End Well’s Annual Symposium and Content

Almost everything we humans do is meant to postpone dying or distract ourselves from the inevitability of death. There’s another way, says Shoshana Ungerleider, MD. She wants to shift the culture so we can have end-of-life experiences that actively incorporate our deeply held values and our most important hoped-for outcomes. Her awesome idea is the End Well Project (which she founded in 2017) and the annual Symposium. It’s a dynamic setting where people from design, tech, health care, activist communities, and interested others can share free flowing ideas about how we change the way we approach the end of the road.

And we need those ideas. We’re living at a time when delivering human-centered health care is so challenging. We’re seeing palliative care redefined. And we’ve been forced to create new rituals, as we figure out how to deal with loss while being denied physical closeness with others. That’s why the whole End Well Project seems awesome to us. We mortals are probably going to face cultural, clinical and systemic issues as our alive time dwindles. Yet there are exciting opportunities and innovations relating to the end of life experience. “Life, death, caregiving, grief, loss, social isolation, loneliness, access to care, mental health – It’s all part of the journey. We are changing the conversation,” says Shoshana. And presenting conversations, too, along with panel discussions that feature a wide array of presenters (Taraji P. Henson, Tim McGraw, Esther Perel, Maria Shriver and Meghan McCain, among many others).

To listen in on some of those conversations, follow End Well on Facebook, @endwellproject on Twitter & Insta, and check out their website. “We have over 30 million views annually,” says Shoshana. Might as well join them. Because the truth is, you’re going to, well, end.