Name: My mushroom burial suit
Uploaded: 2011-10-14T15:15:32Z
Duration: 7 min 13 s
Description: Here's a powerful provocation from artist Jae Rhim Lee. Can we commit our bodies to a cleaner, greener Earth, even after death? Naturally -- using a special burial suit seeded with pollution-gobbling mushrooms. Yes, this just might be the strangest TEDTalk you'll ever see ...

Jae Rhim Lee: My mushroom burial suit

My mushroom burial suit

Here's a powerful provocation from artist Jae Rhim Lee. Can we commit our bodies to a cleaner, greener Earth, even after death? Naturally -- using a special burial suit seeded with pollution-gobbling mushrooms. Yes, this just might be the strangest TEDTalk you'll ever see ...

Conventional funeral practices release toxins like mercury and formaldehyde back into the environment, worsening pollution. In fact, 93 percent of people over six carry Bisphenol A, and there are over 200 known pollutants in human bodies. A new approach proposes using burial suits embedded with mushroom spores to break down these toxins after death, transforming bodies into clean compost. This vision shifts our relationship with death, encouraging acceptance and environmental responsibility instead of denial.