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Even though Americans are living longer — 

 65 and older has more than tripled over the last century — we are still profoundly uncomfortable with dying. In fact, the end of life is so medicalized, death is often viewed as a failure, rather than accepted as a fundamental stage of life.

Sunita Puri wants to change that. Her book, "

That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour

," is a masterful memoir of helping people to die — and live — well. It chronicles her journey of becoming a palliative care doctor near the end of her medical school training after she realized medicine had little to say about patients' suffering and mortality.

It mirrors thoughts shared by author and sixth-generation funeral director Caleb Wilde in his new book, “

.” Wilde’s tender and personal reflections on what it’s like to grieve loved ones and grapple with death will be the conversation on this Friday’s installment of Big Books and Bold Ideas.

 about how we need to rethink death so we can truly live well. 

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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This Friday’s Big Books and Bold Ideas will feature a conversation between host Kerri Miller and author Caleb Wilde, a sixth-generation funeral director who’s written a new book, “All the Ways Our Dead Still Speak.” It hearkens back to a 2019 discussion Miller had with Dr. Sunita Puri, about her poetic and practical book, "That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour." Modern medicine can help us live longer. But can it help us die well?

From the archives: Sunita Puri on living — and dying — well

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