Good Grief

What would happen if a community began to work towards taking back the responsibility for burying its members? In an industrial town in Australia, residents are working towards just that! They want the chance to honor their grief and their love by owning the process of burial from start to finish by creating a non-profit to deliver funeral services to the community. Lynette Wallworth has created a...

Millions of children in this world grow up neglected, cast aside and abused. How does someone turn such a childhood into a life of meaning, value and mission? Cynthia Luce experienced such a childhood and now advocates for children who don't get what they need from those around them; parents, the foster care system and all of us. Be inspired by her story and by what she does now; working to make u...

Life-changing events happen to us unpredictably, at all moments of our lives. David Tucarro, a Mikisew Cree First Nation from Ft. McMurray, Canada, was struggling to find his identity and feeling hopeless, even before leukemia knocked on his door. How did his diagnosis actually contribute to David finding his best life, a life driven by purpose and meaning? In facing his illness, life became more...

We've all heard about the sandwich generation; parents of young children taking care of aging parents. What if you add Alzheimer's and a PhD in studying the brain? How do the two experiences, watching a brain fail and watching brains grow, collide to create a unique experience in a studied observer of the brain? Sybil Lockhart brings a keen eye and a big heart to her experience supporting her moth...

When the person you love most in the world faces a crushing pancreatic cancer diagnosis, how do you cope? How do you face it? How do you take care? Deitrich Stroeh faced the loss of his beloved wife by accepting the heartbreak and caring for her fully in the three months before she died. He then entered the land of heartbreak, sometimes slowly and sometimes with great speed discovering how to go f...

How can we practice mindfulness to mend our hearts? Can our own creativity and exploration of our internal landscape offer us solace in times of loss? As an artist, educator, and spiritual practitioner, Jan Phillips has worked with countless people who are facing major loss and transition, to help them find a way through their heartache by bringing grief outward, making room for comfort inward. Ja...

The Bradfords were an active and energetic family of 6 who traveled the world, living in numerous locations and happily adjusting to each new environment. Then, just as they were embarking on a move from France to Germany, something unimaginable happened. Their oldest son Parker, a fine young man just heading off to college, died. It was not at first comforting to know that he died trying to help...

Sometimes the worst thing you can imagine leads you to your calling. For Nancee Sobonya, that was the death of her father at 17. How did that early loss lead to a lifetime of healing work as a grief counselor, filmmaker and workshop leader? How does the loss of her father continue to impact her beliefs about grief and about life? Join us as we explore how this experience continues to impact her an...

For sixty years, Rachel Naomi Remen has lived with a diagnosis, Crohn's disease, that was considered universally terminal when she was first diagnosed. How did that affect her life? She became a physician who worked with terminal illness, a New York Times bestselling author and a fierce advocate for compassionate medicine. She founded the Institute for the Study of Health and Illness (ISHI) at Com...

What does rock climbing have to do with helping underserved, traumatized kids find their motivation and healing? Dr. Clifton Hicks learned early, through his own experiences, that the physical challenges of the outdoors, especially rock climbing, offered opportunities to learn how to face other challenges and find your way up whatever adversity hill might befall you. He developed a therapeutic pro...

What helps us to find our way back to optimism and gratitude after a terrible experience? For Anne Kubitsky, it was inviting strangers to share what they were grateful for. First, she sent out some postcards addressed to herself with "What are you grateful for?" printed on the back. Evolving into a project which installs art projects encouraging gratitude, she'll share with us what finding gratitu...

If you were diagnosed with breast cancer, could you keep your sense of amusement? For Joules Evans, it was a must. As a writer and an acitvist, she couples a fierce fighting spirit with a wry sense of humor. Thinking globally and acting locally, Joules will inspire and amuse you as she talks about her own cancer experience and the writing and work it led to. As she puts it, "I've had a lot of oppo...

When Kelly Carlisle left the military, life became more difficult. She was suddenly unsure where she belonged and what would give her new life meaning. She was not always appreciated for the service she had given. Starting out with a corporate job, she found herself drawn to grow food, delighted by the flourishing tomatos and a little lemon tree. How did this passion, which helped her connect with...

Join me as we talk about how the worst time in Amikaeyla's life led to Music As Medicine, programming she developed which successfully helps people in the United States and around the world (including recently in Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Sierra Leone) unlock their deepest inner voice. What links her work on national and international t.v., on recording...

Recovering from a divorce and dealing with his father's terminal diagnosis, Robert Pruitt faced the lowest point in his life. But hearing his father was ill, he knew he would regret missing any of it. In the next three months until his dad's death, Robert wrote in his journal and embarked on a crash course in living and dying. How did these losses and the work he did to respond to them lead to a l...

When breast cancer interrupted her successful life, Terri Wingham found herself depressed and isolated, with no bridge back from illness to purpose. Taking a chance by going on a volunteer trip to Africa, she found a passion that she now shares with other survivors at volunteer locations across the globe. Listen in to find out how A Fresh Chapter, the non-profit she founded, facilitates trips arou...

Lorrain Taylor's worst nightmare began on a typical February day in 2000. Her sons, twins, were murdered together in a parking lot while trying to start a car, victims of a random shooting. How did Lorrain heal and begin her work to support families after the loss of their children to violence? Lorrain's story of redemption and activism will break your heart and lift you up

How would it change you to lose most of your family in a few short years? Lily Myers Kaplan has written an intimate and compelling memoir, Two Rare Birds: A Legacy of Love about the painful, exhausting, challenging and ultimately transformative experiences Lily and her family had as they faced old age, two cancer diagnoses, and their family history. Her honesty will move and inspire you

As a child, Marianna Cacciatore lost her best friend, who was murdered on her way home. Isolated with her grief, Marianna learned young the value of developing skills to support ourselves through loss. Deeply believing in the important and value of grieving, a primary focus of her career has been working with grieving families and creating tools to promote resilience in grieving people. Her messag...

Do you like to play cards? And sit around the kitchen table talking with family, with friends? But are there those conversations you find it hard to have? How do you want to die? For that matter, how do you want to live? The Action Mill, a graphic arts company that has worked with companies that are focused on addressing grief, has developed a card game, My Gift of Grace, to help all of us talk ab...

What if you had changed your life to make it everything you dreamed of and then were diagnosed with breast cancer? And your usual way of coping was to apply a strong wit to every experience? And you'd done stand-up comedy, honing your comedic skills? And you hated pink ribbons and fundraisers? You might find yourself writing a book about finding a way to give as little to cancer as you could get a...

From 1985 to 1995, Benjamin Allen lost his wife Lydia and their two children to AIDS, contracted through a blood transfusion during childbirth. Grieving these unimaginable losses, Benjamin felt his way to a deeper life. He says, "My experience with grief has been that a part of me is forever gone and a part of the one I love and lost is forever with me." His journey of reintegration led him to wri...

How can music deepen our experience of life, especially when life is difficult? As a result of the challenges in his own life, Gary Malkin, a multiple Emmy® and Clio® award-winning composer, producer, performer and public speaker, explored the ways he could apply his considerable experience and talent to that question. What resulted was a large body of work in multiple media supporting people as t...

How can we create an open conversation about the damages and continued disconnects which result from racism? Shakti Butler believes that "in order to manifest human rights and dignity for all, it is necessary that we seek union between the head and heart. It is the head that can recognize, analyze and strategize to overcome disparities. It is the heart that obliterates fear." Join us while we talk...

Have you had a conversation with the closest people to you about how they want to die? The Conversation Project believes we all need to have those conversations and offers invaluable insights into how to bring them about. Join me with Harriet Warshaw, the Executive Director, as we talk about the Project's principles and how she was moved to work with the organization after the death of her mother.