Grief is a Sneaky Bitch

Dear Lisa, Your show is truly a gift that has saved me. My dad passed away way too soon at age 77 in February of 2023. He went in the hospital with double pneumonia and died 2 weeks later. My sisters and mom held him as he took his last breath. The trauma, tragedy and grief of that drowned me , but your show threw me a life preserver. Your messages and guidance has helped me to feel seen and heard in this grief illiterate country we live in. Thank you for your compassionate , deeply caring approach to grief and for the amazing guests you have on your show. A dedicated listener , Jessica Etman ( NY)

I stumbled upon your podcast when looking for new work by Devin Moss. I recently finished his Memento Mori podcasts and was looking for more interviews and similar work. And then I found you. Wow. Just wow. Your work resonates completely with my journey in end of life work, a trek that I’ve been on for decades. I am now listening to you back-to-back to catch up! I can’t wait for your new book - I just ordered it from Amazon. 🙂 Thank you for being a gentle spirit and sharing your experiences and those of your guests with us. I especially appreciate you sharing your own health journey. I wish you peace and blessings and I thank you for the gift of your work.

I research and write for a living, but I never had to dig so deep into the unknown until the death of my beloved wife. I had never experienced such a devastating loss and could not wrap my head around it. Because there are societal pressures to "get better," I didn't want to sit with the frightening thought that I'd gone crazy just because I wasn’t fitting into the "norm" of “recovery.” Lisa is absolutely right: Americans are grief illiterate. The only way to break any stigma is to discuss the undiscussable. Look, if we can become so comfortable hearing about topics such as erectile dysfunction that there are radio ads played during afternoon drive time, surely we can talk about grief. It impacts every single human. More than 3 million Americans die every year. Statistically, researchers say for every death, five people are affected by the loss. I do fuzzy math, but doesn't that mean some 15 million people are wandering around the U.S. every year who are grieving their person? Why aren't we talking about this? While I'm sorry for the reason Lisa had to start this podcast and sorry for the reason I had to find it, I'm glad that I did. I'm grateful for the wealth of knowledge and hope these conversations will become so commonplace that we can start addressing ways to help each other heal because we're NOT crazy; we're grieving.

I've been listening, most recently with the programs featuring Joon and Ronit. I am wrapped up in your concept, your threads portraying the ways in which grief thrusts itself into our lives that are not a consequence of death. You are an exquisite host.