Written and read by Natalie Patton, the story in episode four recounts a memory of a curious cactus in a nondescript pot and the strange ritual of collecting a body.

This continues this season of The Nth Degree exploring death and grief and all the confusing details therein.

With words by Natalie Patton and music bed by the band Scale Worms, this story is a meditation on time, memory and loss told across three parts. Here: part 3 of "The Slippery Nature of Time."

The conclusion to this story digs deeper into the pain of loss and the euphoria of life. While the story isn't tied up neatly with a bow, it does come to some kind of more full understanding.

With words by Natalie Patton and music by the band Scale Worms, this story is a meditation on time, memory and loss told across three parts. Here: part 2 of "The Slippery Nature of Time."

In part 2, the time period is leading up to and immediately following the birth of my first child. For most (all?) women, the postpartum period is a particular one. For me, it was accentuated by grief that burst out in ways I wasn't expecting and definitely wasn't prepared for.

With words by Natalie Patton and music bed by the band Scale Worms, this story is a meditation on time, memory and loss told across three parts. Here: part 1 of "The Slippery Nature of Time."

In this part, I explore my desire to manipulate time as my mom was dying. I tried to slow it down, then speed it up. And in some ways I was successful in doing both of those things, because time is a spectrum of our own mindset.