Aug 16, 2026 · 1 hr 9 min · 13 segments
Welcome to Bitching & Mourning, the podcast about grief that requires zero training or IMDB credits! Nicole Kidman is the latest celebrity to express an interest in getting certified as a death doula…
Becky RobisonHost
Alison ZeidmanHost
It is a response to grief that I feel like we're seeing increasingly these days, but the headlines around Nicole Kidman today, it was all like, Every celebrity is becoming a death doula.
And to be clear, we're not bitching about the existence of death doulas at all.
We're bitching about the fact that we didn't have more of them when we needed, or I guess the fact that we couldn't afford Nicole Kidman as a death doula,
I would have liked a death doula when my parents were dying, that's for sure, to help me understand how the death process works and to help guide me through it.
I think my dad would have thought that was way too woo-woo and wouldn't have wanted it at all.
I think certainly for end-of-life planning, too, because that's all, well, what's defined death doula? Can you do that for us, seeing as you are, and we'll get some more of this later, but you are certified as a death doula?
Yes, when I was writing my book, I trained as a death doula initially for research to kind of understand more about the death process, death and dying process.
But ultimately, as this sort of took over more and more of my life, I felt like it was a handy thing that I could use to actually do and a way to help people.
This is a person whose job it is to help people plan for death and dying and what comes afterwards in terms of funerals and all that.
And then to help their families along with that process as well, if the families are willing to talk about it.
Or sometimes it's the families who get in contact, right? And it's not the dying person who wants to be involved.
It is a response to grief that I feel like we're seeing increasingly these days, but the headlines around Nicole Kidman today, it was all like, Every celebrity is becoming a death doula.
And to be clear, we're not bitching about the existence of death doulas at all.
We're bitching about the fact that we didn't have more of them when we needed, or I guess the fact that we couldn't afford Nicole Kidman as a death doula,
I would have liked a death doula when my parents were dying, that's for sure, to help me understand how the death process works and to help guide me through it.
I think my dad would have thought that was way too woo-woo and wouldn't have wanted it at all.
I think certainly for end-of-life planning, too, because that's all, well, what's defined death doula? Can you do that for us, seeing as you are, and we'll get some more of this later, but you are certified as a death doula?
Yes, when I was writing my book, I trained as a death doula initially for research to kind of understand more about the death process, death and dying process.
But ultimately, as this sort of took over more and more of my life, I felt like it was a handy thing that I could use to actually do and a way to help people.
This is a person whose job it is to help people plan for death and dying and what comes afterwards in terms of funerals and all that.
And then to help their families along with that process as well, if the families are willing to talk about it.
Or sometimes it's the families who get in contact, right? And it's not the dying person who wants to be involved.
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