Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark - Death Expert Reveals the Dark Truth Behind Modern Funerals | Natural Funeral CEO Mike Reagan

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

Is the way we bury the dead harming the health of the living? 🌱⚰️Mike Reagan, CEO of The Natural Funeral — and an end-of-life doula, grief facilitator, and pioneer in eco-friendly death care — reveals what really happens to your body, why embalming isn’t always necessary, and how natural burials can restore soil, strengthen communities, and reshape legacy.Thank you to our sponsors!TAYLOR DUKES WELLNESS: Use code "ALEXCLARK" for 10% off your purchasePALEOVALLEY: Use code ALEX for 15% off your first orderBRANCH BASICS: Use code "ALEX15" for 15% OFFCROWDHEALTH: Use code “CULTURE” to get your first three months for only $99/monthPRIMALLY PURE: Use code “ALEXCLARK” to get 15% OFFUTZY: Use code “ALEX” for 20% off, OR use code “FIXMYLIFE” for an extra 10% on product subscriptions (a total of 25% for your first subscription order)Our Guest:Funeral CEO Mike ReaganMike's Links:The Natural Funeral websiteInstagram: @thenaturalfuneralcoloradoThe Natural Funeral facebook👗 Get Alex’s freshest fashion picks and exclusive guest recommendations—delivered straight to your inbox!Sign up for the newsletter HERE:  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠WEEKLY NEWSLETTER SIGNUP⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FOLLOW ALEX:Instagram |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @realalexclark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @cultureapothecary⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @yoalexrapz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @RealAlexClark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcast |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to ‘Culture Apothecary’ on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. New episodes drop 6pm PST/ 9pm EST every Monday and Thursday.

How did we historically bury bodies and have we changed things to get more toxic? It all started back with Abe Lincoln. In the Civil War, the use of formaldehyde came into practice as a means of preserving the body of a soldier who has passed until it can make it back to its family. So we were always embalming body? Certainly formaldehyde is a toxic chemical, but ultimately those toxins are going to be in that, soil. If it happens to be near a water table, it might be impacted than water table as well. So when your kids are running through a sprinkler in the backyard in the middle of July, they could be running through dead bodies. I suppose that's possible. Yeah. What happens to your body after you

die? Most people don't want to think about it. But what if I told you that the way your body is handled could actually heal the soil, help the environment, and even benefit future generations? Today's guest is Mike Reagan, CEO of the natural funeral in Loveland, Colorado. He's a man who has spent over a decade walking families through life's most intimate and difficult transitions. As a trained end-of-life doula, grief group facilitator, hospice volunteer, and a true innovator in the funeral industry. He also brings 30 years of executive leadership experience to a profession most of us barely understand or know much about. I love learning about unique jobs. So today we dive into things that most people would consider a little taboo, why embalming is actually pretty unnecessary in most cases,

how natural burials can transform communities and what it really means to leave your body and your legacy in a non-toxic, life-giving way. If you're fascinated by the macabre, curious about death care, or just want to learn how our final choices can make the world a better place, this conversation will completely change how you think about life and death. Watch this episode in 4K on the real Alex Clark YouTube channel or culture apothecary on Spotify, which also offers video. This is a great time if you appreciate my effort to think out of the box with my guests

and bring a variety of conversations to this show to leave a five-star review which takes three seconds and tell us that. Find the show on Instagram at Culture Apothecary and me at Real Alex Clark. Please welcome CEO of the Natural Funeral, Mike Reagan, to Culture Apothecary. So you're like the death guy.

Like we could do Death Guy TM trademark, right? There we go. Yeah. It's been quite a journey. Yeah. Tell us about that. So how in the world did you get into this business? I always wonder that with people that, you know, work in funeral homes or our coroners or just anybody in this industry. It's kind of like this weird thing that people like don't like to ask about or talk about or they're like, is this uncomfortable? Is it weird? I think it's fascinating. And it's especially fascinating because you're doing something that's so industry disrupting. It started when I was 15, actually. My dad came home and said, hey, they're hiring kids down at the cemetery to clean it up for Memorial Day and I wanted to make money so I went down to the town hall and signed up and so I was raking leaves and cleaning up the cemetery and then on Memorial Day they kept three of us out of 15 on for the summer and then I started doing a lot more work at

the cemetery including digging graves because it was cheaper to pay a kid to dig a grave than it was to hire the backhoe from the highway department and so I was a labor at the cemetery throughout high school and college during school breaks. And not long after I was working at the cemetery, the local funeral director and funeral homeowner was also the superintendent of the cemetery. And he liked my work ethic. So he said, would you be interested in making some more money

and coming by the funeral home and washing and waxing cars before you go to the cemetery? I said, absolutely. And that graduated into me wearing a suit and working wakes and funerals. And also at one point, I became a licensed apprenticed embalmer at age, I guess, was 18. And I didn't really aspire to get into the funeral home business, but I enjoyed working with families and being there. But for many, it was the most difficult time of their lives.

