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A Life & Death Conversation with Dr. Bob Uslander - We Croak: the App that Makes You Think About Dying, Hansa Bergwall Ep. 20
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We Croak: the App that Makes You Think About Dying, Hansa Bergwall Ep. 20

06/08/18 • 29 min

A Life & Death Conversation with Dr. Bob Uslander

Hansa Bergwall is the creator of a new app called "WeCroak". Out of his own personal meditation practice, he determined that death contemplation could be beneficial, not just for him, but for many people.

Note: A Life and Death Conversation is produced for the ear. The optimal experience will come from listening to it. We provide the transcript as a way to easily navigate to a particular section and for those who would like to follow along using the text. We strongly encourage you to listen to the audio which allows you to hear the full emotional impact of the show. A combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers generates transcripts which may contain errors. The corresponding audio should be checked before quoting in print. Contact You can download the app from your iPhone or Android device. You can also visit Hansa's website to learn more and download his app. WeCroak website Transcript

Dr. Bob: So, Hansa, I'm totally curious about this. What prompted you to put an app out there that is going to notify people several times a day to think about death? What was the impetus for that? It's fascinating to me. How did that all come about?

Hansa Bergwall: So I'm a daily meditator and have been for a while now. And regular death contemplation is actually a really millennia old part of most serious meditation practices. So that's how I first got ... I learned about some of these ideas. And some of them are pretty intense, much more intense than what I'm doing, meditating in [inaudible 00:01:19] grounds, where bodies decompose as a way of laying them to rest, to know about your impermanent nature. Stuff that would be hard to do today living in New York City.

Hansa Bergwall: And then I came across the Bhutanese formulation of the practice that was, one, recommended for everyone and just really simple. It was just think about it five times a day that you're impermanent, that one day you will die. And you must do that in order to be a happy person. Immediately, it appealed to me as the kind of death contemplation that I wanted to add as a compliment to my meditation practice. So I just tried to do it myself. I thought, oh, this will be easy. I'll just think about it five times a day. And what I found was it was actually really hard. We have this pretty stubborn cognitive bias that we don't want to think about mortality all that often and it's hard to do, so I would get through my day and get to the end of the day and realize I hadn't done it even once.

Hansa Bergwall: So that was when the idea of something to remind me came about and the idea of WeCroak, the app, which sort of fell into my head as a fully formed idea that honestly I never thought would go anywhere 'cause I'm not a coder and had no way of making it a reality until Ian Thomas, my cofounder, happened to rent my extra room on AirBnB and we got to talking one night and I basically told him/pitched him my idea for WeCroak and he wanted it on his phone, too. He never thought it would go anywhere. And we made it together for the next couple of months, so it happened really quickly and really fortuitously, organically out of me trying to do something that I thought would help.

Dr. Bob: That's crazy. So if Ian hadn't rented your room, there's probably a pretty good chance that this never would've come to fruition, right? Were you going to go out and seek an app developer? Had you gotten to that point?

Hansa Bergwall: I had. I made a couple of inquiries, and it was going to cost me $10,000 or something like that if I wanted to develop this on my own. And I didn't have that kind of money sitting around, first of all. And, second of all, sounded like a lot of money to spend on something that I was quite skeptical would be broadly popular. So really we made this kind of as almost ... We were talking about it when we started as it was like an art project or something that we really wanted for ourselves, maybe to share with our friends, and we wanted it in the world. That was how we went about it.

Dr. Bob: Great. Without any huge expectations or goals that would potentially disappoint you if you didn't achieve them. That's usually the best way to start something.

Hansa Bergwall: Yeah, and what it allowed us to do is we stuck to our guns a little bit, the Bhutanese folk saying is five times a day. So we had a lot of people asking, like, oh, shouldn't you toggle it, so people only want one? We're like, but that's not the recommendation. We're going to do this tradition. We're going to do it right. So because we have our day jobs and other ways of making money, we could really make it be something that we thought would be a real mindfulness tool.

