What if – instead of being embalmed and buried or burned into ash – our bodies could help grow new life after we’ve died? What if we could do so right in our cities? Join Katrina Spade as she discusses her idea – called the Urban Death Project – to create a new model of death care that honors both the earth and the departed.

Katrina Spade grew up in rural NH. Her parents were both medical professionals, and it was common to talk about death and dying at the dinner table. While earning her masters of architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Katrina designed a system that uses natural decomposition to turn our deceased into soil. Today, she is the founder and director of the Urban Death Project, an organization working to bring that system to the world. She is an Echoing Green Climate Fellow.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx