Death is part of all our lives. Let’s talk about it together.
We’re building a place where people can learn about death, dying, and grief, and connect with others along the way.
Welcome!
Hi. We’re Maria and Lorin, two designers from Carnegie Mellon’s School of Design, here at End Well 2026.
We care deeply about death and how it shapes the way we live. We’re starting The Mortality Commons, and we want to hear from people who know this work.
Come say hello, ask us anything, or answer three short questions below.
What is the Mortality Commons?
The Mortality Commons is an idea we’re testing: a shared place where people can learn about death, dying, and grief, share what they know, and find support.
By mortality, we mean that we all die, and that we meet this fact throughout our lives.
By commons, we mean something a community shares and cares for together. For us, that means the people who share what they know decide how it’s used, and the people who use the Mortality Commons help decide what it becomes.
We’re just getting started. This site, your answers, and the conversations we have this week will help us understand what the Mortality Commons should become.
Why does it matter?
Most of us experience someone else’s death long before our own. A grandparent dies. A friend loses a parent. We care for someone who is sick. Yet most help comes only at the very end, through hospitals, hospices, and funeral homes.
It wasn’t always this way. Families once learned to care for people who were dying by doing it, often more than once. As more people began dying in institutions, much of that knowledge moved out of everyday life.
Today, hospitals, insurers, funeral homes, and the law shape many of the big decisions. Families are left to manage the day-to-day care.
That work is hard. Caregivers manage appointments, medications, and paperwork, often alone. When the person dies, professional support usually stops.
One caregiver we spoke with put it this way: “I wish I had a genie beside me that told me everything I needed to do.”
Why a Commons?
People learn about death, dying, and grief by caring for others, through their work, and from their cultures and communities. We want to bring that knowledge together so more people can find it, learn from it, and share what they know.
That means building the Mortality Commons with the people who will use it and add to it. We won’t decide everything on our own.
Who is it for?
Anyone who has experienced death or has questions about it, at any age.
It’s for you if:
- You’ve learned you’re dying, and you want a say in how you spend the time ahead.
- You’re healthy, and you want to think about the care you would want before someone needs to ask.
- Your mom is sick, and you’re juggling her appointments, your kids, and your job.
- Your dad is in the hospital, and no one knows what care he would want because he never wrote it down.
- A friend has a terminal diagnosis. You don’t know what to say or do, and you have no one to talk to about it.
- You’ve lost someone, and months later, you’re still grieving while everyone else seems to have moved on.
- Your child just asked you what happens when we die.
- You have a question about death and nowhere to ask it.
We’re starting with family caregivers, especially people in midlife who are caring for aging parents and often raising children too.
Three questions
Do you do this work? Let’s talk.
If your work involves death, dying, or grief, we’d love to learn from you.
What’s working? What’s missing? Who should we be talking to?
Find us at End Well, or leave your email below and we’ll reach out.
Who we are
Lorin Anderberg
Lorin has often felt alone in her experience of thanatophobia, or fear of death. Ten years ago, she began speaking about it more openly and found that others craved the space to discuss their own fears. She found empowerment in creating supportive spaces for vulnerability. Now she helps others build their own practices and rituals for wellbeing in their personal lives, relationships, and workplaces.
Lorin is a storyteller trained in interactive media journalism and systems design. She specializes in designing for emotional connection, creating products and environments that translate lived experience into thoughtful design to improve complex systems.
Carnegie Mellon University, School of Design
MA in Design with training in Transition Design
Maria Yen
Thirteen years ago, Maria came face to face with her greatest fear: death. She shadowed clinicians, spent time in hospices, and held the hand of a woman who was dying alone. That experience changed how she lives her life.
Maria has spent twenty years in healthcare strategy and innovation, focusing on systems of care, including palliative and end-of-life care. After building end-of-life marketplace apps, she is now turning research into something people can share: a community open to all. She is currently a PhD researcher in Transition Design at Carnegie Mellon University.
Carnegie Mellon University, School of Design
PhD Researcher, Transition Design
What we care about
Tap a value to read what it means.
Reverence
Resonance
Reciprocity
Rigor
Dignity
Interdependence
Place
Humility
Curiosity
What happens next?
After End Well, we’ll read every answer and send a short summary of what we heard to everyone who leaves an email.
Then:
- A short paper on where death sits in life, finished in January.
- A first gathering: a hands-on collage session where people map the moments death has touched their lives. Date to come.
- Research and small pilots with caregivers and death workers.