Episodes

What inspires a person to offer song to people at the end of their lives? Kate Munger, as a lover of choral music, felt a profound calling to offer people who were dying, incarcerated, newborn or in comas to receive the precious gift of music. She formed groups to offer song free to those who could benefit from it. What does she have to share having been with so many people at the threshold between the every day and something beyond? We'll talk about music, listen to some of songs Kate offers, a...

Caught off guard by the depth of his grief after the loss of his mother, Tom Sweetman searched for words of hope and encouragement, finding along with those two things encouragement to become his best self. Realizing he wanted others to have access to the people who encouraged him, part of his calling now includes getting the word out that grief can lead to beauty. Hear what inspired him and became the book From Grief to Greatness!

For Mary Potter Kenyon, her husband's cancer treatment resulted in some very positive changes in her marriage. She and her husband loved better, deeper and with a greater appreciation for each other after going through that most terrible of times. Then, five and a half years later, he died suddenly, of a heart attack, and Mary began a brand new journey of discovery, but without the person who had most supported and helped her through life. How did this loss, and the loss of her beloved mother an...

Edie Hartshorne was a therapist, meditation practitioner and musician, comfortable with facilitating change and working for peace. But nothing could have prepared her for the loss of her 20 year old son and the possibility that he had killed himself. In Light in Blue Shadows, a deeply felt memoir, Edie takes us into her grief and plumbs the depths of her pain and non-acceptance through to making peace with her loss. Join us to talk about the necessity of grief, even for those of us who accept de...

When a couple gets pregnant or a baby is born, family and friends gather around the them, joyfully supporting the news. But what happens when something goes wrong, when they experience miscarriage or stillbirth? The surrounding community often ignores the loss, or minimizes it. So healing professionals like Dr. Ivy Margulies make a critical difference, supporting grieving parents through the experience and helping them to honor their children and their grief. Find out what a death midwife does a...

Although losses can't be compared, the loss of a baby is something most of us find hard to imagine. Sean and Kiley Hanish lost their son when he was still born at full term. Ultimately, their experience Impelled them to create Return to Zero, a film about a couple experiencing what they did. Hear what helped them to walk towards their experience of loss, head on, to create a true reflection of their grief, for the benefit of others. Now that Return to Zero has been launched in the world, hear wh...

How does a lifelong spiritual seeker face a serious cancer diagnosis? She commits to learning all she can from the experience. She gathers a team together of medical professionals, friends, healers and supporters who form a solid ground beneath her. She shares her experience for the benefit of others. She deepens her commitment to living in the moment and living life fully. She eliminates everything from her life that does not express what her heart is trying to communicate. She takes chances an...

Has the medical world forgotten how to help people die? New technologies have made it possible to prolong life, even at the cost of that life being one the patient wants to live. As Jessica Nutik Zitter began her medical career, she noticed that she had no preparation for the important decisions patients needed help making at the end of life. As a result, she became deeply interested in what has come to be known as palliative care, which helps patients balance questions of quality and quantity a...

Claire Bidwell Smith found out at 14 that both her parents had cancer. She spent the next ten years interweaving a halting journey to maturity with their declines and deaths (her mother when she was 14 and her father when she was 24). The many aspects of her grief led to a memoir, The Rules of Inheritance, which will soon be made into a movie starring Jennifer Lawrence. She is also a grief counselor and former hospice counselor, using her own experiences to inform her work. As she says, she does...

How did Laura Mayer's find her way to a blissful life? It all began when she was diagnosed with an illness, at age 14, that was considered terminal. This led to many painful years, trying to heal. Believing that a healing in her spirit would support a healing in her body, she embarked on a journey of the soul. Hear how her 40 year exploration of her inner landscape, leading to a profound healing process, led to where she is today. Laura lives her bliss, sure that this supports her continued heal...

After a cancer diagnosis when she was a teenager, Britta Aragon knew intimately what can happen to a person's body when they are undergoing cancer treatment. Perhaps without her even knowing it, this led to a career in skin care. Then when her father was diagnosed and she wanted to help him in every way she could, she began to research the impact of the products we use on our health. Finding only products that had no carcinogens and no negative effect on the skin was nearly impossible. After his...

Have you ever lost a loved one and then imagined what they would say if they could communicate with you?Chelsea Hanson turned her grief into beautiful poems based on just such a thought. From there, she formed a business, producing poetry books to be used for comfort and support at times of loss. Having lost her own parents and feeling a deep grief, she brings a very personal perspective to the messages which have been used by over 700 funeral homes and by many people wanting to offer comfort to...

