The Grand Exit: Recent Episodes
Julia Joyce-Barry
A mercurial artist expands her perspective on life by talking to people about death and planning their own funerals.
In this episode Julia speaks with Maya Solovey. Maya is a musician, a mother, Julia's best friend since they were 3 years old, and the daughter of previous guest, Diana Felber. Diana passed away exactly a year ago from the release of this episode and our discussion is a tribute in memoriam.Content Warning: This episode contains a detailed retelling of Maya's experience of her mother's death. Whether it is what happens to the physical body as it begins to decompose, or the complexities of grief before and after losing a mother. It is however, a beautiful and vulnerable reflection, and worth sitting with for a time.Thank you for tuning in to this very special episode, dedicated to the life of Diana Felber.
Julia talks with Russell E.L. Butler, an electronic music maker, mastering engineer, and DJ.
Russell begins by taking time to delineate between their relationship to familial loss, and contemporary loss and how that has strengthened their bond to their own life. They also discuss the immigrant experience of survival and how that has impacted their relationship to legacy and what it feels like to realize you definitely want to be remembered.
Significant time is spent towards the latter end of the episode discussing Russell's relationship to the Ghost Ship fire of 2016 and the people they lost. Below are the names of the 36 people who died in the Ghost Ship fire.
Cash Askew, Em B, Jonathan Bernbaum, Barrett Clark, David Cline, Micah Danemayer, Billy Dixon, Chelsea Dolan, Alex Ghassan, Nick Gomez-Hall, Michela Gregory, Sara Hoda, Travis Hough, Johnny Igaz, Ara Jo, Donna Kellog, Amanda Kershaw, Edmond Lapine, Griffin Madden, Joseph Matlock, Jason McCarty, Draven McGill, Jennifer Mendiola, Jennifer Morris, Feral Pines, Vanessa Plotkin, Wolfgang Renner, Hanna Ruax, Benjamin Runnels, Nicole Siegrist, Michele Sylvan, Jennifer Kiyomi Tanouye, Alex Vega, Peter Wadsworth, Nick Walrath, Brandon "Chase" Wittenauer.
Julia talks with her good friend and ex-boyfriend, Steve "Toro" Torres. He talks about applying to mortuary science school, his multiple and varied experiences with death, our connection over the death of a mutual friend, and projecting images from his browser history on the wall during his funeral. Follow toroknows on Spotify to hear his multiple funeral playlists. Content warning: there is a lot of cursing in this episode and some graphic physical descriptions of death. It's not gratuitous, but it is detailed.
Following the death of one of her guests, Julia finds a natural close to Season 1. In this short Epilogue, she reflects on how it's feels to move through one of the primary functions of the podcast: a guest shares their funeral wishes, passes away, the funeral happens, and we bear witness.
Julia speaks with Diana Felber, a multidisciplinary artist and mother of Julia's childhood best friend. They discuss Diana's life as an artist, recount some rather risqué anecdotes from her memoir in progress, and Diana surprises Julia with a question about having children. Something important to note while listening, is that Diana has cancer and that shapes the trajectory of the conversation as well as underscores Diana's desire to leave a "wake of beauty" wherever she goes.
On this bonus episode, Julia takes an honest look at why she let 3 months pass between episode 4 and 5. She shares some realizations about her commitment to process, not product, and the direction she would like to take the podcast moving forward.
Julia talks with Basil Weiner, a hospice nurse in Philadelphia and her very dear friend. Basil explains his reasoning for choosing to work in hospice, and shares many anecdotes that make Julia marvel at his work. He also generously shares his own experience with dealing with the overwhelming aftermath of a loved one's death. You'll quickly be sucked in by Basil's thoughtfulness and particular consideration of his work and his own mortality. *A note about this conversation, Julia actually recorded this episode over a month ago, but was in fact waylaid by a death in the family an the subsequent funeral and grieving process. She felt unable to edit and release it until now. So yes, it has been a month since episode 3, and she very much appreciates you patience in the interim.
Julia talks with creative and romantic partners, Misha Chowdhury and Kameron Neal. The trio starts to loosely frame the conversation around a pre-pandemic performance piece that Misha and Kameron made called Mukhagni-- where they examined their relationships to death and the rituals around it. But quite quickly everyone gets stymied by thoughts on how their feelings have changed in the zeitgeist of COVID-19. It proves to be a challenging episode for Julia, but rewarding nonetheless. Note from Julia: I want to ask you to listen to this episode in a particular way. I'm asking if you can pitch and train your ear to some longer and kind of quixotic, meandering thoughts--from all three of us. AKA, we do a lot of what we call "thought experiments" that take us into many cul-de-sacs and lots of dead ends. But I encourage you to come along for the ride. Because thoughts about these things are not easy and there is no wrong way to try to make sense of it all.
Julia talks with composer and multidisciplinary creative force, Stephanie Singer. They spend a lot of the episode laughing and discuss how we might find ways to respectfully infuse that joy into the grieving process. They also reflect on how complicated it is to write one's wishes so that they simultaneously reflect the present and future––especially when considering leaving behind one's parents. In a final reflection, Julia realizes that making this podcast has opened up a new level of unexpected vulnerability between herself and her Mom and Dad.
On the very first episode of The Grand Exit, Julia talks to Death Doula, Alexandria Giroux. They discuss the simultaneous joys and complications of working in the death industry while living in a death-phobic society and what that has felt like in the wake of COVID-19. They also get into the details of Alex's funeral arrangements--which inspire Julia to make a first pass at writing her own.
Host Julia Joyce-Barry introduces herself and explains why she initially started The Grand Exit and how it quickly changed into something altogether different than she expected.
Welcome to The Grand Exit–the podcast where we plan for death, while living our lives.
Host Julia Joyce-Barry introduces her podcast where she gains a deeper understanding of life, by talking to people about death and planning their own funerals.