Flickr After her brother unexpectedly died and her mother moved into a memory-care facility, Lori Erickson explored both her own ideas on mortality and ideas about death across the world in her new book Near the Exit: Travels With The Not-So-Grim Reaper The intersection of travel, culture and death are at the heart of Lori Erickson’s new book, Near the Exit: Travels with the Not-So-Grim Reaper. Erickson joins host Charity Nebbe on Talk of Iowa to share her journey of confronting and contemplating death through travel. After her brother unexpectedly died and her mother moved into a memory-care facility, Erickson began exploring both her own ideas on mortality as well as ideas about death around the world.