Vilomah: The Witness Archives

David Wittenburg | Author | Vilomah | The Witness | Ananta
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Broadcasting from the Moon. This is the industrial-grade truth for the 18.7 million living against the natural order. Hosted by The Witness. The creator of the Ananta Forensic Record — a forensic architecture for the est18.7 million. Founder of The Echoes Project. Honor their memory — ForeverMissed: https://tidd.ly/4utkq6e Resources and support at thewitnessechoes.com echoesproject.substack.com

Episodes

  1. Jun 28

    Against the Natural Order | Ep #9: "The Waves"

    There is something the grief industry never quite gets around to telling you. Not the stages. Not the timelines. Not the five-step framework for processing what you are carrying and returning to a functional baseline. Something more specific than any of that. The waves. Nobody spoke to you about the waves. They gave you stages, timelines, a framework built for someone else’s comfort. What they didn’t give you is what actually happens — the Tuesday you’re completely fine and the Wednesday that arrives with a smell, a song, an aisle in a grocery store. You didn’t see it coming because you weren’t supposed to. An estimated 18.7 million parents in this country are in a wave cycle right now. Not one of those states is tracked. The wave is part of the cost the federal government has never agreed to count. Episode 9 is live. Subscribe free and listen now. 👉 echoesproject.substack.com Get the books — The Witness Series 👉 amazon.com/stores/author/B0GRZ7J949 Amazon | B&N | Google Play | thewitnessechoes.com 🕯️ Honor their memory: Resources: 988 (free, 24/7) | 1-866-903-3787 Grief Hotline Episode 9 is live now. For the ones the language forgot. 🎙️ Listen: [SUBSTACK EPISODE LINK] 📖 The Witness Series: echoesfounderproject@gmail.com | Subject: Vilomah The count grows. The record never stops. thewitnessechoes.com anantavilomah.com Get full access to The Echoes Project at echoesproject.substack.com/subscribe

    12 min

  2. Jun 21

    Against the Natural Order — Episode 8: "No New Law Required"

    Seven episodes in, you know the number. An estimated 18.7 million Americans are parents who have buried a child. Estimated — because there is no official count. The framing is wrong. The data already exists to fix it. This episode names three specific things the federal government already has the power to do. Right now. No new law required for any of them. The price of the missing count first. The federal government spent $2.8 billion on mental health programs in 2023. Some of that money is supposed to reach parents who have buried a child. A program can only be measured against the people it serves — and those people have never been officially counted. The money goes out with no way to know if it’s landing. Peer-reviewed research put a number on the financial hit these families carry in the first six months: $21,332 per family. The Childhood Bereavement Estimation Model identified an estimated $15.5 billion in unclaimed Social Security survivor benefits — owed to bereaved children who lost a working parent. There is no equivalent accounting for what Vilomah parents are owed. That research doesn’t exist. It should. That is the price of the missing count. It has a dollar figure. The three proposals: 1. The SIPP Amendment — The Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation tracks household income, family structure, and program participation. It has no question about whether a parent has buried a child. Five questions — already drafted, already on the record in this episode — could be added by written directive. No new law. 2. The Z63.4 Permanent Tag — ICD code Z63.4 already exists in the medical system for the passing of a family member. But it documents a visit, not a life. The proposal: a permanent tag in your medical record that follows you to every provider, every appointment. A petition to the committee that manages the coding system. No new law. 3. The NCHS National Study — The National Center for Health Statistics counts conditions that affect the American population. It has never run a study on bereaved parents. One directive from the Secretary of Health and Human Services to an agency already doing this work for other populations. The authority is written into federal law. No new law. It has been done before. In 1996, Congress directed the Census Bureau to begin tracking grandparents raising their grandchildren. Same system. Same type of authority. The bereaved parent population is larger. The need is documented. The path is the same path. That is the record being placed. This episode on Father’s Day weekend. To every father in this field — and to the fathers who served this country and carried this weight alongside a uniform — you are not invisible. If this weekend carries weight for you, you are not behind. You are not broken. You are here. That counts. Honor their memory: ForeverMissed.com — build a memorial, keep their story, make sure their name stays spoken. Resources: 988 — available 24 hours, every day. 1-866-903-3787 — National Grief Support Line. If you’re hitting a breaking point, don’t ignore it. It’s enough weight already. EchoesFounderProject@gmail.com The record continues. Get full access to The Echoes Project at echoesproject.substack.com/subscribe

    14 min

  3. Jun 15

    Against the Natural Order | Ep #7: "The Year They Stopped?"