What did girls think in high school and college about you working at cemeteries and all this? Was that, like, hard to deal with or no one cared? No, I mean, it was a small town. It was a town of about 10,000 people, Medfield, Massachusetts. And everyone knew everyone. And yeah, Mike's working at the cemetery. Not a big deal. You know, someone has to. Yeah, that's interesting. I guess I didn't even realize that there were so many jobs in that industry. Like, you really started at the bottom and then worked your way up. And you hear people talk about that with like the hotel business or the restaurant business. You know, I started as a buser. Now I'm the manager type of a thing. Well, this graduated to the point where this is back in the late 70s and early 80s, I was wearing a pager and I'd get pages in the middle of the night and I have to go do a transport. That kind of freak people out if I was at a party and sorry guys got to go. Yeah. Oh, wow. That is wild.

Yeah, but I found it wasn't, for me, when someone dies, I believe their soul moves on. And so for me, it was just a body. and I was just caring for the body of a, you know, a loved one to someone. But it didn't really freak me out. I can't watch a live surgery on TV. I just, it freaks me out. Yeah, but I can handle a decedent or the body of a dead person. Just fine.

I have to ask. And I mean, we have a lot of serious things to talk about, but I would be remiss if I did not ask. As a funeral director, have you had anything spooky or supernatural happen while it was just you in the body? As an end-of-life duel and hospice volunteer, I've had some really beautiful experiences at the time of someone's passing. Wait, so what's an end-of-life dula? It's similar to a birth dula, you know, where, you know, someone aids the mother in a natural birth. an end-of-life duel is someone that supports both the individual who's in their final leg of their

journey here on earth and also supporting the family. And the services can run from doing a lot of advanced planning to prepare for the end, to defining what it is that you'd like the final experience to be. If you've got an illness that you know is terminal, there's some planning that can take place that makes that final leg of your journey more peaceful, both for the patient as well as for the family. And a doula helps support that. They educate the family. They provide comforting presence for the individual.

And there's a big spectrum from advanced planning all the way to supporting family and grief after the loss of a loved one and everything in between. that really defines the scope of an end-of-life dula. Most doulas have their own sweet spot. My sweet spot is sitting vigil with a patient at the very end. And you've had supernatural things happen. Yeah, I wouldn't call them supernatural. I'd call them natural.

I'll give you two real quick. Sure. The first one was a man in probably his late 40s, and he was dying of cancer. And as a hospice volunteer, I was trained to do something called Comfort Touch, which is like gentle acupressure in the hands and feet. And I went in to serve this man as a volunteer.

He was in the care center, hospice care center, and the nurse said, yeah, the man in room four, he's been alone. He has no visitors. He might like some comfort touch, or at least a little company. So I went and I introduced myself to him and I explained that I was a volunteer

and that I was there to offer whatever service I might that might make him more comfortable or address any, you know, issues that he might be facing that he could use some help with. And I asked him if he wanted to try comfort touch. And he said, sure. So I started doing comfort touch on him. As I got to his feet, he said, you know, Mike, I just remembered something that I haven't remembered in a long time and I've never told anyone. And I said, what's that? And he said, I remember being on my tricycle in my driveway in Iowa.

And I remember seeing the sun coming up over the trees. And I remember thinking to myself, I used to be part of that light. I said, wow, that's really amazing. And I said, can I ask you question? He said, sure. And I said, do you think that you were actually separated from the light? or was it just your perception at the time? And he said, I think it was just my perception at the time.

So here, and this man died a couple days later. But to witness an individual at the end of life, their final leg of their journey, come to realize that they are connected to something greater than them. It was really beautiful. And I knew that it brought him comfort as he faced his final hours.

So that was a beautiful thing to witness that type of enlightenment and connection. Another time I was a volunteer in our hospice care center, and I was told that there was a woman who was actively dying, and her sister had left a couple hours earlier. And so I went in to sit with her. And I have this routine that I go through when I enter the doors, a hospice volunteer before I enter the patient's room. my pause and I try and leave all of my stuff at the door. And then so I can just be present with this individual. And then I say a silent prayer to be a channel of peace and whatever way that may manifest for this person. And the woman was unresponsive. She was actively dying. She had labored breathing. She was in her 50s and dying of ALS. And part of my routine is I'll typically sit bedside.

