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Ask a Death Doula Podcast is a weekly show hosted by Hospice and Oncology nurse Suzanne B. O’Brien. Suzanne is the CEO and founder of International Doulagivers Institute. This is a vital platform for discussions and interviews that will bring back death into the natural fold of life. Ask a Death Doula will share vital education on how to care for those who are dying as well as sharing inspiring stories from working at the bedside with over 1000 dying people from all around the world. Please visit www.doulagivers.com to access our free education and resource center. About International Doulagivers Institute: The goal of Doulagivers Institute is simple and powerful - to provide affordable and accessible education and support to everyone in the world so that every person has the opportunity to die with comfort and dignity in their own home. Death is something that we all have in common no matter our race, religion, or socioeconomic status. We believe that this education to support people to have the most positive end of life experience is a human right, not a privilege.
Episodes
5 days ago
5 days ago
JOIN DEATH DOULA WORLD TRAINING DAY ONLINE LIVE APRIL 22nd at 7pm EST. Save your seat HERE:CLICK HERE NOW!!!
After sitting with over a thousand people at the end of life, one truth becomes clear: we suffer not because of what happens to us, but because of what we continue to carry.
In this powerful episode, Suzanne shares one of the most life-changing lessons from those nearing death: you are not here to carry everything.
You’ll learn how to release emotional burdens, stop absorbing the weight of the world, and return to a more peaceful, grounded, and empowered way of living.
✨ In this episode:
• Why holding onto pain keeps you stuck
• The difference between experiencing life vs. carrying it
• What forgiveness really means
• How to stop absorbing fear, anxiety, and overwhelm
• The power of becoming a compassionate witness
At the end of life, people don’t wish they carried more pain—they show us how to let go.
Ask yourself:
What am I carrying right now that is not mine?
This episode is a reminder that you are allowed to release what was never yours.
Join the upcoming FREE Doulagivers Level 1 End of Life Doula and Family Caregiver Training Webinar here Join us at Life Café here Register to join us for FREE: THE GOOD DEATH BOOK CLUB EXPERIENCE: 12 MONTH FREE DEATH AND DYING COURSE Or visit our website here!
Please Share! Share this episode and invite them to join this sacred and supportive experience.
Listen & Subscribe:Available on Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Google Podcasts • YouTube
JOIN MY FREE TRAINING AND MEMBERSHIP SITE Join Here: 4491664174178077
If you want to do great things you need to have a great environment. Create the life you want by surrounding yourself with positivity and watching daily. Click here to subscribe!
Tuesday Mar 24, 2026
Tuesday Mar 24, 2026
One of the most distressing moments for families at the end of life is when a loved one stops eating and drinking. It can feel like they are starving, like something is wrong, or like we should be doing more.
But what if this is actually one of the most natural and peaceful parts of the dying process?
In this episode, Suzanne B. O’Brien, RN—who has cared for over 1,000 patients at the end of life—explains the true physiology behind why eating and drinking stop, what your loved one is actually experiencing, and how to provide the right kind of comfort in those final days.
You’ll learn why the body no longer needs food or water, what happens when the swallowing reflex turns off, and why your loved one is not feeling hunger the way you might think. We also explore what the dying process typically looks like in the final days, the most common comfort issue patients experience, and what families should—and should not—do during this phase.
This episode will help you shift from fear and confusion to understanding, allowing you to show up with more presence, peace, and confidence when it matters most.
Join the upcoming FREE Doulagivers Level 1 End of Life Doula and Family Caregiver Training Webinar here Join us at Life Café here Register to join us for FREE: THE GOOD DEATH BOOK CLUB EXPERIENCE: 12 MONTH FREE DEATH AND DYING COURSE Or visit our website here! Please Share! Share this episode and invite them to join this sacred and supportive experience.
Listen & Subscribe:Available on Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Google Podcasts • YouTube
JOIN MY FREE TRAINING AND MEMBERSHIP SITE Join Here: 4491664174178077
If you want to do great things you need to have a great environment. Create the life you want by surrounding yourself with positivity and watching daily. Click here to subscribe!
