The Dead Truth Podcast

Jen Salazar
  • 5.0 (7)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Updated Weekly

The Dead Truth Podcast normalizes conversations around grief, widowhood, and identity after loss — bringing these conversations to the front of the room and giving a voice to what it really feels like to survive love and loss. Host, Jen Salazar, shares her lived experience as a widow for over 2 years—raw, real, and unfiltered—in hopes that it helps you feel seen, understood, and a little less alone. Through real -time experience, research, and podcast guests sharing their own truth, the podcast empowers listeners to find meaning, belonging, and resilience, one conversation at a time.💜

  1. 19h ago

    Loneliness Vs. Being Alone: Loneliness Isn't About Who's in the Room...It's About Who Isn't

    Being alone and being lonely are not the same thing. Widowhood taught me that.I've spent nights completely by myself and felt perfectly okay. Peaceful, even. And I've stood in rooms full of people and felt painfully alone.Because sometimes loneliness isn't about needing more people around you. It's about missing one particular person.The person you told the everyday stuff to. The person who understood the look across the room. The person who knew something was wrong before you said a word. The person who received all those completely ordinary, completelyinsignificant pieces of your day. For me, that's the lonely part.In this episode of The Dead Truth, I'm not giving you seven ways to overcome loneliness. Thank God. 😂 I'm just talking about what loneliness has actually felt like since losing Mel—the quiet, the crowded rooms, the empty side of theconversation, and the surprising realization that sometimes I genuinely like being alone.Because I don't necessarily miss having someone around.I miss having my person.And there's a hell of a difference.#grief #griefsupport #griefjourney #griefandloss #widow #widowhood #widowlife #widowingfreestyle #love #podcast #thedeadtruth #thedeadtruthpodcast

  2. 6d ago

    Grief And The Secondary Hidden Losses Nobody Talks About💜

    When someone dies, we expect to grieve the person we lost. What we don't expect are all the other losses that quietly follow.The loss of your future plans. Your sense of safety. Your identity. Your confidence. Your routines. Your financial security. Your friendships. Even the little moments that once felt ordinary. These are called secondary losses, and they're one of the most overlooked parts of grief.In this episode of The Dead Truth, I explore the hidden layers of loss that can leave grieving people wondering why certain moments still hurt so deeply—even years later. Together, we'll talk about why grief often feels heavier than we expected, why random moments can still bring us to tears, and why recognizing these hidden losses can replace self-judgment with self-compassion.If you've ever wondered why a simple trip to the grocery store, an empty chair, or signing your name alone suddenly brought your grief rushing back, this conversation is for you. Because sometimes you're not grieving all over again. You're discovering another layer of love...and another layer of loss.If this episode speaks to your heart, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who may need the reminder that they aren't grieving "wrong." They're simply carrying more than they realized.Until then... be gentle with yourself.💜#grief #griefsupport #griefandloss #griefjourney #griefawareness #grieving #widow #widowhood #widower #love #podcast #secondaryloss #lifeafterloss

  3. Oct 1

    Episode Rewind: The Secondary Losses of Grief💜

    Not every episode is meant to be heard once and forgotten. Some conversations hit differently depending on where you are in your grief, what kind of week you’re having, or what life has decided to throw at you lately. That’s why we do Episode Rewinds—bringing back conversations worth hearing again, or maybe discovering for the first time. So if you missed this one, hit play. And if you’ve already heard it… you might be surprised by what lands differently this time. 💜 When someone dies, we expect to grieve the person we lost. What we don't expect are all the other losses that quietly follow. The loss of your future plans. Your sense of safety. Your identity. Your confidence. Your routines. Your financial security. Your friendships. Even the little moments that once felt ordinary. These are called secondary losses, and they're one of the most overlooked parts of grief. In this episode of The Dead Truth, I explore the hidden layers of loss that can leave grieving people wondering why certain moments still hurt so deeply—even years later. Together, we'll talk about why grief   often feels heavier than we expected, why random moments can still bring us to tears, and why recognizing these hidden losses can replace self-judgment with self-compassion. If you've ever wondered why a simple trip to the grocery store, an empty chair, or signing your name alone suddenly brought your grief rushing back, this conversation is for you. Because sometimes you're not grieving all over again. You're discovering another layer of love...and another layer of loss. If this episode speaks to your heart, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who may need the reminder that they aren't grieving "wrong." They're simply carrying more than they realized. Until then... be gentle with yourself.💜 #grief #griefsupport #griefandloss #griefjourney #griefawareness #grieving #widow #widowhood #widower #love #podcast #secondaryloss #lifeafterloss

  4. Sep 23

    What Grief Leaves Behind: Generations of Widows with Dori Ann Dupré

    What gets passed down through generations of widows? Strength? Resilience? Survival? Or do we also inherit the silence, fears, expectations, and ways of grieving that the women before us learned simply because they had no other choice? In this episode of The Dead Truth, Jen sits down with author and widow Dori Ann Dupré, whose new novel, Widows & Children, follows generations of women connected by love, loss, widowhood, and the complicated things families carry forward. But this conversation goes beyond the book. Dori shares her own story of loving and losing her husband, Eric, the generations of widows within her family, grieving alongside her daughters, and what nearly ten years of widowhood has revealed about the woman she was—and the woman she is still becoming. Jen and Dori also explore Versions of Her: Do we actually become someone new after loss? Or are we still the same woman, carrying every version of ourselves—the woman before him, the woman who loved him, the woman who lost him, and the woman learning how to live in the life that came after? And perhaps the biggest question of all: What did the widows before us carry that eventually made its way to us—and what do we finally get to put down? This isn't simply a conversation about surviving loss. It's about generations of women, the families shaped by grief, the love that continues, and what we choose to carry forward. This is The Dead Truth with Dori Ann Dupré. dorianndupre.wixsite.com/books IG: author.dorianndupre FB: AuthorDoriAnnDupre