I'll introduce myself whether they're conscious or not. I still introduce myself because hearing is oftentimes the last thing to go. And so I'll introduce myself and then I'll say kind of a silent prayer to them saying, I'm just a soul just like you and I'm here to accompany you on this final leg of your journey and serve in whatever way I can. And then I normally see in my mind's eye at that point, the two of us walking with a perspective of from behind. I see us walking into the distance together. And it was different for this woman.

When I presented that silent prayer of connection with her, what I saw in my mind's eye was her raising her hands above her head. She was standing on the other side of her body. And she said, yes, yes. And I've never seen that. Normally I just see us from behind. And it shocked me so much that I opened my eyes. And the woman took her last breath and passed.

I acknowledged just how special this was what just happened. So I sat with her for about another 10 minutes. And then I went out and I told the nurse that she had passed and I marked the time that she took her last breath. And then I went and sat with another patient for about a half hour or so. And when I came out of that patient's room, the sister of the woman who had passed earlier approached me and said, I understand you were the volunteer that was with my sister when she passed.

I said, yes, I was. She passed very peacefully. And the sister raised both hands and said, yes. What? Yes. She's been struggling for so long. I'm so glad that she's free from that pain. Okay, that is so wild.

So that's like something in their family, like that they do. I guess. You know? Yeah. And so, yeah, whatever you were seeing or something, I mean, seems like it was her. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah.

So for me, it was beautiful to see this woman, transition and be free from the pain that she was experiencing and to see her ready to go home. So with all this work you do, do you believe in ghosts? Ghosts. I believe that our spirits move on back to the energy or God that we all come from. So you talk about how there's such a thing as a holistic funeral. What is that? A holistic funeral is one that sort of brings us back to nature. That's a natural caring for what we call a decedent or a loved one that's passed away. And it's void of the common methods of treating a dead body with formaldehyde and embalming, you know, a body to preserve them temporarily, to try and make.

them look like they used to look like when they were alive. Or to perform a flame cremation, which takes an awful lot of energy and also creates a lot of pollution as well. So a holistic funeral can start even before the disposition or the final treatment of the body, it can start right after death. And a holistic funeral practice might be leaving the body where it is. If someone dies at home, maybe you don't immediately swoop in and take the body back to the funeral home. You allow family to sit vigil a little with their body for a while. We've supported home vigils for up to three days before. Really?

Yeah. I didn't even know that was possible. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, there's this common perception that, you know, you never touch a dead body. A dead body's dirty. You know, steer clear of a dead body.

Yeah. The reality is that's not the case. I guess I just thought that legally or something it was against the law, like as soon as somebody dies, then you have to call the police. Because I'm thinking about with my own dad, I mean, my dad was dying of cancer and heart failure. He died in his sleep in his chair at home. And so as soon as my mom woke up in the morning, you know, she finds him and then calls the police and they get the coroner and all this, whatever happens. So like, I don't know. I guess I didn't even know it was possible to let a loved one stay home for a little bit.

Yeah. It depends on the state. No federal regulations around this. It's really defined by state regulations and laws. But there are two different scenarios. You mentioned your dad was dying of cancer. Yeah, brain tumor. Yeah.

Most people nowadays are opting to go into hospice care when they know that they've got a terminal diagnosis and curative treatment is no longer desirable. to go into hospice care. And if someone's in hospice care, you don't need to call 911. Right. You simply call your hospice organization.

They'll dispatch a nurse to do the formal pronouncement of death, and then they'll support whatever after death care you'd like to have for your loved one. And that could include a brief vigil. It could include just asking for the funeral home to come take your loved one into their care. or a family may want to have a home vigil.

And so long as the natural transition process is paused, some people might call it decomposition, to pause the decomposition of a body, you can do so by keeping the body cool. And so for many families that have used the natural funeral, we're in Boulder County, Colorado and Loveland, Colorado, they may call us because they want a home vigil. And we will come out and we'll care for their loved one.

We'll help them clean their loved one if they want our assistance with that and prepare them for a respectful vigil service in their home. So what do you have to do? Like put ice packs on them or something? Yeah. We'll use either dry ice or technize like the gel packs. And so long as we keep the core cool, it pauses the natural transformation of the body. And it's not like crazy smells and stuff?

No, no, it's not. This is so interesting to me. I love subjects like this. It's just so neat to learn about different career paths and different ways to do things. Let's talk about your life because clearly things have gotten weird. I know this because you, yes, you, recently found yourself at a motel 6 at 3 a.m. And somehow ended up in a room being stared down by a mongoose. And don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about.

