To Be a Field of Poppies

The Harper’s Podcast

In this episode of the podcast, Lisa Wells, the author of Believers: Making a Life at the End of the World, discusses her latest report for Harper’s Magazine, “To Be a Field of Poppies,” with Ann Neumann, the author of The Good Death, and Harper’s web editor Violet Lucca. The trio’s discussion of death is profound and unorthodox, yet humor-filled as well. Wells lays out the process of natural organic reduction (NOR), Neumann delves into society’s fascination with the dead rather than the dying, and Lucca opens a conversation about the role of capitalism in the funeral industry. This episode is unquestionably life-affirming. Read Wells’s article: https://harpers.org/archive/2021/10/to-be-a-field-of-poppies-natural-organic-reduction-composting-corpse/ This episode was produced by Violet Lucca and Andrew Blevins.