A death scholar on why we need to stop being naive about dying: ‘I always hear, “Can’t you just put me into a nice meadow?”’

Dr Hannah Gould on eco-funerals, being ‘the death person’ and the one thing everyone should know before they die

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round 2040, Australia will reach peak death. A silver tsunami of boomers are predicted to propel the annual death rate to double that of today, putting immense strain on the healthcare and deathcare systems.

Dr Hannah Gould – a death scholar and author of the book How to Die in the 21st Century – calls it “boomergeddon”, and says it brings with it a certain range of ideas about what a good death looks like.