GRIEF AND LIGHT
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© 2026 GRIEF AND LIGHT
Description
This space was created for you by someone who gets it – your grief, your foundation-shattering reality, and the question of what the heck do we do with the shattered pieces of life and loss around us.
It’s also for the listener who wants to better understand their grieving person, and perhaps wants to learn how to help.
Now in its fourth season, the Grief and Light podcast features both solo episodes and interviews with first-hand experiencers, authors, and professionals, who shine a light on the spectrum of experiences, feelings, secondary losses, and takeaways.
As a bereaved sister, I share my personal story of the sudden loss of my younger brother, only sibling, one day after we celebrated his 32nd birthday. I also delve into how that loss, trauma, and grief catapulted me into a truth-seeking journey, which ultimately led me to answer "the calling" of creating this space I now call Grief and Light.
Since launching the first episode on March 30, 2023, the Grief and Light podcast and social platforms have evolved into a powerful resource for grief-informed support, including one-on-one grief guidance, monthly grief circles, community, and much more.
With each episode, you can expect open and authentic conversations sharing our truth, and explorations of how to transmute the grief experience into meaning, and even joy.
My hope is to make you feel less alone, and to be a beacon of light and source of information for anyone embarking on this journey.
"We're all just walking each other HOME." - Ram Dass
Thank you for being here.
We're in this together.
Nina, Yosef's Sister
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For more information, visit: griefandlight.com
109 Episodes
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Grief and Light is proud to participate in Podcasthon 2026, the world's largest podcast charity initiative, joining podcasters across the globe to amplify the organizations doing work that the world needs to hear about. Learn more: podcasthon.org *** What happens when men are never given permission to grieve? This episode, we sit down with Daniel Ratchford, founder and president of Broreavement, and Quaheem Brooks, two men who are building something life-affirming: a brotherhood for men and b...
PODCASTHON SPECIAL EPISODE Part of the world's largest charity podcast event — raising awareness for causes that matter What does harm reduction actually look like, and how is it saving lives right now? In this impactful episode, we explore the realities of addiction, harm reduction, and the ongoing fight to save lives. Thomas Guerra of F-Fent.org shares personal insights, dispels common myths, and highlights the vital work being done in communities everywhere, from music festivals to college...
In this heartfelt episode, Nina Rodriguez interviews Amanda Nicol, a museum-quality jewelry designer and survivor of intimate partner violence (IPV), about transforming trauma into empowerment through her one-of-a-kind jewelry. Amanda shares her journey of resilience, community support, and the importance of storytelling and purpose in her work. Jewelry One of a KIND is a Miami-based jewelry house creating one-of-a-kind pieces designed to be collected. Small batch. Handcrafted. Built to last....
What does it mean to carry a mother’s love forward after she’s gone? How do you parent a child with life-threatening food allergies? In this heartfelt conversation, Nina Rodriguez sits down with Chelsea Ohlemiller, author of Now That She’s Gone: A Daughter’s Reflections on Loss, Love & a Mother’s Legacy, to explore the enduring impact of mother loss. Chelsea shares how the sudden death of her mother in 2017 reshaped her identity, her marriage, and her parenting, and how writing became bot...
What if the mess you've been avoiding is actually the doorway? In this episode, host Nina Rodriguez sits down with transformational creativity and grief coach Susie Stonefield to explore the powerful connection between grief and creative expression. Susie believes creativity isn't a luxury or a talent reserved for the few. It's a birthright. And in times of loss and healing, it can become one of our most powerful companions. Together, they explore how art-making without rules, outcomes,...
February 17, 2026 marks a rare cosmic convergence that happens once every 60 years. In this solo episode, we explore the intersection of grief and the Year of the Fire Horse, a powerful metaphor for riding the uncontrollable momentum of loss while finding your center in the chaos. We're standing at the threshold of three major energetic events: the Chinese Lunar New Year (Year of the Fire Horse), an Aquarius Solar Eclipse, and a rare planetary alignment that amplifies our ability to sp...
What does grief teach us about how to live, lead, and love? What happens when the work we do in the world meets what we’re carrying inside? In this episode, host Nina Rodriguez sits down with development practitioner, global thought leader, and poet Carl Manlan, author of i can breathe, for a moving conversation on grief, legacy, resilience, and meaning. Carl reflects on how loss reshaped his understanding of resilience, leadership, and what it means to honor those who came before us, and th...
In this solo episode of Grief and Light, Nina Rodriguez reflects on the ambient grief many of us are carrying in response to global, political, and collective uncertainty. After taking a pause to tend to her own nervous system and grief, Nina shares a reflection rooted in presence rather than answers, exploring what it means to keep creating, caring, and staying human when the world feels overwhelming and dissonant. Drawing on grief literacy, nervous system awareness, and the story behind Cla...
How do we decide what to keep after a loved one dies? In this insightful episode, Nina Rodriguez is joined by grief coach, curator of The Grief Gallery™, and author, Charlene Lam, for a deeply human conversation about curating grief: the tender, often overwhelming process of choosing what to keep after loss. *** Video version available here. *** After the sudden death of her mother in 2013, Charlene found herself alone with the responsibility of sorting through her mom’s belongings. Tha...
Episode 100 of Grief and Light marks a meaningful milestone shaped not only by consistency and care, but by the relationships formed along the way. Nina Rodriguez chose to honor this moment with a feed swap: a deeply personal episode originally recorded for The Life Shift Podcast, hosted by fellow podcaster and friend Matt Gilhooly. *** Read: Grief and Light Podcast: Exploring Grief & Lighting the Way to Hope by Frank Racioppi, EAR WORTHY *** This episode reflects one of the most un...
An honest exploration of grief, creativity, and community with the visionary behind Women Who Podcast magazine—covering storytelling, anticipatory grief, and the movement to amplify women’s voices in podcasting. In this conversation, Nina Rodriguez sits down with Kathy Barron, founder and Editor-in-Chief of Women Who Podcast Magazine, to explore the power of women’s voices, the complexity of grief, and the courage it takes to tell honest stories. *** Video available here *** Kathy shares the ...
Sometimes, healing begins in motion. In this episode, Nina Rodriguez sits down with Bianca Alba, founder of This Latina Travels, to explore how grief, identity, and travel intertwine. What starts as a conversation about exploring the world becomes a deeper story about returning to yourself. *** Video available here *** Her story begins in a single-parent household where vacations felt like something other people did, faraway dreams that didn’t belong to families like hers. Today, Bianca has t...
What happens when you gather a circle of grievers, creators, and grief-literacy leaders around one table and ask them to tell the truth about how loss has reshaped their families, and their lives? In this special Grief Week episode of Grief and Light, we find out. *** Watch the video here. *** This episode is an offering for anyone navigating family changes after loss, for anyone bracing for the holidays, and for anyone who needs to hear that their grief makes sense, that their story matters...
What happens when three grief podcasters sit down to talk about the happiest–saddest time of the year? In this special Grief Awareness Week episode, three grief storytellers and space-holders — Nina Rodriguez (Grief and Light), Liz Quinn (Healing Hearts Podcast), and Tara Accardo (Life with Grief podcast) — come together for a conversation that’s equal parts honest, tender, and deeply human. *** The video version is available here. *** What unfolds is a spacious, story-rich dialogue about the...
Some stories are written in ink. Others are written in loss, love, and everything that comes after. Today’s guest is Tiriq Rashad, spoken word artist, whose life has been shaped by the grief of losing his daughter, brother, and mother, and by the courage to transform that pain into poetry, music, and meaning. Through his books Shine Through Our Shade and A Diamond in God’s Dirt, and now his new album Kiss My Art, Tiriq invites us into the alchemy of survival where art becomes a way home...
Grief doesn’t just reshape us, it can redirect the entire course of our lives in ways we never saw coming. *** Video available here *** For Kim Burditt Barlett, that redirection began the day her brother Jon, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, died by suicide in 2010. What followed was a profound transformation that eventually led her into suicide prevention work and, ultimately, to her role at Stop Soldier Suicide. In this episode, Kim sits down with Nina to explore the layered reality of su...
How does life shift when you lose the only person who shared your beginnings — your earliest memories, your inside jokes, your sense of home? In this tender and illuminating conversation, host Nina Rodriguez sits down with Dr. Angela Dean, a licensed psychologist, thanatologist, and founder of The Broken Pack™—an organization and podcast created to validate and support adults grieving the loss of a sibling. *** Video is available here. *** After the unexpected death of her brother, Tony, Dr. ...
When Ben Forman lost his brother Sam, his world shifted overnight, leaving him with survivor’s guilt, grief for what could have been, and a search for meaning. In this episode of Grief and Light, Ben shares how a 10-day motorcycle therapy trip through the Himalayas became a transformative journey of healing, reflection, and connection. Along the way, he immersed himself in nature, friendship, and mindful practices, and drew on conversations with monks and his heritage to navigate loss. ...
No man should have to carry it alone. Many men are hurting in silence, and Robb Pollard knows that silence well. In this deeply human conversation, Nina Rodriguez sits down with Robb Pollard, founder of Walk With Me Brother, a nonprofit devoted to men’s mental health and connection. *** VIDEO AVAILABLE HERE *** Robb shares his journey of living with bipolar disorder, navigating bullying and alcohol, and learning to face the parts of himself he once tried to outrun. What emerges is a story not...
When Sara Rian’s mother unexpectedly died in 2018, her world, and her words, changed forever. *** This episode is available in video here. *** What began as a private act of survival through poetry slowly became a bridge to others who were grieving too. Her poems, often found reaching grieving hearts through social media feeds, give voice to what so many can’t yet name: the ache, the confusion, the beauty, and the brutal honesty of grief. In this conversation, Nina and Sara trace ...
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