That mongoose was perched on the dresser like a disgruntled IRS agent, and right beside it was a Bob Ross Chia pet, fully sprouted with a vape in the pot. And as you stood there in that fluorescent lighting and the stale, sweaty smell of the wallpaper peeling, wondering how your life turned into a Discovery Channel fever dream, maybe if you started each day with something actually nourishing, you wouldn't be living out scenes from a wildlife intervention. This leads me to remind you of Taylor Duke's Wellness, strawberries and cream, grass-fed organic bone broth protein powder. Because this, this is what people with their lives together use in the morning, a.k. It tastes like strawberry milk. It has the cleanest ingredient list known to man.

No dairy, no fillers, no junk, just real functional food. And by the way, absolutely calling out you weirdos, literally weirdos, sorry, you're not very bright, that are taking protein powder and putting it in water and being like, this is gross. No kidding. I would never drink protein powder mixed in water. Protein powder is great in your smoothie, in a milkshake, baked goods, putting it in your yogurt and mixing it up with fresh food.

I mean, come on, people. It's like you were bored yesterday. I've tried to say you all with success. Taylor Diggs Wellness, strawberry protein powder is my protein powder flavor of choice. I put it in my tropical fruit smoothie that I make every morning. It is so famous that Fox News even wrote an article about it. If you don't believe me, Google it. Alex Clark's smoothie Fox News.

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And I'll use an example of Seth Vidal, who's my business partner at the natural funeral and one of the founders of the natural funeral, he got into this because he lost three loved ones within four years. His father died first, and his father was his adoptive father. He adopted Seth that, I think he was around age nine or ten. And his dad was Mescalero, a patcher. Indian and and taught Seth all about nature and the importance of respecting Mother Earth. And he had a whole set of values that were tied to respect for the earth.

And when his dad died, everyone was in shock. They went to the local funeral home they'd go into for generations. And the local funeral director pulled out the file from Seth's grandfather and said, well, this is what we did for your grandfather. Is that what you want for your dad? and Seth being in a state of grief with his mother and other family members, he said, yeah, I guess so. So they went with the baby blue casket and the embalming and the traditional viewing after embalming was placed in that casket in a vault into the ground. And then within a year, his younger brother died.

And the same thing happened. and went back to the same funeral home, same baby blue casket, in the same vault, same cemetery. A year later, same thing for his mom. And after his mom passed and after his mom's funeral, he paused and he said, wait a minute, what did we just do? You know, we cared for my dad in a way that was completely misaligned with his values. There's got to be another way.

And fast forward about three or four years, he started the natural funeral to offer, natural death care options to families that more closely aligned with their values of eco-consciousness and doing things that were more natural. And so there's a whole suite of ways in which we can care for our loved ones after death that don't require filling the body with toxins and buying a casket that is made of steel and, you know, took a lot of energy to manufacture and to ship to the funeral homes and so on. So there are so many different ways to make our end-of-life care much more eco-friendly. What the contrarian is going to say, Mike, is

who cares if you're dead, if there's chemicals in your body? You're dead. So what's your response to that? Most people don't care. They don't think about it. They're not really aware of what options might be. And if you think about it, we thrive when we're alive, in part because of the over a trillion in microorganisms, you know, the gut biome that supports our immune system, our digestive system, and so on. And that gut biome and that bacteria in our body has the ability to continue to support life after we die. If we fill our body with toxins, with formaldehyde, we kill all of that. And we kill any opportunity for our body to really provide to foster new life after we die, to return to the cycle of life. You know, if you, you know, we return to dust, right?

We are dust and we return to dust. That's what the Bible says, right? And if we return to dust as, you know, filled with toxic chemicals, we're not returning to the cycle of life. And so the opportunity to contribute this beautiful vessel that we occupied while we were living to the cycle of life. If we choose to seize the opportunity to foster new life, there are myriad of options to do that. Not everyone's going to think about that, though. So what I am hearing you describe in a way, it kind of reminds me of regenerative farming. Yes, that's a great example. Okay. So in my audience, I think, I think we're pretty familiar with regenerative farming should be if you've been listening. So, you know, just the, this life cycle and, you know, the animals eat a certain way and then, and then they die and then that goes back into the soil and new things grow. And it's just, it's better. I mean, even if you're listening to this, my audience leans more conservative, you know, full transparency. So they may not really care about like climate change type of aspect of this conversation. which there is that conversation also to regenerative farming.

