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Engaging Conversation About Exploring End-of-Life Controversies Through Fiction

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How many times at BAIPA meetings have we been encouraged to get ourselves on podcasts?

Lo and behold, I am thrilled to share this engaging conversation, with hospice doctor Karen Wyatt, about addressing end-of-life challenges through fiction. She read my novel,  When I Killed My Father: An Assisted Suicide Family Thriller, enjoyed and appreciated it, and asked me questions no one asked before. As well as some of the usual, like do I support assisted suicide/euthanasia?

If you enjoy this conversation half as much as I did, that’s still a lot of enjoyment. It’s long enough I don’t even expect anyone, even my wife or son, to watch the whole thing, but please take a peek. If you don’t want to try pot luck, jump to 3:23 or 35:07. 

I sold seven books on the day after the interview was posted. The most in months. This is before I promoted it to my networks, which I’m just getting to now.

It’s also available as a podcast. If you search your favorite podcast app for “End of Life University Barry” it will show up.

To make this happen, I reached out via email to as many end-of-life podcasters as I could find — there aren’t that many — and didn’t hear back from any. Until I followed up with a second email. That’s a lesson for me to remember. Follow up.

I also had a great conversation, and a shorter one, on Let’s Talk Death with Fran Solomon and Andy McNiel.

About John Byrne Barry

John Byrne Barry is author of three "page-turners with a conscience" — When I Killed My Father: An Assisted-Suicide Family Thriller, Bones in the Wash: Politics is Tough. Family is Tougher, and Wasted, a "green noir" mystery set in the Berkeley recycling world. He's also an actor, bicycle tour leader, and crossing guard. He lives in Mill Valley.

Comments

  1. Sandra V McGee says

    John,
    As you may have guessed, I have firsthand experience with the California End of Life act. I read your book two years ago, but the experience was still impossible for me to talk about. Plus, I did not want to be the recipient of unkind words by those who have their reasons for opposing assisted suicide. (There, I said it.)

    To promote your podcast, you might want to look into Amy Bloom’s new book about going to Switzerland so her husband could end his life with dignity: https://www.amazon.com/Love-Memoir-Loss/dp/0593243943

    Another thread is the Yuma Death Cafe started by Deb Bershad, one of my husband’s Hospice nurses: https://deathcafe.com/deathcafe/13747/

  2. John Byrne Barry says

    Sandra, if we ever meet in person again, and you’re open to it, I’d like to learn more about your firsthand experience.

    I have read Amy Bloom’s In Love memoir, and it felt like fiction come true, though it was her husband, not her father. As for promoting this podcast with a tie-in the her book, I have to think that through. I will look into the Yuma death cafe.