The ancient Natufians buried their dead under their houses, hanging plaster death masks of the ancestors on the walls of their dwellings. Over ten thousand years separate them from us, but how different are we, really? Well, for starters, the citizens of the modern age have handed over responsibility for the dead - and culture, and history - to the powers of social media and the market. Why does that matter?

Still Spoken explores how the dead live on: through us, through our stories, and through technology. In this episode, Elaine talks with Carl Ohman. Carl is a recent PhD graduate from the Oxford Internet Institute, the 2020 recipient of the Scotus Early Career Researcher award for Arts and Humanities. He's predicted the tipping point when Facebook becomes a digital cemetery - with more dead profiles than live ones - and more recently he's raised alarms about the dire consequences if Facebook fails. Carl and Elaine talk economics, equality, politics, history and technology, and how it all links to the digital dead.

Host Elaine Kasket is a psychologist, storyteller, and author based in London. She's an expert in bereavement and in death & the digital. Her latest book is All the Ghosts in the Machine.

Produced by Elaine Kasket

Music and sound effects all purchased under license from Epidemic Sound:
Savannah Nights - Zauana
Computer Wiz - Marten Moses
Ga$ Money - Xavy Rusan
Erudition - Ambre Jaune
My Machines - Real Heroes
Rather Erratic - Benjamin Rice