When a life has been filled with abuse, loss and disappointment, it's often hard to come through it with hope and optimism! Lina Jones found her way by exploring the depth of her own spiritual connection and, over time, gaining to wisdom to help others and to write a book about her healing. When Lina left France to come to the United States, it was just one more step in her quest for a fulfilling and wondrous life. Join us as she shares the journey she's taken and the results which have come, in...

Grief is a fully human experience, involving the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of us. Every aspect of our being can either flow through the complexity of grief or get blocked. As a medical intuitive, Lyn Waldrop has developed techniques to open these blocks. These methods have brought her through her own losses as well as helping those she works with. Join us as Lyn shares her experiences as an intuitive healer working with people facing a variety of life challenges, both in ...

One week before her due date, in 1985, Deb Rich gave birth to her daughter Shoshana, who was stillborn. How did she heal from this crushing loss and commit to a life helping others to cope with the grief of losing a child? What has she learned about living with the loss of a child. What can her story tell us about moving forward after losses which seem unrecoverable? We'll talk about her experience and about how it has impacted her life, both professionally and personally. Her story will inspire...

What would happen if a community began to work towards taking back the responsibility for burying its members? In an industrial town in Australia, residents are working towards just that! They want the chance to honor their grief and their love by owning the process of burial from start to finish by creating a non-profit to deliver funeral services to the community. Lynette Wallworth has created a documentary chronicling the start of this enterprise. Listen to what touched her, what made this pr...

Millions of children in this world grow up neglected, cast aside and abused. How does someone turn such a childhood into a life of meaning, value and mission? Cynthia Luce experienced such a childhood and now advocates for children who don't get what they need from those around them; parents, the foster care system and all of us. Be inspired by her story and by what she does now; working to make us aware of all the kids who need us to know their stories and to help improve their lives.

Life-changing events happen to us unpredictably, at all moments of our lives. David Tucarro, a Mikisew Cree First Nation from Ft. McMurray, Canada, was struggling to find his identity and feeling hopeless, even before leukemia knocked on his door. How did his diagnosis actually contribute to David finding his best life, a life driven by purpose and meaning? In facing his illness, life became more important. The crisis pushed David to begin to create better relationships, to find inspiring work a...

We've all heard about the sandwich generation; parents of young children taking care of aging parents. What if you add Alzheimer's and a PhD in studying the brain? How do the two experiences, watching a brain fail and watching brains grow, collide to create a unique experience in a studied observer of the brain? Sybil Lockhart brings a keen eye and a big heart to her experience supporting her mother and raising her very young children. Don't miss our conversation about loss and gain, love and mo...

When the person you love most in the world faces a crushing pancreatic cancer diagnosis, how do you cope? How do you face it? How do you take care? Deitrich Stroeh faced the loss of his beloved wife by accepting the heartbreak and caring for her fully in the three months before she died. He then entered the land of heartbreak, sometimes slowly and sometimes with great speed discovering how to go from heartbreak to healing. His book, Three Months: A Caretakers Journey From Heartbreak to Healing, ...

How can we practice mindfulness to mend our hearts? Can our own creativity and exploration of our internal landscape offer us solace in times of loss? As an artist, educator, and spiritual practitioner, Jan Phillips has worked with countless people who are facing major loss and transition, to help them find a way through their heartache by bringing grief outward, making room for comfort inward. Jan will share her story and her teachings with us, showing us how mindfulness has helped her and thos...

The Bradfords were an active and energetic family of 6 who traveled the world, living in numerous locations and happily adjusting to each new environment. Then, just as they were embarking on a move from France to Germany, something unimaginable happened. Their oldest son Parker, a fine young man just heading off to college, died. It was not at first comforting to know that he died trying to help someone else; that in his death he had shown his character. And their deep faith could not save them...

Sometimes the worst thing you can imagine leads you to your calling. For Nancee Sobonya, that was the death of her father at 17. How did that early loss lead to a lifetime of healing work as a grief counselor, filmmaker and workshop leader? How does the loss of her father continue to impact her beliefs about grief and about life? Join us as we explore how this experience continues to impact her and what unfolded from that early loss.

For sixty years, Rachel Naomi Remen has lived with a diagnosis, Crohn's disease, that was considered universally terminal when she was first diagnosed. How did that affect her life? She became a physician who worked with terminal illness, a New York Times bestselling author and a fierce advocate for compassionate medicine. She founded the Institute for the Study of Health and Illness (ISHI) at Commonweal and is also co-founder of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program. She worked with thousands of p...