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Jools Barsky

Jools Barsky

Co-founder of the global Death Cafe movement and an NHS doctor in the East Midlands, UK.

Aug 22, 2026

speaker_2ADVERTISER
16:41
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16:47
John had been feeling unwell for a couple of weeks, um, assuming it was a kind of flu bug, and then, uh, he collapsed very suddenly after taking his children to a swimming class.
16:58
So we all rushed over to the hospital where he was, and we were with him whilst he was on life support.
17:03
Um, he'd had a brain hemorrhage as a result of a rare form of leukemia called acute promyelocytic leukemia, which would have been treatable if they'd discovered s- the source of the bleeding before it had caused catastrophic damage by result of a stroke.
17:20
So my mom and I were with John, and I think a lot of it was, for me anyway, knowing what John would have been wanting at that point, and then because of Death Cafe, he'd already created this vast network of people who knew about him and had been on, you know, the front cover of The New York Times and had been in The Huffington Post.
17:41
You know, he was a public figure.

5 MINS LATER

23:07
And I, I'm curious, like, one, have you encountered these spaces which seem to be growing in the US, and two, like, what do you think about that counterweight to what I think is, like, the really beautiful work you're doing at Death Cafe?
23:23
So there's, there's people like Brian Johnson, right, who are trying to live for as long as possible, and they're dedicating their life to extension of their physiological abilities.
Hayes DavenportADVERTISER
17:40
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17:48
John had been feeling unwell for a couple of weeks, um, assuming it was a kind of flu bug, and then, uh, he collapsed very suddenly after taking his children to a swimming class.
17:59
So we all rushed over to the hospital where he was, and we were with him whilst he was on life support.
18:05
Um, he'd had a brain hemorrhage as a result of a rare form of leukemia called acute promyelocytic leukemia, which would have been treatable if they'd discovered s- the source of the bleeding before it had caused catastrophic damage by result of a stroke.
18:21
So my mom and I were with John, and I think a lot of it was, for me anyway, knowing what John would have been wanting at that point.
18:30
And then because of Death Cafe, he'd already created this vast network of people who knew about him and had been on, you know, the front cover of The New York Times and had been in The Huffington Post.
18:42
You know, he was a public figure.

5 MINS LATER

24:08
And I, I'm curious, like, one, have you encountered these spaces which seem to be growing in the US, and two, like, what do you think about that counterweight to what I think is, like, the really beautiful work you're doing at Death Cafe?

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