Usually we talk about death as a tragedy, a mystery, a hard-to-comprehend fact of life. But in addition to all that, for all sorts of people it's also ... a job. Stories of undertakers, homicide detectives, slaughterhouse workers, enunculators, autopsy pathologists, exterminators and others. Does their contact with death teach them something we should learn?
Prologue. Kaddish.An Alan Ginsberg poem and Ira Glass.
Act One. The Undertaking.
Thomas Lynch reads from his book The Undertaking: Life Stories from the Dismal Trade.
Act Two. The Forbidden Zone.
Michael Lesy reads.
Act Three. Fireman.
Actor Michael Stumm reads from fireman and fiction writer Larry Brown's book On Fire.
Act Four. Smuggler.
Writer David Sedaris on an unwelcome surprise in a toilet — a turd.
Act Five. The Happiest Death Worker.
Meema Spadola with Lou Zeidberg.