The Family Plot Blog
98.6 Mortality Movies Book Launch & “Other Side” Documentary Screening
Join pioneering death educator and author Gail Rubin, CT, for a special evening marking the launch of her new book, 98.6 Mortality Movies to See Before You Die. This unique event pairs film and conversation to explore end-of-life issues in a meaningful, accessible way. Date: Tuesday, May 19, 2026 Time: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.Location: French Funerals & Cremations – Lomas Chapel (Lomas & Eubank)10500 Lomas Blvd. NE, Albuquerque, NM...
Death Cafe on World Labyrinth Day – May 2, 2026
A Death Cafe will take place on May 2, 2026, which is World Labyrinth Day at La Puerta Natural Burial Ground. Located south and east of Belen, it is New Mexico’s only Green Burial Council Certified natural burial ground. They also have a labyrinth designed by death educator Jane Westbrook. This event offers a rare opportunity for the public to learn about green burial practices while participating in a day of reflection, education, and...
Nicole Kidman’s Unexpected Apprenticeship as a Death Doula Started in Movies
When Nicole Kidman recently said she’s interested in becoming a death doula, it might have sounded like an unexpected career pivot. But if you’ve been watching her films closely, it’s not a pivot at all. It’s a continuation. Long before she ever spoke about end-of-life care, Kidman has been exploring death, grief, and what it means to keep living in the face of loss. Again and again, she’s taken on roles that sit right at the emotional edge...
Want to Own the Jaguar Hearse from Harold and Maude? It May Be Heading to Auction
The Jaguar hearse from Harold and Maude could be yours! Nearly ten years ago, I wrote about one of the most unusual vehicles ever created: a painstaking recreation of the Jaguar hearse driven by Harold in the cult classic Harold and Maude. At the time, car enthusiast Ken Roberts was showing off the results of a multi-year project to rebuild a vehicle that, technically, no longer existed. The original Jaguar hearse used in the 1971 film was...
Death and Taxes: Two Hard Realities You Really Can’t Avoid
Death and Taxes: April 15 is Tax Day, and April 16 is National Healthcare Decisions Day. They are two back-to-back reminders that paperwork isn’t just a bureaucratic nuisance, it’s a gift to your future self and everyone who cares about you. As Benjamin Franklin famously put it, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” He didn’t mention paperwork, but he probably would have, if he’d ever tried to find a...
A Route 66 Road Trip to Scatter Cremated Remains
A Route 66 Road Trip to Scatter Cremated Remains I recently took a road trip from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Catoosa, Oklahoma. The assignment: to scatter the cremated remains of my brother-in-law, Steven Bleicher. Steven was an artist, art professor, and color theory expert. Around 2004, he created a series of works inspired by Route 66, the Mother Road. Highways, movement, memory, and the souvenirs we gather along the way were central in this...
What Was I Saving My Money For? Lessons from a Refrigerator Magnet
Today’s post is a departure from Mortality Movies. It’s about mortality and your money. On Monday, March 30 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time/12:00 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time, join Gail Rubin and Doug Lynam, author of the book Taming Your Money Monster: Nine Paths to Money Mastery with the Enneagram, for a LIVE Substack conversation about how we handle our finances. Doug’s Substack is called The Holy Trinity of Finance. Gail’s Substack is...
Oscar Night Reflections: Let’s Celebrate and Remember to Live Before We Die
Did you watch the Oscar awards on Sunday night? The evening had celebration, remembrance, and a surreal hazmat-suited existential punchline. Let’s start with the applause-worthy moments. Bravo to Best Actress Jessie Buckley for Hamnet and Best Actor Michael B. Jordan for Sinners. Their acceptance speeches were lovely. Both of their performances were powerful reminders of how storytelling helps us sit with life’s biggest truths, especially the...
Route 66 Alpha to Omega: Scattering Ashes from Chicago to the Pacific
Scattering ashes of a cremated loved one is a common request. But how many people actually do it? There are literally millions of sets of cremated remains sitting in basements, closets and garages. It doesn't have to be that way. Last year, I began fulfilling a request from my brother-in-law, Steven Bleicher, who died unexpectedly March 11, 2025. Steven was an artist, art professor, and color theory expert who created a series of artworks...
What The Big Lebowski Teaches Us About Funerals (Yes, Really)
When people hear I teach about death through movies, they usually expect something solemn. Tender. Maybe subtitled. They do not expect The Big Lebowski. And yet here we are, with bowling balls, White Russians, and more f-bombs than a fireworks finale, talking about funeral planning. Now, let’s be clear: this film does not neatly fit the Mortality Movies genre. It wanders. It rants. It ties the room together and then sets the room on fire. But...
