Stephen Jenkinson is a culture activist, teacher, and author.

Stephen Jenkinson is also one of the most articulate and thought-provoking public intellectuals I know.

From his website:

Stephen is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, co-founded the school with Nathalie Roy in 2010, convening semi-annually in Deacon, Ontario, and in northern Europe.
Apprenticed to a master storyteller when a young man, he has worked extensively with dying people and their families, is former programme director in a major Canadian hospital, former assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school. He is also a sculptor, traditional canoe builder whose house won a Governor General’s Award for architecture. Since co-founding Nights of Grief and Mystery with Gregory Hoskins in 2015, he has toured this musical/tent show revival/storytelling/ceremony of a show across North America, U.K. and Europe and Australia and New Zealand.
Stephen teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, co-founded the school with Nathalie Roy in 2010, convening semi-annually in Deacon, Ontario, and in northern Europe. Apprenticed to a master storyteller when a young man, he has worked extensively with dying people and their families, is former programme director in a major Canadian hospital, former assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school. He is also a sculptor, traditional canoe builder whose house won a Governor General’s Award for architecture. Since co-founding Nights of Grief and Mystery with Gregory Hoskins in 2015, he has toured this musical/tent show revival/storytelling/ceremony of a show across North America, U.K. and Europe and Australia and New Zealand.
He is the author of Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble (2018), and the award-winning Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (2015), Homecoming: The Haiku Sessions (a live teaching from 2013).

Suffice it to say, Stephen is a fascinating human being.

And one who “wonders aloud” (as he describes it) about some of the most important and pressing issues of our time.

In today’s conversation, Stephen Jenkinson and I spoke about the implications of the coronavirus pandemic, his work in the “death trade,” how he considers his own mortality, recovering our common humanity, the distinction (or not) between being human and “humane,” and much more.

At the end of the audio-only version of this podcast, I play “Take a Little Walk/All The Songs of Love,” off of Stephen’s wonderful musical collaboration with Gregory Hoskins, Nights of Grief and Mystery.

This is one of the most timely, humbling, and thought-provoking conversations I’ve had for this podcast. This is one I plan on re-listening to for my own benefit many more times.

I hope you enjoy today’s episode. I also hope all of you are staying safe and healthy out there in these trying times.

Connect with Stephen at:

* His website, Orphan Wisdom

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