Grief Out Loud

When Nina's mom, Shawn, was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, everything changed - and rapidly. Nina, who was in her mid-twenties, stepped into a caregiver role, learning to navigate medical appointments, medications, and the realities of her mom's declining health while also trying to deepen their connection. In this conversation, Nina reflects on how facing the rea...

From an early age, Ami Baio was curious about death and grief. As a game designer and the creator of Pink Tiger Games, she eventually turned that curiosity into Proof of Life , a conversational game about death, grief, and talking about what matters most to the people in our lives.  In a professional and personal overlap, as Ami was finishing the game, her father was dying of cancer. Ami's relatio...

In this episode, we talk with Kelly and Miguel Cervantes about their daughter Adelaide, who lived with epilepsy and complex medical needs . Kelly and Miguel share what it was like to parent a child who couldn't speak or move but who still made her preferences known – including smacking her brother when she was done playing and loving anything by Frank Sinatra. They talk about the very different ro...

Sometimes grief and how it shows up is obvious. Other times we might not recognize our experience as grief until something shifts our perspective. This was true for  Juniper Wong, MSW, LICSW , a therapist who specializes in supporting those who are grieving through self-compassion, mindfulness, somatic experiencing, and Internal Family Systems (IFS). Juniper shares how caring for her father during...

When Frank Flores's younger brother Marcelo died suddenly at 23, Frank found himself in an unfamiliar role: identifying his brother's body, navigating paperwork, and figuring out how to bring him home to the U.S. from Mexico. There was little room for grief. Instead, Frank went back to work - and then worked even more. Five years later, Frank's father died during COVID. Once again, grief was crowd...

What if we thought about death not as something that needs to be handed over to institutions, but as something that communities could face together?   In this episode  we talk  with Crystal Meneses, a death worker, spiritual counselor, hospice chaplain, artist, musician, and longtime community caregiver. Crystal's path into death work began with watching a recording of her grandfather's funeral in...

In 2022, Steph Tupper's two older children, Ali and Joe, were killed in a car crash. Ali was 16 and Joe was 14. Four years later, Steph is still learning how to live with the reality of losing her children while continuing to parent her youngest daughter.   In this episode, Steph talks openly about the devastating night she learned Ali and Joe had died, the ways she continues to feel connected to...

When physician and writer Sh a nda McManus was fourteen, her mother died after living with ovarian cancer. Three years later, her grandmother - the person who became home after that loss - was killed by a drunk driver. Then, while Shanda was in medical school, her younger brother Monir was murdered on Christmas Eve.   For years, surviving meant staying busy. Planning funerals. Managing paperwork....

When it comes to children and grief,  there's  a lot we misunderstand .  Adults might think they are either resilient and unaffected, too young to understand ,   or irreparably broken  by the death of someone in their life .  In reality though , their  experiences of grief  can be  just  as profound and complex as those of the adults around them.   In this episode of  Grief Out Loud , Jana talks w...

For many, September 11th is a shared, historical tragedy. But for today's guest, it is a personal anniversary - the day his father died. David Ferrugio was twelve years old when his dad was killed in the World Trade Center. Twenty-five years later, his grief continues to unfold - from recently sitting with his father's forensic file at the 9/11 Memorial to hosting his own podcast,  DEAD Talks , wh...

What happens when grief isn't an exception, but a constant presence? In this episode, Jana talks with researcher and educator Nora Gross about her book, Brothers in Grief: The Hidden Toll of Gun Violence on Black Boys and Their Schools , which follows the two years she spent embedded in a Philadelphia boys' high school where students were grieving repeated losses from gun violence. Through intervi...

Is it harder when someone dies suddenly, or when you know their death is coming?   It's a question that comes up often in grief spaces, and there's no easy answer. Both are hard - just in  different ways .   In this episode, Aimee Craig talks about grieving the deaths of both of her parents under very different  circumstances. Aimee's dad died suddenly when she was 23, during a season of major lif...

How do you talk with children about death, dying, and grief - especially when the truth feels impossible to say? Most adults feel unprepared to tell a child that someone in their life has an advanced serious illness or has died. There's often a deep desire to protect kids from pain, avoid overwhelming them, or wanting to wait until there's a "better" time to talk. But children often already sense...

Have you ever found yourself trying to outrun grief?  That's  what Camila Crews did when she was 19 and her mother died. Twenty years later, following the heartbreaking disappearance and death of her father, Camila stopped running and started feeling. Unable to just keep pushing through, she had to face her grief and learn how to care for herself in the process.   Facing her grief inspired Camila...

In December of 2021, Sawyer was halfway through their final year of college in a world that was still reeling from the pandemic. Home for the holidays, Sawyer got the heartbreaking news that their older brother, Jason, had died by suicide - a before-and-after moment that continues to reverberate today. Sawyer shares their nuanced perspective on grief, delving into how mental health, incarceration,...

Acknowledgment, validation, and curiosity – meeting grief with these three elements is crucial in creating supportive, culturally  relevant grief support environments for children and adults. Dr. Allen Lipscomb has spent his career researching , designing,  and implementing  anti -racist   interventions that directly support not just grief from death loss, but also the grief from ra cialized traum...

In this episode of  Grief Out Loud , Jana is joined by  N'keya  Peters-Camille , LCSW, RYT® 200,   a social worker, certified Grief Yoga teacher, facilitator for  e-motion grief meet ups, and creator of  Hope: A One   Line  A Day  Journal  for the Bereaved .  N'keya shares the story of her mother, Hope - a woman she describes as her soulmate - who died of pancreatic cancer in 2021 at the age of 46...

Mother's Day is approaching - Sunday, May 10th, 2026 - and it's a "holiday" that comes with lots of mixed emotions for those who are grieving. Whether you're a child grieving a parent, a parent grieving a child, or anyone who is carrying grief into the day, this episode might be for you. We explore why holidays connected to particular relationships can be so tough in grief and outline ideas for na...

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Kailey Bradley about support for grieving a death loss, but also the more overlooked non-death losses, including chronic illness, infertility, shifting identities, and the futures we imagined but  don't  get to live.   Dr. Bradley is a clinician and educator who specializes in  working with children and families navigating grief and illness .  Kailey shares her ex...

Jeremy's mom was a protector, an optimist, and someone who held onto a sense of lightness - even after a cancer diagnosis that led to her death just a few months later. In this episode, Jeremy shares what it was like to navigate such a short window between his mom's diagnosis and death, and how her outlook continues to shape him and his grief. From visiting her just before her death to to time spe...

What does it mean to live with uncertainty - especially when your body, your capacity, and your sense of self are all changing at once? In this episode, Jana is joined again by author and advocate Marisa Renee Lee . You may know Marisa from her first book, Grief Is Love , or from her work helping people tell the truth about grief. In this conversation, she returns to share about her new book, Wait...

Shelby Forsythia is well acquainted with grief. After a series of losses that started in her late teens and culminated in the death of her mother from cancer, Shelby became an expert in avoiding and outrunning her grief. Then, an incident with a stolen wallet broke through that avoidance; in the aftermath of letting those feelings out, she realized she needed to give herself permission to grieve....

What does grief look like when you lose your wife, two daughters, your home, and  nearly everything you own - all in a single night? In this episode  we talk  with Michael Reed , a  husband,  father ,  and author whose life was forever changed when a wildfire swept through his community, taking  the lives of his wife  Constance , his older daughter Chloe, his youngest,  Lily, their pets, and reduc...

In this episode of Grief Out Loud,   we   talk with  death  & grief  care professional, educator, and cultural advocate  Jo él  Simone, also known as  The Grave Woman .   Joél  shares the story behind a childhood drawing that declared her future as "the grave woman," and how that early curiosity about death grew into a lifelong vocation in funeral service, grief education, and cultural competency....

When Matt Fogelson's father died of lung cancer during his senior year of college, he turned to music to express what words  couldn't  - rage, self-loathing, and grief so profound he  didn't  know where to put it.   In this conversation, Matt - author of the new memoir  Restrung -  talks about the silence that surrounded his father's terminal illness, the vacuum left by an absent but beloved paren...