Dr. Bob: Great. So when did it actually become available? When did you complete the development process and put it up there for people to download?

Hansa Bergw...

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Hansa Bergwall is the creator of a new app called "WeCroak". Out of his own personal meditation practice, he determined that death contemplation could be beneficial, not just for him, but for many people.

Note: A Life and Death Conversation is produced for the ear. The optimal experience will come from listening to it. We provide the transcript as a way to easily navigate to a particular section and for those who would like to follow along using the text. We strongly encourage you to listen to the audio which allows you to hear the full emotional impact of the show. A combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers generates transcripts which may contain errors. The corresponding audio should be checked before quoting in print. Contact You can download the app from your iPhone or Android device. You can also visit Hansa's website to learn more and download his app. WeCroak website Transcript

Dr. Bob: So, Hansa, I'm totally curious about this. What prompted you to put an app out there that is going to notify people several times a day to think about death? What was the impetus for that? It's fascinating to me. How did that all come about?

Hansa Bergwall: So I'm a daily meditator and have been for a while now. And regular death contemplation is actually a really millennia old part of most serious meditation practices. So that's how I first got ... I learned about some of these ideas. And some of them are pretty intense, much more intense than what I'm doing, meditating in [inaudible 00:01:19] grounds, where bodies decompose as a way of laying them to rest, to know about your impermanent nature. Stuff that would be hard to do today living in New York City.

Hansa Bergwall: And then I came across the Bhutanese formulation of the practice that was, one, recommended for everyone and just really simple. It was just think about it five times a day that you're impermanent, that one day you will die. And you must do that in order to be a happy person. Immediately, it appealed to me as the kind of death contemplation that I wanted to add as a compliment to my meditation practice. So I just tried to do it myself. I thought, oh, this will be easy. I'll just think about it five times a day. And what I found was it was actually really hard. We have this pretty stubborn cognitive bias that we don't want to think about mortality all that often and it's hard to do, so I would get through my day and get to the end of the day and realize I hadn't done it even once.

Hansa Bergwall: So that was when the idea of something to remind me came about and the idea of WeCroak, the app, which sort of fell into my head as a fully formed idea that honestly I never thought would go anywhere 'cause I'm not a coder and had no way of making it a reality until Ian Thomas, my cofounder, happened to rent my extra room on AirBnB and we got to talking one night and I basically told him/pitched him my idea for WeCroak and he wanted it on his phone, too. He never thought it would go anywhere. And we made it together for the next couple of months, so it happened really quickly and really fortuitously, organically out of me trying to do something that I thought would help.

Dr. Bob: That's crazy. So if Ian hadn't rented your room, there's probably a pretty good chance that this never would've come to fruition, right? Were you going to go out and seek an app developer? Had you gotten to that point?

Hansa Bergwall: I had. I made a couple of inquiries, and it was going to cost me $10,000 or something like that if I wanted to develop this on my own. And I didn't have that kind of money sitting around, first of all. And, second of all, sounded like a lot of money to spend on something that I was quite skeptical would be broadly popular. So really we made this kind of as almost ... We were talking about it when we started as it was like an art project or something that we really wanted for ourselves, maybe to share with our friends, and we wanted it in the world. That was how we went about it.

Dr. Bob: Great. Without any huge expectations or goals that would potentially disappoint you if you didn't achieve them. That's usually the best way to start something.

Hansa Bergwall: Yeah, and what it allowed us to do is we stuck to our guns a little bit, the Bhutanese folk saying is five times a day. So we had a lot of people asking, like, oh, shouldn't you toggle it, so people only want one? We're like, but that's not the recommendation. We're going to do this tradition. We're going to do it right. So because we have our day jobs and other ways of making money, we could really make it be something that we thought would be a real mindfulness tool.

Dr. Bob: Great. So when did it actually become available? When did you complete the development process and put it up there for people to download?

