A Conversation with Gail Rubin, The Doyenne of Death®, a Pioneer in Death Education

Gail Rubin, CT, The Doyenne of Death®, is a pioneering death educator based in New Mexico. A doyenne is a woman considered senior in a group who knows a lot about a particular subject. Gail is a Certified Thanatologist (a death and grief educator) and speaker who uses humor and films to get end-of-life conversations started.

She’s the author of the award-winning books A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die, Kicking the Bucket List: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die, Hail and Farewell: Cremation Ceremonies, Templates and Tips, and The Before I Die Festival in a Box. Her next book, 98.6 Mortality Movies to See Before You Die, was published April 2026.

She is also the coordinator of the award-winning Before I Die New Mexico Festival, a pioneer of the Death Cafe movement in the United States, and host of the Mortality Movies TV series and Mortality Movie Night events.

She’s a two-time TEDx speaker. Her first talk in 2015, “A Good Goodbye,” focused on the importance of starting end-of-life conversations before there’s a death in the family. The second talk in 2025, “We offer our pets a good death, why not our people?” is about medical aid in dying.

The Association for Death Education and Counseling recognized her work with their 2024 Community Educator Award. Her motto is, “Talking about sex won’t make you pregnant. Talking about funerals won’t make you dead.”

Learn more:

https://agoodgoodbye.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gailrubinctagoodgoodbye/

Facebook (personal page): https://www.facebook.com/gail.rubin.3/

Facebook (A Good Goodbye page): https://www.facebook.com/AGoodGoodbye/

Instagram: gail.rubin.doyenne.of.death

X: @TheFamilyPlot