Words Matter: What To Say When Someone Is Grieving - Shelby Forsythia
Grief Out Loud
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. Since then, Shelby’s done so much in the realm of grief support—as a coach, author, and host of the podcast. Shelby’s newest book, , written for friends, family, and community members, provides answers to the...
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The Million Stages Of Grief - Michael Reed On Finding His Way After Catastrophic Loss
Grief Out Loud
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 , 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 reducing their home to ashes. Nearly a decade later, Michael shares about the darkness he fell into, who was there to hold him and his son up, the ways he stays...
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Tending To The Roots Of Ritual With Joél Simone, The Grave Woman
Grief Out Loud
In this episode of Grief Out Loud, we talk with death & grief care professional, educator, and cultural advocate Joél Simone, also known as . 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. Drawing from decades of experience, Joél reflects on the spiritual, cultural, and embodied dimensions of grief,...
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Restrung: Music, Grief, And Fatherhood With Matt Fogelson
Grief Out Loud
When 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 - talks about the silence that surrounded his father's terminal illness, the vacuum left by an absent but beloved parent, and how grunge music (especially Soundgarden and Pearl Jam) created space for him to feel what was hard to put into words. Matt shares how his Aunt Wendy became his unlikely...
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When Grief and Trauma Collide – Christina Babich, MA
Grief Out Loud
When 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, sense of safety, and identity. In this episode, Christina shares what it was like to grieve a sudden, “out-of-order” death while also navigating the...
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Echoes Of Her - Adell Coleman On Grieving Her Mother & Finding Community
Grief Out Loud
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 her mom lived, without reliving how she died. Adell also talks about what it’s been like raising two daughters who never met their grandmother, but somehow...
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Why Grief Isn’t A Journey (And What It Is Instead) - John Onwuchekwa
Grief Out Loud
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 , , and , 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 grief itself. Rather than framing grief as a journey with an endpoint, John offers a different metaphor: grief as a language that we learn over time, one with past, present,...
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Time Keeps Moving, But She Doesn’t: Mackenzie Galloway-Cole On Grief And New Year’s
Grief Out Loud
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 shock of becoming a young widow, the added layers of grief that come with queer partner loss, and the painful realities of navigating death care systems that often default to heteronormative...
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Brennan Wood On How Grief Is To Feel, Not Fix - Even At The Holidays
Grief Out Loud
It’s our annual holiday episode, this time with Dougy Center Executive Director and . Brennan first encountered Dougy Center after her mom, Doris, died of breast cancer three days after Brennan’s 12th birthday. She has since navigated almost four decades of holiday seasons with grief along for the ride. She shares about the early years that were awful; the young-adult years she spent volunteering away from family; and how, as an adult, she’s learned to hold both grief and joy while creating new traditions for...
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Beyond Silence: Kyndal Parks On Honoring Her Grandfather & Advocating For Better Grief Support
Grief Out Loud
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 student 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 the urgent need for grief-informed spaces on college campuses, particularly at HBCUs where collective trauma, silence, and resilience intertwine. In...
info_outlineIn 1986, when Kristine S. Ervin was eight years old, her mother was abducted, sexually assaulted, and murdered in Oklahoma. Decades later, Kristine tells her story in Rabbit Heart - A Mother's Murder, A Daughter's Story, a memoir weaves together her fragmented childhood memories, growing up with grief, and then as an adult, reckoning with the painful details of her mother's death. The course of the book shifts when there is a break in the cold case of her mother's murder, leading to a trial and eventual conviction of Kyle Eckhart, one of the men responsible.
In this conversation Kristine reflects on what it means to grieve for her mother and for the violent way she died. She explores the power of imagination in grief, the struggle of piecing together memories shaped by others, and how writing became both an outlet and a way to preserve a connection to her mother.
Together, Jana and Kristine talk about:
- What she remembers about her mother and which of those memories are shaped by what others remember.
- How Kristine reacted to media portrayals of her mother's life and death.
- What she remembers about learning her mother was abducted and then the day she found out she was murdered.
- What it was like to grow up not knowing who killed her mother.
- The story behind the title of her memoir, Rabbit Heart.
- The role of imagination and fantasy in both childhood and adult grief.
- The emotional impact of learning new, violent details about her mother's death, and how this knowledge changed Kristine's relationship with her grief over time.
- How the publication of Rabbit Heart allowed her to connect with her mother's memory in a new way.
Content note: this episode includes details of violence, sexual assault, and murder, along with some adult language. Please listen with care.
Kristine Ervin grew up in a small suburb of Oklahoma City and is now an associate professor at West Chester University, outside Philadelphia. She holds an MFA in Poetry from New York University and a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature, with a focus in nonfiction, from the University of Houston. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Fourth Genre, Crimereads, Crab Orchard Review, Brevity, Passages North, and Silk Road. Her essay "Cleaving To," was named a notable essay in the Best American Essays 2013. Kristine's debut memoir Rabbit Heart is currently available from Counterpoint Press.