What I Let Die Podcast

Akilah S. Richards
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In What I Let Die (WILD Podcast), Grief & Loss Educator Akilah S. Richards invites us to stop running from grief and start tending to it. This podcast is about grief literacy—learning how to name, witness, and work with endings, especially the ones that don't come with funerals.

  1. Ep 12: How to Start a Grief Circle (Even If You've Never Done This Before)

    06/01/2025

    Ep 12: How to Start a Grief Circle (Even If You've Never Done This Before)

    You don't need credentials to hold space for grief.
You just need care. A space. And the courage to stay. In this final episode of Season One, we walk through the how-to of starting your own grief circle—from the kitchen table to the community center to a Zoom call. Whether you've never hosted a space like this before, or you're ready to return to one with more intention, this episode offers a warm, practical guide to making room for what hurts and what still matters. We explore the rituals that help us listen to grief—like composting, funerals, eulogies, and emotional autopsies—and we reflect on how our inherited beliefs about death shape what we're willing to name. In this episode, we explore: * How to host a grief circle, step-by-step * What to say when you're not an expert * 4 grief rituals you can try inside your circle * Why silence, honesty, and curiosity are enough * How to confront your personal grief mythology Visit bringingflowers.org to join our grief + joy work with Thea Monyeé. And join the ILID course waitlist here. Thanks for walking through this first season with me.
May your grief gatherings be messy, honest, and enough.

    23 min
  2. Ep 11: Daily Grieftending: Small Rituals That Change Everything

    05/18/2025

    Ep 11: Daily Grieftending: Small Rituals That Change Everything

    This grieftending episode is full of rituals that meet you where you actually are. In it, I offer you small grief practices for real life. Not just retreats. Not just deep dives, but daily, doable rituals. We named grief myths and we honored non-body deaths (Kananápo). We asked: What do you want to stop carrying, and start composting? We explore: Micro-Funerals (for endings and expired expectations) The Audio Mirror (unfiltered voice journaling) Composting Grief (turning loss into future nourishment) Episode 12 will close the season. It's a how-to for grief circles. A soft, useful structure for collective tending. Tune in for it.

    41 min
  3. EP 10. Parenting While Grieving, Grieving While Parenting

    05/18/2025

    EP 10. Parenting While Grieving, Grieving While Parenting

    Final episode in the Grief in Community arc of What I Let Die What happens when you're grieving and trying to show up for your kids at the same time? What happens when you're the one responsible for someone else's emotional safety, while still unraveling inside your own pain? This episode is about that. It's about the parents, caregivers, aunties, mentors, and chosen family members trying to hold it down for the young ones—while carrying grief that isn't always named, understood, or supported. In this final episode of our Grief in Community arc, I'm speaking directly to the tension of grieving while parenting, and parenting while grieving. I talk about what happens when we try to hide our pain. What happens when we overexpose our kids to it. And what can shift when we just start being more real, more resourced, and more reflective about it all. I also share a piece of my own parenting-while-grieving story and offer some questions and frames to help you explore what grief is teaching—through you, and through the children watching you. 🔎 In this episode: Talking to kids about grief without shutting them down The "absent-but-sorta-present" parent How untended grief impacts your caregiving What our caregivers' grief taught us (and didn't) What grieving out loud can make possible ✨ Core Questions to Sit With: How did your parents or caregivers grieve around you? What are the children in your life learning from how you grieve? What kind of grief conversation would you have, if shame wasn't in the room? Let's continue this conversation inside the WILD Chat Room.

