Good Grief

Cheryl Espinosa-Jones
  • 4.9 (16)
  • HEALTH & FITNESS
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

On Good Grief we explore the losses that define our lives. Each week, we talk with people who have transformed themselves through the profound act of grieving. Why settle for surviving? Say yes to the many experiences that embody loss! Grief can teach you where your strengths are and ignite your courage. It can heighten your awareness of what is important to you and help you let go of what is not.

  1. 5D AGO

    Sacred Gifts

    How has modern life disconnected us from our wisdom? Anita Sanchez shares the prophecies of indigenous elders who see a path towards reconnection and understanding.Join us to learn how to embody these principles; the power to forgive the unforgivable, the power to heal, the power of unity and the power of hope. These four gifts applied to our problems of living can change the way we operate as a society. They can even change boardrooms and businesses, bringing human understanding back to our fundamental human experience. And perhaps most important, they can heal our broken hearts. Anita Sanchez, PhD is a transformational leadership consultant, speaker, coach and author of the international bestselling book, "The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times," available in paperback Nov. 13, 2018 from Simon & Schuster. She bridges indigenous teachings with the latest science to inspire and equip women and men to enjoy meaningful, empowered lives and careers. With four decades of experience coaching and training executives and their teams in dozens of Fortune 500 companies, governmental groups and non-governmental agencies, Anita is an established leader in global organizational change initiatives. She is a member of the Transformational Leadership Council with luminaries such as Jack Canfield, Marianne Williamson and John Gray, as well as the Association of Transformational Leaders, the Evolutionary Business Council, and serves on the Boards of the Bioneers organization and the Pachamama Alliance. Anita resides in the mountains outside of Boulder, CO with her husband and youngest son. For more information and to download the free song that is based on the book, visit www.FourSacredGifts.com.

    56 min

  2. FEB 25

    Fifty-seven Fridays of Love

    Myra Sack and her husband Matt were very lucky. They had fallen in love with the right person, had work they were deeply committed to and had a new baby. Into the middle of their charmed life came the worst possible news; their perfect daughter had Tay-Sachs disease. She would live a very short life. A mistake in the testing they had received for Tay-Sachs blindsighted them. Reeling from the news and immersed in the question of how they could possibly live out this time, they decided they would celebrate Havi every day of her life. And every Friday they would gather friends and family in their home for Shabbirthday. They would love her and cherish her and hold her as if each Friday was both a holy shabbat and a wonderful birthday party. They had no way to imagine how they would grieve her, but they decided to live fully with her as long as they could with whoever also wanted to grace this beautiful child with their love. And with that simple promise, they found a way to put one foot after the other. Myra Sack is a certified Compassionate Bereavement Care Provider through the MISS Foundation and founder of E-motion, Inc., a non-profit organization on a mission to ensure community is a right for grieving people. Her recently released book, 57 Fridays- Losing our daughter, finding our way, shares the story of Havi, her first child, who was diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease at 15 months old. She died a little over a year later, after changing everyone who loved her through that deep, crushing and meaningful time. Subsequent to this interiew, Myra founded E-Motion, a non-profit dedicated to bringing grievers together to walk, run and share. Myra lives with Matthew Goldstein and their two other children in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.

    55 min

  3. FEB 18

    The Grief and the Joy

    In honor of the publication of his new book, Never Can Say Goodbye, we replay this episode.  Darnell Lamont Walker makes it his life's mission to seed joy everywhere he is. How do his callings intersect? He is a children's television writer, a death doula, a filmmaker. In every case he hopes to inform, encourage and uplift his audience. In the end, all he does is about supporting everyone he encounters to heal, to make room for joy and to love ourselves. Join us as we talk about how he sees his mission and all the things he does to further it! Darnell Lament Walker is an Emmy-Nominated children's television writer who understands the power of representation and joy, creating content in hopes that all children get the opportunity to not only see themselves, but see how incredible they are and can be. Darnell has written for outstanding shows, including PBS Kids' Work It Out Wombats!, Netflix's Karma's World, and Nickelodeon's Blue's Clues & You. He's a death doula, helping individuals and communities move through grief and toward healing and happiness. His new book, Never Can Say Goodbye, captures his experience as a death doula. Currently living between the Chattahoochee National Forest of Georgia and Johannesburg, South Africa, Darnell's goal with his work is to continue to support children, adults, and whole communities around the world through the building of safe and happy spaces.

    54 min

  4. FEB 4

    Ashes

    Cheryl Krauter and her husband, John, assumed she would die first. After all, she had lived through an aggressive breast cancer diagnosis that challenged her resilience and health. But then it was him, suddenly, with no warning at all. His heart attack killed him in under five minutes. Taken to her knees but relying on the tools she had relied on to navigate cancer and every other challenge in her life, Cheryl acknowledged her experience, noticed what seemed to help her, and looked for the power in her own experience, including magic serendipity. Months after his death, he won the fly fishing trip in the yearly raffle he had tried for years to win. Now she would take the trip to honor him while grappling with how to move forward. Cheryl Krauter, MFT an Existential Humanistic psychotherapist with over 40 years of experience in the field of depth psychology and human consciousness. With her background in theater arts, working with performing artists, visual artists and creative people has inspired her. She works with people who have been diagnosed with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses, their partners, family members, and caregivers. She has published two books on cancer: Surviving the Storm: A Workbook for Telling Your Cancer Story (Oxford University Press 2017) and Psychosocial Care of Cancer Survivors: A Clinician's Guide and Workbook for Providing Wholehearted Care (Oxford University Press 2018).  Her book Odyssey of Ashes: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Letting Go (She Writes Press 2021) was released on July 20, 2021. She is a contributor to Art in the Time of Unbearable Crisis: Women Writers Respond to the Call  (She Writes Press, July 2022) and a contributor to Loss and Grief: Personal Stories of Doctors and Other Healthcare Professionals (Oxford University Press, August 2022.)   She was given the Distinguished Public Service Aware by the American Psychosocial Oncology Society in 2022.

