Interview: Sanity and Soul – A Conversation with Stephen Jenkinson Facilitated by Vera de Chalambert
Dying well is not a matter of enlightened self-interest or personal preference. Dying well must become an obligation that living people and dying people owe to each other and to those to come. Dying could be and must be the fullest expression and incarnation of what you’ve learned by living. If you love somebody, if you care about the world that’s to come after you, if you want somebody to be spared the lunacy of what you’ve seen, you’ve got to die wise. From his two decades of working with dying people and their families, Stephen Jenkinson places death...
On Grief and Climate Change
An audio excerpt from a longer talk recorded at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. The topic of the evening was “Wisdom Working for Climate Change.” People of the world are unconsciously mourning the devastating impact we are having on our planet. Stephen Jenkinson explores the question “Is it too late to avoid catastrophe?”
Interview: Transforming the Language of Death
Stephen Jenkinson has been at the deathbed of more than a thousand people. He says death can be a wondrous and empowering mystery but we need to start talking about it differently.
“I don’t think the problem was that we weren’t talking about dying…the dilemma was, and has always been, and remains, what are we saying when we talk about dying?
The principle habits of the mind and the psyche are always manifest in the language…In a culture that’s allegedly speaking more and more about death all the time…The word ‘die’ doesn’t appear very often, the word ‘death’ even less, and...
Stephen Jenkinson Interviewed by Jed Ward and Damian Able at Vajra Body Vajra Mind
Vajra Body Vajra Mind, is a provocative podcast that explores the outer limits of spiritual practice and human development. On their show, they talk with leaders in the Buddhist, entheogenic and somatic fields and through these conversations they attempt to glean the most pragmatic and succinct bits of wisdom to connect us deeper into our heart and mind. Their show is dedicated to the evolution of the human species and the benefit of all beings. Here is their recent interview with Stephen Jenkinson. Listen to all our published interviews with Stephen Jenkinson.
Call and Response
The Interview: It is a strange conceit. Someone is drawn to you because of something you said in another interview, and they want you to say it again, but this time more achievedly, or more clearly. The unenviable occupation of the interviewer is to work you around to a handful of moments wherein you outdo yourself, and in so doing eclipse what drew that person to you in the first place. And you, the interviewee, must allow yourself to be drawn into imagining several thousand chairs gathered semi-circularly and devotedly, occupied by several thousand willing conscripts who have been...
Interview: Stephen Jenkinson Speaks with Hollyhock Talks Radio
You die in the matter of your living. In poetic and soulful language, Stephen Jenkinson speaks of the moral imperative to contemplate and reconcile death as a way to inform how we live, reclaim our ancestral roots, redeem our past, and leave a legacy for those we love. Join Stephen at his upcoming Hollyhock retreat on July 31 - Aug 5, 2016.
Interview: Stephen Jenkinson Speaks with New Dimensions Radio
What constitutes dying well in a death-phobic culture? Stephen Jenkinson looks squarely in the eye of death. It is his experience from working with hundreds and hundreds of people who are actively dying, that, for the most part, we are encouraged by those around us not to let our dying be a big part of our life. He points out that this death-phobic culture “…prescribes our understanding of the best dying is the one that messes with you the least, and the only way you can achieve that is to establish some kind of firewall of awareness whereby...
Interview: Stephen Jenkinson Speaks with Bodhi Be
Stephen Jenkinson interview with Bodhi Be’s Doorway into Light radio show about life and death as it explores the wonder in the fields of aging and dying and death and what brings meaning and purpose to life. Doorway into Light Founded by Reverend Bodhi Be, Leilah Be and Ram Dass (Dr. Richard Alpert), Doorway Into Light is engaged in advocacy and educational programs on Death and Dying on Maui, with families and professionals in the field, as well as actively engaged in helping dying people, their families and care-givers.
Stephen Jenkinson Interview with Dr. Rachael Kohn on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Looking like Willie Nelson on a good day, Stephen Jenkinson is 'on the road again' telling our death-phobic culture that all the solutions for death that we come up with reinforce our fear of it.
After 20 years working alongside the dying, his manifesto, Die Wise (2015), tells us to stop making death 'acceptable' and learn to openly grieve it.
Grief Walker is the title of the Canadian National Film Board documentary about him, but Stephen answers to 'Grief Monger.'
Originally posted on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation show The Spirit of Things
A Good Goodbye
What does it take to “Die Wise”? How can we start the conversation in our death-avoidant culture? Stephen Jenkinson, the author of Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, has a lot to say on the topic.
Stephen Jenkinson joins Gail Rubin for a special extended conversation on A Good Goodbye Radio in advance of his appearances in Albuquerque and Santa Fe coming up March 17, 18 and 19.
In this 33-minute interview, they discuss the death avoidance prevalent in the dominant North American culture, the drawbacks of having More Time as a hospice or palliative care patient, the consequences...
You Die in the Manner of Your Living
Paul Dolman interviews Stephen Jenkinson about death and dying and the manner of how one dies.
Stephen Jenkinson teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, founded in 2010. With Master’s degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work), he is revolutionizing grief and dying in North America.
Stephen is redefining what it means to live, and die, well. Apprenticed to a master storyteller, he has worked extensively with dying people and their families, is former program director in a major Canadian hospital, former assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical...
Am I Ready to Teach?
Tad Hargrave shares this interview with Stephen Jenkinson in a discussion about teaching and the readiness for being a teacher.
In February of 2015, I sat down to write a blog post that it felt ridiculous for me to be writing. It was entitled, 36 Reflections on “Who am I to teach and charge for it?”.
Being 39 years young at the time, and an elder in training at the very best, it felt like a strange thing to even presume to have an opinion on and yet, it was a question that rankled in the hearts of so many of my friends...
Sun Magazine Interview ~ As We Lay Dying
As We Lay Dying ~ Stephen Jenkinson On How We Deny Our Mortality by Erik Hoffner for Sun Magazine
Stephen Jenkinson wants to teach us how to die well. It’s a skill he believes we have forgotten in our culture. Though not a physician — he has master’s degrees in theological studies and social work — he served for years as program director of a palliative-care center at a major Toronto teaching hospital, where he provided counseling at hundreds of deathbeds. In his job he heard over and over from colleagues that “everyone has their own way of dying,” but...
Money Talk
Tim Wilson, the Director of Griefwalker interviewed Stephen Jenkinson about money at the time “Money and the Soul’s Desires” was first published, in a piece filmed for Vision TV.
(Tim) I want to talk about some of the deep difficulties that many people have with money. I recall a story you told me about the person you were training with as a therapist. You had a financial arrangement with him, and one week you decided on your own to put off payment for a short while. And he turned on you with quite a strong response...
(Steve) Yeah, he did. I...
Ken Rose Interview ~ Proceed As If You Are Needed
Ken Rose interviews Stephen Jenkinson about his work with Orphan Wisdom in a talk about Eldership and proceeding as if you are needed, not as being needy. Listen below by clicking on the orange play button to stream the podcast.
Photo: Ian Mackenzie
Stephen Jenkinson Ken Rose Interview Series
Ken Rose sat down with Stephen Jenkinson over a series of interviews to discuss death and dying and Stephen's work at his Orphan Wisdom school. We have now put all of those interviews together in one place for you to listen, share and and enjoy.
Listen to Part 1
Listen to Part 2
Listen to Part 3
Interview: Stephen Jenkinson ~ Culture of Dying
Extraenvironmentalist speaks with Stephen Jenkinson about our cultural difficulty with death. Stephen draws on lessons learned from decades of working with death to describe how we can frame our civilization’s trajectory. We ask how to find sanity in a time of alienation and if we can be a human in difficult circumstances. Stephen describes the distinct jobs given to us as our family members die.
Audio and podcast interviews with Stephen Jenkinson.
https://youtu.be/8zBgBJdEdCk