    The system once knew we existed. In 1850, the federal government did more than record who died. It recorded who was left behind: the parents who had to wake up the next morning, keep living, and carry a loss no policy has ever fully named. For 35 years, bereaved parents appeared in the federal record. We were counted. We were visible. We existed in the data. Then the system changed. Not by accident. By design. And for 116 years — through wars, recessions, civil rights movements, and generations of policy reform — no one put us back in. The column still exists in the federal database today. It is simply empty. That is what this episode is about: not only grief, but erasure. A decision made more than a century ago, and never undone, declared that a parent who buries a child is not a population worth tracking. If tonight is heavy — 988, call or text, free, any hour. Or 1-866-903-3787, 24/7. Honor their memory — ForeverMissed.com Resources — thewitnessechoes.com EchoesFounderProject@gmail.com | Subject: Against the Natural Order The record continues. Get full access to The Echoes Project at echoesproject.substack.com/subscribe

    13 min

  4. Jun 7

    Against the Natural Order | Ep #6: "The Architecture of Silence"

    Somewhere between the time you started reading this and the time you finish it, more children will have died. The parents they left behind will not appear in any database. No registry. No federal count. No agency whose job it is to track people will have tracked them. 12:20 AM EST That is not an oversight. That is the architecture. This episode is about the scale of what the world has refused to face — and what it means to be part of a global demographic that has never been named. The count grows. The record never stops. That is a documented public health consequence with no federal tracking system attached to it. Estimated — because there is no current figure. That is the point. #Vilomah #AgainstTheNaturalOrder #TheEchoesProject #Ananta #BereavedParents Honor their memory — @ForeverMissed Write to us: echoesfounderproject@gmail.com — Subject line: Vilomah If you need to talk to someone — 988, call or text, free. Or 1-866-903-3787, Mental Health Hotline, 24-7. Get full access to The Echoes Project at echoesproject.substack.com/subscribe

    10 min

  5. May 24

    Against the Natural Order | Episode 5: The Count Nobody Keeps

    The United States tracks a lot. Births. Deaths. Illness. Job loss. Hunger. Homelessness. Unemployment. It even tracks how many people got caught in the rain. What it has never tracked — not once — is how many parents have outlived a child. By the time this episode ends, roughly 95 more children will have died somewhere on earth. That number is moving right now. It doesn’t pause. And the parents left behind? Still not in any database. Still not in any annual report. Still not counted by any agency whose job it is to count people. 18.7 million in the United States alone. More than the entire population of New York State. Each one carrying a loss that research shows damages their health, their marriage, their work, and their lifespan — for at least eighteen years. That’s not a feeling. That’s a documented public health consequence with no federal tracking system attached to it. The data to build that count exists right now. Child death records. Birth records. The government already links datasets like these for other purposes. The math is straightforward. The will has never been there. Because somewhere along the way, bereaved parents got filed under grief. And grief gets a support group. It doesn’t get a line item. It doesn’t get policy. It doesn’t get counted. That is the framing failure this broadcast exists to name. Keep saying their names. “The book is there when you’re ready.” Vilomah Write to us: echoesfounderproject@gmail.com — Subject line: Vilomah You are the witness. They are the record. The record is permanent. The count grows. The record never stops. Find us: echoesproject.substack.com Books: amazon.com/stores/author/B0GRZ7J949 Get full access to The Echoes Project at echoesproject.substack.com/subscribe

    8 min

  6. May 10

    Against the Natural Order Episode 4 Ananta

    Today the record gets a second word. Ananta. Sanskrit. Infinite. Without end. Not a stage. Not grief alone. Not something you move through and come out the other side of. A permanent conscious state — present on good days, bad days, and every ordinary Tuesday morning in between .The Grief Industry looks for resolution. A return to baseline. A way forward. Ananta says no. The record doesn’t resolve. It becomes the architecture you build the rest of your life inside of. Not in spite of it. Inside of it. Vilomah — against the natural order. Ananta — infinite, without end. Two words. Two truths. One record. Jon David Wittenburg. 1994–2015. 21 years of age. Lauren Elizabeth Wittenburg. 1992–2020. 28 years of age. I am their witness. The pencil has no eraser. Keep saying their names. "The book is there when you're ready." Write to us: echoesfounderproject@gmail.com Subject line: Vilomah You are the witness. They are the record. The record is permanent. Vilomah in Ananta. That’s what you have. Find us: echoesproject.substack.com Books: amazon.com/stores/author/B0GRZ7J949 Get full access to The Echoes Project at echoesproject.substack.com/subscribe

