AI Summary
5 min read“I was just out having a little ride in my favorite car,” said 85-year-old William Bosworth after Florida deputies clocked him doing 110 miles per hour in a 45 zone. He was smiling in his mugshot. That story, read aloud on OBITCHUARY’s five-year anniversary episode, captures the show’s sweet spot: death, absurdity, and a refusal to take any of it too seriously.
Hosts Spencer Henry and Madison Reyes open by celebrating five years of podcasting, noting they once hit #2 on iTunes next to Smartless. The conversation quickly veers from a heat wave in France—where funeral homes ran out of storage and at least 1,000 excess deaths were recorded—to the funeral of music executive Clive Davis, which drew Nancy Pelosi and Barry Manilow. The tone is loose, personal, and conversational, with the hosts trading tangents about acne, Pepsi products in Nashville movie theaters, and the dream of running a senior chihuahua sanctuary.
The Asshole Letters: Grief and Social Obligation
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Show Intro & Housekeeping** - Ad reads and theme song, followed by the hosts Spencer and Madison greeting listeners.
- 2 (05:48) **France's Heat Wave Overwhelms Funeral Homes** - The hosts discuss a Reuters article about a funeral home in France being completely full due to a deadly heat wave.
- 3 (09:20) **Clive Davis's Star-Studded Funeral & Other News** - Brief discussion of Clive Davis's funeral at Central Synagogue in New York, with notable attendees.
- 4 (13:08) **Wishful Thinking & The Housing Market** - A philosophical tangent on wishes, health, and money, leading into the main topic of the episode.
- 5 (16:07) **Listener Assholes: Grief & Funerals** - The hosts read and react to two "Am I the Asshole?" letters about grief and social obligations.
- 6 (22:43) **Madison's Coffin Spinner: Uncle Bernie the Balloon Man** - A sweet obituary from 1970 about a man who dedicated his Wednesdays to visiting sick children in a Toronto hospital.
- 7 (25:43) **Spencer's Coffin Spinner: Cemetery Stalkers** - A deep dive into the phenomenon of people paying exorbitant prices to be buried next to celebrities.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
OBISH! This week Madison is talking about some celebrity grave drama! Next, Spencer is taking us to Cassadaga, Florida to learn about a place known as ‘seance city!’ We’ve got an obituary for a man with a good heart, one that seemed to never end and so much more!!!! Of course, we're topping it all off with some dumb.ass.criminallllls!
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Check out Spencer’s other podcast Cult Liter wherever you’re listening!
Sources:
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/madison/name/ray-peterson-obituary?id=34030193
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/aug/25/marilyn-monroe-burial-plot-sold