Episodes

When Keith Cormican's brother died in an attempt at a water rescue, it sparked his search for safe ways to offer families the closure of their loved ones' recovered body. Knowing how important it is to honor the person with our personal burial traditions, he became impassioned advocate for the families of drowning victims. Free of charge, he now travels wherever a family has need of his services and has become a leading expert in safe water recovery. In honor of his brother, he conducts his own ...

Like many people, Eilene Zimmerman believed drug addiction lived in another world, far from her family. That was until her ex-husband, the father of her children, died of an overdose and she discovered his body. How had everyone missed the signs of an ever increasing relationship to substances that was robbing him of his health, his career and his capacity to focus on the important relationships in his life? Eilene became intent on answering her questions about how a brilliant, high powered atto...

COVID-19 has been challenging in different ways for different people. Some of us are experiencing more isolation and loss than we were. Some of us, especially in industries directly affected by the pandemic, are working harder. And then there are those of us who are caring for children, trying to balance relationships, parenting, jobs and social isolation. This has highlighted the differential effects of child raising on women, who still bear an outsized burden for our home lives. Zibby Owens ha...

As Nina Simone said, It is an artist's duty to reflect the time in which we live. The Artists' Grief Deck, a project that pairs visual artists with writers, offers visual and written representation of COVID's impact, especially regarding our losses. As it's creators say, COVID-19 presents a unique challenge, among natural disasters, to human culture. Loss is experienced on numerous levels, and it is ongoing. It is not geographically specific, and so there is no ‘getting out’ of the affected area...

Can we ever understand the place a spouse holds in our lives? Often, that understanding comes only after the sudden and terrible loss of that person. Jeff Porter's wife, as it turned out, was the planet around which his life, in some ways, orbited. Her sudden death threw him into outer space, careening into memories, unmoored and trying to make sense of the un-sensible. His attempt to grapple with how his life would go forward without its center point led him to unexpected reaches of his own inn...

Grief- what's in it for us? Katherine Ingram had to answer this question for herself when her husband died suddenly. Along with the deep pain of that loss, unresolved feelings about the death of her father when she was eight opened up as well. Her realization that she would have to go through every bad and ugly feeling she was having, avoiding nothing, led to the writing of a memoir, Washing the Bones, and a career working with grief. She comes back to Good Grief to talk about her new book, Grie...

When Liz Tichenor's mother killed herself, it would have been hard to imagine a loss more crushing, even though her mother had struggled with addiction for most of Liz' life. But shortly after that Liz' son, only forty days old, died inexplicably and sent Liz into a territory of loss and grief unfamiliar to her. As she struggled to carry herself through those most terrible days, she knew that her work as an Episcopal priest would be forever impacted. She also knew she had to tell the truth; to h...

What does it mean to hold space for another person? And how do we hold space for ourselves? When Heather Plett's mother was dying, she discovered that holding space for her, without an agenda or any idea what would happen next, launched her and her siblings into a sacred, liminal space of being. Heather received the same fro her mother's palliative care nurse; she offered support and information when needed without expectation, allowing Heather and her family to find their own way. After this mo...

In the past several years green burial options have become more and more important to those of us who want to protect the planet. Green burial, which uses no embalming, no casket and leaves the land as it was found, is a very appealing option. But there are very few green burial grounds in the U.S. Mary Ann Perry and the women at the Willow-Witt Ranch in Oregon set out to create just such a space. The use of the ranch as a burial ground gives its owners a way to conserve the land, commit to main...

After her father committed suicide, Karen Wyatt questioned everything about her life, including whether she wanted to continue practicing medicine. If she couldn't help this most important person in her life, what did it all mean? But what slowly evolved was a career she couldn't have predicted; as a hospice doctor and a support to battered women. Over time she came to trust that there was a way to follow her galaxy self- that broader view of life and its possibilities. Instead of living in the ...