Hansa Bergw...

Previous Episode

undefined - Aid in Dying What It Means to Those Who are Terminally Ill, Ep. 19

Aid in Dying What It Means to Those Who are Terminally Ill, Ep. 19

Please Note: This was recorded as a Facebook Live earlier this year prior to the recent ruling to overturn the California End of Life Options Act 2015 by Riverside County Superior Court Judge. In response, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed an emergency appeal seeking a stay of Superior Court Judge Daniel Ottolia’s ruling that invalidated the less than two-year-old medical aid-in-dying law. "It is important to note the ruling did not invalidate the law or the court would have said so explicitly in its order, so the law remains in effect until further notice," said John C. Kappos, a partner in the O'Melveny law firm representing Compassion & Choices. If this law and the right to die with dignity is important to you, we urge you to learn more from Compassion and Choices the organization that helped get the law passed. Note: A Life and Death Conversation is produced for the ear. The optimal experience will come from listening to it. We provide the transcript as a way to easily navigate to a particular section and for those who would like to follow along using the text. We strongly encourage you to listen to the audio which allows you to hear the full emotional impact of the show. A combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers generates transcripts which may contain errors. The corresponding audio should be checked before quoting in print. Need more information? Contact Dr. Bob for a free consultation. Transcript Dr. Bob: On this episode, Elizabeth Semenova and I speak very frankly about what it's like to support people through Medical Aid and Dying. We explain the process; we discuss who asks for this kind of support and why there are still so many barriers. This was originally captured as a Facebook Live and repurposed as a podcast because this information is so vitally important. Please share the podcast with everyone and anyone you feel would benefit from listening. Thank you. Dr. Bob: I'm going to do a little bit of introduction for myself, if you're watching this and you have been on the integrated MD Care site, you probably know a bit about me. I've been a physician for 25/ 30 years, somewhere in that range. Over the past several years I've been focusing on providing care for people who are dealing with complex illnesses, the challenges of aging, the challenges of dying. During these few years, I've discovered a lot of gaps in the health care system that cause a lot of challenges for people. Dr. Bob: We developed a medical practice to try to address those big challenges in those big gaps that we've encountered. It's been really remarkable to be able to do medical care in a way that is truly sensitive to what people are really looking for and what their families are looking for that is not constrained and limited to what the medical system will allow. It's not constrained by what Medicare will pay, what insurance will pay. We allow people to access us completely and fully and we are there to support them in a very holistic way with medical physician care, nursing care, social working care and then a whole team of therapists. Massage therapists, music therapists, acupuncturists, nutritionists. Dr. Bob: So that has been really fascinating and phenomenal. Elizabeth came along in the last several months. Really, she was drawn primarily to the true end of life care that we deliver and has been truly surprised how beautifully we are able to care for people who aren't necessarily dying as well. Elizabeth: Absolutely, yeah. Dr. Bob: So we can talk about all the different aspects of that, but we are here today to really talk about Medical Aid and Dying. Because, shortly after we started this practice, back in January 2016 California became one of the few states in the United States that does allow physician-assisted death. Dr. Bob: It allows what is also known as Death with Dignity, Medical Aid in Dying. The California End of Life Option Act passed in June 2016. At that point, a person with a terminal illness, an adult who is competent, had the ability to request a prescription of medicine from their physician, from a physician. That if taken, would allow them to have a very peaceful, dignified death at a place and time of their choosing. Since June 2016 we have become essentially experts and kind of the go-to team in San Diego for sure and actually throughout a good portion of Southern California because other physicians are reluctant to participate or because the systems that the patients are in make it very difficult or impossible for them to take advantage of this law. There is a lot of confusion about it. It's a very complex, emotionally charged issue. We as a team, Elizabeth and I, along with other m...

