With nearly 250 million views on YouTube and three successful books, millennial mortician Caitlin Doughty has launched what she calls a “death positive” movement through her series, “Ask a Mortician.” With videos such as “Can I Keep My Parents’ Skulls and Tattoos” and “Morbid Minute: Coffins vs. Caskets,” Doughty hopes to help people understand that death is a part of life and we should be comfortable talking about it. She tells host Giselle Fernandez that embalming or cremating a body is bad for the environment, and she encourages people to consider more environmentally friendly options. In 2011, she founded the Order of the Good Death to create a national dialogue around the funeral industry and both the financial and emotional burdens many funerals put on families.
