When We Die Talks
When We Die Talks is a collection of real conversations with real people about death, meaning, and what it’s like to be human.
Each week, host Zach Ancell speaks with an anonymous caller. It begins with one question: What do you think happens when we die? From there, the conversation goes wherever it goes. Belief. Doubt. Loss. Relief. Fear. Sometimes even laughter.
These aren’t experts or public figures. Just everyday people saying the quiet parts out loud. The result is raw, unpredictable, and deeply human.
New anonymous calls every Wednesday.
Want to add your voice? Apply to be a caller at whenwedietalks.com. Leave a voicemail and share a belief, a question, or a moment you can’t shake about death: 971-328-0864.
Episodes
67 episodes
#52 - Finding Peace With Death by Letting Go of Who You Think You Are
This week's caller has been sitting with death since childhood. They grew up deep inside Pentecostal religion, the shouting, the standards, the constant weight of what comes next, and instead of finding comfort there, they left with more questi...
•
Episode 52
•
44:33
#51 - The Grief That Broke My Family and the Fear of Death That's Always There
This weeks caller lost their baby brother on Thanksgiving Day when they were five, and has spent their whole life with what they call "a little bird called death" on their shoulder. They're a death doula, a trauma-informed yoga instructor, a Re...
•
Episode 51
•
42:01
#50 - What a Parkinson's Diagnosis Teaches You About Dying — and Living
This caller grew up without religion, lost their mom to suicide at 13, and spent years in a fear of death so overwhelming they couldn't be around skeletons or eat meat. Then they were diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.But somehow, this ...
•
Episode 50
•
42:40
#49 - A Death Doula on What Matters at the End
What would change if we treated death as a human event, not just a medical one?This week’s anonymous caller is a death doula. And instead of going abstract, they get surprisingly specific about what the end can look like and what ...
•
Episode 49
•
43:58
#48 - What If Death Feels Like Being Stuck Forever?
What if death isn’t peaceful, or blank, or anything you can make sense of, but something you’re trapped inside?This week’s anonymous caller doesn’t come in with a comforting belief or a story about loss. They come in with death an...
•
Episode 48
•
36:20
#47 - An EMT on Death, CPR, and End-of-Life Wishes
What does death look like when it’s part of your job?This week’s anonymous caller is an EMT who’s around emergencies and dying on a regular basis. And because of that, this conversation doesn’t stay in the abstract for long.
•
Episode 47
•
41:45
#46 - My Partner Has a Terminal Illness (Caregiving in College)
What happens when you’re 19 and you’re loving someone with a terminal illness?This week’s anonymous caller is an anthropology student who’s been studying death, grief, and ritual. But that interest isn’t abstract. Their partner ha...
•
Episode 46
•
40:50
#45 - A Psychotic Break Changed What I Think About Death
What happens when your mind stops feeling like a safe place to live?This week’s anonymous caller shares about experiencing a psychotic break in 2020, and what it changed about how they relate to death, reality, and their own sense...
•
Episode 45
•
40:31
#44 - Multiple Heart Attacks and a Surprisingly Calm Relationship With Death
What if something big happens… and your life still mostly goes back to normal?This week’s caller has had two heart attacks, starting when they were sixteen. On paper that sounds intense. But this conversation isn’t heavy. The call...
•
Episode 44
•
38:22
#43 - The Conversation No One Wants to Have With a Child
What do you say to a child who asks, “Am I going to die?”This week's caller is a physician who works with children who have cancer and has training in pediatric palliative and hospice care. In this conversation, she shares what it...
•
Episode 43
•
38:25
#42 - The Ripple Effect: How Loss Continues to Shape the People Left Behind
Suicide touches more lives than we often realize. And yet, it’s still something many of us don’t know how to talk about.In this episode, an anonymous caller reflects on losing their brother to suicide and what it’s been like to live with...
•
Episode 42
•
39:08
#41 - Talking About Death Without Falling Apart: Where Grief and Laughter Coexist
Many people are curious about conversations around death but hesitate to listen because they worry it will feel emotionally overwhelming.This episode challenges that assumption.In this anonymous call, the conversation begins with ...
•
Episode 41
•
43:50
Saturday Contemplation - A Year You’ll Never Get Back
This week’s Saturday Contemplation, A Year You’ll Never Get Back, sits with a simple truth: this year is over, regardless of how it went. Instead of turning toward regret or self-judgment, this reflection invites you to look back gentl...
•
8:34
#40 - Four Deaths and a God Named George
What if your afterlife looks exactly like what you expect to find? That question sits at the center of this conversation with our caller who has died more than once and come back with stories that challenge the script many of us inherit about d...
•
Episode 40
•
44:17
Saturday Contemplation - Claiming the Life That's Yours
This week’s Saturday Contemplation turns toward the stories we inherit (from others and ourselves). The ones we pick up early, absorb quietly, and sometimes mistake for who we actually are. It invites you to notice what in your life feels genui...
•
7:28
#39 - Death Taught Me I Wanted to Live
Death wasn’t an idea for her growing up—it was something that walked beside her. In this call, we trace a life shaped by early violence in South Africa, a strict Catholic upbringing that equated identity with sin, and a long stretch of years wh...
•
Episode 39
•
48:04
Saturday Contemplation – Letting Things Stay Unfinished
This week’s Saturday Contemplation sits with the truth that many parts of our lives don’t get the endings we hoped for. Conversations fade, relationships drift, and chapters close without warning. Instead of forcing closure, this contemplation ...
•
6:57
#38 - The Other G-Word No One Wants to Talk About
Mortality feels different when you’re sitting beside a parent and waiting for the breath that doesn’t return. In this call, we stay close to that moment—not with big theories or tidy comfort, but with the real stuff: complicated love, sudden an...
•
Episode 38
•
41:33
Saturday Contemplation - The Clock We Can’t See
This week’s Saturday Contemplation turns toward a truth most of us struggle to look at: our time is limited, whether we see it clearly or not. Some people learn this through illness or loss. For the rest of us, the illusion of “later” makes it ...
•
6:35
#37 - I Changed My Tastebuds, But I’m Still Me (ish)
This week’s caller has lived with death in the background for most of her life—first through migraines that began when she was six, and later through a brain tumor that went undiagnosed for more than twenty years. By the time doctors caught it,...
•
Episode 37
•
40:05
Saturday Contemplation - Why We Contemplate Death
This week’s Saturday Contemplation looks at the heart of this entire project. Why we even choose to think about death in the first place.It’s not about fear or morbidity. It’s about presence. When we turn toward death instead of away fro...
•
8:56
#36 - Is This a Free Therapy Session?!
This week’s caller is a psychotherapist whose first brush with mortality came early—at just six years old, when her father was struck in the head by a baseball. He survived, but not as the same man. That experience became the quiet force behind...
•
Episode 36
•
42:12
Saturday Contemplation - Finding Wonder in the Everyday
This week’s Saturday Contemplation explores the miracle of simply being here — the cosmic chain of events that led to this single moment. From the vastness of the universe to the smallest details of daily life, we reflect on how awareness trans...
•
5:25
#35 - So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish: A Father’s Search for Meaning After Loss
This week’s caller, a father who lost his son to suicide eighteen months ago, speaks with rare clarity about grief, meaning, and why skepticism doesn’t have to harden into despair. The premise is simple and brave: if consciousness is a function...
•
Episode 35
•
50:34
Saturday Contemplation - The Things We Don’t Notice
This week’s Saturday Contemplation invites you to notice what often goes unseen — the quiet moments that make up a life. From the hum of a familiar room to the light shifting across a wall, we explore how impermanence turns the ordinary into so...
•
8:07