    30 min
  4. Ep. 9: How Body Death Teaches Us To Hold Kananápo

    05/11/2025

    Ep. 9: How Body Death Teaches Us To Hold Kananápo

    In this episode, Akilah S. Richards reflects on the journey so far inside What I Let Die, pausing to honor how physical death has shaped her relationship with non-physical losses. She weaves in the concept of Kananápo—the grief that comes from endings that don't involve a body—and explores how tending to body death can grow our capacity to hold what we can't see but deeply feel. Grief and joy show up together here, as they often do. With metaphors rooted in permaculture and practices from the ILID course, Akilah reminds us that our grief-tending skills are also joy-growing skills. This one is an offering of tenderness, clarity, and invitation. In this episode: A reflection on body death and its teachings The grief-joy connection, grounded in everyday language An invitation to keep practicing with what grief leaves behind Tap in further at bringingflowers.org, and join the ILID waitlist to continue the work of honoring and releasing.

    30 min
  5. Ep. 8: Grieving Together: Why Our Communities Need More Grief Literacy

    05/04/2025

    Ep. 8: Grieving Together: Why Our Communities Need More Grief Literacy

    Episode 8: Grieving Together: Why Our Communities Need More Grief Literacy What does it take to hold space for someone else's grief without making it about us? And what if we stopped waiting for the "right" words and just started witnessing each other better? In this episode, I'm reflecting on what I've learned about grieving in community—from grief at work to grief in friendships to the subtle, daily losses we rarely name out loud. I'm also sharing a personal story that changed the way I show up when people around me are hurting. "When we are allowed to grieve out loud, without being asked to shrink or perform, we begin to remember each other differently." This one's about the skills we all need to practice if we're serious about showing up for the people we love. Tap in, then come drop your reflections in the WILD Postmortems.

    18 min
  6. Ep. 7: Friend-ings (When Friendships End)

    04/27/2025

    Ep. 7: Friend-ings (When Friendships End)

    Friendships can be life affirming rescue work, and they can also feel like the death of us. Whether we're talking about longtime friendships new ones that felt so aligned and perfect for a short time, or once formed within our family circle (because a sister or cousin can also be a friend), friendships shape us. Like us, friendships are born they grow the change, the age, and sometimes they die. Let's talk about how loss and change and friendship impacts our choices, our willingness, or lack thereof, and so many other aspects of the human experience.  And let's not forget about our non-human can, because friendships with animals, trees, and other forms of nature are valid, alive, and can also die. Let's feel into it, slowly and with much care, shall we? Episode 7 of What I Let Die Podcast is all about friend-ings, and for some of us, this episode is right on time!

    21 min
  7. Ep. 6: The Parent You Thought You'd Be

    04/20/2025

    Ep. 6: The Parent You Thought You'd Be

    In Episode 6, we cracked open the quiet griefs of parenting. The grief of aging and shifting roles. The grief of children growing into their own sovereignty. The grief of estrangement—sometimes chosen, sometimes forced. The grief of letting go of the version of yourself that thought you'd always know how to do this. Akilah covers the topics of: Letting go of old parental ideals and identities Estrangement and emotional distance Grieving loss of control and certainty Joy and terror in witnessing a child's sovereignty Challenging the dominant narratives of parenting as ownership Learn more about Akilah's approach to grieftending on her Grief Literacy Education page.

    19 min
  8. Working Through Grief, Grieving Through Work

    04/15/2025

    Working Through Grief, Grieving Through Work

    Grief doesn't wait for a pink slip. In this episode, we explore the layered grief of working under capitalism—when the job keeps going, but parts of you have already ended. Akilah unpacks the grief of staying employable at the expense of your well-being, the ache of entrepreneurship, and what it means to leave a job you once loved. We ask: What did I lose just to keep getting paid? What version of me is still performing out of fear? What would I need to stop pretending this doesn't hurt? This isn't just about employment—it's about worth, identity, and what we've had to bury to stay afloat. More at radicalselfie.org/wild

    20 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

In What I Let Die (WILD Podcast), Grief & Loss Educator Akilah S. Richards invites us to stop running from grief and start tending to it. This podcast is about grief literacy—learning how to name, witness, and work with endings, especially the ones that don't come with funerals.

Information

  • Creator
    Akilah S. Richards
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025
  • Show Website
    What I Let Die Podcast