A lot of people more politically on the left like regenerative farming because of that. But also for my audience, just from a health perspective and wanting to fix our soils so that we can grow better food and all these different things. I mean, that is, if you are Christian conservative, we believe in that, you know, being good stewards of the earth that God gave us, our bodies and leaving things better than how we came. I feel like that's something that we would get behind. Yeah, I think that's beautiful. Yeah. You know, if you think about the alternative, the cemeteries today, to a great extent, are toxic wastelands.

They're filled with bodies that are filled with formaldehyde and, you know, cement vaults, steel caskets, plastic caskets. It's certainly counter to what you just described. We talk about non-toxic living, but there's also non-toxic dying. And some people are going to make fun of that. And they're going to think this is like, this is now totally off the deep end. And I'm like, it makes sense to me. I was just going to say it's not off the deep end.

It actually just makes sense. It's natural. Yeah. Why do something unnatural, right? That's actually bad for the planet. And so there are a variety of ways to care for a body and its final disposition that is much better for the earth and for sort of supporting new life than traditional methods. So is it possible for a human body to literally become fertilizer? for the next generation, like could somebody's composted remains feed a backyard tomato plant?

Yes. Explain that to us. Yeah. So there are a few different ways to care for a decedent that would be considered natural. We have what we call a green burial, which is not embalming a body and simply placing the body, usually in a shroud or in an organic material casket like a pine casket into a shallow grave and allowing it to contribute to the soil in returning the elements of the body back into the soil to support new life ultimately that takes about 20 years for a body to break down if it's just

buried in a grave that without having been embalmed. There are two other methods of natural disposition that allow the body to return to the cycle of life more rapidly. One is something called water cremation. And water cremation is a process where a decedent is placed into a specifically designed stainless steel vessel. And that vessel is then sealed and about 12 gallons of water is added into it,

along with potassium hydroxide, which is a high alkaline compound. And the vessel is on a piston that raises and lowers the vessel about three degrees. And as it moves up and then moves back down, a very gentle wave is created inside that vessel of the potassium hydroxide and the water. And after about three and a half to four hours, the only thing remaining in that vessel is the bones of the individual, any inner organics like a pacemaker or a fake knee, you know, a titanium knee or something. And then what we call a biostimulin or liquid essence,

which is everything in our body save that of the bones reduced to the basic elements that comprise us. And because we're made of the same stuff that plants are made of, that liquid essence becomes an amazing fertilizer. So, after the process is complete, because it's a high alkaline compound that's used to perform this process, we then add a glacial acetic acid that brings that liquid back to a pH balance that's wonderful for plants and to be used as a fertilizer.

And so when the process is complete, those three things remain in the vessel. We remove, we filter out all of the inorganics and we send them off from metal. medical recycling. We dry the bones and then reduce them to powder in a device called the cremulator. You ever heard someone say, I've got my aunt's ashes up on the mantle? Of course. Yeah, it's not ash. Even if it was a flame cremation that person went through, there's, there's no ash remaining inside that retort. The only thing remaining are bone fragments. Oh, is that what I have in my dad? Yeah. So it's, it's, so a, there's a funerary device. called a cremulator that reduces those bone fragments to powder.

And that's what families get back in and urn. Interesting. Same thing happens in water cremation. At the end of the process, we filter out the inorganics, then we take the bones and dry them out and reduce the bones to powder. And we deliver that typically back to a family, either in an urn or what's commonly even becoming more common now, memorial stones. So little stones that are made from the, uh, the, uh, the,

remains and a small amount of porcelain, or ceramic rather. And then the only thing left is the liquid essence. And most families will take a small portion of that and use it as a fertilizer to fertilize plants and maybe in their house or in their garden, maybe to help fertilize a tree that their loved one help plant. And that liquid essence is just a beautiful way to return all those elements of the body back to the cycle of life in that form of a fertilizer. And it's a highly concentrated fertilizer. It's about a one tablespoon per gallon of water dilution rate. Health insurance is insane. You pay thousands of dollars every year, follow all the rules, and somehow, when you actually get sick, they look at you like you just asked for a private jet and deny your claim. One in five

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and have we changed things in recent years to get more toxic? It all started back with Abe Lincoln in the Civil War. So in the Civil War, the use of formaldehyde came into practice as a means of preserving the body of a soldier who has passed until it can make it back to its family. So to transport it back to a family, they would embalm out in the battlefield. After a battle, they would take these dead soldiers and embalm them. and then shipped them back to their families.