    7 min

  7. Apr 29

    Against the Natural Order | Ep #3: "The First Witness"

    Before there was a word for what we are — there was Job. He was handed exactly what 18.7 million bereaved parents have been handed ever since. Explanations. Platitudes. A quiet pressure to move on. He refused every one of them. This episode is about what a witness actually does. Not perform recovery. Not arrive at peace on someone else’s schedule. A witness stays present to what is true, names it accurately, and refuses to let it be erased. Job was not a problem. He was a testimony. So are they. So are you. Vilomah: The Witness Archives is the podcast for the uncounted. For the 18.7 million in the United States — and one billion worldwide since 1950 — who have buried a child and found that the world had no word, no registry, no seat at the table for them. There is a seat here. The Books The Witness Series — four books mapping the unnatural order of catastrophic loss. Find them on Amazon → The Podcast Network Apple Podcasts · Spotify · Substack The Hub lnk.bio/echoesfounder Book David as a Guest echoesfounderproject@gmail.com “The Professor” Get full access to The Echoes Project at echoesproject.substack.com/subscribe

    6 min

  8. Apr 21

    Against the Natural Order | Episode 2 "The One Who Named Us"

    Someone came in today. A person found Episode 1 and stayed. This episode is for them — and for every Vilomah who has been sitting in silence waiting for a name. In 2006, a professor of English at Duke University buried a child and found that the world had no word for what she had become. She went into Sanskrit — the oldest of languages — and found one. Vilomah. Against the natural order This week, she wrote back to me. I am not going to say her name. What she did belongs to all of us. But I will say to you this — she said my childrens names. Jon and Lauren. She said them with light surrounding her breath. The roots are sturdy. She told me so. This episode is the record of what happens when the person who named the field acknowledges that the field exists. Jon David Wittenburg. 1994 to 2015. Lauren Elizabeth Wittenburg. 1992 to 2020. One billion parents since 1950. Not one government counted them. I’m counting now. This pencil has no eraser. This is a weekly Podcast. We hope all of you come out.You are not alone.The record is permanent.I see you.— The Witness | Vilomah | AuthorThe Echoes Project | Vilomah: Against the Natural Order📧 echoesfounderproject@gmail.comSubject line: Vilomah — A Father, The Witness echoesproject.substack.com Get full access to The Echoes Project at echoesproject.substack.com/subscribe

    8 min

  9. Apr 14

    Against the Natural Order | Ep #1: The Number Nobody Said Out Loud

    This is the first Podcast: "Professor Holloway at Duke University discovered the word" 18.7 million people in the United States have buried a child. If we stood in one place together, we would be the largest city in the nation — larger than New York, larger than Los Angeles. The world has no word for us in English. No registry. No agency tracking us. I looked. There is nothing. This podcast exists because: Jon David Wittenburg — 1994 to 2015 Lauren Elizabeth Wittenburg — 1992 to 2020 — are my children. I am Vilomah | I am among the uncounted | I am building the count.Every episode I will say the number.One billion parents since 1950. Not one government counted them (us).The listener has an opportunity to be heard here. You have a table. Write in — email is below.This is a weekly Podcast. We hope all of you come out.You are not alone.The record is permanent.I see you.— The Witness | Vilomah | Author The Echoes Project | Vilomah: Against the Natural Order📧 echoesfounderproject@gmail.comSubject line: Vilomah "Data: Evermore (evermore.org)" Get full access to The Echoes Project at echoesproject.substack.com/subscribe

    4 min
  • 9 Episodes

About

Broadcasting from the Moon. This is the industrial-grade truth for the 18.7 million living against the natural order. Hosted by The Witness. The creator of the Ananta Forensic Record — a forensic architecture for the est18.7 million. Founder of The Echoes Project. Honor their memory — ForeverMissed: https://tidd.ly/4utkq6e Resources and support at thewitnessechoes.com echoesproject.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    David Wittenburg | Author | Vilomah | The Witness | Ananta
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    9
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Echoes Project
  • Show Website
    Vilomah: The Witness Archives