The Adventures of Memento Mori

What does a Nazi, an ancient prophecy, and a pack of gum have in common? When beautiful philosophy meets overwhelming suffering, what holds you together when you're falling apart? How do you practice compassion when you're faking it—when you're standing in a room you're supposed to care about, but you feel nothing? Moss learns the difference between an open heart and a bleeding heart, discovers he's connected to the people he despises, and finds out why trying to save the world will destroy you. In this episode, an ancient warrior prophecy offers two weapons for facing darkness—but only if you can wield them both.

Moss thought the hardest part of being a chaplain would be sitting with the dying. He was wrong. It was contextualizing people's suffering. At Bellevue, he meets a man so broken by life he swallowed razor blades just to get medical treatment for hemorrhoids—a man convinced God is actively torturing him, questioning how he could possibly love a God that doesn't love him back. Having experienced hundreds of stories like this herself, Zen Master Trudi reveals an ancient text that offers no resolution, no silver lining, only brutal validation. In this episode, Moss learns the chaplain's job isn't to fix suffering—it's to help people find the constellation that makes sense of their chaos, even when that constellation reflects back their darkest truths.

Faced with the daunting task of responding to his first pager call, D.S. Moss confronts fear and uncertainty, struggling to define his role as a humanist chaplain without religious frameworks. Zen Master Trudi offers insights on authenticity and human connection, emphasizing the importance of vulnerability and presence. Through encounters with patients, Moss grapples with questions of authority, identity, and confidence, ultimately finding power in his beginner's mind and the simple act of being human.
 
Host: D.S. Moss
Produced by: The Mayda Creative Company
Mix & Sound Design: Aman Sahota
Story Editor: Laura Standley

WE'RE BACK! The last time you heard from D.S. Moss, he was in Hawaii taking surfing lessons and contemplating taking a giant leap of faith to become a Humanist Chaplain? But what in the f*ck is a chaplain? And can you be one without believing in God? In Season 3, Moss takes us back to 2021 to his chaplain internship at Bellevue Hospital during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic as he searches for the answers to those questions. 
What begins as an expectation to to chaplain the dying transforms into something far more profound. Part documentary and part dharma talk, this season follows me through the vulnerable margins of society where life, death,  spirituality, humanity, and belief intersect in unexpected ways.
Host: D.S. Moss
Produced by: The Mayda Creative Company
Mix & Sound Design: Aman Sahota
Story Editor: Laura Standley

Introducing Goodnight Lovelies, a new daily mortality meditation hosted by D.S. Moss.