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Ryan Engler: A Chat with the Expert in All Things Cremation - Part 2
28 Plays4 years ago
Cremation has gone a long way since the first known cremation in 1876. Who better can give us the history of cremation than the Historian of the Cremation Association of North America (CANA), Jason Ryan Engler. He holds this position as well as that of Cremation Historian for the National Museum of Funeral History (NMFH). The museum was completed in 2018 with 80% of the exhibit being his personal collection.
You will learn of his baptism of fire in the world of cremation which started as early at the age of 12. A lot has changed in the process of cremation, and with its growing acceptance in the United States, this method of disposition is becoming more popular. It's yet another informative episode of The Glam Reaper Podcast, so just sit back, relax, and enjoy the learning!
LITTLE NUGGETS OF GOLD:
- Jason’s introduction of self, his qualification as cremation thought leader in the deathcare space.
- What made Jacob so fascinated in the history of cremation?
- The history of cremation from the historian of the Cremation Association of North America (CANA).
- How has the process of cremation evolved from the first known cremation in 1876 to now?
- What impact has Covid 19 had on the cremation?
- The statistics of cremation in the U.S., what is the rate of the change?
- What is the difference in people's acceptance of cremation as a method of disposition?
- Jason’s thoughts around the controversy of cremation on its effect on the environment.
- Is there anything the funeral industry can do to improve the world a better place?
- As a funeral director, what is Jason’s response to the green burial method?
- What are the cultural and psychological significance in keeping someone's ashes in an urn or niche?
Connect with Jason Ryan Engler:
Connect with Jennifer/The Glam Reaper:
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Facebook Page - Rainbow Bridge Memorials: https://www.facebook.com/rainbowbridgememorialsdotcom
Instagram - @muldowneymemorials & @jennifermuldowney
Twitter - @TheGlamReaper
Email us here: glamreaperpodcast@gmail.com
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Transcript
Introduction to Cremation
00:00:05
Speaker
Hi, and welcome to another episode of the Glam Reaper podcast.
00:00:09
Speaker
I'm your host, Jennifer Muldowney, and today's episode, we learn all about the history of cremation.
00:00:15
Speaker
You might not have known you wanted to know about it, but you definitely want to know about it.
00:00:19
Speaker
Take it away.
Environmental Impact of Cremation
00:00:22
Speaker
So Jason,
00:00:35
Speaker
the environment obviously a huge topic in terms of both burial as you you know were saying almost is how cremation started with that purification and cleaning the process cleaning the body almost I guess was was their their thought behind it back in the day in terms of now and if people come to you and they say oh no I want green burial because cremation is too polluting what would your response to that be as a funeral director
00:01:04
Speaker
Well, as a funeral director, I mean, it would certainly be whatever you want.
00:01:09
Speaker
We're going to take care of your needs.
00:01:10
Speaker
It's not going to be a, you know, there's not going to be a qualifying or my opinion that's thrown in there.
00:01:16
Speaker
However, if they ask my personal opinion, I would happily give it, you know, that's not something that I'm shy about sharing if it's asked.
00:01:25
Speaker
I'm not going to say, oh, no, you shouldn't do that.
00:01:28
Speaker
You know, I would say the footprint in general might be a little bit, a little bit less, but
00:01:34
Speaker
You know, there's this entire cultural side of things that can easily be lost with green burial.
00:01:40
Speaker
And if there's not a cemetery, if there's not a, you know, a place that is set aside, if there's not something marking the grave, because let's face it, paper goes away, the internet, you know, during the zombie apocalypse, is it going to be around still, you know, or after the zombie apocalypse?
00:01:59
Speaker
So, you
00:02:00
Speaker
Think about culturally what cemeteries are in our communities.
00:02:03
Speaker
And this is something that I've preached since day one, you know, of my interest in funeral service since I was a kid started with cemeteries too.
00:02:12
Speaker
You know, it's all in that area, all in that
Cultural Reflections in Burial Practices
00:02:15
Speaker
same vein.
00:02:15
Speaker
Here's the thing is consider what we have learned about ancient civilizations based on their burial practices or their cremation practices.
00:02:24
Speaker
Think about what then in a thousand years...
00:02:28
Speaker
Who knows what the world is going to look like, but think about what's it going to say about us and how is that going to help future generations as well to learn about this important history of the things that we are doing in our time here.
00:02:44
Speaker
Because who knows?
00:02:45
Speaker
Again, who knows?
00:02:46
Speaker
Look at how quickly technology changes and how QR codes are still around, but barely.
00:02:51
Speaker
Man, I have in my living room underneath my TV, you don't see it, but I have...
00:02:58
Speaker
200 DVDs under there.
00:03:00
Speaker
And how often do I pull them out?
00:03:02
Speaker
Not very often, but it changes so quickly.
00:03:05
Speaker
Everything changes so quickly that, yeah, there could be something else in the future that takes the place of our visiting of a cemetery.
Psychological Comfort of Traditional Resting Places
00:03:13
Speaker
But what about that consistency that a place of rest provides?
00:03:20
Speaker
And that's not even, again, to mention the psychological aspect of it for people, you know?
00:03:26
Speaker
So,
00:03:26
Speaker
So there's a lot there, you know, there's a lot to unpack and discuss, but I feel as a personal response to that would be the impact is not that much greater if you're doing the other things that go along with it.
00:03:43
Speaker
It's not that much greater to do a green burial than to do a cremation.
00:03:47
Speaker
Right.
00:03:48
Speaker
No, again, I don't have the numbers.
00:03:49
Speaker
I'm not looking at the numbers.
00:03:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:51
Speaker
When you were talking about cemeteries there, so do you believe that when somebody is cremated, do you believe that they should, I'm going to use my American terminology here, do you believe that they should be placed in a niche, aka a niche for anybody British and Irish watching?
00:04:08
Speaker
Well, if you're talking about art, then it is a niche.
00:04:12
Speaker
Yes.
00:04:12
Speaker
However, I think that that's a great thing.
00:04:15
Speaker
I think that that's a fantastic way to honor somebody's life and remember somebody's life.
00:04:20
Speaker
Because it can be so personalized.
00:04:22
Speaker
Do you not think people should take their ashes home?
00:04:24
Speaker
And I don't know why I'm just doing it as if they're carrying it like this.
00:04:27
Speaker
Yeah, like they're carrying it in an urn.
00:04:29
Speaker
I don't think that people should take ashes home or however you want to say, cremated remains.
00:04:34
Speaker
I don't think they belong in people's homes with, you know, all together.
00:04:39
Speaker
Now, if you want to have a keepsake, I have
00:04:41
Speaker
You know, I have a ring that I wear every day that has a small portion of my granny's ashes in it because that means something to me.
00:04:48
Speaker
I have this small bird on my desk here that sits on my desk and looks up at me every day.
00:04:53
Speaker
Part of her ashes are in there.
00:04:55
Speaker
You know, that's the thing is we have so many unique small portion things that you can do, but then do something permanent with the remains.
00:05:04
Speaker
Because what if Aunt Jo wants to come visit?
00:05:08
Speaker
You're going to let her come into your house and visit your mantel?
00:05:11
Speaker
You know, or are you going to say, no, go somewhere else and visit
Legacy and Memorialization
00:05:15
Speaker
somewhere else?
00:05:15
Speaker
Right.
00:05:16
Speaker
So you believe that there, no matter what disposition you choose, there should be sort of some permanent marker of the person, whether, you know, for their legacy, for other people, visitations.
00:05:29
Speaker
Culturally and psychologically, it is absolutely proven.
00:05:34
Speaker
that those things are important for us as people and us as a society.
00:05:40
Speaker
A place of rest is important.
00:05:42
Speaker
Right.
00:05:42
Speaker
And can I ask you then along these lines of what we're talking about, what are your thoughts?
00:05:48
Speaker
And you can be absolutely free and frank with me.
00:05:50
Speaker
I think you probably know that already.
00:05:53
Speaker
and I can tell you're that person but what are your thoughts on all of these new age forms of disposition so you've got composting that's been done by a variety of different people alkaline hydrolysis that's been done by a couple of different people permission I don't think ever got anywhere as far as I'm aware and you know all of these new age ones do you think they have a leg to stand on it's probably
00:06:17
Speaker
is the funny phrase to have in this industry, but do you think they have a leg to stand on?
00:06:21
Speaker
Do you think they're the future?
00:06:23
Speaker
Or what do you think is the future for cremation?
00:06:26
Speaker
I remember in 2004, how long ago was that?
00:06:31
Speaker
16 years.
00:06:33
Speaker
17 years?
00:06:34
Speaker
17.
00:06:35
Speaker
I keep forgetting that we're in 2021.
00:06:37
Speaker
Where did 2020 go?
00:06:39
Speaker
We're done with that.
00:06:40
Speaker
It's away.
00:06:40
Speaker
Yeah, probably a good thing.
00:06:42
Speaker
I remember in 2004 reading an article in a trade journal, alkaline hydrolysis, the next disruptor in funeral service.
00:06:54
Speaker
Here we are 17 years later.
00:06:56
Speaker
It's out there and it's growing.
00:06:59
Speaker
But again, when society places so much emphasis on things that make them comfortable at death,
00:07:09
Speaker
I've heard, how many times have you heard stories of deathbed conversions, you know, of people who are facing death.
00:07:16
Speaker
They were raised in a church somewhere and they're facing death and here they are face to face with death.
00:07:22
Speaker
And it's like, you know what?
00:07:24
Speaker
Maybe I should get this right.
00:07:25
Speaker
You know, maybe I should, maybe I, maybe I wasn't right all along, you know, think about that comfort that can be given to us as people from something like that.
00:07:37
Speaker
from me saying to my family, you know what, just kidding.
00:07:39
Speaker
I believe in Jesus.
00:07:41
Speaker
I mean, my mother would just be, she would love it.
00:07:43
Speaker
When it comes to death, we're slow to change things.
00:07:47
Speaker
Do I think that those have a place for people?
00:07:50
Speaker
If it makes them comfortable
Innovations in Cremation Methods
00:07:52
Speaker
and it makes them happy and it's something that they would want to do, by all means, do it.
00:07:59
Speaker
As a professional and seeing what I've seen in the past,
00:08:04
Speaker
Is it something that is going to change the world overnight or even in a decade?
00:08:09
Speaker
No, I don't think so.
00:08:11
Speaker
For me personally, I reject in my personal life fads until it is something that is tried and true with the exception of a few things.
00:08:22
Speaker
Until it's something that's tried and true, I am not interested in jumping on a bandwagon.
00:08:27
Speaker
Right.
00:08:28
Speaker
Which is why I still have an Android phone.
00:08:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:30
Speaker
Just as an example.
00:08:32
Speaker
Right.
00:08:33
Speaker
But again, there are comfort for a lot of people.
00:08:36
Speaker
There's comfort for a lot of people in these things that are tangible and are experiential on a face-to-face basis.
00:08:46
Speaker
The pandemic has taught us so much about what we can do without being physically in the same room as people.
00:08:53
Speaker
But how many people do you know have said, I cannot wait to see my friends in person?
00:08:59
Speaker
You're going back to Ireland as an example.
00:09:03
Speaker
You're wanting to go visit Ireland.
00:09:05
Speaker
But that's my point, is that you have that aching to do that, to be in proximity with the people that you love that are there.
00:09:14
Speaker
Death is the same way.
00:09:16
Speaker
If we can be in the proximity of the people that we love that are dead, their
Trends in Direct Cremation
00:09:21
Speaker
memory is still here.
00:09:23
Speaker
It does volumes for us to be able to be in that close proximity.
00:09:28
Speaker
It gives us that communion, that ability to be part of their community.
00:09:32
Speaker
existence in whatever spiritual realm they're in and our existence here and refresh our memories and refresh our thoughts and our ideas.
00:09:41
Speaker
You've actually segued into my next question for you, actually.
00:09:45
Speaker
You keep doing that.
00:09:46
Speaker
There has, along with all these new age forms of disposition, and you are right, I mean, the growth in
00:09:53
Speaker
That in 17 years is fairly minimal.
00:09:56
Speaker
I do wonder, will we see a faster uptake of it post-COVID?
00:10:01
Speaker
You know, I do feel like people were faced with death a lot more last year than they ever had thought about it before.
00:10:08
Speaker
But there has been an evolution of direct cremation going online.
00:10:14
Speaker
So and there's both pros and cons to it and experts have said that, you know, it's our denial of death.
00:10:20
Speaker
The fact that we're now choosing to just sort of deal with Aunt Mary's body by not even seeing her and having somebody pick it up and doing everything online.
00:10:29
Speaker
And then there's other people who are just more comfortable and feel less sold out.
00:10:34
Speaker
What's your thoughts on those?
00:10:36
Speaker
And are we saying goodbye to the funeral home?
00:10:38
Speaker
Or do you think that is a cultural thing, especially here in the US, that is just never going to go away and will always be around?
Funeral Homes as Community Hubs
00:10:47
Speaker
I think that culturally, it's something that's always going to be around as part of community.
00:10:51
Speaker
I think that how involvement in the community is going to be very, very different.
00:10:56
Speaker
And it's already proving that that's the case.
00:10:58
Speaker
Funeral homes aren't starting to look like funeral homes anymore.
00:11:01
Speaker
They're starting to look more like event centers.
00:11:03
Speaker
They're starting to look like fine hotels where people are comfortable and not dark, spooky parlors where people are a little less comfortable.
00:11:12
Speaker
But definitely their place in society, their place in existence, that's never going to completely go away.
00:11:20
Speaker
Because more and more people are relying on funeral homes that may not have necessarily done that because funeral homes are adjusting the way that they do things, believe it or not.
00:11:33
Speaker
adjusting the way that they do things so that they can maintain their cultural significance.
00:11:38
Speaker
You know, that's a business decision.
00:11:40
Speaker
Yes, it's a business and that's what it's all about.
00:11:42
Speaker
But that discussion of putting away your grief and cremation, fulfilling that need to put away your grief, that's been a discussion for many years.
00:11:51
Speaker
That's been a discussion since direct cremation, that term wasn't coined until the 1960s.
00:11:58
Speaker
That being the case,
Grieving and Direct Cremation
00:12:00
Speaker
it hasn't, you know, it's been around for a good
00:12:02
Speaker
significant portion of modern history.
00:12:05
Speaker
And it's always been a discussion that direct cremation denies people that process of grief.
00:12:12
Speaker
And it does.
00:12:13
Speaker
I feel like that that does in a lot of ways.
00:12:16
Speaker
But I also feel like that people are learning more and more about the importance of being able to remember loved ones in personal ways and not in ways that necessarily are
00:12:28
Speaker
traditional or conventional.
00:12:30
Speaker
That doesn't preclude the fact that they are doing so.
00:12:34
Speaker
I don't think that fewer people are doing services.
00:12:37
Speaker
I think they're just doing them differently.
00:12:39
Speaker
It's definitely one to watch.
00:12:40
Speaker
And as I was speaking to a driver behind one of these sites, as I said, Tim, I've been around and I'm fairly new still, but I've been around the funeral industry for the last 10 years and I've seen startups come and go.
00:12:55
Speaker
And one of my biggest fears or worries, if you like, is that these new businesses and these startups are
00:13:03
Speaker
will come and go and what will happen is that families are the victims of, for example, say, and I've been approached by so many of these over the years, but say, for example, an app that's now pitching to do obituaries.
00:13:18
Speaker
And so a family pays to have an obituary, yada, yada, and then all of a sudden the app and the website have just disappeared and are
Pre-Planning Funerals
00:13:24
Speaker
no longer...
00:13:24
Speaker
you know, and kind of to what your point said about the niches in a prematorium or a cemetery, it kind of robs the family of that legacy that they actually did want.
00:13:34
Speaker
There are people who don't want it, and I understand that too, and we each should be allowed to express ourselves and our grief in our own ways.
00:13:43
Speaker
Considering, and I feel like that's very true, considering though that don't be selfish about it, you know, think and remember that there are others, and there will be others, you know, think about
00:13:55
Speaker
children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren in that future progeny that's important.
00:14:01
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:14:02
Speaker
And Jason, you literally hit on my three things.
00:14:05
Speaker
I always say my three pillars are digital environment and pre-planning.
00:14:10
Speaker
And that is exactly one of the main reasons why I always push people to pre-plan, pre-plan, pre-plan.
00:14:16
Speaker
Because even if you're just jotting your notes down on paper of what you want, at least you get to say what it is.
00:14:22
Speaker
Whereas I know, for example, I'm always using this.
00:14:26
Speaker
My poor parents have been killed a million times over on all my different medias.
00:14:29
Speaker
But, you know, when my mum dies, I would be the one responsible.
00:14:33
Speaker
And I'm going to do her funeral from my point of view because she's my mother.
00:14:37
Speaker
But she's also my brother's mother, which is a different person in itself.
00:14:40
Speaker
She's also a wife.
00:14:42
Speaker
She's a grandmother now.
00:14:43
Speaker
She's a daughter herself.
00:14:44
Speaker
She's a best friend.
00:14:45
Speaker
Whereas it would just be from my point of view.
00:14:47
Speaker
And so I would be perhaps make selfish choices or make choices that just speak to my grief.
00:14:55
Speaker
So that's another reason.
00:14:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:57
Speaker
Main reason why I think people should pre-plan.
Evolution of Cremation Practices
00:14:59
Speaker
We've talked about a lot, obviously on this, but, you know, 150 nearly years of cremating, you
00:15:05
Speaker
When it originally started, and, you know, we've said that it hasn't changed a huge amount, how long did it take for, and I know you said that there was a service in the room, was the body in and cremating at the time the service was taking place?
00:15:21
Speaker
Or is it more, was it more like today where it took place sort of after, you know, maybe the family could close the door and then it happens?
00:15:29
Speaker
And then how long did that process take versus today?
00:15:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:32
Speaker
Typically, if something concluded at a crematory, it was like a committal service like you would have at a burial.
00:15:39
Speaker
It's very, very similar.
00:15:40
Speaker
Same kind of thought.
00:15:41
Speaker
In fact, a lot of the early crematories in the country, the cremation apparatus was in the basement.
00:15:46
Speaker
The chapel was on the upper floor and there was an elevator between the two and they would lower the casket to the lower level, which, you know, mocked the idea of a burial.
00:15:59
Speaker
Same kind of thing.
00:16:00
Speaker
In fact, there was a crematory in New Jersey that had
00:16:03
Speaker
The lowering device elevator had a kind of a canopy over it.
00:16:06
Speaker
And when that canopy was all the way down, it was flushed with the floor and it looked like a mound of dirt.
00:16:12
Speaker
It was made to look like a mound of dirt with flowers on it and all kinds of things.
00:16:17
Speaker
It was this desire to maintain tradition and, you know, create these architecturally significant buildings that would house this committal service.
00:16:26
Speaker
And that was all part of the process of the cremation movement.
00:16:30
Speaker
Typically, the casket would be lowered at the earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
00:16:35
Speaker
The casket would be lowered.
00:16:37
Speaker
The cremation would begin then, typically.
00:16:40
Speaker
A lot of the early crematories in the country actually requested, and some even required, that somebody witness the casket being placed into the cremation chamber and invited people, even a lot of them early on, invited people to look through the peepholes and see what was happening in the cremation chamber.
00:16:59
Speaker
And, you know, that's all things that were important for the movement of cremation.
00:17:04
Speaker
But that being the case, you know, that process then took place in two hours, you know, hour and a half or two hours.
00:17:10
Speaker
Some of the early crematories got up to, you know, 2,500 degrees.
00:17:14
Speaker
Of course, that took a little less time.
00:17:16
Speaker
But they also would take a lot of time to get to that temperature as well.
00:17:19
Speaker
Right.
00:17:20
Speaker
Again, not much different than what it is today.
00:17:22
Speaker
Yeah.
Commercialization vs Personalization of Funerals
00:17:23
Speaker
It's just, as you said, technology has just sort of moved, moved it forward a little bit.
00:17:28
Speaker
It's interesting and kind of mind blowing, really, as I kind of pointed out that it started with one guy wanting what he wanted.
00:17:36
Speaker
and having the money to build it, all of a sudden other people want in as well.
00:17:41
Speaker
And it's kind of... That's definitely what gave it the kickstart.
00:17:44
Speaker
It wasn't like only one person wanted cremation.
00:17:46
Speaker
Right.
00:17:47
Speaker
It's that it was this massive discussion and he kickstarted it by building a crematory.
00:17:53
Speaker
He had the money.
00:17:54
Speaker
Let's just call it day to day, Jason.
00:17:56
Speaker
It's like today.
00:17:57
Speaker
If you have the money, you get to start.
00:18:00
Speaker
You get to start the movement.
00:18:01
Speaker
That's just the way it goes.
00:18:03
Speaker
But isn't it kind of interesting that that's similar in the way the funeral business became commercialized?
00:18:08
Speaker
Because I mean, funeral homes, the reason why they look like homes
00:18:13
Speaker
And the reason why they're called funeral homes is because it originated in people's homes.
00:18:17
Speaker
Obviously, as an Irish person, you know, I'm from Dublin, so not so much in Dublin, but down the country in Ireland, especially in really rural parts of Ireland, we're still waking.
00:18:26
Speaker
You know, we still do wakes.
00:18:28
Speaker
It's still a huge thing.
00:18:29
Speaker
And it's just fascinating.
00:18:32
Speaker
It started as such a personal thing, cremation and...
00:18:35
Speaker
funerals and came from a really pure place to now where it is quite commercialized and is such an industry whether to call it a community or an industry or a business etc etc I personally flip between all of the above because I think it is all of the above because to me profit and loss happens it's an industry it's a business sales and you know there's buying and the selling and
00:18:58
Speaker
But some people are hesitant of that.
00:19:00
Speaker
And I feel like that's almost doing the industry a disservice because, and honestly, it's a part of what I try and do whenever I'm speaking to the media, which is actually one of the reasons why I wanted to start this podcast was to have these open and honest conversations and show the public that
00:19:17
Speaker
It's not all money grabbing.
00:19:18
Speaker
It's not cowboys.
00:19:20
Speaker
It's not sometimes the way the media pictured.
00:19:22
Speaker
Like during COVID, I'll never forget, obviously, up here in New York, we were in the trenches.
00:19:27
Speaker
And the one thing the media went on, and thankfully I did get a bit of press and was able to sort of address certain things.
00:19:33
Speaker
one of the things they highlighted was the truck outside a funeral home in Brooklyn that was housing millions of bodies, wasn't millions, but they glorified.
00:19:45
Speaker
It's like, would you do that to a hospital?
00:19:48
Speaker
Everybody was in the trenches at that point.
00:19:50
Speaker
And my heart really went down to what I kept calling us the last responders because we were working, well, not me because I'm not actually a licensed funeral director, but the funeral homes that I know,
00:20:01
Speaker
They were working every hour, God's ends, just like the nurses and the doctors.
00:20:05
Speaker
And honestly, to me, it was almost just as difficult as the first responders because we were dealing with the deaths just mounting.
00:20:13
Speaker
In my experience, it was a tough time.
00:20:16
Speaker
I was at that when COVID first hit.
00:20:19
Speaker
And until October of last year, I was on the management team of a huge funeral home here in Austin.
00:20:26
Speaker
And we had the care center at the back of our funeral home.
00:20:30
Speaker
for all of our funeral homes in the area.
00:20:32
Speaker
I've never seen so much death.
00:20:34
Speaker
I've never seen so much of
Recognition of Funeral Directors' Efforts
00:20:36
Speaker
that.
00:20:36
Speaker
And it was tough.
00:20:38
Speaker
It was tough to see and experience and watch happen.
