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How American Cemeteries Promise To Keep Your Grave Forever

If you die in America, chances are the cemetery is going to promise to maintain your grave forever. Americans take this for granted, but it is a whacky, wild promise that we maybe should not be making.

In a lot of other countries, you basically rent a grave until they dig up your bones to make room for the next guy. And yet, in America, this forever-grave thing is actually in most states' law. With the exception of religious cemeteries (which often do this anyways), the state regulates how cemeteries save to ensure, theoretically, that they can maintain a grave forever.

It's a weird country to die in. So, we made a weirder video about it.

Listen to the original Planet Money podcast episode here! Subscribe to our video series here — and, while you're at it, subscribe to our podcast.

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Bronson Arcuri is an award-winning video producer and multimedia journalist. He is currently an editor and managing producer on the NPR video team. In addition to overseeing NPR's video coverage of the ongoing war in Ukraine, he also manages short-form video production for All Things Considered, Life Kit and NPR's international reporting and political coverage. He is also part of the leadership team developing news products for emerging platforms, including Instagram and TikTok.