The Solo Dad Podcast

What happens when one of the happiest moments of your life and the worst moment of your life happen within hours of each other? Ric Hart became a father and a widower almost at the same time. His wife, Jade, gave birth to their son, Hugo, in July 2018. Hours later, after a catastrophic series of medical events, Jade died. Two days later, Ric returned home with a newborn. No partner. Very little sl...

What happens when your wife dies, you're raising three grieving boys, and you have 60 days to leave the country you've called home? Michael “Mike” Frampton lived that reality. Before becoming a widowed solo dad, Mike was already managing a marriage marked by serious challenges. His wife, Kim, was a successful doctor and entrepreneur, but behind the scenes, their family was struggling wit...

Four days before Christmas, everything changed. On Saturday, Sarah was bowling with her family. On Sunday, she was making gingerbread houses with her children and watching Santa ride through their neighborhood. By Wednesday morning, she was gone. In this episode of the Solo Dad Podcast, Matt sits down with Tom, a Philadelphia musician and widowed father of three, to discuss the sudden death of his...

Seventeen days changed everything. Shane Musgrove came home from a normal work trip expecting dinner and a movie with his wife, Sonia. Instead, a stop at a clinic became a trip to the emergency room. Then came three words: “You have cancer.” Seventeen days later, Sonia was dead. In this deeply personal conversation on the Solo Dad Podcast , Shane walks Matt through the 17 days that changed his fam...

What does grief feel like when the person who gave your life direction disappears without warning? In this episode of the Solo Dad Podcast, Matt talks with golf professional, widower, father, yoga teacher, and Wim Hof Method practitioner Kevin Chin about the sudden death of his wife, Terry, and the tools that helped him survive, rebuild, and become unstuck. Kevin and Terry met through Couchsurfing...

When someone you have loved for decades dies, the love does not end—but the life you shared changes completely. In this episode of the Solo Dad Podcast, Matt sits down with author and widower Bill Beckett to talk about his wife, Bonnie, their 27 years together, her cancer journey, and the difficult work of learning to live with the empty side of their bed. Bill and Bonnie met online in the early d...

What happens when the person who helped you carry everything is suddenly gone? In this episode of the Solo Dad Podcast, Matt sits down with Zach, a firefighter, widower, and solo father raising his nine-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter after the death of his wife, Megan. Zach and Megan had been together since high school. What began with him borrowing her answers in an ACT prep class grew...

You can love someone deeply and still be powerless to save them. Josh spent years serving his country. Then he found himself facing a battle he couldn't solve with training, discipline or determination. His wife and best friend, Corey, was struggling with alcohol. What began with increasing alcohol use eventually became serious physical complications, hospitalizations, mobility loss and a yea...

This episode of the Solo Dad Podcast is a deeply honest Solo Mom conversation with Alicia, whose story moves through love, marriage, parenting, mental illness, separation, suicide loss, and the reality of raising grieving children after trauma. Alicia shares what it was like to love a man whose laugh filled the room, while also slowly watching mental illness change the life they were building. She...

In this episode of the Solo Dad Podcast, Matt sits down with Suzie Schumaker for a deeply honest Solo Mom conversation about love, loss, faith, caregiving, and raising kids after the death of a spouse. Suzie shares the story of meeting her husband Eric as kids in their Orthodox church community, building a life together, grieving the loss of their first daughter, and later facing Eric’s cancer dia...

In this deeply moving conversation, Danny Leslie joins Matt to talk about love, loss, solo parenting, and the ways grief changes shape over time. Danny reflects on the long road of Raf’s cancer, the heartbreak of becoming the one who had to carry impossible news, and what it has looked like to raise their daughters while keeping her presence alive in everyday family rhythm. He shares how writing,...

In this episode of the Solo Dad Podcast, Dustin Morrow shares the story of how he and Mallie met, built a life together fast, welcomed their son Tristan, and then had everything change when back pain turned into a devastating cancer diagnosis. What followed was a two-year caregiving journey filled with hospital visits, hard conversations, hospice, and the helpless reality of loving someone through...

Jason opens up about losing his wife Heather unexpectedly, raising a daughter through grief, and the heavy guilt he carried in the years that followed. He shares what helped him heal, including therapy, hard-earned honesty, and learning to put down the things that were numbing the pain instead of helping him face it. The conversation also moves into something many widowed parents wrestle with but...

What happens when grief doesn’t just visit once—when it repeats? In this conversation, Michael Chapman and Matt talk through the kind of loss that changes your nervous system: sitting in a hospital room watching “a repeat of history,” the exhaustion that makes reality blur, and the moment a nurse gives permission to step away—because sometimes that’s when it happens.  They get into the parts peopl...

In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, Michael Chapman—an author and twice-widowed dad—shares what it’s like to love, lose, and keep showing up. From walking through terminal cancer to the shock of the silence after, Michael opens up about grief waves, “two dates on the calendar,” and the moment he realized moving forward isn’t forgetting—it’s surviving. Book Available here: https://www.amazon.c...

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

“It’s different now and that’s OK,” says Abel Keogh, author, blogger, relationship coach and host of YouTube channel Widower Wednesday. Abel became a widower 21 years ago at the age of 26 when his wife took her own life while she was seven months pregnant. He started anonymously blogging during that first year as a widower, sharing his experiences and awkward dating stories. The blog soon took off...

“I’m worth whatever I think I’m worth,” says Ken, describing the mindset he adopted while beginning to date after losing his wife. Rather than thinking of their widower status as baggage, solo dads who are preparing to date again should remember that if their amazing wives once loved them, then another amazing person will, too. They also agree that knowing what they might have done differently in...

“I’m still on a kind of mixed-grief journey, I guess,” says John Smith, father of two, who lost his wife Kathy to colon cancer nearly two years ago. She was diagnosed just as the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 an official emergency. They were living with her parents at the time, and John discusses the challenges he faced with his in-laws in the immediate period following Kathy’s death...

“You’re never done with grief,” says Jim T., who has the rare distinction of being twice widowed. His first wife Melinda was killed in a car accident shortly after they moved to Knoxville Tennessee to found an Eastern Orthodox Church there. Melinda’s death brought the new congregation together, who were still relative strangers, as they rallied around Jim in support. He describes the beautiful rit...