Michael Hebb.  2018.  Da Capo Lifelong Books. 256p.

Hebb shares insights and stories from “more than one hundred thousand … dinners in the past five years, where strangers, friends and coworkers gather around this seemingly awkward topic”.

“It is as if a conspiracy of silence has settled upon us, like a curse on a village, and we have forgotten that we know how to have this dialogue about death.”

Advocating for more open and broader discussions around death in the community and beyond, the evidence shows that “open conversation with your family, doctors, and caregivers about your end-of-life wishes results in better care, less suffering, and a longer life. Conversations about death have even proved to make us funnier and more willing to laugh.”

The book presents a series of prompts used in death dinners and provides examples of responses.  Quoting Kyoto Mori, “Everything we say about death is actually about life.”