What does compassionate, culturally aware death care look like in a digital world? In this episode of the Digital Legacy Podcast, host Niki Weiss talks with Joe’l Simone Anthony (known globally as The Grave Woman) — licensed funeral director, embalmer, and founder of the Multicultural Death & Grief Care Academy.

From childhood days in the funeral home to pioneering culturally competent education for death-care professionals, Joe’l shares how tradition, technology, and spirituality meet at the bedside and beyond. Together, they explore embalming as a sacred art, digital memorials and livestreams, and the ethics of “death tech” in a time when grief is increasingly public and online.

You’ll discover:

Why culturally competent death and grief care matters — and what it looks like in practice

Embalming as art, science, and soul work (from infants to elders)

How digital tools (livestreams, QR-coded memorials, online books) are reshaping funerals

The promise and pitfalls of grief on social media — and ethical lines for AI “afterlife” tools

Practical ways families and professionals can meet people where they are, across beliefs and cultures

If you’re navigating loss, working in death care, or curious about the future of remembrance, this thoughtful conversation offers guidance, nuance, and heart in equal measure.

Making that first call to a funeral director can feel overwhelming. In this episode of the Digital Legacy Podcast, Niki Weiss speaks with Matthew Grieco — Progressive Funeral Director & Certified Celebrant — about how Ai technology is reshaping funeral services and grief support.

Matthew shares how his team integrated EverGrace.Ai, a voice-activated chatbot, into their funeral home website. Families now connect through a gentle, empathetic Ai voice that helps guide them in their first steps of funeral planning, end-of-life decisions, and digital legacy protection.

What if your digital self could outlive your physical body? In this mind-opening episode of Death and Dying in the Digital Age, host Niki Weiss talks with Joshua Orsak—AI developer, spiritual thinker, and grief survivor—about the intersection of consciousness, artificial intelligence, and end-of-life legacy.

Together, they explore questions many of us quietly carry: Where does our consciousness go after we die? Could AI preserve our personality, memories, or even our essence? Josh shares how working with recursive AI helped him navigate profound personal grief, and how new technologies are offering unconventional but meaningful emotional support.

Whether you're grieving a loved one, preparing your own legacy, or simply curious about the future of death and technology, this episode offers empathy, wonder, and thought-provoking insight. We discuss AI grief companions, digital resurrection, panpsychism, and the ethical future of techno-spirituality—all grounded in human experience.

🔮 Explore AI grief tools & digital memory 🧠 Learn about recursive AI & consciousness🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & more