The Art of Grief

Comedian, author and actor Guy Branum (Bros, Platonic) joins us to talk about his new one-man show, Be Fruitful. We explore the concept of “pre-grieving,” especially as we enter middle age, and consider how love and grief are intertwined.

Megan and Karen return with Season 2 of the “Art of Grief” by exploring the concepts of unrelenting and compounded grief. Even as we began this podcast last year to process specific losses, we have been confronted with new emotional challenges, shocking losses and seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

This gives us the opportunity to explore what Megan describes as both “micro” and “macro” forms of grief, as we explore the “grief spaces” we plan to explore in our new season, with episodes releasing every two weeks.

The preeminent music critic, award-winning author, and Yale professor Daphne Brooks joins us for a wide ranging conversation about music as an expression of grief and a portal to our feelings. We learn about what it’s like to bear “aural witness” across generations and communities, and get a better sense of why Brooks’ own writing is so elegiac.

Reverend Christina Shu, Lead Interfath Chaplain at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, joins us for an intimate conversation about holding space for those confronting mortality and loss. She shares the transformative nature of being present with people as they grapple with the deepest questions.

We discuss the delicate art of spiritual care across diverse faith traditions, the cumulative weight of grief work, the layering of loss that comes with palliative care, and burnout.

Writer and cook Millicent Soros joins us to explore her journey of understanding loss and the power of food to connect and heal. From early experiences of unprocessed grief to finding catharsis through cooking, Millicent shares insights on moving through pain, the fine line between coping and avoidance, and embracing the messy reality of emotions.

MacArthur Genius Fellow, writer and historian Natalia Molina joins us to talk about scripts of grief, as well as how we become open to signs from beyond in the processes of grieving and healing.

We also discuss her award-winning essay, “How I learned the Dodgers are L.A.’s Language of Love,” which speaks with an open heart about her brother David’s unexpected death, and the celebration of their lives together beneath Dodger Blue skies in Echo Park, Los Angeles.

We are joined by voices from around the city of Los Angeles to talk about their personal experiences with the L.A. wildfires, and communal grief in the wake of these catastrophic events. We also ask about their hopes for the future not only for themselves, but our community.

Guests include: Myriam Gurba, Mai-Lin Cheng, Margaret Wappler, Guy Branum, Lien Ta, Natalia Molina, Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, Colin Campbell, Carolina Miranda, and Courtney Storer.

This week we are joined by Hala Alyan, a Palestinian-American writer, poet, and clinical psychologist, who is also a professor at NYU. A specialist in trauma and cross-cultural identity, and the author of the award-winning novel Salt Houses, as well as four collections of poetry, including The Moon that Turns You Back (2024), Hala brings her expertise as a psychologist and a writer to talk about bearing witness to genocide, and the fatigue, anger and repetition that accompanies the grief of witnessing.

She also reads poetry for us, and speaks openly about her own personal vulnerabilities and struggles as she considers how poetry as a form can activate connection by reaching across time and cultures, while saying what cannot be said, and what will not be heard.

Karen and Megan record their first holiday special, and themselves get caught off-guard by some of their own holiday feelings, including the confluence of grief and joy. Karen opens up about the difficulty of Christmas this year, as well as in years past because it was her grandmother’s favorite holiday. Megan talks about seeing the holidays anew through the eyes of her two young children. They also offer words of advice about what’s worked for them in the past to calm the holiday overload.

Bereavement facilitator, author, and host of the podcast Good Mourning Today, Japhena Kay, joins us for a candid conversation about losing her son Chase to suicide, while animating her processes of grief that have evolved and transformed in the years since. She and Megan met in a grief group specifically for those who’ve lost their loved ones to suicide, and they both reflect on the meaningfulness of that experience, especially while combatting the silence and stigma related to death by suicide.

In June 2019, Colin Campbell and his wife Gail Lerner lost both of their children, Ruby and Hart when a drunk driver hit their car and changed a pleasant family outing into the worst day imaginable.

Megan and Karen invite Colin to discuss the book he wrote in the wake of that tragedy, Finding the Words: Working Through Profound Loss with Hope and Purpose, which offers an honest account of his journey, while providing guidance and practical tools for others going through similar experiences.

Megan and Karen check in with each other after the 2024 election, and discuss their own range of emotional responses, including grief, anger, and even a sense of tragicomedy.

They also offer some thoughts around how to take care of yourselves and others during this intense, confrontational and difficult time.

This week we are joined by Dr. Regina N. Bradley, a prominent public voice on contemporary southern Black life and hip hop culture, who is the author of the widely-acclaimed book, Chronicling Stankonia: the Rise of the Hip-Hop South. Dr. Bradley candidly talks about her efforts to heal and return to a daily practice of writing, after the trauma of her grandmother’s murder at the hands of another family member two years ago. She opens up about the variations of grief she’s experienced since then, while talking about how her social, and academic, professional world sometimes come at odds with her journey to healing.

Globally renowned artist Cherine Fahd joins us to talk about the role photography plays in visualizing grief. Based in Australia, her own photographic work and writing not only celebrate the communities around her and their public lives, but delves deeply into what is more difficult to see and say, from family mourning as its captured in private photo archives, to death by suicide and the efforts to de-stigmatize infant loss through photography.

In our conversation we explore, in Cherine’s words, the “uncertainties of what photography can or cannot reveal about life, death, and mourning.”

We welcome writer Raquel Gutierrez into our virtual studio during Mercury in Retrograde (resulting in a chirping smoke alarm and other markers of “real life” in our conversation).

With a minor astrological detour, we talk about grieving the father figures within our chosen queer families, as well as our families of origin.  What relations are we allowed to grieve? For Raquel, their Big Poppa was the activist and author Jeanne Córdova. We learn about their story of intergenerational mentorship, and the grief and transformation that winds its way through Raquel’s award-winning book, Brown Neon.

Jeopardy! super champion and host of the CBC’s Bookends radio show, Mattea Roach, joins us for a candid conversation about losing their father unexpectedly while filming the Jeopardy Masters series in May 2023.

Together we explore the dissonant and sometimes simultaneous experiences of grief and joy, while also honoring queer support networks and the power of our own magical thinking (for better and worse). We also get into how intellect and intuition work with and against each other in our own mental “grief games” during times of distress and loss of control.

Writer and filmmaker Naz Riahi joins us to talk about the  devastation of losing our animal soulmates. What is the particular character of loss we experience when we lose the daily physical presence and companionship of our dogs, cats and other pets?  What about the isolation we encounter while grieving our pets, especially because grief for non-humans can be diminished or judged as “inappropriate”? And what are the realms of spirituality we touch upon in these moments of loss?

Comedian, writer, actor and Self Help Me-guru Jenny Yang joins us this week to talk about the thin line between laughter and tears, and the global, cumulative griefs she–and we–have experienced over the last five years. Jenny offers an emotionally honest account of her fertility challenges, and how she confronted that grief with a healing, satirical photo project using the aesthetics of “birth announcements.” Karen and Jenny compare notes about Filipino vs. Taiwanese expressions of grief, while Megan and Jenny discuss a range of therapeutic journeys, their benefits and their drawbacks.

Welcome to The Art of Grief, a new show featuring conversations with artists, creators, mental health professionals, spiritual guides and everyday people exploring the many forms of loss and grief, and the different ways we all try to cope – or can’t. In our premiere episode, you meet hosts Karen Tongson and Megan Auster-Rosen and hear about their shared histories of grief as they cut across their friendship, and their own creative and professional practices.