Tuesday Mar 17, 2026
Tuesday Mar 17, 2026
But the reality is very different.
In this episode, Suzanne B. O’Brien RN — former hospice and oncology nurse who has cared for more than 1,000 patients at the end of life — reveals the number one problem with hospice care today and why so many families feel overwhelmed during one of the most important moments of life.
The truth may surprise you.
Hospice was designed to provide comfort, guidance, and medical oversight, but the majority of hands-on care actually falls to family members at home.
In fact, families often find themselves responsible for tasks such as:
administering medications
managing symptoms
bathing and repositioning their loved one
monitoring breathing and physical changes
All while navigating grief, exhaustion, and fear.
Many families enter hospice believing full-time care will be provided — only to discover that nurses and hospice staff may visit periodically while loved ones provide most of the daily care.
This isn’t a failure of hospice.
It’s a missing piece of education.
The Real Problem
Over the past 100 years, death has become increasingly medicalized.
Historically, families knew how to care for loved ones at the end of life. These sacred caregiving skills were passed down from generation to generation.
But as death moved into hospitals and institutions, those skills quietly disappeared.
Now hospice has brought death back into the home — but the knowledge never returned with it.
As a result, families are often asked to do one of the most profound acts of care in life without ever being taught how.
The Solution
The answer isn’t more medicalization.
The answer is education before crisis.
For the past 16 years, the Doulagivers Institute has been working to restore the lost skills of end-of-life care through education and community training.
To date:
400,000 people have been trained
Participants come from over 39 countries
The training is offered free each month
The mission is simple:
End-of-life care is a human right.
Every family deserves to know how to care for their loved one with confidence, dignity, and peace.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
The #1 misunderstanding about hospice care
Why families often feel unprepared during the dying process
The historical reason we lost end-of-life caregiving skills
Why hospice alone cannot meet the needs of families
The simple solution that can transform end-of-life care worldwide
About Suzanne B. O’Brien RN
Suzanne B. O’Brien is a former hospice and oncology nurse who has cared for over 1,000 patients at the end of life. She is the founder of the Doulagivers Institute and author of the international bestseller The Good Death: A Guide for Supporting Your Loved One Through the End of Life.
Her mission is to ensure that every family in the world has access to the knowledge and tools needed to support a peaceful and sacred end-of-life experience.
Learn the Skills Before You Need Them
Join the free Doulagivers Level 1 End-of-Life Doula Training, attended by hundreds of thousands of people around the world.
These are the sacred caregiving skills every family deserves to know.
👉 Learn more:
https://doulagivers.com
Share This Episode
If this conversation resonates with you, please share it with someone you love.
Because one day, someone you care about will need these skills — and the greatest gift we can give is knowing how to care for each other at the end of life.
Join the upcoming FREE Doulagivers Level 1 End of Life Doula and Family Caregiver Training Webinar here Join us at Life Café here Register to join us for FREE: THE GOOD DEATH BOOK CLUB EXPERIENCE: 12 MONTH FREE DEATH AND DYING COURSE Or visit our website here! Please Share! Share this episode and invite them to join this sacred and supportive experience.
Listen & Subscribe:Available on Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Google Podcasts • YouTube
JOIN MY FREE TRAINING AND MEMBERSHIP SITE Join Here: 4491664174178077
If you want to do great things you need to have a great environment. Create the life you want by surrounding yourself with positivity and watching daily. Click here to subscribe!
Leave a comment on this video and it'll get a response. Or you can connect with me on different social platforms too:
Tuesday Mar 10, 2026
Tuesday Mar 10, 2026
In this special episode, Suzanne O’Brien, RN, founder of Doulagivers Institute and former oncology and hospice nurse, celebrates the one-year anniversary of her book The Good Death: A Guide for Supporting Your Loved One Through the End of Life.
After caring for more than 1,000 people at the bedside, Suzanne witnessed how much fear and confusion families experience simply because they were never taught what to expect during the end-of-life process.
Just 100 years ago, families knew how to care for loved ones at the end of life. Today, much of that knowledge has been lost. This episode explores how education, compassion, and open conversations can help us bring this sacred knowledge back.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
• Why understanding death can help us live more meaningful lives
• What inspired Suzanne to write The Good Death
• Lessons learned from caring for over 1,000 people at the end of life
• Why end-of-life education is urgently needed today
• How individuals and communities can help shift the culture around death and dying
March Madness: End-of-Life Edition Events
Goodreads Giveaway
To celebrate the first anniversary of The Good Death, we are giving away 10 signed copies of the book.
Enter the giveaway here
https://www.goodreads.com/
Host Your Own Good Death Book Club or Death & Dying Course
We are inviting people around the world to host their own Good Death Book Clubs or community Death & Dying courses based on Suzanne’s book.
Information Zoom
March 18
7:00 PM Eastern
Save your seat here
https://doulagivers.zoom.us/meeting/register/qKEjSnH0Rres4rUyyPI27A
During this session you will learn how to host a Good Death Book Club, facilitate meaningful conversations about death and dying, and bring end-of-life education to libraries, community groups, and spiritual centers.
The Good Death Review Party
March 31
Join us for a live celebration and review party to help more people discover The Good Death.
During this event we will celebrate the book’s first anniversary, write reviews together, share stories and reflections, and give away special gifts and merchandise.
Join here
https://doulagivers.zoom.us/meeting/register/TK8u8DW2QzyYQ_LpwRxSQg
Why This Conversation Matters
Every single one of us will experience end-of-life, either personally or with someone we love. Yet most families enter this sacred time without guidance or education.
When we bring back the knowledge of how to care for someone at the end of life, fear decreases, connection deepens, and love leads the way.
Death returns to being the natural and sacred experience it was always meant to be.
Resources
Learn more about Doulagivers Institute
https://doulagivers.com
Get The Good Death
https://thegooddeathbook.com
Register for the next Free Doulagivers Family Caregiver Training
https://event.webinarjam.com/4kv5v/register/6rv9vhm?webinar_id=20
Join the upcoming FREE Doulagivers Level 1 End of Life Doula and Family Caregiver Training Webinar here Join us at Life Café here Register to join us for FREE: THE GOOD DEATH BOOK CLUB EXPERIENCE: 12 MONTH FREE DEATH AND DYING COURSE Or visit our website here! Please Share! Share this episode and invite them to join this sacred and supportive experience.
Listen & Subscribe:Available on Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Google Podcasts • YouTube
JOIN MY FREE TRAINING AND MEMBERSHIP SITE Join Here: 4491664174178077
If you want to do great things you need to have a great environment. Create the life you want by surrounding yourself with positivity and watching daily. Click here to subscribe!
Leave a comment on this video and it'll get a response. Or you can connect with me on different social platforms too:
Tuesday Mar 03, 2026
Tuesday Mar 03, 2026
What if the secret to a happier life isn’t positive thinking — but remembering that life is finite?
After caring for more than 1,000 people at the end of life, Suzanne B. O’Brien, RN discovered a profound truth: awareness of death doesn’t create fear — it creates gratitude.
Recently quoted by The New York Times on happiness, Suzanne shares how working with dying patients transformed her life. What once felt like obligation — “I have to” — became privilege — “I get to.” Even ordinary moments began to feel extraordinary.
In this episode, she explores how consciously acknowledging mortality awakens presence, clarity, gratitude, and deeper life meaning. She also reflects on research highlighted by The Washington Post showing that healthy mortality awareness can actually increase happiness and life satisfaction.
In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
• Why death awareness increases gratitude instead of anxiety
• The most common regret of the dying
• How shifting from “have to” → “get to” changes everything
• The science behind mortality awareness and meaning
• A simple daily reframing practice to start today
After sitting bedside with thousands in their final days, Suzanne noticed a powerful pattern:
No one wished they had worked more or worried more.
They wished they had lived more fully, loved more openly, and been more present.
Death is not the enemy.
It is the great teacher of how to live.
Because when we understand death,
we finally understand life.
Join the upcoming FREE Doulagivers Level 1 End of Life Doula and Family Caregiver Training Webinar here Join us at Life Café here Register to join us for FREE: THE GOOD DEATH BOOK CLUB EXPERIENCE: 12 MONTH FREE DEATH AND DYING COURSE Or visit our website here! Please Share! Share this episode and invite them to join this sacred and supportive experience.
Listen & Subscribe:Available on Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Google Podcasts • YouTube
JOIN MY FREE TRAINING AND MEMBERSHIP SITE Join Here: 4491664174178077
If you want to do great things you need to have a great environment. Create the life you want by surrounding yourself with positivity and watching daily. Click here to subscribe!
Leave a comment on this video and it'll get a response. Or you can connect with me on different social platforms too:
Tuesday Feb 24, 2026
Tuesday Feb 24, 2026
What if one question could change everything about how you die?
In this powerful episode, Suzanne shares a pivotal moment from her early days as an oncology nurse that transformed her understanding of end-of-life care. At the heart of this story is the one question that becomes the foundation for all future medical decisions:
What does quality of life mean to you — and when would you consider it no longer acceptable?
Without this conversation, the system is designed to keep treating — even when it no longer aligns with what matters most.With it, care becomes aligned, peaceful, and intentional.
You’ll learn why most end-of-life suffering comes from lack of planning, how fear drives crisis decisions, the difference between hope and false hope, and why defining your quality-of-life benchmark is one of the greatest gifts you can give your family.
A good death doesn’t begin in the final days — it begins the moment you choose how you want to live.
Join the upcoming FREE Doulagivers Level 1 End of Life Doula and Family Caregiver Training Webinar here Register to join us for FREE: THE GOOD DEATH BOOK CLUB EXPERIENCE: 12 MONTH FREE DEATH AND DYING COURSE Or visit our website here! Please Share! Share this episode and invite them to join this sacred and supportive experience.
Listen & Subscribe:Available on Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Google Podcasts • YouTube
JOIN MY FREE TRAINING AND MEMBERSHIP SITE Join Here: 4491664174178077
If you want to do great things you need to have a great environment. Create the life you want by surrounding yourself with positivity and watching daily. Click here to subscribe!
Leave a comment on this video and it'll get a response. Or you can connect with me on different social platforms too:
Tuesday Feb 17, 2026
Tuesday Feb 17, 2026
Can learning about death actually heal grief?
In this deeply moving episode from The Good Death virtual book tour, Suzanne B. O’Brien, RN, sits down with award-winning filmmaker and death educator Johanna J. Lunn, co-founder of The When You Die Project.
After experiencing multiple profound losses early in life, Johanna was unexpectedly guided toward a life devoted to exploring death, grief, and consciousness through film and community dialogue. What she discovered is transformative:
education about death doesn’t increase fear — it dissolves it.
Together, Suzanne and Johanna explore how understanding what truly happens at the end of life can soften grief, awaken spiritual insight, and reconnect us to the essence of who we are.
In this episode, they discuss:
• Why avoiding conversations about death amplifies suffering
• How awareness brings peace instead of fear
• Lessons from those at the end of life
• The continuity of love and consciousness
• Grief as a doorway to awakening
This conversation is for anyone who is grieving, fears death, or feels there is something more to this human experience.
Because when we understand death…
we begin to truly understand life.
Johanna J. Lunn is an award-winning filmmaker and co-founder of The When You Die Project, a Canadian initiative dedicated to fostering conversations and education about death and dying through film and community engagement. Through documentary storytelling and public dialogue, her work explores mortality, grief, meaning, and the profound spiritual dimensions of the human journey. Website here: https://whenyoudie.org
Join the upcoming FREE Doulagivers Level 1 End of Life Doula and Family Caregiver Training Webinar here Register to join us for FREE: THE GOOD DEATH BOOK CLUB EXPERIENCE: 12 MONTH FREE DEATH AND DYING COURSE Or visit our website here! Please Share! Share this episode and invite them to join this sacred and supportive experience.
