Grief Out Loud

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...

When  Christina Babich's  partner, Alex, died suddenly from a brain aneurysm while they were visiting his family in Italy, her world shattered in  more ways than one . In addition to the grief of losing the person she loved and the future they were building together, Christina was also left to navigate the aftermath of a deeply traumatic event  -  one that profoundly  impacted  her nervous system,...

In this episode of Grief Out Loud, we talk with Adell Coleman about her mother who was killed when Adell was just 24 years old. Adell reflects on the closeness of their relationship and how her mom's death radically shifted her sense of safety in the world. She shares how the circumstances around her mother's death, including being the person who found her, has made it difficult to remember  how  ...

What if grief  isn't  a journey for us to eventually finish, but more a language we become fluent in?  In this first episode of 2026, we talk with  writer ,  storyteller , and  social  entrepreneur , John   Onwuchekwa , whose life was profoundly shaped by the death of his brother Sam in 2015. John shares how Sam 's death  altered not just his relationships and priorities, but his understanding of...

In the fall of 2023, Mackenzie Galloway-Cole was living out her rom-com-worthy love story with her wife Megan in New York City. Then, on an ordinary night in November, Megan collapsed and died a few hours later from a sudden cardiac event. In the aftermath, Mackenzie had to find her way in this newly shattered world without Megan, her anchor and biggest cheerleader.  Mackenzie reflects on the shoc...

It's  our annual holiday episode, this time with Dougy Center Executive Director  and TEDx speaker   Brennan Wood . Brennan first  encountered   Dougy Center after her mom, Doris, died of breast cancer three days after Brennan's 12 th  birthday.  S he has since navigated  almost four decades of  holiday  season s  w ith grief along for the ride.  She shares about the early years that were awful; t...

When Kyndal Parks' grandfather   died on  Black Friday  -  the day after Thanksgiving  – she lost one of her biggest supporters and confidants.  While navigating her grief, Kyndal was also navigating life as a  college  st udent  where she often felt unseen in her grief by faculty and the wider institution. What began as a class assignment turned into a powerful audio piece about loss, legacy, and...

When Hilary was 18, her oldest sister, Kelly, died from a rare cancer called DSRCT (desmoplastic small round cell tumor). In the same year, Hilary left for college  and her parents divorced - three life-altering events that reshaped her relationships, sense of stability, and the early years of adulthood.   In this episode, we talk about: Growing up as the youngest of three sisters and the creative...

When Cassie arrived at Dougy Center for her first peer grief support group for young adults after her dad died, she sat in the parking lot wondering if she could even walk inside. When she did, she found people her age who understood what it meant to have a parent die - people who would end up shaping her life in ways she never imagined. In this episode, Cassie talks about how grief changed her, w...

When  you're  grieving,  "Take care of yourself , "  might be the last thing you want to hear. So w hat does self-care  actually  look like for a  parent or  caregiver who is grieving?  Rebecca Hobbs-Lawrence, MA, who coordinates the Pathways Program  at Dougy Center  for families facing an advanced serious illness , joins us to share practical tools for caregivers who are trying to balance taking...