Hugh Skinner: What do you believe happens when we die?

The question

What do you believe happens when we die?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

A recurring late-stage question in The Guardian Q&A, with materially different answers on publisher-hosted pages.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

I think we’re definitely gone, but I do think people leave traces everywhere from what they did in life, and live on and continue to make an impact through the ripple effect of that.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 May 2026 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 50 →

Albert Hammond Jr. Musician

No. I mean, it depends on how you look at it. In the sense that we all have a piece of cosmic dust in us from the beginning – The Big Bang – then yes. But no, I don’t believe in heaven or hell.

Recorded The Talks, 10 October 2013 source ↗

Mark Radcliffe

A nice long rest.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 August 2025 source ↗

Diana Athill Editor and memoirist

The contributor to the programme I remember with the most pleasure is the man who said that not existing for thousands and thousands of years before his birth had never worried him for a moment, so why should going back into non-existence at this death cause him dismay? Everyone laughed when he said that and so did I, and as I laughed I thought: “Dead right!”

Recorded The Guardian, 23 September 2014 source ↗

Rosalind Eleazar