What Modern Death Preparation Really Looks Like | Melissa Meadow

About This Video

What if the way we’ve been taught to “handle” death is actually keeping us disconnected from the very thing we need most: closure, participation, and meaning?

In this episode of The Digital Legacy Podcast, host Niki Weiss, Digital Thanatologist and Final Playbook coach, sits down with Melissa, “The Modern Mortician”, a death-care educator about what modern end-of-life care can look like when families are empowered with real options.

You’ll learn:

• Why embalming became standard in the U.S. and how capitalism shaped modern funeral practices

• What a green burial really is (and what participation can look like at the graveside)

• How death doulas can support families from hospice planning to bedside vigil and decision-making

• Why direct cremation without a memorial can complicate grief—and what families can do instead

• How to protect your wishes legally (including pre-planning, pre-funding, and using an appointed agent when needed)

• The real cost ranges of traditional burial, green burial, and cremation—and what drives price differences
  
  

If you’ve ever felt unsure, overwhelmed, or pressured by the funeral industry, this conversation will remind you: you have choices and talking about death won’t kill you.