PODCAST · society
The Obit Project
by Jad Abumrad and Jule Banville
Stories about the lives of real Montanans after they die. Co-hosted by old friends and colleagues Jad Abumrad (founder of Radiolab and creator of Dolly Parton’s America and 2025’s Fela Kuti: Fear No Man) and University of Montana professor and journalist Jule Banville (An Absurd Result). This 12-episode production of the Montana Media Lab at the UM School of Journalism started with a class of college students learning about the long tradition of obituary writing. It culminated with them and other journalists creating a new form that explores universal truths, legacies and reckoning with the memories of those we love. Hear the stories wherever you get your podcasts and on Montana Public Radio.
Episodes
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Obituary for a Small Town
Dagmar, Montana, is way up there in what’s almost Canada and almost North Dakota. She was very Danish and had a rebellious youth – at one point, she was kind of a Communist. Mostly, she was the town where the farmers came to buy groceries, go to church and pull up to the bar. But over time, those...
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Climbing Out of the Dark Hole
When Bea Burnham walked up to her house one day, she saw her husband of 30-plus years lying dead in the lawn. That stopped her world from spinning for a while, but she pulled herself up, fixed what needed to be fixed and got on with life, eventually outliving three more husbands. She worked hard...
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Deciding to Say Goodbye
Clifford Marion was a jokester and a lover of card games and gambling. He was a force where he worked for a decade at the Town Pump. And then he got sick. At the end, surrounded by his family, it was his wife who had to make the decision about when to let go, a moment at the heart of this story....
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The Farmer Who Never Left His Land
Wayne Boyes was the de facto mayor of the unincorporated town of Tarkio off Interstate 90, though he’d never want that title. He was too busy with his cows. Wayne was born in Tarkio, he married his neighbor, and he died on his land with a list of chores. His family picked up that list in his…
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Off the Grid by Choice
A lot of people in Billings, Montana, knew Stanley Littleboy by sight. He was that homeless guy with the great face you’d see downtown or in South Park. But he had people who loved him. His kids and grandkids in Billings tried to give him options, including a roof over his head. Stanley said no.…
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An Imperfect Parent
Darrel Johnson was someone people thought they knew. Maybe they worked alongside him at a high school dance. Maybe they knew him from Boy Scouts or through the camp he ran for troubled boys. His son knew his dad was also involved in some grisly investigations because Darrel would develop...
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The Ghost Lady Is My Neighbor
When she was in high school, Lotus Porte-Moyel interviewed her neighbor, Ellen Baumler, about being a successful woman. Ellen’s success was measured in history books – she wrote 13 of them about the people and places of Montana and was the historian when it came to its capital city of Helena. But...
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Vanished in Vietnam
In 1965, Montanan pilot Dean Pogreba pulled up into the clouds over North Vietnam and was never heard from again. That left his wife and kids to always wonder: Was he still out there? Over the years, a few clues and stories gave his family hope. Maxine Pogreba lived her own full life before and...
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Friends Till the End
Brendon Galbreath’s death was covered by most major news stations in Montana. He died after being pulled over. At first, it wasn’t clear if a cop shot and killed a 21-year-old citizen of the Blackfeet Nation in Missoula or if he died by suicide in that moment. But this isn’t a story about that....
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The Elephant Under Dillon
Everyone from Dillon knows about the elephant struck by lightning and buried on the spot in what’s now the fairgrounds. But few are as obsessed with telling and remembering the story of Old Pit as Jack Kirkley, who taught for many years at the college there. He thought it would be a good idea to...
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For Ruth
The headline on Ruth Anderson’s obit in the New York Times defines her as a pioneering electronic composer. In certain circles, she was a famous artist and professor. Her partner, Annea Lockwood, was famous in her own rite in those circles, too. But to each other, they were partners with inside...
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A Very Responsible Dude
In his obit picture, Terry Holo looked like The Dude from The Big Lebowski and, for a time, he kind of was that guy. But when reporter Izaak Opatz joined Terry’s brother, Bob, to clean up the house of his dead brother, he learned there was a lot more to Terry than he expected. See...
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The Obit Project - Coming April 02, 2026
Stories about the lives of real Montanans after they die. Young journalists reinvent the obituary, creating a form that explores universal truths, legacies and reckoning with the memories of those we love. Coming April 2, 2026. Co-hosted by old friends and colleagues Jad Abumrad (founder of...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Stories about the lives of real Montanans after they die. Co-hosted by old friends and colleagues Jad Abumrad (founder of Radiolab and creator of Dolly Parton’s America and 2025’s Fela Kuti: Fear No Man) and University of Montana professor and journalist Jule Banville (An Absurd Result). This 12-episode production of the Montana Media Lab at the UM School of Journalism started with a class of college students learning about the long tradition of obituary writing. It culminated with them and other journalists creating a new form that explores universal truths, legacies and reckoning with the memories of those we love. Hear the stories wherever you get your podcasts and on Montana Public Radio.
HOSTED BY
Jad Abumrad and Jule Banville
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Obit Project have?
The Obit Project currently has 13 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Obit Project about?
Stories about the lives of real Montanans after they die. Co-hosted by old friends and colleagues Jad Abumrad (founder of Radiolab and creator of Dolly Parton’s America and 2025’s Fela Kuti: Fear No Man) and University of Montana professor and journalist Jule Banville (An Absurd Result). This...
How often does The Obit Project release new episodes?
The Obit Project has 13 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Obit Project?
You can listen to The Obit Project on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Obit Project?
The Obit Project is created and hosted by Jad Abumrad and Jule Banville.
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