Next Episode

undefined - Going Through The Dying Process, Chelsea Berler Ep. 21

Going Through The Dying Process, Chelsea Berler Ep. 21

Chelsea Berler is a successful entrepreneur, and author and an inspiration for many people. Tragically, she is also dying from breast cancer at the age of 34, but you won't hear Chelsea describe what she's going through as a tragedy nor is she a victim. Listen and please share this episode with others who need to hear it. Note: A Life and Death Conversation is produced for the ear. The optimal experience will come from listening to it. We provide the transcript as a way to easily navigate to a particular section and for those who would like to follow along using the text. We strongly encourage you to listen to the audio which allows you to hear the full emotional impact of the show. A combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers generates transcripts which may contain errors. The corresponding audio should be checked before quoting in print. Contact Learn more about Chelsea's nonprofit organization, The Foye Belle Foundation, by watching the video below and visiting her website: Foyebelle website Transcript

Dr. Bob: Chelsea Berler is a friend, a successful entrepreneur, and author and an inspiration for many people. Tragically, she is also dying from breast cancer at the age of 34, but you won't hear Chelsea describe what she's going through as a tragedy and she certainly isn't a victim.

Dr. Bob: She has an amazing perspective on life and on death, which she shares with me during this interview. Anyone dealing with life challenges or has a loved one who is will certainly benefit from listening to Chelsea's heartfelt and loving words. As well as from the book that she recently published 'The Yellow House on the Left'. Listen in.

Dr. Bob: Looking at your picture, your Skype profile and it looks exactly like you, but I'm assuming that that's ... I wouldn't see all that flowing blonde hair.

Chelsea Berler: I look very different right now, I'd probably look like a teenager going through puberty because I am on some massive steroids and I'm getting hair where I haven't had hair before, and of course my hair's starting to grow back from the chemo. So I'm looking mighty, mighty different these days.

Dr. Bob: Yeah. Well, I imagine that that's just one of the many lessons, right?

Chelsea Berler: Absolutely.

Dr. Bob: To learn humility not get too attached to certain appearances.

Chelsea Berler: You're right.

Dr. Bob: Well Chelsea, thanks for reaching out. I mean we're having this conversation because you had reached out to me recently just to touch base and honestly, I didn't know that you were dealing with any of this. That was a big surprise to learn that you were on this journey and I appreciate it in the thing that stuck out what your phrase that you wrote was, I would love to see you do more with people that are directly in the path of your work.

Dr. Bob: Would you be willing to share a little bit about what that means to you? What's your thinking around wanting to connect with people who are directly in the path? What does that look like?

Chelsea Berler: You know, it was so interesting how it kind of came to be is, of course, we've been connected for years and had worked together in some capacity or the next, and we play in the same circle of really great people. You were on my mind the other day because I was ... One thing I've been spending a lot of time doing is listening to podcasts and one of the biggest reasons is, is because of my current state, I have this ringing in my ears pretty consistently.

Chelsea Berler: What helps is listening to something or listening to music or things of that sort, I was actually on the podcast app and just trying to search for a podcast that was inspirational, podcast about death and dying and all that. And I thought, "Oh, Bob has one." I went and looked up, and I started listening to all men. I really enjoyed them, and then I got to thinking, you know, it'd be so great to listen into other people's stories that are going through death and dying.

Chelsea Berler: I'm assuming, in some situations people often aren't in the mood to be sharing any stories or feeling good enough to do that, oh who knows, young or old. But I thought maybe there was, and maybe there was an opportunity for you to be able to add some of those stories, and I thought, oh, I would also love to share mine just because it's rather unique to in hopes that it will also help someone else that may be in that same situation looking for a podcast or trying to find something like that, that kind of helps them with the process as well. So that's kind of how I came to reach out and be like, "Hey, Bob!"

Dr. Bob: I'm so glad that you did and I'm so glad that you were open and that you're feeling up to doing it, I know that it's kind of day by day in terms of how that goes and so thank you. I spent a little time over the las...

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