A Good Goodbye Funeral Planning for Those Who Don't Plan to Die
- Want to Own the Jaguar Hearse from Harold and Maude? It May Be Heading to Auction
by Gail Rubin on April 21, 2026The Jaguar hearse from Harold and Maude could be yours! Nearly ten years ago, I wrote about one of the most unusual vehicles ever created: a painstaking […]
- Death and Taxes: Two Hard Realities You Really Can’t Avoid
by Gail Rubin on April 14, 2026Death and Taxes: April 15 is Tax Day, and April 16 is National Healthcare Decisions Day. They are two back-to-back reminders that paperwork isn’t just a […]
- A Route 66 Road Trip to Scatter Cremated Remainsby Gail Rubin on April 7, 2026
A Route 66 Road Trip to Scatter Cremated Remains I recently took a road trip from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Catoosa, Oklahoma. The assignment: to scatter the […]
- What Was I Saving My Money For? Lessons from a Refrigerator Magnet
by Gail Rubin on March 24, 2026Today’s post is a departure from Mortality Movies. It’s about mortality and your money. On Monday, March 30 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time/12:00 p.m. […]
- Oscar Night Reflections: Let’s Celebrate and Remember to Live Before We Die
by Gail Rubin on March 17, 2026Did you watch the Oscar awards on Sunday night? The evening had celebration, remembrance, and a surreal hazmat-suited existential punchline. Let’s start with […]
- Route 66 Alpha to Omega: Scattering Ashes from Chicago to the Pacific
by Gail Rubin on March 10, 2026Scattering ashes of a cremated loved one is a common request. But how many people actually do it? There are literally millions of sets of cremated remains […]
- What The Big Lebowski Teaches Us About Funerals (Yes, Really)
by Gail Rubin on February 24, 2026When people hear I teach about death through movies, they usually expect something solemn. Tender. Maybe subtitled. They do not expect The Big Lebowski. And […]
- Leaving It to Chance: Estate Planning Lessons from “Being There”by Gail Rubin on February 17, 2026
Over the weekend, we screened the 1979 film Being There with Peter Sellers. As a Mortality Movie, it’s one of those deceptively quiet films that starts with […]
- 98.6 Mortality Movies to See Before You Die Coming Soon!
by Gail Rubin on February 10, 2026A New Book, Two Covers, and 142 Movies and TV Shows That Get People Talking About Death I’m happy to officially share some news that has been a long time […]
- Chuckles Bites the Dust: How to Talk About Death Without Ruining Dinnerby Gail Rubin on February 3, 2026
If you only had 30 minutes to help someone feel less weird about talking through funeral wishes, what would you show them? A spreadsheet?A legal document?A […]
