What happens when a cemetery goes out of business?

A deep dive into how a body decomposes

Dead bodies are, understandably, scary and unsettling. Learn about the fascinating process of decomposition that takes place in every human, and how its teeming with life.

When is someone actually dead?

Death is a process, not a sudden flip of a switch. Technology can now interrupt this process at various stages, begging the question of when exactly death happens in the dying process. This 33-minute podcast episode explores this question and the...

When is it OK to dig up the dead?

Human bones tell stories that would otherwise be lost to history. But archaeologists are increasingly confronted with demands to let past generations rest in peace, according to this article.

Five of the strangest cemeteries in the world

Since forever ago, people have been burying the dead in odd ways that are still practiced today. Here's a roundup of some of the strangest burial spots in the world.

Listen to a podcast that answers common questions about alternative investments

This podcast episode starts with an explanation of what alternative investments are, then goes on to explain how people use them to diversify their financial portfolios and answer some common questions about alternative investments. Notably, the host interviews a certified financial planner about the topic.

Moss provided the evidence to convict Chicago cemetery grave robbers

In 2009, employees at Burr Oak Cemetery were accused of exhuming graves to resell burial plots, but they argued the events took place before their employment. An analysis of moss, whose metabolic activity deteriorates at a known rate, with the transported human remains helped establish a timeline that placed the accused at the crime scene.

Why is there a regular event to call Houdini from beyond the grave?

An annual seance on the anniversary of Harry Houdini's Halloween death seeks to communicate with the great escapologist from the great beyond. This podcast episode explores why the Hungarian illusionist wanted these magical rites held after his...

Listen to storytellers explain the legacy of memories shared between children and their mothers

In this podcast, people describe the strength of certain memories, what events stay with them, and when and why grief washes over them. One describes the challenging task of selling her mother's cemetery plots; another, keeping a promise to her son to learn to swim; and in the third, a son discusses the strength of familiar food smells.

Cremations are America's top choice for postmortem body treatment

Though this process is the most popular one, more Americans are becoming interested in "green" burials that don't involve slowly degrading coffin materials, toxic embalming fluids or emissions from crematoria.

Infertility is often not discussed, forcing women and families to grieve privately

Watch this podcast discussion from Weill Cornell Medicine about the emotional journey of infertility for couples and individuals and hear advice about how to navigate the feelings of loss of control, grief, anger, and despair, including suggested tips for supporting individuals struggling with infertility.

There’s a group of people hunting down remaining Sears and Roebuck homes

This podcast episode dives into the history of Sears and Roebuck houses, including the people searching for these real estate relics today. Many of them were destroyed or renovated beyond recognition, so they’re not easy to find or identify.

How did people survive the eruption in Pompeii?

In 79 CE, Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried Pompeii under roughly 20 feet of volcanic ash. This deadly eruption killed much of the city’s population, but archaeologists recently discovered evidence of survivors. In this podcast episode, classicist Steven Tuck challenges the popular belief of total annihilation and explains how people may have survived, and how they continued to live after the disaster.

The funeral home industry is increasingly consolidating via private equity firms

A growing share of the funeral home industry is being acquired by private equity-backed firms. A 2022 article states that about 20% of this $23B business is owned by funeral home chains, and private equity-backed firms own about a quarter of those.

BBC Radio 4 tackles the history of Stonehenge

On this podcast, host Greg Jenner humorously unpacks Stonehenge’s biggest myths and mysteries—from what a “henge” actually is, to how alien theories emerged, and why the monument was once sold for just £6,000.

Listen to an interview with a gig economy expert

In this podcast episode, the hosts sit down with NerdWallet Senior News Editor Rick VanderKnyff, a gig economy expert who explains why the sector grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, what defines a gig worker, how gig workers handle their finances, and more.

Park rangers discuss what it's like where two deserts meet

In this 29-minute podcast, two park rangers at Joshua Tree National Park sit down with Dr. Cameron Barrows from the University of California-Riverside to understand what exactly it means for two deserts to meet. Slightly bigger than the state of...

'Statelessness: Citizens of Nowhere' podcast examines how statelessness erodes identity

This podcast series explores how millions live without citizenship or legal status. Through expert interviews and personal stories, it examines how history, borders, and policy can leave entire populations without citizenship and rights.

Some people don't like talking about life insurance—perhaps because they fear death

But CBS News business analyst Jill Schlesinger makes a case for why life insurance is worth discussing anyway on this "CBS Mornings" segment. She also reviews the different types of life insurance, who can be a beneficiary, and other basics.

The Keep America Beautiful campaign shifted the blame for litter from manufacturers to individuals

This podcast examines how one organization reshaped the American public's relationship with recycling, asking why responsibility for a cleaner environment falls to individuals rather than to the companies that produce waste.

Bubbles can exist in markets for collectibles, not just industries and technology

This podcast tells how "Magic: The Gathering" faced its own speculative bubble as rare cards surged in resale value—risking a Beanie Baby-style crash. It follows how the game’s creators tried to engineer a system to keep a collectibles market from collapsing.

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

Hear how gladiator fights were funded, judged, and sometimes fixed

In a wide-ranging interview, Professor Michael Carter unpacks the business of gladiatorial games—from advertising and fighter merch to referees, match rules, and a code of conduct that often pushed gladiators to spare defeated opponents.

Nearly a quarter of the US's 451 top-ranked podcasts belong to the true crime genre

Perhaps, Pew Research Center proposes, this popularity stems from the fame of "Serial," the 2014 hit series about a 1999 murder in Baltimore. Politics and government is the second top genre. Outside typical genre divides lie series such as fictional radio stories and Dungeons & Dragons podcasts, which account for 12% of top-ranked podcasts.

What is Archaeology?

If you are up-to-date on your Jurassic Park lore, then you likely already know the answer to this question. But for those of us who didn't delve into the world in dinosaurs, it's easy to assume that professionals who study old stuff likely study the remains of what came before us, right? Find out in this article by the Society for American Archaeology.

Watch a pyrotechnician answer questions about fireworks

Professional pyrotechnician Patrick Cyrana answers the internet’s most curious questions about fireworks, from designing ghost effects and exploring how electronic firing systems work to explaining what it takes to create displays in the rain.

How dentistry evolved from carnival sideshow to respected medicine

The field, which has remained siloed from other medical care, also has a separate insurance system. This podcast walks through how and why dental insurance often remains capped at $1,500 primarily to cover cleanings, and it wouldn't cover catastrophes—unlike many other medical or housing insurance models.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.

Explore the archaeological treasures of Pompeii, the city buried under volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

The Ramones' 'Pet Sematary,' the theme song for the Stephen King novel of the same name, was written while the band was admiring the writer's collection of horror memorabilia.

Larger animals like giraffes, elephants, and blue whales have developed a unique defense against cancer, a phenomenon known as Peto's Paradox

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn.

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

In its famous catalog, Sears sold $600 DIY house kits from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in an estimated 100,000 'Sears and Roebuck homes.'

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'