The Broken Pack: Stories of Sibling Loss

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The Love Did Not Get Deleted: Sibling Loss and Mindfulness

2026-09-1757:13

In this episode of The Broken Pack: Stories of Sibling Loss, Dr. Dean talks with Gyani Richards, a Bay Area grief counselor and surviving sibling. Gyani is the fourth of five brothers. His younger brother Pete, the one the whole family gathered around, died of cancer in 2021, less than 18 months after his diagnosis. Gyani and Dr. Dean talk about the conversation Gyani wanted to have with his brother and didn't get, and how losing his father at 13 shaped the way he met this loss decades later....

Surviving Sibling Loss Twice, Addiction, and Meaning Making: SisterPlay

2026-08-2301:06:40

Content warning: This episode discusses addiction, suicidal ideation, incarceration, and the death of a sibling in jail after being denied medical care. In this episode of The Broken Pack: Stories of Sibling Loss, Dr. Dean talks with Dr. Elizabeth Ostler, a Brooklyn-based theater maker, academic, and surviving sibling who has lost two of her three siblings. Elizabeth's sister Lisa died in 2016 at age 37, three days after being arrested and held as a pretrial detainee in a Salt Lake City jail...

Bright Days Do Come: Seeking Signs after Sibling Loss

2026-06-2701:06:50

In this episode of The Broken Pack: Stories of Sibling Loss, Dr. Angela Dean talks with surviving sibling Karin McLean, author of Bright Days Do Come. Karin is Brian's big sister. Brian, the baby of the family, died at 9-years-old in a 1991 car accident that nearly took Karin's life too. Karin had helped raise him since she was twelve, and she wrote her book more than thirty years later. Together they talk about the secondary and non-death losses that follow a sudden accident, the long work o...

Dr. Ken Doka on the Sibling Bond and Disenfranchised Grief

2026-06-1831:45

In this episode of The Broken Pack: Stories of Sibling Loss, Dr. Angela Dean talks with surviving sibling Dr. Ken Doka, the grief scholar who coined the term disenfranchised grief. Ken is Frank and Dot's kid brother. His brother Frank, thirteen years older, died a few years ago after an illness. He spoke about the relationship of his living sister Dot, who helped raise him. Together Dr. Doka and Dr. Dean talk about why the sibling bond is so often overlooked, how grievers process loss in diff...

"Were You Close?" A Surviving Sister's Writing Quest

2026-06-0651:22

In this episode of The Broken Pack: Stories of Sibling Loss, Dr. Dean talks with surviving sibling Anne Pinkerton, author of Were You Close? A Sister's Quest to Know the Brother She Lost. Anne's brother David, twelve years her senior and an elite athlete and radiologist, died suddenly in 2008 after falling while hiking a 14er in the Colorado mountains. More than seventeen years later, Anne shares how losing the big brother she worshipped reshaped her understanding of sibling loss, continuing ...

#box-pro-ellipsis-179345375560435{-webkit-line-clamp:2;}The Broken Pack: Stories of Sibling Loss

The Broken Pack: Stories of Sibling Loss