"We Never Talked About Her Again" - Susan Lieu & The Manicurist's Daughter
Grief Out Loud
, is a Vietnamese-American author, playwright, and performer. When Susan was 11 years old, her mother died from a routine plastic surgery. After she died, Susan's family stopped talking about her mother, leaving Susan on her own to figure out what happened and how to feel. Susan's debut memoir, recounts her quest to get to know her mother, avenge her death, and try with all her might to get her family to open up about it all. Susan is a compelling and accomplished storyteller, co-hosting podcast and speaking at , the Smithsonian, and at universities and companies across the...
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Grieving The Relationship We Didn't Get To Have - Maegan Parker Brooks, PhD
Grief Out Loud
It's our 300th episode and this conversation with Maegan Parker Brooks, PhD, is the perfect one to honor that milestone. Maegan is an Associate Professor at Willamette University and a volunteer at where she facilitates a peer grief support group for adult caregivers of teens who are grieving. Maegan is also a daughter and sister, grieving the deaths of her father, her sister Emily, and her mother. In this conversation we talk about grief and estranged relationships, relationships impacted by substance use, non-death losses, memorialization during the pandemic, and all the ways we talk to one...
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Is This Normal? Getting To Know Grief With Kendra Rinaldi
Grief Out Loud
knows a lot about grief. When she was just 21, her sister died in a car accident. Ten years later she had a miscarriage. Ten years after that, her mother died of cancer. Professionally, she is a grief guide and host of the podcast. But she didn't always get grief. When she was 21, she didn't realize that everything she was thinking, feeling, and experiencing after her sister's death counted as grief. In the years since, Kendra's gotten to know her grief well and uses that knowledge to support others. We discuss: The spectrum of losses Kendra's experienced Grieving her sister's...
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Building A World Worth Living In - Trends In Suicide Prevention & Postvention
Grief Out Loud
It might be better to ask Canada Taylor what she doesn't do in the realm of suicide prevention, postvention, and grief support rather than what she does because she seems to do just about everything and anything. This is part two of our conversation with her, so if you missed the first, , be sure to listen. In this episode, we talk about the holistic approach she takes to suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention. An approach that focuses on building a world worth living in. A world where youth - and people of any age - have their basic needs met and can access safety, community,...
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Honoring A Great Love - Canada Taylor
Grief Out Loud
Twelve years ago today - August 30th - Canada Taylor was having an amazing night. She and her husband Rick were sitting outside, talking about life and work and dreams for the future - their future. Then everything changed. Rick had a medical event, and Canada became his first responder. Hours later, she became his widow. In the twelve years since, things continued to change. Canada's two sons grew up and grew into their grief. She changed the course of her career - moving from behavioral health to suicide prevention and grief justice. Throughout all these changes, Canada has found ways to...
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My Long-Term Relationship With Grief - Barri Leiner Grant & The Memory Circle
Grief Out Loud
When Barri Leiner Grant was 28, her mother Ellen died suddenly. Barri was hit with intense grief, but back then the expectation was to hurry up and get back to work and life. She didn't have the time, space, or tools to acknowledge and attend to grief. Over the past 31 years, Barri and her grief have gotten to know each other on a deep level. In this long-term relationship, she's learned that her grief gets louder each time she reaches a new milestone or faces a transition. Even with that knowing, the grief can still find ways to catch her off-guard. Recently, one of those times was...
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How They Died Matters, A Daughter's Story - Kari Lyons-Price, MSW
Grief Out Loud
Sometimes we can't really begin to understand grief - ours or anyone else's - if we don't have space to talk about the death. The context surrounding how someone died matters and can shape our grief in meaningful ways. This was true for who was a caregiver for her parents, Hal and Sylvia, for many years. They died three years apart, her dad in 2019 and her mom in 2022, and the circumstances of their deaths greatly impacted Kari and her grief. We discuss: How her parents lived - and how they each died Why their death stories matter when it comes to grief The anger and resentment in...
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108 Ways To Survive Grief - Sweta Vikram
Grief Out Loud
In May of 2023, was overwhelmed with grief. In the span of three days, her father died, her father-in-law died, and it was the 9-year anniversary of her mother’s death. When she looked for information on how to survive the maelstrom of emotions, she found reassurances that she would eventually get to the other side, but nothing that showed her how to do that. So, Sweta set out to create the resource she was looking for and recently published, , a manual with 108 practical tips to survive and navigate grief. We discuss: The overwhelm of multiple losses ...
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Embodied Practices For Tending Grief - Camille Sapara Barton
Grief Out Loud
is a social imagineer who is reimagining how we define and relate to grief. As a writer, artist, and somatic practitioner, Camille is looking to create a new grief narrative expansive enough to include multiple forms of individual and collective grief, especially for queer, trans, and BIPOC communities. In Camille's book, , they offer rituals and embodied practices for feeling into and metabolizing grief. Camille's lived experience with grieving death & non-death losses Support for grief that falls outside the traditional box Grief as a generative process Camille's learning from...
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Is There A Cure For Grief? - Cody Delistraty
Grief Out Loud
is a journalist and he's also a son whose mother died of cancer. These two identities intersect in his new book, , which chronicles his quest to find a way to eliminate the pain of grief. After exploring Laughter Therapy, silent meditation, Breakup Bootcamp, and other avenues for grief expression, Cody landed where so many others do: realizing the "cure" for grief is allowing it to exist, while still engaging with life. We discuss: Who Cody was when his mom died How he used to define "successful" grief The secondary losses connected to his mother's death How his relationship to...
info_outlineAlexandra Wyman and her husband Shawn had a bit of a whirlwind life. They got married in 2018, had their son in 2019, and then in 2020 Shawn died of suicide. His death created a different type of whirlwind. The kind where Alexandra had to rebuild her life as a solo parent dealing with the intense swirl of guilt, sadness, anger, and confusion. As the shock wore off, Alexandra started to write down what she was going through and learning along the way. This led to her new book, The Suicide Club - What To Do When Someone You Love Chooses Death, and her podcast, The Widow's Club.
We discuss:
- Who Alexandra is in addition to her grief
- How Shawn lived as a husband and father
- The day Alexandra got the news of his death
- The early days of grief
- The importance of daily rituals and routines
- Working on the intense guilt and self-doubt she felt in grief
- Figuring out how to set boundaries
- Having her marriage be under the microscope
- Learning to be a solo parent
- How she talks to her son about Shawn's death
- Finding the support of other widows who are grieving a death by suicide
- Grief tantrums - as an adult
Alexandra's website - Forward to Joy
If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out for support. You can call the National LifeLine at 988 or text HELLO to 741741.