And it became even more popular after Abraham Lincoln was murdered in Washington, D.C. And he was shipped across country back to Springfield, Illinois, where he was from, on a train. And everyone was asking, how does he still look, you know, as good as he looks? It's because he was embalmed. So we weren't always embalming bodies. No, gosh, no. We were burying our loved ones out in the back behind the house. Wow. Okay. This is so crazy. This is why I wanted to do this interview. I'm like, oh my gosh. The other thing is when we are cremating bodies in America, what is that doing to the water, to our soil, you know, the air that we're breathing? Is it negatively impacting all of us living in the same town?

Certainly formaldehyde is a toxic chemical and that's going to be present in your local cemetery. You know, bodies are buried. They're typically in a casket inside a vault. So it can take years for that vault to break down. But ultimately, those toxins are going to be in that soil. If it happens to be near a water table, it might be impacted them water table as well. So when your kids are running through a sprinkler in the backyard in the middle of July, they could be running through dead bodies.

You mean with the water source, perhaps having gone through the cemetery? I suppose that's possible. Yeah. I think the real disconnect that is unavoidable is the fact that these traditional methods of caring for decedens with toxic chemicals and using vaults and caskets, it's just generally bad for the environment. it's bad from other earth. It's, it's unnatural. And so regardless of your political, you know, disposition and perspective, it's just not good. And there's been a growing movement across the country for this relatively new practice called natural organic reduction,

which is when a decedent is transformed into regenerative living soil in about two months. And it's now legal in 14 states. and being considered for legalization in about another dozen states. And it doesn't matter what the political alignment is in each state. You know, it just became legal in Georgia earlier this year. And I talked to Cy Hume, who he's CEO of a funeral home that's been serving folks in the greater Atlanta area for over 100 years. and I called him and I said,

I said, I understand you were the one that really drove this legislation. I said, what was behind it? He said, the values of the people that we serve. He said, Mike, I'm a Republican. The senator I got to sponsor this is a Republican. He said, but we're all tree huggers. We all appreciate the earth and we want to take care of the earth.

Yeah. And we've got farmers that understand the value of composting and understand the value of returning bodies to and using all that comes from nature to foster new growth. And that includes our bodies, right? And so we call it teramation. The legal term is natural organic reduction, but it's a process whereby a body is transformed back into soil. It starts in a vessel that completes in 28 to 33 days. And then there's a 30-day period we call a curing period where that biologic process that broke down the body and converted into soil slows and then cools.

And then we deliver the soil back to a family in 25 pound bags in about a cubic yard of soil per loved one. Explain how teramation works. So teramation is a process whereby a body is transformed into regenerative living soil in 28 to 33 days. A body is placed into a custom vessel. we call it a chrysalis. You know, that the thing that a caterpillar wraps around itself before it transforms into a butterfly.

We call our device a chrysalis vessel. A body is placed on top of a bed of organics. Things like a straw and alfalfa and wood chips. And usually there's a service where a family will come and we perform what we call a laying in. And families will come and their loved one is placed and usually in a shroud on top of these organics, and they'll place flowers, other organics in with their loved one.

We had a Native American man whose family put a salmon on top of him with berries and nuts. If it's once lived, it can go in the vessel with their loved one. Then we seal the vessel, and during a 28 to 33-day period, we monitor for the temperature, airflow in and airflow out, and then moisture in the vessel. And for moisture, we add a proprietary tea comprised of 25 different strains of bacteria and 15 very specific fungal spores. A lot of the bacteria or bacteria that we already have in our bodies, but adding more

into this process helps accelerate what Mother Nature would normally take about 20 years to perform. Our process completes it in 28 to 33 days. and so at the end of the 28 to 33 days, there are only three things remaining inside the vessel. The bones of the decedent, any inorganics like pacemaker or knee, and then this absolutely gorgeous regenerative living soil.

And at that point, we sift out the bones and we reduce them to powder, and then we place that powder back into the soil. And because the enamel has been removed from the outside of the bone, that calcium becomes readily available to that soil. And the soil just absorbs that calcium. And within 48 hours, there's no trace of bone anymore. We recycled the inorganics. And then we let that soil rest for 30 days. It's a 30-day cure period. And then we return that soil to the family in 25-pound bags. And it's about 15 bags that's left

after the end of a process. Okay, I love that. I think I like that one the best. Typically, families are using that soil to plan a flower garden or a tree or something. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, we have,

there was one mother who lost her 20-year-old son. And she shared with me that she took some of the soil, put in a small pot, and has a plant in her bedroom now with the soil from her son. And he was really into nature and into farming and planting. And she was thrilled to be. be able to allow him to return to the cycle of life in that, in that manner. What do conventional funeral directors think about you and what you do? Do they think this is

