Death is Common in Every Species with Dr. Susana Monsó

In this episode, we go back to an older episode of Tomorrow, Today, where the duo dives into a subject most people go to great lengths to avoid: death. From the Victorian-era "funeral culture" that commodified grief to the modern sanitization of the "great beyond," Nash Flynn and Andy discuss how humanity has lost its intimacy with mortality.
The episode features an in-depth interview with Dr. Susana Monsó, a doctor at the Spanish National University specializing in animal ethics. Together, they dismantle the myth of "human exceptionalism"—the idea that humans are the only creatures capable of understanding death. Dr. Monsó introduces the "minimal concept of death," arguing that an understanding of non-functionality and irreversibility is likely widespread across the animal kingdom.
Highlights include:

• The Whale’s Vigil: Why an orca carrying her dead calf for 1,000 miles challenges our definitions of grief and understanding.
• The "Face-Eating" Truth: A fascinating (and slightly disturbing) look at why pets sometimes feed on their deceased owners and what it tells us about their perception of us.
• A "Minimal" Understanding: How children and animals alike develop a concept of death as a spectrum rather than a binary switch.
• Reconciling with Nature: Why accepting our "animal nature" might be the key to helping us—and our grandmothers—talk about death in peace.

Whether you’re interested in the evolution of cognition, animal ethics, or just looking for a way to be less uncomfortable with your own mortality, join us for a conversation that is as hilarious as it is profound. Tune in to Tomorrow Today—because death is common, and so is understanding it.

For sources, transcripts, and to read more about this subject, visit: www.agroecologies.org

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Key words:

Minimal concept of death, non-functionality, irreversibility, human exceptionalism, animal ethics, emotional anthropocentrism, Victorian funeral culture, commodification of grief, WEIRD societies, Taliqua the orca, pet scavenging, universality, causality, personal mortality, inevitability, unpredictability, Schrödinger’s Opossum, animal nature, human superiority, sanitization of death

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