00:20:42
Speaker
Being in that depth is tough.
00:20:44
Speaker
It is.
00:20:44
Speaker
And it's, as I say, it's not to harp on about it or it's not to seek sympathy because actually that's one of the last things any funeral director I know does is seek sympathy.
00:20:55
Speaker
It's really interesting actually.
00:20:59
Speaker
And selfless and, you know, it's funny for people to talk about, you know, death care being so money driven when in actuality, I very few funeral homes or funeral directors that I know would would be so self-serving to.
00:21:16
Speaker
say that that's why they're in it.
00:21:18
Speaker
Yeah, it was a calling first.
00:21:21
Speaker
Do they make money out of it?
00:21:22
Speaker
Yes.
00:21:24
Speaker
And again, I don't want to make light of it, but we regularly do on the Glamour Reaper podcast, but it's like Irish people.
00:21:30
Speaker
We're not drunks.
00:21:31
Speaker
We just like having a good time.
00:21:34
Speaker
And if we keep drinking and we end up drunk as a consequence, then do you know what you're going to do?
00:21:41
Speaker
Just like to have a good diet.
00:21:43
Speaker
Right.
00:21:44
Speaker
Right.
00:21:44
Speaker
That's the big thing and I'm sticking to it.
00:21:48
Speaker
Well, listen, Jason, we won't hold you on any longer because we have held you on long enough.
00:21:53
Speaker
But thank you so much.
00:21:54
Speaker
And I can definitely see that we will have you back on again.
00:21:58
Speaker
And thank you so much, Jason.
00:22:00
Speaker
Really an absolute pleasure to talk to you.
00:22:02
Speaker
I do want to just really quickly before we stop recording.
Education and Standards in Cremation Industry
00:22:06
Speaker
Can you tell us a tiny little bit about Kena?
00:22:09
Speaker
I'm not necessarily a spokesperson, but I am the historian.
00:22:12
Speaker
Kena is the oldest cremation-focused industry association, not necessarily a company per se.
00:22:20
Speaker
We are a non-profit organization that basically our factors are educating cremationists, educating funeral professionals about cremation, and especially providing and maintaining statistics that we gather each year for the U.S. and Canada.
00:22:36
Speaker
for the rates of cremation.
00:22:39
Speaker
We are the, again, the oldest association that focuses on all aspects of cremation, whether it's water cremation, fire cremation, any of the above.
00:22:48
Speaker
We have a couple of events that happen each year that are kind of gathering place for people who want to actually learn about cremation.
00:22:57
Speaker
But we also have several in-person trainings that take place, and hopefully those will pick up again.
00:23:04
Speaker
But we have virtual as well, virtual and in-person trainings for crematory operations certification
Further Information and Contact
00:23:11
Speaker
program.
00:23:11
Speaker
That is something that the industry standard, we created the crematory operator training.
00:23:17
Speaker
That crematory operations training is the benchmark that many have copied from other associations as well, but a little partial to.
00:23:27
Speaker
We are the go-to for
00:23:29
Speaker
cremation information statistics all of those things and cremationassociation.org is the the website well thank you jason so much for being on the podcast and if anybody has any questions about cremation jason's definitely your man so either shoot us an email at glam reaper podcast at gmail.com and we will gladly put you in touch with jason or leave something in the comments and tell us ask a question and yeah thank you so much for
00:23:56
Speaker
You're also welcome to find me on Facebook, The Cremation Historian.
00:24:00
Speaker
Just look me up there and you'll see all kinds of fun history tidbits that go back a few years.
00:24:05
Speaker
It's been a little quiet lately with me making posts, but there's a lot of information there that if you haven't seen it yet, then it'll keep you busy for a while.
00:24:13
Speaker
Excellent.
00:24:20
Speaker
I bet you didn't know any of that abitformation.
00:24:23
Speaker
I personally found this conversation really fascinating.
00:24:25
Speaker
And as always, any comments, feedback or questions, send them to glamouryperpodcast at gmail.com.
00:24:31
Speaker
We'll see you next week.