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In this revisit from Season 1, Amy hosts a Halloween edition of the Talkin’ Appalachian Podcast featuring education specialist Burke Greer from the Southwest Virginia Museum and Historical State Park, exploring historic Appalachian death and mourning rituals. Topics include church bell tolling to announce deaths and the deceased’s age, the “death watch,” wakes, and premonitions through dreams or visions. Burke describes home-based practices before embalming: cooling boards, binding the body, salt to absorb moisture, sitting up with the dead, fears about cats, and seasonal concerns like keeping bodies frozen in winter. The episode covers the rise of embalming and funeral aesthetics, post-mortem photography, grave digging as a community task, outdoor funeralizing, the origin of “pallbearer,” ridge-top cemeteries versus church graveyards, early markers and symbols, wreaths and flowers, hair weaving and graveyard quilts, Victorian mourning customs, and home superstitions like stopping clocks, covering mirrors, and corpse-bird omens, ending with an excerpt from Ron Rash’s “The Corpse Bird.”

00:00 Halloween Episode Intro

01:00 Bells and Death Notices

01:16 Death Watch and Wake

02:10 Family Roles After Death

02:43 Premonitions and Visions

04:09 Cooling Boards and Rigor

05:54 Sitting Up With Dead

06:19 Embalming and Funeral Industry

07:20 Post Mortem Photography

09:01 Funerals and Pallbearers

10:39 Cemeteries and Grave Markers

12:50 Mourning Symbols and Hair Art

14:29 Victorian Mourning Clothes

15:56 Patreon and Bonus Photos

16:43 Home Death Superstitions

18:34 Ron Rash Corpse Bird

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*Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and review the podcast (if you like it)!
*Support the show by sharing links to episodes on social
*Subscribe to support the podcast on the Facebook Talking Appalachian page, or here at our Patreon page to get bonus content:
Talking Appalachian Podcast | Covering the Appalachian Region from North to South | Patreon
*Follow and message me on IG, FB, YouTube: @talkingappalachian
*To sponsor an episode or collaborate: talkingappalachianpodcast@gmail.com or message me at the link here or on social.

Unless another artist is featured, acoustic music on most episodes: "Freight Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

What did you think of this episode?

Emilee Hackney's memoir, All That's Unseen ( Random House, 2026) is a story that is both heartbreaking and hopeful. Here's more about Emilee and her book:

She was born and raised deep in the hollers of the Appalachian Mountains. The majestic ridgelines of southwest Virginia provided the backdrop for her upbringing, and the stories of her grandparents and the coal mines’ brutal grip on their livelihood and land informed her understanding of home and the shape of one’s life. The memoir and our conversation detail the story of a young woman who loses her faith, leaves the holler for Harvard, and finds her way back to her home, discovering what endures along the way.

Paid subscribers can find a bonus conversation I had with Emilee here and on Patreon.

Support the show

*Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and review the podcast (if you like it)!
*Support the show by sharing links to episodes on social
*Subscribe to support the podcast on the Facebook Talking Appalachian page, or here at our Patreon page to get bonus content:
Talking Appalachian Podcast | Covering the Appalachian Region from North to South | Patreon
*Follow and message me on IG, FB, YouTube: @talkingappalachian
*To sponsor an episode or collaborate: talkingappalachianpodcast@gmail.com or message me at the link here or on social.

Unless another artist is featured, acoustic music on most episodes: "Freight Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain

What did you think of this episode?

Known as @theculturedbumpkin on social media and YouTube, voice actor Jake Phillips knows a thing or two about sounding Southern. The Mississippi native built his voice acting career after he began reading and recording audio books for his children and putting them on YouTube. He has grown a following online for his whimsical vocal interpretations of classics like Shakespeare and Pride and Prejudice-but with a Southern twist.

You can find Jake's Voice Acting Academy here

Support the show

*Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and review the podcast (if you like it)!
*Support the show by sharing links to episodes on social
*Subscribe to support the podcast on the Facebook Talking Appalachian page, or here at our Patreon page to get bonus content:
Talking Appalachian Podcast | Covering the Appalachian Region from North to South | Patreon
*Follow and message me on IG, FB, YouTube: @talkingappalachian
*To sponsor an episode or collaborate: talkingappalachianpodcast@gmail.com or message me at the link here or on social.

Unless another artist is featured, acoustic music on most episodes: "Freight Train" written by Elizabeth Cotten and performed by Landon Spain