14: ‘Death Makes Creativity Possible’- Dylan Thuras

What happens when the project that defined your life suddenly no longer belongs to you?

This week, Joanna Ebenstein is joined by her longtime friend Dylan Thuras, co-founder of Atlas Obscura, to explore wonder, grief, creativity, and what it means to let go of the work that has shaped your identity.

Long before algorithms and influencers transformed the internet, Joanna and Dylan were part of a small community of writers, artists and explorers driven by nothing more than curiosity. Together they revisit that extraordinary era of blogs, hidden museums, and strange discoveries, tracing how those shared passions eventually grew into Atlas Obscura and Morbid Anatomy.

This conversation is also about endings. Dylan reflects on losing the company he helped build, describing the peculiar grief of becoming estranged from a project that occupied "an enormous part of your self, your soul." Together, he and Joanna consider why creative lives inevitably involve cycles of death and rebirth, and why stepping into uncertainty may be the only way something genuinely new can emerge.

Along the way they discuss spiritual curiosity, the limits of materialism, the strange beauty of mortality, and why the modern pursuit of immortality may reveal more about our fear of death than our passion for life.

Dylan answers Memento Morbid's closing question with an unforgettable reflection on eternal life, arguing that death is not simply life's ending, but the very thing that gives it urgency, meaning and wonder.

A thoughtful conversation about making things, losing them, and discovering what comes next. 

📢Listeners! You are invited to share your own offerings: voice notes on death, dying, ritual and the beauty of finitude. Include your first name and location if you want them shared- you might be featured in an upcoming episode. Send your offering via WhatsApp to +44 2921 690468

🖤 Enjoying Memento Morbid? Explore our collection of apparel and accessories in the Memento Morbid shop: mementomorbidmerch.dashery.com   

💀 Memento Morbid is produced by Overcoat Media in partnership with Morbid Anatomy.

Host: Joanna Ebenstein
Series Producer: Jess Gunasekara
Studio Engineer: Fernando Velazco Vargas
Additional Production & Sound Design: Katie Hill
Production Coordinator: Janice Jardine
Executive Producer: Steven Rajam
Artwork: Lauren Seeley 

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