Good Grief with Amanda Kloots

This week on Good Grief, Tyler Cameron joins us for an emotional conversation about losing his mom, Andrea, to a sudden brain aneurysm in 2020, and how her loss continues to shape his life. Tyler opens up about his biggest regrets, honoring his mom through renovating her home, and why competing on Dancing With the Stars holds such special meaning as he hopes to dedicate a dance to her. He also reflects on finding love with his fiancée Tate and wishing his mom could have met her. Plus, Tyler leaves us with a powerful reminder to cherish the people we love and be intentional with the words we share while they're still here. Produced by Dear Media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Amanda sits down with Kaitlyn Bristowe for an honest conversation about grief that never fully leaves you and how it can still become beautiful. Kaitlyn opens up about losing her childhood best friend, Lindsay, at 18 years old and how she’s grieved her longer than she was alive. She shares how her parents’ separation shaped OCD and expectations in relationships, sleeping through shock, deep depression in her mid-20s, and how she rebuilt her life through therapy- including EMDR, movement, dance, and inner child work. She also opens up about dedicating her performance on Dancing With the Stars to Lindsay, her stepdad's stage four cancer diagnosis, and the magic miracles that can come through prayer and collective energy. If you’re moving through grief, trauma, or losing a best friend, this episode is a reminder that grief has no timeline, the body keeps the score, and life is worth living and loving hard. Produced by Dear Media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amy Purdy was a Paralympic medalist and the runner-up on Dancing With the Stars. She spent 20 years rebuilding her life after losing both legs, her kidneys, her spleen, and the hearing in her left ear at 19. Then, a prosthetic injury cut off the blood flow in her leg. Ten surgeries and two more amputations followed, many of them alone in the hospital during COVID, and they took away the version of herself she had worked so hard to build.Amanda and Amy talk about losing your identity when you lose your health, hitting rock bottom, how to find gratitude at your lowest, and the importance of surrender in healing. Amy shares why the hardest part of grief is detaching from how you THINK things are supposed to be, instead of how they are. Plus, she takes us behind the scenes of flying straight from the Paralympics to her first live dance on DWTS, and explains the ideas behind her new book Bounce Forward. If you're grieving a former version of yourself, this conversation is for you. Produced by Dear Media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Amanda’s dear friend Ricki Lake joins Good Grief for an emotional and hopeful conversation about losing her husband, losing her home, and learning to start over. Ricki opens up about the loss of her late husband, Christian, to suicide after his struggle with bipolar disorder and chronic pain, and how grief forced her to reinvent her life and finally learn to love herself unconditionally. She also shares the raw story of losing her Malibu home in a fire and how that devastating chapter unexpectedly led her and her now-husband Ross to a completely new life in New York. Together, Amanda and Ricki talk about what it means to grieve a life you imagined, how to carry grief with you as a friend, and why Ricki says our life is sweeter because of the suffering. This is a conversation all about resilience, self-acceptance, and reinvention, and we’re so grateful to Ricki for trusting us with her story.  If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or a crisis, please reach out immediately to the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741. These services are free and confidential.  Produced by Dear Media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grief is sneaky. And moving on from it can feel like betraying the person you lost. On this week’s episode of Good Grief, Amanda sits down with Rabbi Steve Leder for a conversation about grief and loss that refuses to be tidy - and about why "getting over it" is never a worthy or achievable goal to begin with. Rabbi Leder names the betrayal sitting at the center of every loss: the harder you loved someone, the more moving forward feels like leaving them behind. He explains why some degree of betrayal is required in order to heal, why letting go feels like the decision to forget, and why "there is no arrival without a departure." He also opens up about the grief of retirement, handing over the torch, and the wintering that followed - and about the 125 milligrams of Zoloft a day he says got him to this point. You'll hear why he would give back every book he's ever written for one more lunch with his dad, the room full of a friend's parents' belongings that still hasn't been opened, and the two moments - one from inside his mother's dementia, one from a billboard on a bad day - that changed how he thinks about signs. If you're dealing with grief, supporting someone who is, or you've ever felt guilty for laughing again, this one is for you. Produced by Dear Media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices