Atlantans are meeting for cake, tea — and talks about death

Catch up quick: The format launched in 2011 in East London, according to the Death Cafe site — which explains the choice in snacks.

• Now, groups are all over the world. More than 11,000 are listed in the U.S., including a meet-up set to take place Feb. 8 at the Lake Claire Community Land Trust in Atlanta.

How it works: At a Death Cafe, the guests are the agenda, Denise Johnson, an end-of-life doula who has organized Atlanta's monthly meeting for the past three years, told Axios.

• Groups range from six to 20 participants and include people dealing with the loss of a loved one or caretakers trying to understand the death process.
• "It's not unusual for the introductions to [take up] the whole hour and a half," she said.

What Death Cafe is not: It's not a therapy group — Johnson serves as a facilitator, not a therapist — or a place for people to just vent.

The bottom line: The forums allow people to think the unthinkable and speak the unspoken, Johnson said. "This may be the only time where people can let their hair down" in a judgment-free zone, she said.

Register for the Death Cafe