Episodes

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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'...

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...

When John Brooks daughter jumped to her death from the Golden Gate bridge, his grieving mind searched for answers. He had thought she was a well-adjusted, normal teen, successful and getting ready to go to college. But how co...

After many other losses, Brent Green prepared to lose the last member of his family of origin, his sister. As the family sat with her, a wise chaplain introduced questions that opened up a new way for Brent to think about los...

At the heart of the Lavender Pen tour of October, 2017 was a recognition that none of us are free until we are all free. One way participants connected LGBTQ oppression with the oppression of people of color and other margina...

A tour which began from a desire to offer solace and inspiration to communities under attach became, also, an inspiration to those who participated and to people across the country. Capturing the imagination of many communiti...