Episodes

Mary MacCracken and her husband Cal felt blessed to have a deep and loving marriage and two successful careers. They were living a life of true happiness when Mary and others around Cal began to notice that his memory was declining. Receiving a devastating diagnosis of Alzheimers, Mary and Cal committed to see it through together. But to keep that promise, ultimately Mary had to make tough decisions for Cal when he was no longer able to make them for himself. Finishing their love story would fal...

What leads us to explore our relationship to death? For Angela Fama, it began when a terrible accident caused her to consider her own death. But she noticed that when she tried to talk about death, she met discomfort and resistance. Instead of dropping the conversation, she searched for ways to enter into it; to make others more comfortable with the subject. Out of this need of hers, the Death Conversation Game was born!

Amy Turner was, quite literally, hit by a truck. Although she seemed to have escaped serious injury (no broken bones, apparent mild concussion) she was haunted by symptoms for months. But even more than that, the traumas of her early childhood came hurtling back, inviting her to explore even more thoroughly how her father's attempted suicide and her mother's alcoholism had defined her life. Her deep exploration of all the ways she had internalized their struggles led her to a discovery of hersel...

From the time she was a child, E.B.Bartels had a profound desire for pets in her life. Animals of every kind made her feel a kind of love and connection even deeper than many of her human relationships. But as she matured, the inherent losses she experienced with animals, who typically have relatively short life spans, caused her to explore love and grief. Now her new book, Good Grief: On Loving Pets, Here and Hereafter, offers a wholehearted look at the love humans have had for animals through ...

The funeral industry does not always respond to the unique traditions and practices of their clients. What is important to the grieving person? Can the industry support grievers as they navigate their losses? Joél Simone Anthony brings her well cultivated spiritual outlook to these questions. Realizing how important her own traditions are to her she actively responds to the people who come to her, discovering what is meaningful to them and doing her best as a mortician to create ritual that inco...

Zander Masser was only 11 when his father died of AIDS, contracted because of his treatment for hemophilia. How much does a child know about his parent as a full human being? How would he carry his dad in his life going forward? It was twenty years later when Zander found his father's catalogue of photographs, taken over a long career. Begun as a desire to get his work out there, it became an exploration of Zander's relationship with his father and his own grief. While collecting more and more o...

Right at the beginning of her relationship with the love of her life, Joni Sensel had the disturbing epiphany that she would not have him for long. It turned out to be true. But before he died, it pushed her to engage fully and with all of her self for every moment with him. And, contrary to the fact and science-based self she was used to, even losing him proved to her that intuition and mystery are real. How did their love, her grief and all the times she felt his presence after his death infor...

How can we open up conversations with children about the heavy subjects; illness, death, grief? For Sherrie Barch, the answer came in the form of an allegory about the ways that our dead loved ones continue to be connected with those who love them. In talking with her own children about hard subjects, including the Type 1 Diabetes diagnoses of two of her children within a year. Her story has helped many parents to talk with their kids openly and honestly while still comforting them. Does the sam...

An expert in helping others navigate their emotions, grief taught Mary Lamia how to come to terms with the unsolvable emotions after loss. That experience led her to conclude that grief is something to BE with more than something to get over, and that made all the difference. Her fifth book emphasized the point by declaring, Grief Isn't Something to Get Over. She now supports others to honestly allow grief to live inside them and evolve over time.

Sometimes change comes by way of a fire that burns us to the ground. Losing everything he thought was important to him, Adam Hall embarked on a quest to remake his life but ended up remaking himself. What are the most important things to discover in our lives? How do we step through grief to the life we are called to live? How do we let go of what no longer serves us? Adam had to come to terms with the worst losses of his life to answer his questions and find his own Divine Genius.

A project to bring poetry and art to a community in grief after 9/11 evolved into an ongoing community of artists committed to offering peace, hope and inspiration. As we continue to need encouragement to face troubling times, Elizabeth Hack collaborates with artists to create works of beauty to feed the soul. Editing a publication for just that purpose has evolved into a calling. She returns to Good Grief to share what feeds her and how she stays encouraged in the light of all that disturbs.

Sherry Walling experienced losses of very different kinds in a short period of time. Only five months after her beloved father died of cancer, her brother killed himself. Her world was thrown into an uproar and, as a psychologist by trade, she was unable to find ground. allowing herself to follow her own instincts, over time she learned to listen differently to herself and her clients. and the greatest comfort she felt was while she was doing circus arts, suspended above the ground, climbing, di...

After her fiancee's father died, Erica Buist became terrified of death itself. Afraid to venture outside and anxious about the other people she loved dying too, her life narrowed to an alarming degree. She resolved that once she was able to go out of the house, she would explore the ways people around the world helped themselves through loss and grief. How did they handle it? In trips around the globe, she faced her own fears and learned a little about death along the way.

Judy Lipson's family had more than their share of loss and no skills at talking about them. After the deaths of her two sisters Judy put her head down and went on, not believing she could face her grief. In the process, she was unable to come to terms with the losses or find a way to incorporate her only two siblings into her life going forward. But thirty years later, she finally allowed herself to grieve them, fully and deeply. As a result, she was able to pour her energy into a fundraising ev...

When we experience loss our first and most intense desire is to get back to who we were before the tragedy. When that isn't possible, we can become lost in an endless loop of desire for our old self. But it is in accepting the loss a building our new self that our hopes for a future self live. Michele Neff Hernandez learned the truth about this when her beloved husband died suddenly. Where was the capable woman who could make things go her way and deal with every problem? That woman died when he...

Michelle Cleveland coaches her clients to be the best versions of themselves.The lessons she learned from two of her children who had learning differences taught her to meet her clients where they are and support them in their individuality. What informs her work even more deeply is what it took for her to create a good life after the suicides of two of her sons. She has been able to find meaning and purpose both in her coaching and business consultant work and as an advocate in the area of ment...

Differences are what make humans endlessly evolving, and interesting. But often people who are different are shunned, oppressed and misunderstood. Mickey Rowe was seen as different both because of being legally blind and because he is autistic. Getting the world to believe he had unique and powerful skills to offer took a superhuman effort. His different abilities were less limiting than other people's inability to give him what he needed to excel. Despite these formidable odds, he succeeded, re...

Over a lifetime, what has given you the gift of shift? There's no way around those painful and difficult circumstances that come to us all, but what ultimately allows us to move forward with new wisdom? Ann Papayoti has experienced deep sorrow and loss, painful circumstance and yes, transformation. All of it led her to her life work- coaching other people towards lives of meaning and self realization! Join us to learn how she did it herself and how she helps others.

Ken Ross grew up immersed in the work of his mother, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. Unlike most people in the West, he was immersed in a world where death, dying and grief wer openly talked about and explored. How did he come to view his unique experience with the pioneering author of On Death and Dying? We will talk about his mother's work, his childhood and how he carries her work forward, honoring the legacy she left. We'll also explore how he thinks his own perspective on end of life has been formed...

Living what he considered a charmed life, Ivan Maisel was completely unprepared for the unexpected loss of his 21 year old son from suicide. The decisions he made in those first terrible hours, days, weeks, gave him a way forward as he struggled to learn how to live with the unimaginable. He and his family would be open about the loss. They would not hide the cause of his death. He and his family would not judge the way they each grieved. And they would stay together. These simple decisions poin...

Living a lifetime without his father, Jonathan Wess developed a clear vision of what he would have gained from that relationship. Only four years old when his father died, he missed out on the opportunity to learn from his father, to hear how he felt about his life and to receive the legacy of his father's memories. As an adult, this led Jonathan to a passion for collecting stories; stories to remember loved ones by and stories to remind ourselves how far we've come! Basing his platform on the q...

Creative expression is a powerful way to process the losses in our lives- and sometimes takes unusual forms. For Carol Finizza, trying to understand her daughter's addiction led her to write a murder mystery. How did writing about a crime help? Was she able to understand more fully her daughter's (and her own) experience? Join us to uncover the mystery behind the mystery!

How do our deepest experiences guide our lives after? For i.b. casey cui, a cancer diagnosis at a young age sent her life in a different direction than anyone expected, ultimately helping her to defy the demands of her family and become a writer instead of an attorney. Her novel, Groovy Girl, incorporates elements of her own story to tell a tale of immigration, family pressures and perils, and what cancer and all of its challenges can lead to!

The profound experience of love and loss often lead an artist to a deep need to create. In fact, mourning itself is a creative process, helping us to evolve into our new selves. For Corey Madden and her husband, facing his end, capturing their relationship in a podcast offered the opportunity to express what they meant to each other, leaving a record of a deep love. The act of creating out of their loss was meaningful for both of them, and especially for Corey after her husband's death!