Dead or Alive

What happens after we die? Does our consciousness vanish at the moment of death? Or does it continue in some form? Former Los Angeles Times national correspondent Erika Hayasaki sets out to explore the controversial science behind “near-death experiences.” The journey leads her to forge an unexpected bond with a distant family member who becomes her tour guide, and ends up teaching her not only how awesome it can be to die, but how precious it can be to live.

Erika Hayasaki is an assistant professor in the Literary Journalism Department at the University of California, Irvine, an undergraduate degree program dedicated to teaching narrative journalism. She spent nearly a decade as a reporter covering breaking news and writing feature stories for the Los Angeles Times, where she was a staff metro reporter, education writer, and New York-based national correspondent. She is currently working on a nonfiction book about a captivating New Jersey professor, Dr. Norma Bowe, who takes her students on field trips to morgues, cemeteries, maximum security prisons, and funeral homes as part of her self-designed and wildly popular class on death.