Media Notice
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Lisa Proctor/Utne Marketing Director
612-338-5040, ext. 338/lproctor@utne.com
or Martin Keller/Media Savant Communications Co.
612-729-8585/mkeller@mediasavantcom.com
THE GOOD DEATH
THE AUTUMN ISSUE OF UTNE MAGAZINE LOOKS AT DYING, FROM LIVING WITH FEAR -- OR NO REGRETS -- TO PLANNING FOR ONE'S DEMISE, TO THE IMPACT ON THOSE LEFT BEHIND AND THE UPSIDE OF DEATH
MINNEAPOLIS -- September-October, 2005 -- The fall issue of Utne magazine explores how to balance the fear of dying with death's power to make us live our lives better. In several first-person stories and insightful sidebars, the magazine looks at death from the personal to the poetic, and from the ethical and scientific to the comical.
- Every day more than 155,000 people die worldwide
- Over half of us are touched each year by a death of a close family member or friend
- 10% of us will die suddenly
- Most of us will face healthcare decisions about end-of-life care
- Many people struggle with grieving after a death
- More of us are -- or should be -- planning for death psychologically, spiritually, financially and in other ways, hopefully to achieve The Good Death.
Utne's own Laine Bergeson recounts her recent death scare in Good Life, Good Death," after a visit to her doctor. Then she is forced to face "the unmapped land" of dying, only to plunge into a look at an array of behaviors that the fact of death creates in people -- and how in the post 9-11 world, "Instead of encouraging creativity and enlightenment, the fear of death, amplified by the modern media, creates panic as well as political leaders who garner power by promising the kind of psychic safety that only rigid ideology can provide." Writer Bob Holmes looks at "the evolutionary strategy of death," specifically the self-destructive process of cell biology necessary to sustain life in "Death, The Upside" -- plus Bergeson's pick of three new, must-have books on death and grieving.
In "To Live with No Regrets," a beautiful and moving piece about the passing of an elderly friend and the wife he leaves behind (a woman who tragically lost both her first husband and then her daughter within a year of each other), Editor-In-Chief Nina Utne looks at the transitional aspects of dying. And she explores the way that Jack Heckelman and Linda Bergh heroically approached Jack's death among family and friends with an "open house" right up until and after his death.
"Some Parting Advice" surveys the ancient tradition of writing "ethical wills" in light of the calamity over Terri Schiavo's death, while Utne's Anjula Razdan interviews the creator of the HBO hit Six Feet Under, Alan Ball, about America's cultural obsessions with death, denial and our fixations on youth, plus Ball's own inability to grieve his sister's death for 20 years. In addition, author Mark Twain weighs in on how to best behave "At the Funeral" (including the sage advice, "At the moving passages, be moved -- but only according to the degree of your intimacy with the parties giving the entertainment, or with the party in whose honor the entertainment is given").
Also in this issue:
- The Urban Green Revolution: Cities are the next environmental frontier -- and the innovations of The Green Cities Movement from New York and San Francisco to other "Islands of Green" around the world -- offer models and hope for a future that "is already here," according to the magazine's Leif Utne. And a look at "The City after Oil" and the emergence of "ecovillages that are waiting to happen.
- A Gentler War on Drugs: Memorable Photo Essay from the drug routes of northern Thailand
- Our Man in Baghdad: A timely interview with Britain's Robert Fisk, who writes for The Independent and tries to define the American reason for being in Iraq while challenging his colleagues' "reporting" from the safety of their hotel rooms."
- The Organic Home: Household cleaners that are green and better for you and your home, plus the environmental perils of growing cotton...
. . . and so much more . . .
About Utne
Utne is a national progressive lifestyle magazine with an audience of nearly 600,000, now celebrating more than 20 years of publication. Since 1984, Utne has been a leading voice for the alternative and independent press, bringing readers the "other side of the story" on issues ranging from the environment to the economy and from politics to pop culture. Utne provokes thought and inspires action by offering the best of the independent press as well as original writing. Read more at www.utne.com.
For more information, please contact Lisa Proctor at 612-338-5040, ext.338, or online at lproctor@utne.com, or contact Martin Keller at Media Savant Communications Co., 612-729-8585/mkeller@mediasavantcom.com.