crazy? There are four companies today in the country that offer teramation. And the natural funeral is one of them. And the other three are building facilities around the country to allow consumers or, you know, families that lose loved ones to have their loved ones termated. We've taken a different approach and we are empowering funeral homes that want to continue to serve the communities they've been serving for generations to be able to perform termations themselves for these families. And I'll tell you, we've gotten a really warm reception. And it's because their client families are saying there's got to be another way. So there are more and more people realizing that these traditions of embalming and, you know, using a traditional casket and a vault,

it just doesn't align with their values. In fact, the National Funnel Directors Association does an annual consumer survey. And their most recent survey found that 68% of American surveyed would prefer a green funeral option if it were available. We're mahaying funerals. Yeah, there you go. That's it. We are. We are making funerals natural again.

Yeah, there you go. Yeah, I love that. When people say like, you know, this certified green funeral business, I mean, this just is like a marketing buzzword. Just, you know, siphon money off of people. What do you say? I'd say that's not correct. It's actually a response to a demand, consumer demand for more eco-friendly options at the end of life. Does it cost more or less?

to do it this way. A termation, a full termation service is about the same as a traditional burial. Okay. Could even be a little bit less, depending on what cemetery you're buying a plot in. So the economics favor an eco-friendly option. A flame cremation can be pretty inexpensive. If you don't really sort of don't care about who's caring for your loved one, you can get a very inexpensive flame cremation and just get ashes or, you know, cremains back. when the process is done. That's certainly an option. But more and more families these days are looking for participatory services that are more eco-friendly and allow their loved one to contribute to the

cycle of life in a more meaningful way. I have this neighbor who drinks soup out of his shoes, like literally dips his Chuck Taylor's in broth and slurps it. That is an unconventional way to eat. I don't want my food unconventional in how I eat it. I want it. I want to my food unconventional and how it's made because the standard American diet today is garbage. It's dead food. You might as well be chewing on the cardboard from a used Amazon box. That is why I love Paleo Valley grass-fed organ complex. This is an amazing supplement. It's a freeze-dried blend of three grass-fed organs packed with everything your body actually needs delivered straight into your system without having to taste liver flavor. Most other organ

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That's Utsy.com, U-TZY.com. Code Alex on Magnositol. Get the strawberry magnositol today. So if you could like in a couple sentences explain, why is embalming a bad idea? In essence, it's not natural. It's not good for the environment. It's not good for the community that's supposedly being served by it.

Now, and I say this as someone that was a licensed, apprenticed embalmer. You know, that's what we did for years. And I want to be careful not to sort of disrespect the tradition of embalming. and most of the people in the funeral industry are in there because they're heart-centered and they want to do good and they want to serve families. And so it's more an awakening to the opportunity to do something more natural and that's better for the environment. And it also responds more closely to the values of the communities that these funeral homes are serving. Is it possible to find a green cemetery? Yeah.

in someone's area, even if the other services aren't available in their area. Does that make sense what I'm asking? There aren't as many as I wish there were. Okay. But there are usually at least a handful of cemeteries in any given state that will allow for a green burial. And what does that mean, a green burial? Not embalming a body. Okay.

Not using a traditional casket. So it's got to be a natural material casket, like a pine casket. and you don't use a vault. So those are the three. And usually it also means that grave is going to be more shallow. I was going to ask you about the shallow graves you brought this up. Before when we weren't embalming prior to Lincoln, were we doing shallow graves? And then the reason we're doing deep graves is because of embalming?

It's not because of embalming. It's because it's usually tied to the use of a vault. So a vault is a cement box inside the inside of which a casket is placed. And then the top of the vault gets put on there. And for the most part, a vault is used in cemeteries so that the land doesn't settle. So that you can have these pristine flat cemeteries. And then they look really nice and they're nice and even and in many ways, unnatural. You know what's crazy? You might have like one of the last career paths that cannot be

taken over by AI. That's it. Yeah, that's interesting. I mean, I'm thinking of young people that listen to this show that are wondering what they want to do for a living that's going to make good money that's always going to be needed. Well, people are always going to die. Yeah. And then that isn't going to be replaced by AI. This is like a real fear that Gen Z and then Gen Alpha has is what career path can I even go in that's still going to exist in a few years with all of this technology, because everyone's jobs are getting taken up by robots. Yeah. That your career path is one.