People who have not experienced deep loss may believe that grievers like to be cheered up, distracted, told about happy things. But often, deep expressions from other mourners does more. In our shared humanity we walk together, acknowledging the pain and also the moments of beauty and poetry that come with loss. After her husband died, Barbara Abercrombie, an accomplished writer herself, found comfort in the words of expressions of those who had already been there. Her collection of these writin...

A sudden disabling stroke hit Annette Libeskind Berkovits' son, leaving him unable to care for himself, or his wife and children and leaving her in deep grief. She wrote as a way to respond to the crushing weight of his circumstance, needing to put words on paper to navigate this strange and unfamiliar territory. Over time, her writing evolved into poetry and her poetry into a book, drawing on the phrase she had learned along the way; Erythra Thalassa- brain interrupted. Join us as we talk about...

Facing a cancer diagnosis presents unique losses, challenges and adaptations. How we face those times and how those around us support us makes all the difference in the overall experience of cancer. Supporting her mother through cancer, Rebecca Whitehead Munn learned what it took to truly be there for someone navigating this perilous world. What she hadn't anticipated was the depth of knowledge of herself she would gain, and how that would lead to her own best life. It also led to a bigger life ...

Good Grief has been on the air for 7 years, a momentous anniversary for the show and for the host, Cheryl Jones. Join her to hear what she has learned from her over 300 guests; how her own perspective has been reinforced by listening to them, what carries her forward after her own losses and what she knows about facing hard times. How does Cheryl practice what she preaches? By allowing for her grief, finding comfort and solace, finding inspiration and taking action in concert with her own person...

Nothing prepares anyone for times of extreme loss. Autumn Toelle-Jackson was leading a charmed life; married to the love of her life, with two healthy children, 2 1/2 and newborn. But then, over the course of just a few years, Autumn's husband died suddenly, a close relative died suddenly, her grandfather ailed and died and the baby she had, just two years later, with the second great love of her life died at 4 months old. How could her faith help her when she was furious with God? What would sh...

What are the practices that can help us find peace after loss? Nothing takes grief away, but many practices help us to support ourselves in grief, to go deeply into our own territory and find our way to the new. Claire Willis, familiar with grief herself, shares the practices she has found helpful in her book Opening to Grief. Always gentle and accepting of what we may not be ready to try, she gives us a door ajar into the room of our difficulties. In the process, grief becomes something do-able...

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 these skills were supporting him through the worst time in his life. He realized that they were the bedrock of his ability to support himself through his grief. Out of this realization came a deep desire to share those skills with others facing challenges. His book, Slay You...

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 Hassouri faced this process when her child let her know she was a girl at 14. How did she not know? How would she protect her? How would they navigate the change; in their family, and in the world? Answering these questions would change all of them and deepen their love in ways th...

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 Your Way, offers a daily guide of support for grievers, giving them permission to follow the unique twists and turns of their individual mourning and offering practical experiments to try along the way. Interwoven with her own grief experience, she offers the kind of advice th...

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. Rose Andersen knows first hand how addiction affects a person, because she herself travelled that road, eventually finding her sobriety and a life she wanted to live. Her sister was not able to find the way through and, instead, lost her life, leaving her family and commun...

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 mother's, and mature in her sense of who she was with her mother present, how could she find her way? The loss of a mother affects their children throughout all the landmarks and experiences they have throughout a lifetime. As a musician, Rissi has given voice to the loss and ap...

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 although she was focused purely on survival during the trip, she found that afterwards, something had changed for her. She had added a new chapter to her lifelong journey. From the clearing of old hurts and losses came a deepened joy and appreciation for life, culminating in her ...

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 everyone he knew. His highly respected career was also over. And his second life began, as a conductor of LGBTQ choruses. This new life culminated in Tim becoming the director of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. And although he had lost everything, there was no regret- for the...

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 unexpected conversation with a homeless man she met outside the building where she worked. The depth of their sharing was so alive she wanted more. Eventually she would leave the career she had built as an attorney to listen to strangers every day as they poured their hearts out. Len...