Justin Nobel

Will Osama bin Laden get 72 Virgins? A talk with an Islam death expert

Osama bin Laden’s body was placed on a flat board and slid into the sea, was that the proper thing…

13 years ago

Interview with playwright Eric Coble, whose boobytrapped Brooklyn mother teaches a lesson on dying with grace

Eric Coble has written and produced plays on Edgar Allen Poe, Pinocchio and Pecos Bill; his latest, Velocity of Autumn,…

13 years ago

Talking death with pharmacopeian Hamilton Morris, who traveled to Haiti in search of zombie powder

Hamilton Morris, a pioneering young pharmacologist, has hacked through the Amazon looking for ayahuasca and hunkered down in a missile…

13 years ago

Are New York tourists sipping coffee beside tortured corpses of Chinese prisoners?

In the middle of downtown New York City, just blocks from Wall Street and right beside a row of sunny…

13 years ago

China vs Egypt for “World’s Most Beautiful Mummy” distinction

Xiaohe is a beauty; she has long eyelashes, a button nose, auburn hair that falls across her shoulders, and has…

13 years ago

Remembering a mysterious Japanese death ritual: “marriage of the dead”

A year ago I took a train from Tokyo to Sendai, a city in the center of the region ravaged…

13 years ago

A flash flood reveals the secret world of Amish funerals

The Amish keep their death rituals private, but last month reporters were able to peek into this world after a…

13 years ago

New green burial method mimics recipe of infamous British “Acid Bath Murderer”

Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak has developed a new way to bury human bodies. First, freeze them with liquid nitrogen, then, use mechanical…

13 years ago

Burning bodies outside becomes popular in Colorado, has roots in Bali

Belinda Ellis got her wish, upon death her body was covered in red cloth and laid atop a rectangular steel…

13 years ago

Traveling to Switzerland to die, the death tourism boom

In July of 2009, Lady Joan Downes, the wife of famous English opera conductor Sir Edward Downes, sent a letter…

13 years ago

Mexican death art, both joyous and horrific, comes to New York City

There is a large face without skin, just bare muscles and eyes wide open and staring. In a cavern-like lair…

13 years ago

If you control the funeral you control the revolution

As the Middle East erupts in protest, funerals have served as the flashpoint. On Tuesday in Bahrain 10,000 mourners gathered…

13 years ago

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with the Blood Countess

Vampires are in, and Valentine’s Day has become yet another excuse to celebrate them. (more…)

13 years ago

Among Hmong, death is a long journey back to the womb

Vang Pao’s funeral will continue for six days straight and feature animal sacrifices, the burning of paper offerings and a…

13 years ago

Dead Apple Tours: Where Death is the Beginning of the Adventure

http://funeralwise.wistia.com/medias/ppkkibwhj2?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=780 Step inside New York’s most unique tour vehicle and take an intimate journey to the sites where famous New…

13 years ago