Episodes

Malcolm Stern had worked hard to develop his inner life and bring his best to his family, friends and the clients he worked with as a group therapist. But when his daughter Melissa ended her life, it became crystal clear how ...

Nothing prepares a mother for hearing that their child is transgender. Along with protectiveness and confusion comes the stunning fact that the picture you had of your child must die and a new one take its place. Paria Hassou...

The death of Shelby Forsythia's mother when she was 21 plunged her into a depth of grief she wasn't prepared for. But then it led her to her calling; to guide others through the rugged terrain of loss. Her book, Your Grief Yo...

The losses that come with addiction are very clear to the people who love the addict. Addiction robs a person, and their family and community, of the person that could have been. And then sometimes it steals a life completely...

Rissi Palmer's mother was larger than life. She only became more so when she died when Rissi was just a child. How did that loss affect her going forward? Without the chance to define her own identity, different from her moth...

On a family adventure while white water rafting, Irene O'Garden had to depend on her siblings to navigate the river. For her, the trip connected to a life long effort to heal and to come to terms with her childhood. And altho...

In the seventy years Tim Seelig has lived, half was spent as a religious music conductor from a famous Christian family. But when Tim came out at 35, that life was over. He was unceremoniously ousted from everything and every...

Why would anyone offer to listen, free of charge, to strangers as they share their deepest experiences? When Helena Dea Bala found herself confronting a profound lack of meaning in her life, she had a surprising and unexpecte...

Needing a job to make ends meet, Gregor Collins stumbled into one of the most meaningful three years of his life. With absolutely no experience as a personal caregiver, his friend begged him to work for Maria Altmann, the ins...

Dena Taylor's honest and excellent book, I Don't Wanna Be Pink, was a manuscript when she joined us on Good Grief in it's first year, 2014. Fast forward to 2020 and it is out in the world, still moving and hilarious. How has ...

Many people believe that grief can be completed and that when it is, we will have closure. We will no longer need to remember and think about the person we've lost. But more and more, we are recognizing that remembering our p...

In a world where we need more civility, substance and compassion, Rabbi Daniel Cohen set out to try to define what it means to live a purposeful life. How do we define what really matters so that our lives match our deep beli...

When Janna Lopez hit 50, her world seemed to fall apart. In what she later describes as a Dark Flight of the Self, she seemed unrecognizable to herself which propelled her into a deep grief for who she had been. Unlike depres...

Miriam Feldman and her husband Craig were successful artists raising four children in Los Angeles. They were a happy family, with a great confidence in all their children succeeding in whatever they chose. Their son Nick, in ...

When your child is a journalist working in dangerous locations around the world, worry goes with the territory. But the alert goes down when she is near home. Yett that is when Ingrid Wall's daughter lost her life covering a ...

Losing a sibling at any age has a deep impact on how we see ourselves in the world. Aside from parents, siblings carry more of our history than nearly anyone else. So what happens when your sister is diagnosed with a disablin...

What does it take to prepare ourselves to do the work of anti-racism? At this time when there is an outcry against racism and oppression, many white Americans are confronting the hard truth that we benefit from the system tha...

In times when the inequities and oppressions of the world are obvious to all whose eyes are open, how do we keep hope alive, not only for ourselves but for our children? Sean Perry dedicates his life to the mental health need...

Alia Volz' mother sold marijuana baked goods in a time when that was illegal. At first, it was a rebellious way to make a living. But then the AIDS epidemic made it so much more; a struggle for the right of patients to use ev...

Suzanne Falter's life came to a halt when her 22 year old daughter died. She was no longer able to overwork, give more than she had, and keep up with the constant demands to achieve. Brought to her knees, she discovered that ...

There is solace in speaking our grief and yet many of us are unprepared for true listening. How can we honor the voices of grief, the true feelings that come along with the death of someone we love? In Lindsey Whissel Fenton'...

Novelists are often asked whether the book comes from their own experiences. The answer can be complex. For even when the story is not autobiographical, there is a thread of who we are and what we've experienced running under...

Bernie Siegel MD, NY Times bestselling author of Love, Medicine and Miracles continues his profound contribution of wisdom and insights to our world with his new book When You Realize How Perfect Everything Is co-authored wit...

What makes us human? In a culture oriented towards the mind, it is easy to think that how well we can reason and express ourselves hold the keys. But this leads to a rejection of those of us who lose that ability. What about ...