I think you'd have to have a person doing it. Yes. But I would also suggest that the people entering end-of-life care, the funeral industry, the vast majority of folks that are doing it today do so not for the money. They do so because they want to serve families. they're dealing with people at probably the most difficult moments of their lives and to be able to listen to them, to hear about the story of this loved one that just passed, what their loved ones' values were, and then to tailor a suite of services to provide a compassionate and respectful set of services to celebrate that person's life

and to support the grief process of the family. I would hope that's what would bring people into the field. And of course, you can make a living at it. Do you think that we need to be burying pets in a similar way? I think there's an opportunity to do that. I think to a great extent pets today are typically buried in the backyard. They're getting green burials already. One crazy story is that there was this other natural funeral home in Colorado.

There was a big scandal. they found like over 189 bodies that, you know, authorities claimed weren't being taken care of properly, that the smells were horrible. It was like a horror scene. How do you do your business differently? And also, you know, was this funeral home doing something wrong in your opinion? Or is it just unconventional? And to the outside world, they just didn't understand. You can look across the country and you'll find stories of funeral homes doing bad things. And the one you're mentioning in Colorado is an example of that. They were absolutely doing the wrong thing. They were engaging with families, promising to care for their loved one, and to perform flame cremations on their loved one, and then to provide cremains back to the family. What they were doing was storing these bodies of their loved ones, decedents, and not performing flame cremations, just storing them and providing something other than

cremains back to families than claiming they were cremains. These were people that were- This is fraud. These were licensed funeral directors doing this. It's fraud. And you can see it in any industry. It hits home extra hard when it's in the funeral industry because you've trusted someone with your loved one. And that happens in, you know, in many states. And unfortunately, there are bad apples in every batch. But I don't think that's indicative at all of the state of natural funerals. In fact, we, it's contrary to what our core values are. Obviously, you can't always plan for your death, but if possible, is planning a natural funeral ahead a time, something that people should consider? Yeah, I think planning a funeral, regardless of what

the services are that you're seeking, is really valuable and important. Like, if it's written in your will, you know, I prefer to be buried this way type of a thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's certainly one way. Another way is to actually put a plan in place to buy the services ahead of time so that your family at the time of your passing, they don't have to worry about that. It's, it's already been decided upon, you've decided what you want done with you, you've probably even put a, maybe you've put a plan in place and paid for it where there's what we call it an advanced plan already documented and funded. Many people are doing that. In fact, when we announced that we were doing teramation, we had folks in their 30s coming to us putting advanced plans

in place because they said, that's what I want done when I die. I want to return of the cycle of life. Yeah, and they want to make sure there's no question about it. But it's a real gift for someone to do, to put an advanced plan in place so that their loved ones aren't burdened with having to make a decision. If there are multiple children or siblings that have responsibility for making these decisions, they're not going to be arguing over it because you've already stated what you want. So it's a real gift to do that in advance. If people want to learn more about what you're doing in Colorado and your services that you offer, where can they go? The Natural Funeral.com.

Tell them all about it. If you could offer one remedy to heal a sick culture, physically, emotionally, or spiritually, what would it be? I would encourage people to practice loving awareness. I think too often, you know, people aren't recognizing the connection that we all have to each other, to the earth. and they're not present. And if they are present, they're present with an absence of love and compassion.

So I would encourage everyone to consider really stepping into being present, having an open heart and an open mind, being curious about what other people's perspectives are. If they differ in opinion, find out why, find out where they're coming from. get curious and do so with an open, loving heart. I think if we all do that, we'll find ourselves very much healthier. I think that's so beautiful. You have such a kind, peaceful spirit. You no doubt are made to do what you do.

And I'm sure are just such a comforting person to have around with these families in the worst time of their life. I know firsthand what that's like with everything I've been through in the last year. So I appreciate what you're doing. I love finding unique guests and topics for this show. I mean, what you're doing falls in the health and wellness umbrella, I think. And it's something that

I don't think you're going to hear on other health and wellness podcasts that this even exists or isn't an option. I think people feel weird to talk about this. And I think it's so incredibly interesting, important. And I like just learning something new. So I appreciate you coming here to Arizona and coming on culture apothecary to share with us. Thanks, Alex. Thanks for your curiosity, too. Yeah, and your appreciation. obsessed with how unique this interview was and the topic itself. I really get a kick out of feeling like I learned something new when I interview people. Those are my absolute favorite episodes when I sit down with somebody and I genuinely do not know a thing. So I really had fun with this episode. I hope you did too. If you did, we'd love to see your five-star review about it. Tell others

why. This is the number one health and wellness podcast. We're on a mission to heal us at culture on Mondays and Thursdays at 6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern. Don't forget to subscribe to real Alex Clark on YouTube and follow the show on Instagram at Culture Apothecary. You can find me at Real Alex Clark. I'm Alex Clark and this is Culture Apothecary.