Learning From Grief - David Ferrugio On Memory, Meaning, And Moving Forward
Release Date: 07/07/2026
Easing The Bureaucracy Of Loss - Frank Flores & FamiliaLista
Grief Out Loud
When Frank Flores’ younger brother Marcelo died suddenly at 23, Frank found himself in an unfamiliar role: identifying his brother’s body, navigating paperwork, and figuring out how to bring him home to the U.S. from Mexico. There was little room for grief. Instead, Frank went back to work - and then worked even more. Five years later, Frank’s father died during COVID. Once again, grief was crowded out by the bureaucracy of death: bank accounts, debts, paperwork, family responsibilities, and the messy, exhausting task of untangling a life after death. Frank describes this as a...
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What If We Didn’t Have To Do Death Alone? - Crystal Meneses on Culture, Care, & Community
Grief Out Loud
What if we thought about death not as something that needs to be handed over to institutions, but as something that communities could face together? In this episode we talk with Crystal Meneses, a death worker, spiritual counselor, hospice chaplain, artist, musician, and longtime community caregiver. Crystal’s path into death work began with watching a recording of her grandfather’s funeral in the Philippines, which sparked questions around being able to one day provide a similar ceremony for her father. Questions that inspired her work to help us rethink how we...
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Holding The Both/And - Steph Tupper On Grieving Her Children
Grief Out Loud
In 2022, Steph Tupper’s two older children, Ali and Joe, were killed in a car crash. Ali was 16 and Joe was 14. Four years later, Steph is still learning how to live with the reality of losing her children while continuing to parent her youngest daughter. In this episode, Steph talks openly about the devastating night she learned Ali and Joe had died, the ways she continues to feel connected to them, and the complicated process of building a life around an absence that will never go away. She shares what she has learned about community, judgment from others - and herself, parenting...
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The Grief We Carry, The Love We Keep - Shanda McManus, MD
Grief Out Loud
When physician and writer was fourteen, her mother died after living with ovarian cancer. Three years later, her grandmother - the person who became home after that loss - was killed by a drunk driver. Then, while Shanda was in medical school, her younger brother Monir was murdered on Christmas Eve. For years, surviving meant staying busy. Planning funerals. Managing paperwork. Pushing forward. The grief itself was boxed up, held in place by what Shanda describes as an emotional tourniquet. It kept her moving, but it also kept her separated from memories of her mother, grandmother,...
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How To Support Kids Through Grief – Jessica Correnti, MS, CCLS
Grief Out Loud
When it comes to children and grief, there's a lot we misunderstand. Adults might think they are either resilient and unaffected, too young to understand, or irreparably broken by the death of someone in their life. In reality though, their experiences of grief can be just as profound and complex as those of the adults around them. In this episode of Grief Out Loud, Jana talks with Certified Child Life Specialist about what children actually need when someone they love dies. Drawing from...
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Learning From Grief - David Ferrugio On Memory, Meaning, And Moving Forward
Grief Out Loud
For many, September 11th is a shared, historical tragedy. But for today's guest, it is a personal anniversary - the day his father died. David Ferrugio was twelve years old when his dad was killed in the World Trade Center. Twenty-five years later, his grief continues to unfold - from recently sitting with his father's forensic file at the 9/11 Memorial to hosting his own podcast, DEAD Talks, where he invites people into honest conversations about death, grief, and what it means to keep living. In this conversation, David reflects on carrying his private grief through such...
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Brothers In Grief: Nora Gross On Cumulative Loss & Gun Violence
Grief Out Loud
What happens when grief isn't an exception, but a constant presence? In this episode, Jana talks with researcher and educator about her book, , which follows the two years she spent embedded in a Philadelphia boys' high school where students were grieving repeated losses from gun violence. Through interviews, observation, and simply showing up, Nora witnessed how grief shapes friendships, school life, ideas about the future, and the social constraints Black boys face when it comes to grief. Nora also shares how her own experiences of grief - including the death of her mother from cancer...
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It's All Hard - Sudden vs Anticipated Loss
Grief Out Loud
Is it harder when someone dies suddenly, or when you know their death is coming? It’s a question that comes up often in grief spaces, and there’s no easy answer. Both are hard - just in different ways. In this episode, Aimee Craig talks about grieving the deaths of both of her parents under very different circumstances. Aimee’s dad died suddenly when she was 23, during a season of major life transitions. Nearly two decades later, her mom died after living with cancer for many years, including five years with a terminal diagnosis. Aimee...
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How to Talk With Children About Grief & Loss
Grief Out Loud
How do you talk with children about death, dying, and grief - especially when the truth feels impossible to say? Most adults feel unprepared to tell a child that someone in their life has an advanced serious illness or has died. There’s often a deep desire to protect kids from pain, avoid overwhelming them, or wanting to wait until there’s a “better” time to talk. But children often already sense that something has changed. In this episode, Jana is joined by Dougy Center colleagues Rebecca Hobbs-Lawrence, M.A. and Sat Kaur Khalsa, M.S.W. to talk about how adults can approach these...
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What Happens When You Stop Outrunning Grief? Camila Crews & Sorry For Your Loss (Cards)
Grief Out Loud
Have you ever found yourself trying to outrun grief? That’s what did when she was 19 and her mother died. Twenty years later, following the heartbreaking disappearance and death of her father, Camila stopped running and started feeling. Unable to just keep pushing through, she had to face her grief and learn how to care for herself in the process. Facing her grief inspired Camila to start , an initiative to help people better understand grief and show up for those who are mourning. Centering the experiences of Black and Brown communities, Sorry for Your Loss (Cards)...
info_outlineFor many, September 11th is a shared, historical tragedy. But for today's guest, it is a personal anniversary - the day his father died.
David Ferrugio was twelve years old when his dad was killed in the World Trade Center. Twenty-five years later, his grief continues to unfold - from recently sitting with his father's forensic file at the 9/11 Memorial to hosting his own podcast, DEAD Talks, where he invites people into honest conversations about death, grief, and what it means to keep living.
In this conversation, David reflects on carrying his private grief through such a public loss. We talk about what it was like to be so young when his dad died, the memories he's held onto, and the new stories he's discovered through other people who also knew his father.
David talks about the ways grief found expression before he had words for it - from watching footage of the attacks over and over, to blasting Linkin Park while wearing himself out with a punching bag, to eventually finding his voice through podcasting and writing.
We discuss:
- What he remembers about 9/11 and getting the news his father died
- Sitting with his father's forensic file twenty-five years later
- Carrying personal grief through a public tragedy
- How memory, trauma, and grief intersect
- Finding connection through stories about the person who died
- Why grief doesn't always begin with words
- The role of movement, music, humor, and curiosity in living with grief
- What talking with hundreds of people about grief has taught David about compassion, uncertainty, and hope
Learn more about David, his podcast DEAD Talks, and his upcoming book, You're Not Dead Yet: How Grief and Loss Can Teach You to Live.
Note: This episode contains some salty language. Listen with care.