Good Grief

Alia Volz' mother sold marijuana baked goods in a time when that was illegal. At first, it was a rebellious way to make a living. But then the AIDS epidemic made it so much more; a struggle for the right of patients to use every tool available to feel better. Growing up in the midst of the political battle over marijuana, Alia also learned the history of why it was illegal when alcohol was not, a...

Suzanne Falter's life came to a halt when her 22 year old daughter died. She was no longer able to overwork, give more than she had, and keep up with the constant demands to achieve. Brought to her knees, she discovered that if she listened to what she really needed, even in those most terrible days, she could find her way to a greater sense of peace. Over time the discovery of self care in her li...

There is solace in speaking our grief and yet many of us are unprepared for true listening. How can we honor the voices of grief, the true feelings that come along with the death of someone we love? In Lindsey Whissel Fenton's film Speaking Grief she shares the voices of people living with loss and suggests ways we can become better at supporting and honoring those voices. In the process, we are a...

Novelists are often asked whether the book comes from their own experiences. The answer can be complex. For even when the story is not autobiographical, there is a thread of who we are and what we've experienced running underneath. After writing Godshot, Chelsea Bieker realized that her separation from her mother when she was a child, and the course of their severed relationship, led her to explor...

Bernie Siegel MD, NY Times bestselling author of Love, Medicine and Miracles continues his profound contribution of wisdom and insights to our world with his new book When You Realize How Perfect Everything Is co-authored with his grandson Charlie Siegel. Based on the anonymous quote 'When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.' Bernie and Charlie...

What makes us human? In a culture oriented towards the mind, it is easy to think that how well we can reason and express ourselves hold the keys. But this leads to a rejection of those of us who lose that ability. What about people with Alzheimers, or developmentally disabled people, or people with declining mental powers in old age? It is tempting to think that without mental powers and memory, h...

Across the great divide in America, city dwellers and the nation's farmers often fail to understand each other. Marie Mutsuki Mockett set out to close the gap, going back to the place in Nebraska where her family owns a farm and listening with her whole heart to the many of the men and women who raise the food that keeps all of us alive; midwest rural America. She travelled to seven states to part...

Finding a way to live our truest lives is not always easy. Growing up in a religious household, Steve Disselhorst had trouble accepting that he was gay and believed he would lose the dreams he had for himself; especially having children. Through facing the adversity he encountered in his life, he came to believe that the only way to live his best life was to live his most true life and this fed a...

Nina Impala, certified by the American Academy of Bereavement, combines intuition with professional education in the End-of-Life Field, including 10 years in hospice. She is a graduate of Mueller College of Holistic Studies and was a licensed massage therapist for more than 17 years, also incorporating Reiki. Nina's book Dearly Departed, What I Learned About Living From the Dying, was inspired by...

After twenty-seven years of marriage, John Sardella lost the love of his life when his wife, Margaret, passed away following a seven-year battle with cancer. John looked for a book that would give him space for his pain and inspire him to move forward, but all he found were clinical books written by psychologists. That was John's motivation to write this book and share how he worked through the gr...

We've all heard we need to get enough rest. But what KIND of rest leads to restorative, rejuvenating wellness? After her own burn out brought her to the ground, Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith set out to discover the many aspects of rest we need to live well and authentically. Her book, Sacred Rest, describes 7 types of rest we need to be well, including physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, se...

Running from death was a big part of Sue William Silverman's response to early adulthood. Over time, she began to see that running from death was also about running from those things in her life that she didn't know how to cope with; fearful and traumatic events. Over item, Sue would unravel those fears and face up to what she came to realize she could not escape. How did she find her way? And wha...

Throughout human existence, creative expression has helped people process difficult experiences, including loss. For William Lychack, writing fiction was the vehicle through which he came to terms with loss, including the absence and then early death of his father. So when his friend since childhood took his own life, it was natural that Bill's grief would find its way into his writing. The result...

What happens when a successful, capable business woman experiences unimaginable loss? For Adriana Monique Alvarez, the still birth of her daughter plunged her into a kind of grief and isolation she had never experienced before. She longed for just one person to acknowledge the depth of her loss and offer support and comfort. Unlike her successes, there was nothing that would take away the pain or...

What are the paths to connect with our soul, especially in hard times? Christian de la Huerta believes the breath is such a path. Seeking to connect with the spiritual dimension of his life, he was drawn to work with the breath and found power in the practice and in what he learned about our connection to all living things through the breath. He came to the realization that coming out as a gay man...

Steve Grant could never have imagined that both of his sons would die of accidental drug overdoses. Despite the differences in each of their lives, losing both of them to the opioid epidemic demanded that Steve struggle with his own choices in trying to help them. Taking an honest look at what he tried, what he did, and what experts say about how families respond led to a book, Don't Forget Me, of...

It was a day like any other. Rob Alessi was on a business trip and he and his wife Marie and kids were talking twice a day. Then suddenly, he wasn't calling. The worst had happened- he had died of a brain aneurism and would never return to their happy and satisfying life. Marie, a life coach by profession, had a decision to make. Would she now live a limited and diminished life or would she contin...

When Chris Meyer bought a funeral home, looking for a business opportunity to support his family, he never expected to learn so much about life from caring for families after the loss of a loved one. Coming into people's lives at this most poignant time, he paid attention to what mattered to is clients, what they most appreciated about the person they'd lost and what they wanted to carry with them...

What is music's power to support us through the passages of life? Gary Malkin has spent his career seeking answers to that question. His attention to sound and music and how they affect us led to work with patients and families at the beginning and end of their lives. He is a fierce advocate for music's role in healing and support. Join us as we talk about what he's learned and how he believes we...

We're all familiar with the truth that the only constant is change. Yet we often resist change as an unwelcome guest, especially when it comes from acute loss. How can we learn to embrace change as an invitation for growth, and honor what comes of it? Patricia Cagganello and Kathleen O'Keefe Kanavos immersed themselves in the subject, collecting stories of people who found new meaning and growth t...

What if painful grieving was not inevitable? What if the person you loved most in the world died, and you did not descend into the pain everyone expected? For Jen Mathews, grief came not as a sadness but as a revelation. When her beloved died, she felt more connected to life, more passionate about her spiritual values and more alive. In this hour, we'll talk about how this could be, and the work J...

Facing challenges in our lives, the need for support becomes so clear. But the support we receive may or may not truly do its job. Through her own life challenges, including the breast cancer diagnosis and death of her mother, Marisa Lee learned first-hand that her community of support often got it wrong. Marisa understood that this reflected a general lack of information about what helps and what...

When Karen Trench's beloved husband died by suicide, her life as she knew it ended. But somewhere deep within her a new life began to form. By surrendering to her grief and longing she began to follow her instincts towards healing and creation of a life worth living. Out of her anguish, blessings began to emerge. She discovered her true capacity for love, faith, forgiveness, surrender, transformat...

When Michelle Hoffmann's husband died, she joined the club no one wants to be a member of; the widow's club. But over time, she noticed that her community was directing new widows to her for help - they had observed her finding her way forward. A new calling was born, defining a way through widow grief and supporting other grievers. The lessons she learned about how to access help effectively, pla...

What is stunning about human beings is our capacity to search for meaning even in our losses. So often, that meaning becomes a driving force in our lives. Lily Myers Kaplan considers these epiphanies a legacy our loved ones have left to us. It's our healing and our responsibility to take what we've been given and share it, just as she has done. Her book, Loss to Legacy, shares the tools she found...