Episodes

Melanie DeMore, an outstanding and internationally recognized vocalartist, embodies her own principle that music can be a force for socialand political change.

Join me when guest Ash Beckham talks about having the hard conversations. How did she learnabout that? By coming out as a lesbian

Frank Ostaseski, a widely respected authority on compassionate end of life care, urgesus to turn toward suffering.

Julie Genovese struggled for the first several decades of her life with deep shame and self criticism as a result of the cruel bullying and medical torture she experienced as a child. Originally believing that her dwarfism and arthritis condemned her to a limited and lonely life, she found a way to love herself, with all her unique difference. Following every twist and turn of her own struggle, she learned to accept herself fully and create the life of her dreams. Join us for a story of triumph ...

Already fascinated by the mysteries of death, sociologist Michelle Peticolas deepened her own understanding of death, and of grief, when she was faced with the deaths of both her parents within the same year. Join us as we explore the ways those losses opened her heart and led to her life’s work as a filmmaker exploring death and as a coach facilitating grief. Together, we’ll talk about how making her film series, Secrets of Life and Death, intensified her understanding of what was, and is, poss...

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...

What does a palliative care chaplain have to tell us about facing death and living life? Denah Joseph has sat with over a thousand dying people and their families. Her own early experiences with death led her to seek answers to the deepest life questions: Why are we here? What is important? How do we heal? Join me to learn more about what dying people have to teach us about what matters and what it takes to live close to the doorway between death and life.

Join me as we talk about how the worst time in Amikaeyla’s life led to Music As Medicine, programming she developed which successfully helps people in the United States and around the world (including recently in Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Sierra Leone) unlock their deepest inner voice. What links her work on national and international t.v., on recordings with many award winning artists, singing for His Holiness the Dalai Lama in India and working with...

Angelo Merendino is a photographer who started taking pictures of his wife as soon as he fell for her. His photo journaling became a calling when, five months after they were married, Jennifer was diagnosed with breast cancer. When he shared his photos in essay form, they went viral on Facebook, leading to appearances in the press and a TEDX talk. In this hour, Angelo will share what he wants people to know about how to support their friends and family dealing with cancer. We’ll talk about what ...

I wouldn’t ask my guests to do something I wouldn’t do myself, so on this debut show, I’ve invited Marianna Cacciatore to interview me. Marianna is Executive Director of Bread for the Journey and host of Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Deeds, a weekly radio program on VoiceAmerica. Why did I want to host a show on grief? How did losing my wife lead to less fear, more courage, a greater sense of possibility? How did surrendering to my grief lead me to a happier, more fulfilled, more meaningfu...