  5. Sep 16

    Living Inside Grief: When Loss Becomes Part of the Room

    People talk about living with grief. But sometimes that doesn't feel quite right. Because grief isn't always something sitting beside you. Sometimes it feels like the room you're standing in. You wake up inside it. Go to work inside it. Grocery shop inside it. Laugh inside it. Build things inside it. Have surprisingly good days inside it. And sometimes, out of nowhere, grief kicks the damn door down like it still pays rent. In this episode of The Dead Truth, I'm talking about what it actually feels like to live inside grief—the contradictions, the ordinary moments, the laughter, the anger, the missing, and the strange realization that grief doesn't necessarily get smaller. Sometimes life simply starts getting bigger around it. Other people get to visit your grief. You live there. And perhaps the goal was never to find the exit. Perhaps it's discovering how much life can still exist inside the room. #grief #griefsupport #griefandloss #widow #widowhood #widowjourney #widowlife #loss #love #podcast #thedeadtruth #thedeadtruthpodcast

  6. Sep 9

    Versions of Her: Before Him. With Him. After Him.

    After loss, everyone seems obsessed with the question: Who am I now? And right behind it comes another one: What is my purpose now? And somewhere along the way, I think we've put an awful lot of pressure on grieving women to answer both. As if losing your husband wasn't enough. Now apparently you're supposed to reinvent yourself, discover your purpose, find the “new you,” rise from the ashes and become some inspirational grief phoenix. Yeah. We're not doing that here. In this first episode of Versions of Her, I'm talking about identity, purpose, and something I've come to believe about the women we were before, during, and after love and loss: You don't become one new version of yourself. You carry all of them with you. The woman you were before him. The woman who fell in love with him. The woman you became beside him. The woman who lost him. The woman who had to learn how to live without him. And the woman you're still becoming. You don't have to erase one version to make room for another. And you certainly don't need to have some grand new purpose figured out just because your life changed. Maybe the better question isn't Who am I now? It's: What parts of all the women I've been are still here? Welcome to Versions of Her—a Dead Truth series about widowhood, identity, love, loss, change, and all the women we become along the way. Because you're not just the woman standing here today. You're still all of her.

  7. Sep 2

    The Healing Power of Tears: Why Do We Apologize When We Cry?

    Why do we apologize when we cry? Someone we love died. Our entire life changed. We’re trying to figure out how to live in a world without them—and somehow, when the tears come, we’re the ones saying, “I’m sorry.” Sorry for what? In this episode of The Dead Truth, Jen talks about the tears we fight, the ones that ambush us in completely ordinary moments, the days we can’t cry at all, and those huge, exhausting cries that leave us sitting there wondering what the hell just came out of us. Because crying doesn’t mean you’re falling apart. Sometimes crying is what happens when you’ve been holding too damn much together. This isn’t about crying your way to healing or pretending tears magically make grief disappear. They don’t. It’s about allowing an honest reaction to an incredibly painful reality. You can be healing and still cry. You can be building a life you genuinely love and still ache for the person who isn’t here to see it. You can laugh all afternoon and cry in the car on the way home. Those things can exist in the same person. Some things in life are worth crying over.Some people are worth crying over. And some love is worth every damn tear. This is The Dead Truth about tears, grief, and what it actually feels like to live inside loss.💜 #grief #griefsupport #griefandloss #griefjourney #widow #widowhood #love #loss #podcast #healing #crying #thedeadtruth #thedeadtruthpodcast

  8. Aug 26

    Apparently, I'm Widowing Wrong: Confessions of a Rule-Breaking Widow💜

    Apparently, there are rules to widowhood. Cry—but eventually stop. Talk about him—but not too much. Keep your wedding ring on if you want—but apparently somebody will have an opinion about that. Don't date too soon. Don't wait too long. Be strong. Be vulnerable. Move forward. But for God's sake, make sure you're moving at a speed everyone else finds emotionally convenient. Got it. In this episode of The Dead Truth, I'm talking about the invisible rulebook widows somehow get handed after loss—and all the rules I've broken along the way. We'll also convene an emergency meeting of the Widowhood Rules Committee, revisit the social-media crime I committed when I dared suggest widows might want to consider waiting before making huge life decisions, and talk about what happens when we stop performing grief for everyone watching from the sidelines. Because I've realized something: Maybe I'm not widowing wrong. Maybe there was never one right way to do it in the first place. This isn't an episode about telling widows to break every rule. It's about asking a much more interesting question: Who made the damn rules anyways? #widow #widowhood #widowing #widowlife #grief #griefjourney #griefsupport #griefandloss #loss #love #podcast #thedeadtruth #thedeadtruthpodcast

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
7 Ratings

About

The Dead Truth Podcast normalizes conversations around grief, widowhood, and identity after loss — bringing these conversations to the front of the room and giving a voice to what it really feels like to survive love and loss. Host, Jen Salazar, shares her lived experience as a widow for over 2 years—raw, real, and unfiltered—in hopes that it helps you feel seen, understood, and a little less alone. Through real -time experience, research, and podcast guests sharing their own truth, the podcast empowers listeners to find meaning, belonging, and resilience, one conversation at a time.💜

Information

  • Creator
    Jen Salazar
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    37
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Jen Salazar
  • Show Website
    The Dead Truth Podcast

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