Episodes

What are the paths to connect with our soul, especially in hard times? Christian de la Huerta believes the breath is such a path. Seeking to connect with the spiritual dimension of his life, he was drawn to work with the breath and found power in the practice and in what he learned about our connection to all living things through the breath. He came to the realization that coming out as a gay man was just the beginning of his quest to come out spiritually and that looking inward to discover who...

Steve Grant could never have imagined that both of his sons would die of accidental drug overdoses. Despite the differences in each of their lives, losing both of them to the opioid epidemic demanded that Steve struggle with his own choices in trying to help them. Taking an honest look at what he tried, what he did, and what experts say about how families respond led to a book, Don't Forget Me, offering hope to all who struggle with a family member's addiction. Along with the questions Steve nee...

It was a day like any other. Rob Alessi was on a business trip and he and his wife Marie and kids were talking twice a day. Then suddenly, he wasn't calling. The worst had happened- he had died of a brain aneurism and would never return to their happy and satisfying life. Marie, a life coach by profession, had a decision to make. Would she now live a limited and diminished life or would she continue to live the happy and fulfilled life they'd planned? What would it take to choose life, and joy a...

When Chris Meyer bought a funeral home, looking for a business opportunity to support his family, he never expected to learn so much about life from caring for families after the loss of a loved one. Coming into people’s lives at this most poignant time, he paid attention to what mattered to is clients, what they most appreciated about the person they’d lost and what they wanted to carry with them going forward. He’d found a new way to live! Carrying these lessons into his own life he began to t...

What is music's power to support us through the passages of life? Gary Malkin has spent his career seeking answers to that question. His attention to sound and music and how they affect us led to work with patients and families at the beginning and end of their lives. He is a fierce advocate for music's role in healing and support. Join us as we talk about what he's learned and how he believes we can use music. His belief in its power has only continued to grow since his first interview on Good ...

We're all familiar with the truth that the only constant is change. Yet we often resist change as an unwelcome guest, especially when it comes from acute loss. How can we learn to embrace change as an invitation for growth, and honor what comes of it? Patricia Cagganello and Kathleen O’Keefe Kanavos immersed themselves in the subject, collecting stories of people who found new meaning and growth through change which may not have been, at first, welcome. Their book, Chaos to Clarity, tells these ...

What if painful grieving was not inevitable? What if the person you loved most in the world died, and you did not descend into the pain everyone expected? For Jen Mathews, grief came not as a sadness but as a revelation. When her beloved died, she felt more connected to life, more passionate about her spiritual values and more alive. In this hour, we’ll talk about how this could be, and the work Jen does to favor such a result in others. What do laughter, spiritual practice and mindfulness do to...

Facing challenges in our lives, the need for support becomes clear. But what we receive may or may not truly do its job.

When Karen Trench's beloved husband died by suicide, her life as she knew it ended. But somewhere deep within her a new life began to form. By surrendering to her grief and longing she began to follow her instincts towards healing and creation of a life worth living. Out of her anguish, blessings began to emerge. She discovered her true capacity for love, faith, forgiveness, surrender, transformation and a deep connection to herself and her life. By allowing her grief to teach her, she found a n...

When Michelle Hoffmann's husband died, she joined a club no one wants to be a member of; the widows club. But over time, she noticed that her community was directing new widows to her for help - they had observed her finding her way forward.

When loss comes to our lives, it often feels as if we'll never recover, let alone find meaning and purpose in the loss. But out of her own loss, Lily Myers Kaplan found over time that she had been given a legacy, passed on for her to continue.

When Charles Fontenot's son died of cance, it sent Charles on a quest to discover who he is. Grief showed him that he didn't really know himself.

The so-called justice system in our country has led to an unjust prison pipeline, undermining families and communities. Communities of color and other marginalized communities are especially hard hit. What is the history that led to these outcomes and how can we restore justice to communities that have felt the impact the most? World Trust, an organization founded by Dr. Shakti Butler, is impassioned about bringing heart to conversations about oppression. Their fifth film, Healing Justice, bring...

Imagine your beloved husband never comes home from a brief drive to the lake. And this leads to weeks of uncertainty and questioning about what has happened. And then his body is found. And all of this happens in the public eye. How do you talk about what is happening with your two young children? How do you prepare for the birth of your third child? How do you get from one day to the next? When Katie Stifter faced the unimaginable, it was her family, her community and her faith that held her th...

Ken Ross grew up immersed in the work of his mother, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. Unlike most people in the West, he was immersed in a world where death, dying and grief wer openly talked about and explored. How did he come to view his unique experience with the pioneering author of On Death and Dying? We will talk about his mother's work, his childhood and how he carries her work forward, honoring the legacy she left. We'll also explore how he thinks his own perspective on end of life has been formed...

When Elena Schwolsky's husband was diagnosed with AIDS, the work she had been doing as a nurse for kids with AIDS suddenly came home. After he died, she wondered what would come next for her. The desire to find a way forward pushed her to take a chance on 6 months in Cuba, a place she'd felt a deep connection to ever since a visit in her twenties. She would go and work with Cuban people living with AIDS- in a new and unfamiliar environment with very different ways of addressing AIDS. In the sani...

After Roselee Blooston's husband died, she wrote a memoir about her experience going forward from his death and dealing with the government of Dubai to settle is estate. Then her life continued forward and she became committed to sharing a novel she had already written with the world. But the subject of the novel was relevant to what she'd been through. Her legal drama , Trial By Family, touches the subjects of family, loss, and the effects of complicated grief. Diving into these territories eve...

After a loved one dies, what should we do with all that STUFF? And how about our own stuff, which we will some day leave behind? How does a loss change our relationship to stuff, both that of the person we lost and our own. Reflecting a deep personal experience with how possessions changed meaning for her after her husbands's sudden death, Rachel Kodanaz helps us approach what to keep and what to let go of with compassion and understanding. What gives a particular thing meaning and when the mean...

Some traumatic losses are beyond our imagination until we experience them. Bonnie Hirst's life was thrown upside down when her daughter was arrested for murder and then left changed forever when she was found guilty and given a life sentence. How could Bonnie, a mother with a close relationship to her grown daughter, and a deep lifelong faith, make sense of such a terrible tragedy? Navigating her way down a path with no light ahead of her, Bonnie had to change, to redefine what she believed abou...

In 1972, a plane full of young people on their way to a rugby tournament crashed in the Andes. What followed was 72 days of survival in a rough and inhospitable environment. Those who did not die in the crash itself were in constant peril from freezing cold, hunger, avalanche and injury. How did the survivors manage to stay alive and, ultimately, bring about their own rescue? And what did that icy mountain have to teach them about love, community and the resources each of them had within them? F...

Sarah Neustadter was part way through her training to be a psychologist when the love of her life suddenly died of suicide. In the early days after he died, she wrote emails to his account, which remained open even after his death. Though she believed he likely knew every painful feeling and thought racing through her, she found comfort in describing the experience and remembering her love for him. Over time, the writing helped her to walk forward and led to a time when she thought of him less a...

How can we live well to the ends of our lives? And how are we affected by societys view of being old and being elder? As Louise Aronson aged herself, her view of these questions deepened. As a gerontologist she had already been keenly aware of the differences in this stage of life and how they impacted her patients. But as her own experience changed her viewpoint she realized that even the care offered during this part of our lives is based on knowledge that may not apply to the old or the very ...

In the confusing landscape of childhood sexual abuse, it is often easier to block the experience than continue to try to make sense of what is happening. Patricia Eagle did not uncover the memories of her fathers abuse until well into her adulthood, although it affected her ability to take care of herself and make the choices that were best for her. Her mother further contributed to her confusion by calling sexual touching being mean and failing to intervene between Patricia and her father. Thin...

A childhood of abuse left Lisa Braver Moss with doubts about her worth, fears and a driving need to succeed in school and get free of her family. As time went on, she understood more about that experience and began to make some sense of it. Her path to her own best life ultimately led her to want to capture her experiences and her novel, Shrug, is the result. What is it like to write fiction based on painful experience? How did the story develop and what fed her as she was revisiting those diffi...