EPISODE 50
NOTE: This episode was originally recorded in September 2024
Elle Kaye spends her days surrounded by death - and directly in the crosshairs of relentless online hate.
Serial killer stereotypes and creepy cabin clichés obscure what is a profession of profound art, care and ethics.
Working with dead animals gives Elle a unique perspective on life, our mortality, and the unimaginable toll of those who insult what they can’t understand.
So step into the mind of Elle Kaye, as we navigate the darkest corners of the web, and learn to unapologetically stand in your difference instead of hiding from it.
Elle joins Ty Temel on episode 50 of the Off Script podcast to share:
The profound psychological impact of working intimately with death
The ethical tightrope of working with death, natural causes
Adult bullying, trolling, and anti‑Semitism
The mental health cost of being visible online
The culture of ‘tall‑poppy syndrome’ in Britain
Why we’re so uncomfortable with success and death
Watch on YouTube or listen on all major podcasting platforms 🎙️
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
”Taxidermists are motivated by seeing life, by seeing beauty, not by this macabre, creepy, ‘cabin in the woods’ aesthetic that gets projected onto us.” - Elle Kaye - 02:30”
- Elle Kaye - 02:30
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“To taxidermy something is to take a deceased animal and remove the skin, preserve the skin, dress it on an anatomically accurate model, put it together, and create a sculpture that represents the animal.”- Elle Kaye - 00:15
“I actually only work on birds that die of natural causes, which is an ethical conversation in itself.” - Elle Kaye - 04:00
“I have no intervention in the way that the animal actually passes away. My skill set can only begin when the animal is deceased.” - Elle Kaye - 13:25
“People say, ’Oh, just block and delete any negative comments’, but I’ve already seen it by that point… it goes somewhere into the psyche, and it stores itself up.” - Elle Kaye 21:05
“If you’re truly authentic and being your own self, you will sleep at night like a baby. If you’re pretending, it comes back around.” - Ty Temel - 25:25
”As a nation we’re pretty negative. We enjoy an underdog, but when they get to the bit where they can enjoy their fruits of labour, we start hating them.” - Elle Kaye - 32:05
"We minimise ourselves to make other people more comfortable, that’s absurd.” - Elle Kaye - 38:55