Leaving It to Chance: Estate Planning Lessons from “Being There”
Over the weekend, we screened the 1979 film Being There with Peter Sellers. As a Mortality Movie, it's one of those deceptively quiet films that starts with gentle comedy and ends up opening big conversations about power, vulnerability, and what happens when someone dies without a plan. On the surface, the story is simple. Chance is a sheltered, naive gardener who has spent his entire life inside a Washington, DC townhouse, tending plants and...
98.6 Mortality Movies to See Before You Die Coming Soon!
A New Book, Two Covers, and 142 Movies and TV Shows That Get People Talking About Death I’m happy to officially share some news that has been a long time coming and has involved a truly unreasonable number of movies. My new book, 98.6 Mortality Movies to See Before You Die, is now available for pre-sale, and yes, readers get to choose their cover. Because life is short and choices should be fun. 👉 Pre-sale...
Chuckles Bites the Dust: How to Talk About Death Without Ruining Dinner
If you only had 30 minutes to help someone feel less weird about talking through funeral wishes, what would you show them? A spreadsheet?A legal document?A pamphlet with too many euphemisms and not enough humanity? Hard pass. My top pick, every time, is the 1975 Mary Tyler Moore Show episode, “Chuckles Bites the Dust.” Yes, the one with the clown.Yes, the one where Mary Richards laughs uncontrollably at the funeral.And yes, the one that somehow...
Critical Care: When the ICU Meets Kafka (and the Billing Department)
Critical Care (1997) is going to be my next Mortality Movie Night selection on February 7. Register through this Meetup event. If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if a hospital ethics committee, an insurance company, and a dysfunctional family were locked in a room together and told to decide whether someone lives or dies, congratulations, you’ve basically described Critical Care. Directed by Sidney Lumet (because of course it is) and...
Big Hero 6: A Superhero Movie That Sneaks in a Grief Lesson
Big Hero 6 Big Hero 6 looks like a turbo-charged animated superhero romp, at first glance. There are flying robots, neon cityscapes, and a team of unlikely crime fighters who look like they wandered in from very different Halloween parties. But then something happens. Someone dies. And suddenly this “kids’ movie” turns into one of the most emotionally honest portrayals of grief Disney has ever released, wrapped in vinyl armor and a gentle voice...
Gravity: Grief, Survival, and the Courage to Re‑Enter Life
Gravity (2013 – PG‑13, 1 hr. 31 min.) may look like a white‑knuckle sci‑fi disaster epic, but at its core it is a profoundly human story about loss, mourning, and the slow, deliberate choice to keep living. Yes, there are spinning astronauts, orbital debris moving at ungodly speeds, and George Clooney doing what George Clooney does best (calm competence with a side of charm). But the real vacuum in Gravity isn’t space—it’s the hollowed‑out...
The Top Three Mortality Movies of 2025
As The Doyenne of Death and expert on Mortality Movies, I’m often asked if I spend all my time thinking about death. My answer? Of course not. I also think about films and TV shows, snacks, and how avoiding conversations about mortality tends to make people more anxious, not less. Which brings me to 2025: a year that quietly delivered some of the most thoughtful, emotionally resonant films about mortality we’ve seen in a long time. These...
Remembering Rob Reiner: Love, Laughter, and the Movies That Made Us Feel Alive
There are moments in life — and in death — that leave us blinking at the horizon of our own mortality, wondering how something so sudden, so shockingly unfair could happen to souls so beloved. This past weekend brought just such a moment with the tragic deaths of actor-director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, found stabbed in their Brentwood, California home in an apparent homicide. They were discovered on December 14, 2025; Rob...
Medical Aid in Dying: We offer our pets a good death, why not our people?
Medical aid in dying is misunderstood. This TEDxABQ talk presented by Gail Rubin, the Doyenne of Death®, on September 27, 2025, helps dispel myths and misconceptions. Here is the video of the talk, and the written version below. Medical Aid in Dying If you’re younger than 70, you’ve probably said, “IF I die.” News Flash: The mortality rate is holding steady at 100%. It’s not IF but...
The Twilight Zone: The First Mortality Movies TV Series
The Twilight Zone, created and hosted by Rod Serling, was basically the first Mortality Movies TV series. The series, which aired on CBS from 1959 to 1964, presented a range of stories in the fantasy, horror and science fiction genres. The characters often dealt with disturbing or unusual events, an experience described as entering “the Twilight Zone.” If you are of certain age, you'll remember those ominous words uttered by Serling at the...
Holiday Mortality Movies: Festive Films that Stare Down the Reaper
Yes, there are Christmas Mortality Movies. The holidays come loaded with tinsel, tradition, and, if we’re honest, a surprising amount of existential angst. Year’s end nudges us into inventory mode: Who am I? What have I done? Did I really send that reply-all? Enter the Mortality Movie, a holiday staple that uses ghosts, near-death detours, and cosmic do-overs to help us take stock, then sit back down with the people we love while the cocoa...