Kerrith McDowell and Sarah Lipscomb are friends and colleagues who met while working as nurse practitioners in hospice and palliative care. They were fast friends and bonded over their remarkably parallel pasts: they had both been disenchanted teens who came of age in the indie/punk scene, dropped out of art school and zig-zagged all over the country before becoming moms and finding stability and meaning through a career in nursing.

They found comfort and camaraderie in a made-at-work friendship that would just as easily exist outside of it. As their children grew towards the sun and fraught relationships started to boil over, their friendship persisted and life churned on…until catastrophic loss struck them both.

While having to navigate life in the wake of death, they saw first-hand how the devastating truths and moments of levity that accompany grief are often suffocated by polite platitudes that repel connection. Dead on Earth is a candid and unflinching interview podcast that explores grief, loss and hope through the lived experiences of everyday people. No celebrities or experts, just vulnerable humans sharing their stories, scuffing up the veneer of “normal grief” and exposing the real mess and magic of loss.

Photo credit:
Penelope Walls

Artwork (home page):
Steven Walls (1971- 2017)
Unfinished, 2017
Acrylic and pencil on canvas

Dead on Earth theme music written and performed by August Walls