At a Death Cafe people drink tea, eat cake and discuss death. The aim is to increase awareness of death to help people make the most of their (finite) lives.

Death Cafe was developed by Jon Underwood and Sue Barsky Reid, based on the work of Bernard Crettaz. Crettaz was a Swiss professor who was interested in the rites and customs that accompany death in society. He organized the first model “Death Cafe,” which was called “Café Mortel” in 1999.

In 2011, inspired by Crettaz and with his guidance, Underwood held the first London Death Cafe at his home. He subsequently developed the Death Cafe website, generating guidelines with his mother, psychotherapist Susan Barsky Reid, and the concept took off globally. 

Today, Death Cafes are held all over the world, with nearly 20,000 Death Cafes held in 83 countries since 2011. Founder, Jon Underwood died suddenly in 2017 from undiagnosed acute promyelocytic leukemia at the age of 44. His ground-breaking work contributed enormously to breaking the taboo around talking about death and dying. Bernard Crettaz died in 2022 at the age of 84.

Learn more at deathcafe.com