grief, bereavement, death, dying, and much more are all under discussion.
The Art of Dying Well
Bringing Death Back Into Life | Episode 50
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On this episode of The Art of Dying Well podcast we're bringing you a fascinating, wide-ranging conversation with Dr Libby Sallnow about death, dying, and the growing global movement to bring communities back into the heart of end-of-life care.
Dr Sallnow is a palliative care doctor and academic who is Associate Professor and Head of Department of the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Department at University College London.
She continues to practise clinically in community settings for the NHS in London, and has spent her career asking a deceptively simple question: why do we treat death as a shocking event that couldn't be anticipated, when it is one of the few truly universal human experiences?
"Death - dying - will affect all of us in our own mortality," she says. "It will affect many of us through caring and grief and bereavement. The fact that there's not more discussion, preparation, thought, acknowledgement really has always shocked me."
Today we're talking about new public health approaches to end-of-life care, compassionate communities and social approaches to death, dying and loss.
Dr Sallnow also discusses her role as the first author of the Lancet Commission on the Value of Death: bringing death back into life. As you can tell, we've lifted the subtitle of that commission for our podcast.