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Caitlin Doughty

ケイトリン・ドーティ

Keitorin Dōti

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1984-08-19 （Oʻahu, Hawaii）
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Religion
unknown
Residence History
Kaneohe, Oahu, Hawaii → Chicago, Illinois → San Francisco, California → Los Angeles, California

Career

Occupations
mortician, author, YouTuber, blogger, advocate
Active Years
2006-
Affiliations
Clarity Funerals and Cremation of Los Angeles, The Order of the Good Death
Influenced By
Jessica Mitford

Education

St. Andrew's Priory School
high school
Country: United States
private Episcopal all-girls college prep school
University of Chicago
medieval history
Degree: BA
Year of Graduation: 2006
Country: United States
focusing on death and culture
Cypress College
Mortuary Science
Degree: AS
Country: United States
certified mortician

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory

2014 non-fiction

Memoir of her crematory experiences serving as a manifesto for death acceptance and funeral industry reform.

death acceptancefuneral industrymortality

From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death

2017 non-fiction

Chronicles travels to observe death customs worldwide including Mexico, Indonesia, Japan, Spain, Bolivia, and US body farms.

cross-cultural death practicesnatural burialgrief

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death

2019 non-fiction

Answers 35 questions about death from children.

death educationchildren and death

Bibliography

  • Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory
  • From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death
  • Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death

Style & Themes

Literary Style
humorousirreverentoffbeatsurreal
Recurring Motifs
deathdecompositionfuneral practices

Legacy

Pioneer of death positivity movement, popularizes death education via YouTube 'Ask a Mortician', advocates funeral industry reform, founder of The Order of the Good Death.

In Popular Culture

  • Voiced the character Death in Netflix's The Midnight Gospel.

Quotes

  • Death is not deviant, it's actually the most normal and universal act there is.
    Source: Interview (2014)
  • The corpse is the family's legal quasi-property, and you have the power over what happens to that body.
    Source: Advocacy (2014)

Trivia

  • Witnessed a child fall to her death from a mall balcony at age 8, sparking lifelong fascination with death.
  • Grew up in Kaneohe, Oahu, Hawaii.
  • Ask a Mortician YouTube channel started 2011, over 2 million subscribers.