Who decides which snacks are in your office’s vending machine? How much is a suburban elm tree worth, and to whom? How did Girl Scout Cookies become a billion-dollar business? In bite-sized episodes, journalist Zachary Crockett looks at quotidian things and finds amazing stories. Join the Freakonomics Radio Plus membership program for weekly member-only episodes of Freakonomics Radio. You’ll also get every show in our network without ads. To sign up, visit our show page on Apple Podcasts or go to freakonomics.com/plus.
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episode 42: 42. Cemeteries
The verdant lawns promise everlasting rest — but what does it mean to sign a lease for all eternity? Zachary Crockett finds out where the bodies are buried.
- SOURCES:
- Terry Arellano, co-founder and president of Cemetery Property Resales, Inc.
- Jeff Lindeman, C.E.O. and General Manager of Mountain View Cemetery.
- Tanya Marsh, professor of law at Wake Forest University.
- Maureen Walton, founder and president of The Cemetery Exchange.
- RESOURCES:
- "Los Angeles Burial Crypt Near Marilyn Monroe, Hugh Hefner on Sale for $2 Million," by Stephanie Nolasco (Fox 10 Phoenix, 2023).
- "Why the Brooklyn-Queens Border Is Full of Dead People," by Keith Williams (The New York Times, 2017).
- "Death in the City: What Happens When All Our Cemeteries Are Full?" by Ana Naomi de Sousa (The Guardian, 2015).
- "Our First Public Parks: The Forgotten History of Cemeteries," by Rebecca Greenfield (The Atlantic, 2011).
- "Selling a Burial Plot is a Grave Decision," by Erin Peterson (Kiplinger, 2010).
- EXTRAS:
- "How to Be Better at Death," by Freakonomics Radio (2021).