Episodes

Join us as Dan Shea and Jenn Bardier speak with Erin Wilson Senior Director of Education and Program Strategy for Funeral Woman Lead as we discuss their focus on leadership, coaching, mentorship, wellness and resources for women in funeral service. How woman are taking over and reimagining the future of a male dominated field. Networking and having resources are key to success in any field. At Funeral Woman Lead these dynamic woman that have proven themselves throughout their career are sharing ...

Join us as Lanae Strovers discusses the Final Salute. A non-profit she started in her home state of Iowa, that buries the cremated remains of veterans as well as civilians and children. This great initiative draws a crowd she never thought would be possible. Dignity and respect for the dead is at the core of being a funeral director. The Final Salute was something that Lanae started with her funeral home in Iowa that turned into an anticipated event for the community and has attracted the attent...

If you missed Terracon 2025, here is the recap of the worlds Natural Organic Reduction conference. With experts flying into Tacoma Washington from all over the United States and World, we learned science, legal regulation, legislation and immersed ourselves in an experience. After three days of surrounding ourselves with some of the most dynamic friends and colleagues we all said the same thing, I felt like I was at a retreat. Hear personal testimonials from Daniel Holland of BYND, Inc out of Gr...

We have very exciting news, renowned speaker and restorative art educator Dominic Astorino can now add author to his titles. Dominic's first book, Postmortem Restorative Art, Principles, Methods and Applications will be released on January 16th in time for the spring 2025 semester. If you have not adopted his Restorative Art book yet, now is your chance. Students will receive e-book access to start the semester if their book will not arrive in time. This restorative art book brings real life exa...

We sat down with Chase Downs of Gather, one of the industries premiere funeral home softwares that is on the cutting edge of what the industry needs. Join us as we discuss how funeral home software provides value and how the industry has changed and what features you should be using to keep up and be efficient.

Did you miss the NFDA convention this year, get a quick recap of some of the seminars and vendors.

We sat down with Brie Smith of Return Home one of the first Terramation companies in the country as she covers the process, what we can expect and the beauty behind this new form of disposition. Terramation, also known as Natural Organic Reduction or Human Composting is a natural process of converting the body to soil. A very environmentally safe process that promotes new life and the byproduct being soil can be used to plant, garden or to scatter in your favorite location. All the sentimental f...

You read that right, the two funeral programs in Massachusetts situated at Community Colleges, Cape Cod Community Colleges funeral program in Bridgewater Mass on the Bridgewater State University Campus and North Shore Community College's funeral program in Danvers are both free to Massachusetts Residents that do not have a prior Bachelor degree or higher. Both institutions still provide a reduced tuition rate to those in New England, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut and M...

We sat down with Bill A Johnston author and owner of Post and Boost as he discusses his new book "The Consumer's Journey to Purchasing Funeral Services: A Marketing Roadmap for Growing Market Share and Revenue"

Join us with Kim Zavrotny from Funeral Professionals Peer Support.  FPPS is a non-profit that provides peer-based mental wellness support to bereavement professionals worldwide.  Visit funeralpeersupport.com for more information.  This is a great pro...

Join as as we continue the conversation with Faith Haug Department Chair of Mortuary Science at Arapahoe Community College in Colorado.  This is part two of transitioning funeral service as we move into how students are today and how the industry wil...

Episode 17 : Funeral service is transitioning - Join us as Faith Haug discusses with Dan Shea and Jess Clasby how funeral service can grow and serve clients as more transgender funeral professionals and students feel comfortable becoming their true s...

This month we compare two popular mortuary simulation games with real life management.

What does it mean to go the extra mile and how do we collectively improve.  As an industry we either grow together or we sink together.  We need to do the extra stuff and leave our comfort zone.  It is the seminars, speakers, conferences and allow us...

Join us as Prof. Shea covers study techniques that will prepare you for your semester and academic career no matter what field you are studying for.

Join us for a chat with Chelsea Cush, funeral director, embalmer and mortuary educator.  Chelsea is a licensed Funeral Director and Embalmer in Michigan and Pennsylvania and teaches for the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science, PIMS.

The NFDA's arranger training is a great opportunity to sharpen your skills at the arrangement conference and in general will make you better at funeral home operation and management.  This eight hour day will be a mixture of learning, interacting, ne...

Join us as we cover how a funeral director and embalmer can approach suicide related deaths and tell the deceased story the way the family wants.

Following Governor Maura Healey's announcement of Mass Reconnect we sat down the the President of Cape Cod Community College, Dr. John Cox to discuss this monumental moment that will open doors and break down barriers to education.  If you are 25 or ...

Emma Waugh, Public Health Program Coordinator for the United South and Eastern Tribes - USET joins us this to discuss how funeral directors can better serve Native Americans, their tribes, death certificate misclassification and funeral directors can...

Joe Reardon joins Melissa in discussing cremation and how it affects the modern funeral director.  What can we do to serve families better and keep up with the times.

As the spring semester starts, we thought it would be beneficial to provide another lecture from the Cape Cod Community College Funeral Service Lecture Series.  This time we bring you to test taking and study techniques with Dr. Shea.  Dr. Shea ran a...

Shawna Rodabaugh returns to the show this month to discuss quality embalming and the problems the funeral industry faces with embalming, why are we not getting the quality we expect.

Dr. Shea joins us as part of the Cape Cod Community College Funeral Service Program Lecture Series to discuss how funeral directors can better work with the healthcare community in completing the medical section of the death certificate.