TTFA Anthologies

Lauren’s brother died at Thanksgiving. Her mother died at Christmas. So … this time of year is not exactly joyous for her. And it’s not all that fun for a lot of other people, too. The holidays can really suck!   We’re back with our second annual Happyish Holidays episode, in which we share your holiday stories of humor and loss.  _ Come see the Happyish Holidays Live Show: A Petty LIttle Christma...

Two days after Nora’s husband Aaron died, she celebrated Thanksgiving with her family. Well... maybe not “celebrated.”  Every year, millions of people do the same thing during the holidays. In this episode, we talk with some of those folks, including Dr. Lucy Kalanithi and comedian Amber Tozer.  We also spend some time with some of the women of the Hot Young Widows Club, talking about their hopes...

If the holidays make you want to tear your hair out or cry on the bathroom floor, YOU ARE NOT ALONE. It's a hard time for a lot of people, and still we have to force a smile and say through gritted teeth, "Happy Holidays!" But the holidays aren't always happy. Most of the time, all we can ask for is HappyISH Holidays.  In this episode, Nora McInerny and producer Marcel Malekebu dive into AITA stor...

In 2014, Brittany Maynard exercised her right to an assisted death under Oregon's Death With Dignity Act. She'd been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer less than a year earlier.  Her death at age 29 — and her advocacy work for the legalization of assisted death — made headlines.  Nora's husband also died in 2014, also from brain cancer. But his and Brittany's deaths were very different. In this...

When Claire was a teenager, she held a lot of big, difficult feelings, and for a while, she saw only one solution for them. Though Claire decides to not act on those feelings, her story gets shared anonymously online — and continues to appear when she needs it most. Note: This episode is about suicide. If you are or someone you know is experiencing thoughts of suicide, there are free resources ava...

Death by suicide has long been a problem within the U.S. military, and not just among veterans: In 2020, suicide rates among active duty service members hit a six-year high.  On August 28th, 2015, Heather’s husband Tyler became one of those statistics.  Theirs is a story of friendship, of love, of family, of service and duty … and of trauma, domestic abuse and mental illness.  If you’re experienci...

Olivia is 7 years old when her dad moves out of state to take a new job … and is never heard from again. In high school, a manilla envelope appears in Olivia’s mailbox letting her know the reason she never heard from him is because he died by suicide. But when Olivia learns as a young journalist that her father might have faked his own death all those years ago, she decides to investigate.  _ Terr...

Neil Pasricha’s life is falling apart. His marriage, which gave him a sense of purpose and value, is over. His best friend has died by suicide. Therapy helps, but he still struggles with all of the negativity swirling in his head. So Neil does what a lot of people did in the mid-aughts: He starts a blog — a blog about awesome things that make him happy.  Right now, a lot of us rely on the internet...

In the last episode, we heard from people who had ideated and/or survived their own suicide attempts, as well as people who had survived a loved one’s suicide. They told us about all the unhelpful and hurtful things that people had said or done.  But there ARE things that people can do and say that ARE helpful, and in this episode, we dive into it.  If you're looking for resources on suicide, here...

You know what people hate talking about? Dreams. Politics. Religion.  Also: suicide.  But it's important that we talk about the hard stuff (and it's kinda what we do here), so we asked you to talk to us about your experiences with suicidal ideation and suicide loss.  For resources on suicide and mental health, nami.org has a wealth of great mental health resources.  Text NAMI to 741741 for immedia...

Charlotte’s career is built on theoreticals. As an operating room nurse, she has a protocol for every tragedy — a “then” for every “if.” That all changes one night when, on her way home, Charlotte encounters a teenage girl on the wrong side of a guardrail on an overpass above a highway. Charlotte wasn’t this girl’s mother, or sister, or best friend. She didn’t even know her. But Charlotte was the...

This is an episode about two letters. One of those is the letter Jim left for his wife, Annie, before he died by suicide. The second is the letter Annie wrote to Jim after his death — and as she dealt with her own mental health issues and suicidality in the wake of it. When someone dies by suicide, people want it to be someone’s fault, so they can (hopefully) feel less like it’s their fault. But t...

Terrible, Thanks for Asking tells the real stories of real people who have lived through the terrible things in life. TTFA Anthologies are a curated collection of some of our best stories; released in seasons that focus on a specific topic. You can find our entire episode catalog ad-free on Apple+ or Patreon. – Find Nora’s weekly newsletter here! Also, check out Nora on YouTube. _ The Feelings & C...

Terrible, Thanks for Asking tells the real stories of real people who have lived through the terrible things in life. TTFA Anthologies are a curated collection of some of our best stories; released in seasons that focus on a specific topic. You can find our entire episode catalog ad-free on Apple+ or Patreon. – Find Nora’s weekly newsletter here! Also, check out Nora on YouTube. _ The Feelings & C...