Listen & Subscribe:Available on Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Google Podcasts • YouTube
JOIN MY FREE TRAINING AND MEMBERSHIP SITE Join Here: 4491664174178077
If you want to do great things you need to have a great environment. Create the life you want by surrounding yourself with positivity and watching daily. Click here to subscribe!
Leave a comment on this video and it'll get a response. Or you can connect with me on different social platforms too:
Tuesday Feb 10, 2026
Tuesday Feb 10, 2026
Closing Thought: Join the upcoming FREE Doulagivers Level 1 End of Life Doula and Family Caregiver Training Webinar here Register to join us for FREE: THE GOOD DEATH BOOK CLUB EXPERIENCE: 12 MONTH FREE DEATH AND DYING COURSE Or visit our website here! Please Share! Share this episode and invite them to join this sacred and supportive experience.
Listen & Subscribe:Available on Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Google Podcasts • YouTube
JOIN MY FREE TRAINING AND MEMBERSHIP SITE Join Here: 4491664174178077
If you want to do great things you need to have a great environment. Create the life you want by surrounding yourself with positivity and watching daily. Click here to subscribe!
Leave a comment on this video and it'll get a response. Or you can connect with me on different social platforms too:
Tuesday Feb 03, 2026
Tuesday Feb 03, 2026
In this episode, Suzanne O’Brien reflects on the first anniversary of The Good Death and the simple intention behind the book: to soften fear, open conversations, and remind us that death can be sacred and peaceful when we plan ahead. After hearing from caregivers, nurses, doctors, and families whose lives were changed by the book, Suzanne invites listeners to leave a heartfelt review—because reviews are how this message reaches people before crisis, supports overwhelmed caregivers, and helps families discover another way to walk the end-of-life journey.
Join the upcoming FREE Doulagivers Level 1 End of Life Doula and Family Caregiver Training Webinar here
Register to join us for FREE: THE GOOD DEATH BOOK CLUB EXPERIENCE: 12 MONTH FREE DEATH AND DYING COURSE
Or visit our website here! Please Share! Share this episode and invite them to join this sacred and supportive experience.
Listen & Subscribe:Available on Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Google Podcasts • YouTube
JOIN MY FREE TRAINING AND MEMBERSHIP SITE Join Here: 4491664174178077
If you want to do great things you need to have a great environment. Create the life you want by surrounding yourself with positivity and watching daily. Click here to subscribe!
Leave a comment on this video and it'll get a response. Or you can connect with me on different social platforms too:
Tuesday Jan 27, 2026
Tuesday Jan 27, 2026
In this episode, Suzanne shares her guiding model, Serve & Assist, and why it’s essential for heart-centered death doulas and caregivers today. Learn how serving your community first—through education and presence—creates trust, impact, and a sustainable practice without pressure or hustle.
Suzanne explains why 80–90% of a positive end-of-life experience comes from planning ahead and how this work can bring both purpose and fulfillment.
If you want to make a real difference while staying in integrity with your heart, this episode is for you.
Join the upcoming FREE Doulagivers Level 1 End of Life Doula and Family Caregiver Training Webinar here
Register to join us for FREE: THE GOOD DEATH BOOK CLUB EXPERIENCE: 12 MONTH FREE DEATH AND DYING COURSE
Or visit our website here! Please Share! Share this episode and invite them to join this sacred and supportive experience.
Listen & Subscribe:Available on Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Google Podcasts • YouTube
JOIN MY FREE TRAINING AND MEMBERSHIP SITE Join Here: 4491664174178077
If you want to do great things you need to have a great environment. Create the life you want by surrounding yourself with positivity and watching daily. Click here to subscribe!
Leave a comment on this video and it'll get a response. Or you can connect with me on different social platforms too: