Meghan sits down with one of her favorite authors–Laura Zigman to discuss ther widely celebrated most recent novel Small World. Laura decribes how she fused the emotional experiences of the death of her sister into the story of two divorced sisters who come to live in the same house for the first time in decades. Laura Zigman is the author of five novels, including Separation Anxiety (which was optioned by Julianne Nicholson and the production company Wiip (Mare of Easttown) for a limited televi...
Apr 06, 2023•56 min•Ep. 107
This week Meghan Sits Down with the delightful Cyndie Speigel to talk about Microjoys and how she coped with the murder of her nephew, death of mother, and own diagnosis with breast cancer. Despite the heaviness of the topic Cyndie offers us laughter, hope and deep wisdom that comes from facing the hardest of times. About Cyndie: Cyndie Spiegel is a born storyteller–turned–writer; she’s an aspirational voice and an igniter of powerful conversation around self-acceptance, integrity, and joy. She ...
Mar 30, 2023•53 min•Ep. 106
Meghan sat down with Alessandra Olanow, NY based artist, mother and grieving daughter. In their hour together Alessandra talks bout her new book, Hello Grief: I'll Be Right With You, and how the writing helped her address her own feelings of loss. Alessandra is a New York-based illustrator. Her broad roster of clients includes major brands such as Bergdorf Goodman, Clinique, Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, Uniqlo, Yahoo, and West Elm, and her work has been featured in top publications such as V...
Mar 23, 2023•48 min•Ep. 105
Meghan Sits down with Anna, who talks about the impact of her mother's death when she was just 18, and the tragic death of her son Jack when he was just 12. In this hope filled conversation, Anna gives us a glimpse into what her grief feels like eleven years later, and graciously lets Meghas ask a question that had pagued her since she was 9. Anna's Bio Anna Whiston-Donaldson is a popular author and speaker whose New York Times bestselling book, Rare Bird: A Memoir of Loss and Love chronicles th...
Mar 16, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 104
In 2019, Colin Campbell's two teenage children, Ruby and Hart, were killed by a drunk driver. In the thick of this tragedy, Colin turned to the many books on grief that line shelves but ultimately realized they were unhelpful and failed to provide the insight he desperately sought. Channeling his grief, he wrote his new book (out March 14th) FINDING THE WORDS and a solo performance piece titled Grief: A One Man Shit-Show In LA (March 17-19) and NYC (March 29-April 16). You can find that info her...
Mar 09, 2023•53 min•Ep. 103
Sit down with Meghan as she talks with the outstanding duo fo Eleanor Haley and Litsa Williams to talk about the publication of their recent book–What's Your Grief: Lists To Help You Through Any Loss Eleanor Haley, MS and Litsa Williams, MA, LCSW-C are the co-founders of the online community What’s Your Grief, one of the largest online grief and bereavement support organizations. Both are mental health professionals with a collective 25+ years of experience working with people coping with all ty...
Mar 02, 2023•59 min•Ep. 102
One of the luckiest things is my life is counting the extraordinary Christie Tate amongst my friends. She is warm, brilliant and an incredible writer. In this discussion we cover all the aspects of what makes female friendship so beautiful and complicated. Christie shares the story of the death of her dear friend, which she chronicles in the book, and how that impacts life now. From the author of Group , a New York Times bestseller and Reese’s Book Club Pick, comes a moving, heartwarming, and po...
Feb 23, 2023•52 min•Ep. 98
In this episode, Katie C Reilly sits down to talk double parent loss with Meghan. The two parentless daughters discuss the hard lessons learned and role grief has played in life changes. A Former Lawyer found her priorities shifting along with her emotions after her mother's death from ALS and then her father's death from Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma soon after. Katie made a shift to writing, and hasn't looked back. Katie C Reilly is a freelance writer based in Oakland, CA. Her writing primarily focus...
Feb 23, 2023•49 min•Ep. 100
All Signs Point to Paris is the true story of my search for a second chance at love and it all happened because of a wild astrology reading. Natasha had hit rock bottom in almost every way in the fall of 2018: She was a divorced single mom struggling to make ends meet, she'd just broken up with the boyfriend she thought was The One, and, worst of all, her beloved dad was dying. Natasha's life seemed to be going from an all time low to worse. And then her occasionally woo-woo but always there for...
Feb 16, 2023•44 min•Ep. 92
First Steps Founder & Creator Shane Phillips has over 27 years of experience in banking and financial services, and two decades of community service in grief care, Shane Phillips offers a unique perspective on financial issues and death. At the age of 16, Shane experienced the loss of his parents and sister in a plane crash. His parents had no life insurance, no estate plan, a lot of debt, and few assets. Despite the loss of his family and the ensuing financial challenges, Shane graduated fr...
Feb 07, 2023•51 min•Ep. 99
In this podcast Meghan talks with Ondi Timoner, a documentary film maker and daughter of Eli Timoner about her beautiful, revolutionary film The Last Flight Home. "Behind a white picket fence, on an unremarkable suburban street, we discover Eli Timoner, who founded Air Florida, the fastest growing airline in the world in the 1970's. During his final days, we discover his extraordinary life filled with incredible success and devastating setbacks, and most importantly, an innate goodness which won...
Feb 02, 2023•45 min•Ep. 97
In this podcast Meghan sits down with Denise Tordella, a trauma informed therapist from the DC metro area who works with women who have experience domestic violence and coercive relationships. Denise highlights the many losses that come living from being isolated in relationships and the complicated grief that can arise as survivors begin to heal. https://denisetordella.com https://www.theferentzinstitute.com...
Jan 31, 2023•58 min•Ep. 93
Jay Newton-Small is CEO and founder of MemoryWell, a patient engagement platform and SaaS that is personalizing how health insurers connect with their members. Previously, Jay was Washington correspondent for TIME Magazine, where she remains a contributor. At TIME she covered politics as well as stories on five continents from conflicts in the Middle East to the earthquake in Haiti and the November 2015 Paris terror attacks. She has written nearly a dozen TIME cover stories and interviewed numer...
Jan 25, 2023•43 min•Ep. 96
Dr. Julie in her own words: "Like every grief story starts.... My sister, Jennifer lost her battle with Lupus February 2020. I was not prepared to lose her even though I whispered to her so many times that I would be ok if she had to leave us. When grief hits, you can never be prepared for the grief tsunamis that bring difficult emotions from the depths of your soul to the soft waves of beautiful memories. I am on my grief journey and figuring out what my life will be like and who I am without m...
Jan 20, 2023•50 min•Ep. 95
About Jessica I’m a writer. I write poetry as well as creative non-fiction, essays that examine aspects of my life or the world around me and try to find the deeper meaning and connection in what I observe. I also write about media and culture, faith, and the intersection of the two. I wrote a sort of sermon once and it went viral. I write for places like Sojourners , Think Christian , The Good Men Project , the Madeleine L’Engle Blog , Our Bible App, and Together Rising . I’m an author. I have ...
Jan 17, 2023•43 min•Ep. 94
Mangda Sengvanhpheng is an artist, healing practitioner, and the founder of BACII - a digital space that focuses on end-of-life topics such as loss, grief and death while providing services and offerings that renew our engagement to life. Her life and death work is guided by her Laotian last name, which means “the light of the full moon.” Mangda’s work has been featured in Vogue, Brydie, NY Mag’s Curbed, Chacruna Institute and more. https://bacii.co
Jan 12, 2023•44 min•Ep. 91
Charlene Lam is a certified grief coach, speaker and the founder of The Grief Gallery. After her mother died suddenly in 2013, she leaned into her creativity and instincts as a curator to guide herself through grief. That work led her to help other people to process their grief and losses. Charlene believes we are ALL curators after a loved one dies. Her Curating Grief coaching framework is designed to be a creative and accessible way to process grief. She provides grief coaching to help bereave...
Jan 05, 2023•59 min•Ep. 90
Candace reunited with the son she'd given up for adoption when he turned 18. Primarily In contact through calls and letters, they met once when he was twenty. Candace worked hard to allow her son to drive the nature of their new connection, only to have him die unexpectedly in his sleep at age 23. In Candance's beautiful book Goodbye Again, she shares with us her experience learning to greive losses that are disenfranchized in our culture. She talks us through pain upon pain, only to ultimately ...
Dec 29, 2022•48 min•Ep. 89
Join Meghan for this heart felt discussion where two time caretaker, griever Priya Soni reveals how her own experience caring for her parents through their end of life experiences informed how she approaches grief and loss. Priya's thoughtful approach of how to support grievers, approach memories and create a grief care group a beautiful concepts that can teach us all. Learn more here: https://www.priyasoni.net
Dec 22, 2022•43 min•Ep. 88
When writer John Worsley's wife Amy died, he processed his grief through the written word. He's the author of My Heart Has No Home: A Journal of Grief and Healing , a moment-by-moment account of his experience grieving the sudden death of his wife, Amy K.W. Heil – what he felt, how he healed, and what he learned. Where to buy My Heart Has No Home : Amazon paperback and Kindle / Apple Books / Kobo / B&N and Nook http://www.johnworsley.name...
Dec 16, 2022•48 min•Ep. 87
Jon Lefrandt is Co Founder and CEO of For Grief After more than seven years in real estate, Jon took a leap of faith and began his career in the funeral industry in 2011. Jon experienced the passing of his father and the emotional stress of planning his funeral — through that experience, Jon understood the need for individualized pre-planning and aftercare services. At For Grief, they've built a better way for people to navigate loss by offering unprecedented and direct access to the country’s m...
Dec 08, 2022•58 min•Ep. 86
Debbie Weiss is a former attorney who earned her MFA in creative nonfiction from Saint Mary’s College of California in 2020. A native of the Bay Area, she turned to writing after George, her husband and partner of more than three decades, died of cancer in April 2013, and she found herself single and living alone for the first time in her life. Weiss’s essays have been published in The New York Times' “Modern Love” column, HuffPost, and Woman’s Day, among other publications. Available As Is: A M...
Nov 29, 2022•53 min•Ep. 85
Amanda Held Opelt is an author, speaker, and songwriter. She writes about faith, grief, and creativity, and believes in the power of community, ritual, worship and shared stories to heal even our deepest wounds. Amanda has spent the last 15 years as a social worker and humanitarian aid worker. She lives in the mountains of Boone, North Carolina with her husband and young two daughters. http://amandaheldopelt.com
Nov 17, 2022•59 min•Ep. 84
Melissa Lunardini, MA, MBA, FT, is the Head of Bereavement for Help Texts (previously known as Grief Coach). Melissa has 17 years of experience in program design and development in grief, loss, and trauma for healthcare, academia, youth-based, NGOs, and grief and loss-based industries. She holds a fellow in Thanatology from the Association for Death Education and Counseling. A recognized specialist in childhood bereavement, Melissa strives to remain current with trends and research in the indust...
Nov 10, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 83
Allison Gilbert is an award-winning journalist and co-author of Listen, World!, the first biography of American writer Elsie Robinson, a newspaper columnist who came from nothing and became the most-read woman in the country and highest-paid woman writer in the William Randolph Hearst media empire. The New York Times raves “One does not tire of spending time with Elsie Robinson” and the Wall Street Journal proclaims the book “an important contribution to women’s history.” Susan Orlean effuses th...
Nov 01, 2022•53 min•Ep. 82
New York Times best-selling author, TV producer, actor, and screenwriter Tembi Locke has a passion for connecting with an audience both on the page and on the screen. After going through a monumental rollercoaster life experience, Tembi put pen to paper and began the cathartic experience of writing down her personal story. This turned into Simon and Schuster’s’ New York Times-bestselling memoir, “From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home,” which was chosen as a 2019 Reese’s Book C...
Oct 20, 2022•54 min•Ep. 81
Patricia offers Energy Healing Services and Spiritual Guidance for those experiencing Anticipatory Grief, Trauma, or Recovering from Grief. As an Energy Healer, Psychic Medium, and Death Doula, Patricia has been focused on using her gifts to help those living with anticipatory grief, working through past trauma, or healing from the death of a loved one. https://www.titipoza.com
Oct 13, 2022•57 min•Ep. 80
Join Meghan as she talks with the brilliantly warm, trauma informed author, Jessica DuLong, about her extraordinary book: Saved At The Seawall. A deeply emotional, and personal telling of one of the greatest stories of hope from 9/11, that you may have never heard before. Jessica and Meghan talk PTSD, brain science and the ways in which writing can help manage trauma and allow us to tell some of the most important stories of hope. “The greatest 9/11 story you’ve never heard.” — Garrett M. Graff,...
Oct 11, 2022•54 min•Ep. 27
Roshni Kavate is an Artist, Healer, and Activist. Roshni Kavate is the Founder and Creative Director of Cardamom and Kavate, a wellness platform dedicated to reclaiming nourishing practices rooted in ancestral wisdom for collective liberation. She believes grief is a portal to wholeness. Through rituals and storytelling, we can reconnect to our origins and be our wild selves. She sees the path to being whole as a radical art and political practice. The question that guides her is What is our gri...
Oct 06, 2022•58 min•Ep. 79
LYDIA FENET is a global thought leader who has led auctions for more than six hundred organizations raising over half a billion dollars for nonprofits globally on behalf of Christie’s. Lydia spent over two decades at Christie’s most recently as the Global Managing Director of Strategic Partnerships. In 2022, Lydia transitioned to a role as Christie’s ambassador where she will continue to take auctions on behalf of Christie’s while continuing to grow her media brand as an author, speaker and exec...
Sep 29, 2022•49 min•Ep. 78
