Episodes
Oct. 10, 2018
Absentee
Mason Summit's father died when he was only 11. Now 22, how did the loss affect who he has become and how he relates to life? His career as a musician began after his father died, when he felt a strong need to express what he...
Oct. 3, 2018
Time Flies When You're Alive
How does a life change when the person you're closest to in the world dies? For Paul Linke, that person was his wife and the mother of his three children. When she died of breast cancer at 37, he entered a new landscape. As a...
Sept. 26, 2018
Welcome the Rain
AnnE O'Neil buried her grief in alcohol, following the model she witnessed in her family. Only when her life fell apart did she begin to see that she would have to develop a program to stay clean and sober. That would only be...
Sept. 19, 2018
An App for Grief
How can we use technology to reduce the isolation and alienation that often comes along with grief? When Kimberly Libertini and Robynne Boyd were facing profound loss, a friend connected them to exchange text messages and sup...
Sept. 12, 2018
An Ocean Between Them
This week we turn the tables to talk about Good Grief host Cheryl Jones and her novel, An Ocean Between Them. The story is about a mother and her lesbian daughter estranged and alienated. It is also a story of deep redemption...
Aug. 29, 2018
Notice of Release
What does it mean to forgive the person who has injured you in your life more than any other? There was no thought of forgiveness when Stephanie Cassatly's mother was murdered before Stephanie had even fully launched into adu...
Aug. 22, 2018
Going With Grace
Alua Arthur was an attorney working with the most difficult problems we could imagine; abuse, poverty and assault. But she had done the work with energy and joy until she suddenly found herself depressed and uninspired, lacki...
Aug. 15, 2018
Brother's Keeper
What would you do if you were wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to an indeterminate period in prison? Marvin Mutch served 41 years before he was finally exonerated. But instead of losing himself to bitterness or viole...
Aug. 8, 2018
Library Girl
What has compelled you after a loss? When Susan Hayden lost her husband it was sharing time and space with writers and musicians. Beginning as a way to focus on something besides grief after her loss, her Library Girl series ...
Aug. 1, 2018
Going Green
What draws a person to the funeral industry and then to green burial? For Elizabeth Fournier, it was many early losses and a fascination with how people said goodbye. But it was her clients who inspired her to seek greener pr...
July 25, 2018
As Much Time as it Takes
Losing three close people in quick succession brought Martin Keogh into a period of intense mourning. He was quickly aware that close people in his life had no idea how to support him. His curiosity and depth of feeling led h...
July 18, 2018
A Widower's Notebook
On a day like any other, Jonathan Santlofer was suddenly dropped into the chaos of intense grief when his wife of 40 years suddenly died. His losses before this did not prepare him for his upended life. It did not prepare him...
June 27, 2018
Dad Got Sick
When Jay Perry's father was diagnosed with cancer, Jay's natural rhythm was thrown into chaos. Wasn't he too young to be faced with whether to continue on his life path or interrupt everything to be with his dad? Making the c...
June 20, 2018
The Pain Companion
Pain is a signal that something is wrong. But what if the cause of that pain cannot be relieved? What if we must learn to live with it? Sarah Shockley found herself in just this situation. The condition which was causing cons...
June 13, 2018
You in Mid Air
Danna Schaeffer's life was good. She and her husband were happy with their work, and especially happy about the rising stardom of their daughter, Rebecca. But their world fell apart when their daughter was murdered by a stalk...
June 6, 2018
For Brittany
When Brittany Maynard was diagnosed with a virulent brain tumor, she investigated what might help her and how the end would look if nothing helped. What she learned about how that end would likely unfold scared her more than ...
May 30, 2018
Prison Hospice
The prison population is aging and with the longer sentences of recent years, more and more prisoners are dying without ever being released. How are they cared for? Is there anyone there to comfort or witness them in the fina...
May 23, 2018
Sawbonna
What does it take to forgive and then form a relationship with the man who murdered your father? Margot Van Sluytman lost her dad in an armed robbery when she was 16. She immediately wanted to know the man who had taken him f...
May 16, 2018
Estrangement to Reconciliation
Laura Davis has written about pain and healing her whole life. From her book The Courage to Heal to I Thought We'd Never Speak Again, she has offered help and hope to a wide community of people determined to find their way th...
May 9, 2018
Living While Dying
What finally causes us to begin to explore the impact of death in our lives? For Cathy Zheutlin it was the deaths around her. As her mother's partner and several friends moved towards the end of their lives, she watched how t...
April 25, 2018
Long Time Coming
In the western world in the past 30 years, conversation has opened up about grief, illness and death. On the front lines, Susan Barber has witnessed it all and been behind the scenes for its major milestones, including many y...
April 18, 2018
Losing Amma, Finding Home
Losing a loved parent leaves us feeling displaced and unmoored, unsure where home is. But what if that parent has died a world away, soon after you have left her? Not long after Uma Girish moved to the U.S. her mother was dia...
April 4, 2018
Compassion Magic
What is it about deep loss and devastating life circumstance that sometimes hones our compassion? Perhaps we become aware of others who suffer as we do. Perhaps we come to feel there is nothing left but opening to compassion'...
March 28, 2018
Revolutionary Conversations
With life experience, particularly loss experience, do we sometimes become more interested in connection, communication and compassion? For Barbara Gaughen-Muller, this is true. Her life work in facilitating meaningful conver...