    52 min

  5. JAN 14

    Taking Tea With Elisabeth

    Ken Ross grew up immersed in the work of his mother, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. Unlike most people in the West, he was immersed in a world where death, dying and grief wer openly talked about and explored. How did he come to view his unique experience with the pioneering author of On Death and Dying? We will talk about his mother's work, his childhood and how he carries her work forward, honoring the legacy she left. We'll also explore how he thinks his own perspective on end of life has been formed by his unusual upbringing. Ken Ross, son of Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, is the founder of the EKR Foundation (2006) and President (2006-2013 & 2018-Present). He also served on the board of the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Center from 1989-2005. Ken was his mother's primary caregiver for the last nine years of her life until her passing in 2004. From childhood through adulthood, he accompanied her on extensive international travel, observing her lectures and workshops on death, dying, and the human experience—an influence that continues to inform his work today. As President of the EKR Foundation, Ken oversees relationships with more than 80 international publishing partners in 44 languages, leads global public relations, manages copyright and trademark matters, expands the foundation's international chapters, cultivates strategic partnerships, and curates Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's personal archives. To honor the 50th anniversary of On Death and Dying, Ken appeared in major media outlets—including Radiolab, BBC's Witness History, Irish National Radio, and ABC Australia—sharing reflections on his mother's enduring influence. From 2022 to 2023, he delivered foundation presentations in Ecuador, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Nepal, Singapore, and Uganda. In 2023, he was recognized as an Honorary Faculty Member at the University of Indonesia's School of Economics in Jakarta. Ken also serves on the Board of Directors of Open to Hope and sits on the Advisory Council of the Humane Prison Hospice Project.

    55 min

  6. JAN 7

    Magic in Ordinary Things

    When Gina Harris' parents died, she tried to stay connected to them through memory and music. As a jazz singer, over time she began to sing her sorrow, and her healing. The music that came out of this deep place in her led her to offer it to others, in performances and a podcast series dedicated to them and to her own grief process. Join us as we talk about what compelled her to create the series and how it helped her to move forward after loss.   Gina Harris is a singer/songwriter and actor who has performed in theaters and jazz clubs in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. A protégé of Columbia Recording artist, Lilian Loran, and a veteran of the Groundlings and Peggy Feury's Loft Studio; Gina had a leading role in Peter Ustinov's Broadway and national touring productions of Beethoven's Tenth.  Her solo musical, "The Magic of Ordinary Things," played to sold-out audiences in San Francisco as part of the "Let's Reimagine" Festival in 2019 and The Marsh Rising Series in early 2020.  She then turned the show into an audio drama podcast, created in the popular radio drama format.  The podcast is now available on all streaming platforms as well as her website:  www.ginaharris.com.

    55 min

  7. 12/31/2025

    Night Lake

    Liz Tichenor has taken her newborn son, five weeks old, to the doctor, from a cabin on the shores of Lake Tahoe. She is sent home to her husband and two-year-old daughter with the baby, who is pronounced "fine" by an urgent care physician. Six hours later, the baby dies in their bed. Less than a year and a half before, Tichenor's mother jumped from a building and killed herself after a long struggle with alcoholism. As a very young Episcopal priest, Tichenor has to "preach the Good News," to find faith where there is no hope, but she realizes these terrible parts of her own life will join her in the pulpit. The Night Lake is the story of finding a way forward through tragedies that seem like they might be beyond surviving and of carving out space for the slow labor of learning to live again, in grief. Liz Tichenor, the author of The Night Lake, has put down roots in the Bay Area but is originally from New Hampshire and the Midwest. An Episcopal priest, she serves as rector at the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, Pleasant Hill, California. Tichenor and her husband, Jesse, are raising two young children and continuing to explore the adventure of living, parenting, and serving in their community.

    55 min

  8. 12/24/2025

    Holiday Grieving

    Our life losses can seem overwhelming when it appears the rest of the world is celebrating. But in fact, we are in good company! Holidays are natural times to remember people we've lost and to honor them. But how do we step back from the high intensity, busy shopping and party season to make space for our grief? How can the people in our lives who have died bring deeper meaning and resonance to our holidays? Instead of feeling like we're out of step, can we allow the season to be a time for honoring, remembering and making connection with the people we've lost? Winter is a natural time of reflection and remembrance. Join us to explore how to integrate losses into the season. Tom Zuba is a life coach, author and speaker teaching people all over the world a new way to do grief. Tom offers those living with the death of someone they love dearly the tools, knowledge, and wisdom to create a full, joy-filled life. In 1990, Tom's 18-month-old daughter Erin died suddenly. His 43-year-old wife Trici died equally as suddenly on New Year's Day 1999 and his 13-year-old son Rory died from brain cancer in 2005. Tom and his son Sean are exploring life one day at a time in Rockford, Illinois.  Tom's first book "Permission to Mourn: A New Way to Do Grief" was the subject of our interview together at the beginning of 2015, and he has come back to talk with me about grief and the holidays.

    56 min
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4.9
out of 5
16 Ratings

About

On Good Grief we explore the losses that define our lives. Each week, we talk with people who have transformed themselves through the profound act of grieving. Why settle for surviving? Say yes to the many experiences that embody loss! Grief can teach you where your strengths are and ignite your courage. It can heighten your awareness of what is important to you and help you let go of what is not.

Information

  • Creator
    Cheryl Espinosa-Jones
  • Years Active
    2013 - 2026
  • Episodes
    544
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Cheryl Espinosa-Jones
  • Show Website
    Good Grief

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