For young adults, by young adults

We talk about death to better understand life

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Our offering

Start with the one thing we all share

Everyone in the room will die someday. It's the most universal human condition there is, and it almost never comes up on a college campus.

The Living Room Collective draws from the global Death Café movement to bring that conversation to students. Mortality is our way in. Once a room of peers starts there, the usual script of majors, internships and who-knows-who tends to fall away. What opens up is honest, raw dialogue, and the kind of connection that's hard to find between classes, club meetings and recruiting season.

Peer-led
No experts at the front of the room. The conversation belongs to the people in it.
Good food, good games
We gather in small groups, with question cards to get things moving.
No agenda
We don't steer toward a conclusion, and anyone can pass.

Every gathering is shaped with the campus community hosting it, around what they hope it holds for their students. It isn't therapy or a lecture. It's a space to sit with peers in the deeply human questions we all share.

8.9/10Students rated their likelihood of coming back at 8.9 out of 10.

“Still not something I can describe, but it helped me to talk about it.”

First-year student

Bring the tour to your campus

What is a death café?+

A death café is an open conversation about death over something to eat and drink. It has no agenda and no conclusions to reach. It is not grief counseling or therapy. Learn more about death cafés ↗

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My story

Hi, I'm Jenna

I graduated high school in 2020, the infamous COVID year. I took a gap year, and through it, felt the weight of our changing world and my position within it: What is my responsibility in this crazy world? What is my good life? How do I make the most of college?

Entering college, I explored all sorts of academic and professional routes and meandered through the wide-ranging social scenes. I traveled solo, switched majors more than once, and somewhere along the way ended up studying death, specifically:

What does it mean to die well?

For my senior thesis, I interviewed death doulas, the non-medical companions who fill the gaps in end-of-life care and help people die with more comfort and dignity. I also talked with the professionals working alongside them and across the wider end-of-life world.

I expected studying death to feel heavy, and some days it did. But I was spending more time with mortality than most people my age, and I had never felt more content, joyful, or honest. Once death was on the table, the small talk fell away and people said what they actually meant.

My friends felt it too. Whenever my research came up, they leaned in, asked their own questions, and wanted to keep talking. Then I went to my first death café, and I didn't know I needed that room until I was sitting in it. I loved everything about it, except that I was the only person there under 30. So I started hosting death cafés on campus.

Now, through The Living Room Collective, I'm bringing that room to more young adults.

Duke '25, Psychology · INELDA-trained death doula · Senior thesis: 67 interviews with death doulas

The Living Room Death Café Tour

The college tour · Fall 2026, Winter 2027, Spring 2027

Join the tour

Where we're going · Southern California

Your campus?

Fall 2026Winter 2027Spring 2027

Open to colleges and universities across Southern California for the 2026–27 academic year.

Connect to learn more livingroomcoll@gmail.com

What the evening looks like+

Two hours, with food and tea.
We open with ground rules: no judgment, respect, and silence is welcome.
Small groups of about seven, each with a peer who holds the space.
Question cards to start. After that, the conversation goes where students take it.
Open to any student. No experience with loss required.

What your students get+

A place to say out loud what many of them are voicing for the first time.
Conversation with peers outside their major and class year.
For pre-health students, an early look at their role in end-of-life care.

How we've done it so far

Versions we've played with

Small circles

Groups of five or six with a conversation facilitator. Free-flowing dialogue with very little structure.

Topic tables

Each table welcomed one topic, and people sat where they wanted to talk: personal experiences with loss, religion and the afterlife, or simply why they came.