This week's episode features Effie Anolik, founder of Afterword, an online funeral planning service offering virtual and in-person memorials, as well as a combination of the two. Effie garnered inspiration for Afterword after experiencing the sudden loss of her own father, and realizing that the funeral industry offered no convenient ways to funeral plan online. Using her extensive background in eCommerce as her guide, Effie mapped out a way for families to experience personalized funeral planning from the comfort of their homes.

Although this interview was recorded last November, the topics still felt relevant and insightful to share, especially as Effie helped me think about grief from a different perspective than my usual emotions-first approach. This conversation has also led to a nearly year-long exchange as different songs come to mind that relate to grief. While Effie initially notes she doesn’t really have any “grief songs,” as you’ll hear in our interview, she shared the song that we used for this week’s episode title, “In Case You Don’t Live Forever,” by Ben Platt during one of these follow-up discussions.

Bury Me in New Jersey is recorded in Hammonton, NJ, and is produced by Nick Rumaczyk. Our theme music is P to the A, by Anonymous Novels. Check out their page on SoundCloud to hear more of their work.