Interview with funeral director Steven Welch: The Pope’s hands
Release Date: 12/05/2025
Interview with funeral director Steven Welch: The Pope’s hands
Dead Reckoning
Steven Welch, a fifth-generation funeral director at San Francisco’s Duggan’s Funeral Service, joins Beth and Courtney to share what mortician life is like, both today and historically. He also dishes about the embalming job on Pope Francis, how HBO’s “Six Feet Under” feels torn from the pages of his own family’s life, and how cremation services leave room for funerary malfeasance. Links: Jessica Mitford, “The American Way of Death” Valencia Street funeral home map, FoundSF: Pope Francis’ embalmed hands:
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Bubonic Plague in San Francisco: You can't quarantine rats
Dead Reckoning
What do you know about the bubonic plague? Probably that it killed a lot of people, it broke out in the middle ages, and rats were somehow involved. . . but did you know we ACTUALLY HAD A PLAGUE OUTBREAK IN SAN FRANCISCO? That’s right, in 1900 the plague came to the city, and it wreaked havoc for 8 years. Join us for a journey through crowded tenements, racist blockades, wooden pallets full of fleas, quack medicine, corporate conspiracies, and finally, FINALLY some actual science. Show Notes by John Kelly by James C. Mohr by Marilyn Chase @ Here Lies a Story American Experience by...
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San Francisco’s pesthouse: Not a hospital!
Dead Reckoning
If you got sick with a visible disease in 19th century San Francisco, you wouldn’t be taken to a doctor or a hospital. You wouldn’t be given chicken soup and penicillin. You’d be forcibly removed in a zinc-lined cop carriage to a set of nasty, claptrap, decrepit cottages in Potrero Hill known as the PESTHOUSE. And you guys thought Covid-19 quarantine was bad! References “ Gunter Risse “[The Origin of the Word Quarantine]( Science Friday “,” Susan Craddock “,” HLAS [including a map of the location] “,” Richard Barnett “,” Randy Shilts An 1896 etching from the...
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Interview with “Too Poor to Die” author Amy Shea
Dead Reckoning
Do you know what happens to people when they die in poverty and estranged from family? We talk to writer and advocate Amy Shea about her book, “Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins,” in which she looks at how society treats poor, homeless and marginalized people in life, and how that connects to their outcomes when they die. We also chat about a resurgence of anti-poverty laws in the Bay Area and beyond. Sources and additional reading: “Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins,” Amy Shea: Equitable Disposition Alliance: “A Certain Kind...
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The History of Medical Cadavers: Never enough bodies
Dead Reckoning
How did all those bones end up in a pit at Fort Mason? The Anatomy Act, that’s how! In this episode, Courtney takes us through the history of using human cadavers to learn about medicine — whether people liked it or not. What started out as punishment for criminal acts turned into punishment for being poor. We’ll talk about how this practice evolved from England to the US, from the East Coast to the West, and how the bodies of the poor and marginalized fed the study of medicine and anatomy. Links & References by Ruth Richardson by Lindsay Fitzharris by Willey et al On Penn’s ...
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Fort Mason Burial Pit: The world’s worst layer cake
Dead Reckoning
Workers clearing lead-contaminated soil at Fort Mason in 2010 got an unpleasant surprise when they uncovered a pit full of body parts dating back to the 19th century. Beth shares the research into who these early San Franciscans were, why they were buried in a Fort Mason courtyard, and the man most likely responsible: A U.S. Army surgeon named Edwin Bentley. Sources: “Archaeology and Bioarchaeology of Anatomical Dissection at a Nineteenth-Century Army Hospital in San Francisco,” edited by P. Willey, Peter Gavette, Eric J. Bartelink and Colleen F. Milligan: “Now and Then: Fort Mason,”...
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Yerba Buena Cemetery: Everyone had broken noses
Dead Reckoning
There’s an unmarked cemetery in the heart of San Francisco, where hundreds, possibly thousands, of graves rest beneath the popular destinations like the Main Library, the Asian Art Museum, and the United Nations Plaza. Beth takes us through the history of this place, once called Yerba Buena Cemetery, and touches on the history of SF burials before and during the Gold Rush. Sources: “San Francisco’s Forgotten Cemeteries: A Buried History” by Beth Winegarner: “Archaeological monitoring and architectural documentation : San Francisco Main Library project, site of the former City Hall...
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Dead Reckoning - Official Trailer
Dead Reckoning
Welcome to Dead Reckoning, the podcast where death isn’t the end of the story. Hosted by writer and creator Courtney Minick, and journalist and author Beth Winegarner, based in San Francisco. Produced by Carolyn Kissick and Here Lies a Story. Artwork by Dante Silliman.
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Dead Reckoning Intro
Dead Reckoning
Welcome to Dead Reckoning - the podcast where death isn’t the end of the story. Hosted by writer and creator Courtney Minick, and journalist and author Beth Winegarner, coming to you live from San Francisco. Produced by Carolyn Kissick and Here Lies a Story. Artwork by Dante Silliman.
info_outlineSteven Welch, a fifth-generation funeral director at San Francisco’s Duggan’s Funeral Service, joins Beth and Courtney to share what mortician life is like, both today and historically. He also dishes about the embalming job on Pope Francis, how HBO’s “Six Feet Under” feels torn from the pages of his own family’s life, and how cremation services leave room for funerary malfeasance.
Links:
Jessica Mitford, “The American Way of Death” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Way_of_Death
Valencia Street funeral home map, FoundSF: https://www.shapingsf.org/images/fall2021/Corridor to Colma 11x17_final smaller.pdf
Pope Francis’ embalmed hands:
