Episodes
May 27, 2015
The Power of Two
Isabel and Anabel Stenzel, identical twins diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis as babies, faced a lifetime of ill health and the probability that they would die very young. They also faced numerous losses of friends who had the sa...
May 20, 2015
In My Humble Opinion
One of the most important things for us when we're ill, especially when we are dying, is the compassion and empathy of our doctors. But how do physicians retain these human qualities with each patient when they are bombarded ...
May 13, 2015
End of Life Wisdom
As a hospice social worker and as someone whose husband died of cancer, Marcy Bernstein has learned a lot about the end of life and what kind of support people need to support a good death. It is her calling to offer advice, ...
May 6, 2015
Knocking on Heaven's Door
Katy Butler was dedicated to supporting her parents at the end of their lives and acting as their part time caregiver and full time medical advocate. But the experience taught her just how hard it is to craft a good death in ...
April 29, 2015
Make a Joyful Noise
Out of the African-American experience in this country, spiritual and gospel music was born; moving and beautiful music celebrating spirit, faith and the capacity of human beings to overcome adversity. The Oakland Interfaith ...
April 22, 2015
Soul Care
How can taking care of a sick loved one teach us about taking care of ourselves? The stakes are high, and we can't afford to push ourselves beyond our own edges. If we do, we may not be able to help the person we love at all!...
April 15, 2015
Home at Clarehouse
At the end of life, we want to feel at home, even if we can't BE at home. After a career in nursing, working with very ill patients, Kelley Scott saw the need for a home place for dying people and set about to fill that need....
April 8, 2015
Daddy, This is It
Helping a parent face the end of their lives can be a sacred part of living. When the relationship has been special and close, we are giving back to a person has given us life and, sometimes, a great deal more. And when that ...
April 1, 2015
Loveland
When playwright and actor Ann Randolph faced difficulties and losses, she applied her art to them and created comedy. Being able to laugh at what we cry about is a soothing balm for our difficulties and griefs. Creating chara...
March 25, 2015
Return to Zero in Australia and Beyond
Kiley Krekorian Hanish and Ivy Margulies dreamed of supporting women who have lost babies, to grieve the loss and share the experience with other women. Kiley and her husband were the subject of the film Return to Zero with M...
March 18, 2015
Imperfect Endings
How do we face the end of a mother's life? This is usually a difficult and painful prospect. But what if your mother wants to end her life by her own volition. How can one accept that? After years of struggling with Parkinson...
March 11, 2015
The Next Happy
Sometimes it's time to let go of a dream. How do you know when to keep trying and when to grieve and create new dreams? And how do you let go of that dream that has compelled you for such a long time? What helps you to find w...
March 4, 2015
Grief One Day at a Time
How does a mother of a two year old, just beginning her marriage and her life as a mother, face the sudden loss of her 32 year old husband? Rachel Kodanaz had to discover how to do that when her husband died leaving his offic...
Feb. 25, 2015
Letting Them Go
We welcome back Melanie DeMore, consummate musician and death bed midwife. She lost her father and I lost my mother within a few weeks of each other in Fall, 2014, both from pancreatic cancer. Join us for an intimate conversa...
Feb. 18, 2015
Where the Dead Pause and the Japanese Say Goodbye
When Marie Mutsuki lost her American father and Japanese grandparents, she feared she would never find her happiness again. Motivated by a deep desire to have some joy to share with her young son, she travelled to Japan, the ...
Feb. 11, 2015
Wisdom for Your Life
Katrina Cavanough knew all her life that she saw beyond what others saw. But it took working as a social worker in a hospital to realize that she had the capacity to reach beyond our everyday world and speak with those that h...
Feb. 4, 2015
Digging for the Light
What do we mean when we say we've had a run of bad luck? We mean that we have experienced loss after loss, until we're not even sure which heartache is sending us into the depths of despair. Like quicksand, it seems as if we'...
Jan. 28, 2015
Getting the Most out of Life
Through the loss of two of the most important people in her life, Marilyn Ababio became deeply interested in supporting others to make the most out of their lives, and their deaths. Compelled to make her work accessible to pe...
Jan. 21, 2015
Cancer and Quality of Life
A few women with cancer felt isolated, unsupported and scared. They were also community activists. Out of their own need, they created a Center dedicated to women with cancer, planting the seeds for a community serving thousa...
Jan. 14, 2015
Permission to Mourn
Do we continue to transform with each new loss? Tom Zuba thinks so, and wants to share the profound lessons he learned grieving the loss, first of his 18 month old daughter, then years later his wife, and years after that one...
Jan. 7, 2015
Washing the Bones
Katherine Ingram opened the door to find the experience many of us dread on the other side; a police officer on telling her that her loved one would not be coming home. In her grief over her husband, killed in a plane crash, ...
Dec. 31, 2014
Leaning into Love
When a lifelong practitioner of Buddhism, philosophy and healing loses her husband, how does she grieve? Elaine Mansfield observed her own experience, capturing her grief in a beautiful book and ultimately answering the call ...
Dec. 24, 2014
From Mourning to Morning
Rabbi Melvin Glazer dedicates his life to helping people face loss because he has faced loss. Drawn to a life of service, he became a rabbi and then an expert in death and bereavement. What does he have to share about weaving...
Dec. 17, 2014
Long for This World
Betsy Rose has long used her music to express her deepest experiences, and has sung for others in order to open their hearts. So it was only natural that the loss of her father inspired her to create and compile songs she wro...