A new podcast is using obituary writing to tell deeper stories about lives and legacies.
The Obit Project brings together audio storytelling and traditional journalism to create narrative obituaries focused on real people from Montana.
The 12-part series is hosted by Jad Abumrad, founder of Radiolab, and Jule Banville, a journalism professor at the University of Montana, who developed the idea through her teaching.
The podcast is produced by the Montana Media Lab at the university’s School of Journalism and began as a classroom project exploring the history and craft of obituary writing.
Students were tasked with moving beyond standard formats to create audio pieces that reflect on lives after death, drawing on interviews, personal memories and archival material.
Each episode focuses on a different subject, ranging from a circus elephant to a historian with an interest in ghosts, with stories told through the voices of those who knew them.
The series also examines broader themes including legacy, memory and how people are remembered, using sound to add depth and perspective to the traditional obituary format.
Abumrad and Banville, who have previously worked together, collaborated with showrunner Mary Auld, director of the Montana Media Lab, to develop the series.
Jule Banville said: “After teaching students to write obits for more than a decade, this project and working with Jad again is such a gift. I can’t wait for people to listen, to slow down and contemplate these stories that are really about life.”
The Obit Project launches today, 2 April and will release new episodes weekly across major podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Castbox and Pocket Casts.
