Unspoken Lives Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Lisa Espinoza made a commitment to write every day for the year following the loss of her 25-year-old son, Chandler. What began as a way to process her grief and honor her son eventually became her book, First, Brush Your Teeth: Grief and Hope in Real Time, and helped Lisa put words to something she had already been learning to live: the power of taking the next small step. Lisa shares why she wanted her writing to show grief as it really was, including the first Mother...

Send us Fan Mail Lisa Espinoza’s life changed when her 25-year-old son, Chandler, was struck by a car while riding his bike to work. Eighteen days later, Lisa stood beside his hospital bed, held his hand, and watched him take his last breath. Lisa shares who Chandler was beyond the tragedy that took his life and what it has meant to grieve the loss of a child while learning how to keep living. She opens up about the unpredictable nature of grief, why she no longer believes grief follows...

Send us Fan Mail After losing his wife, Laurie, Ryon Harms became a young widower and single father trying to figure out what life after loss was supposed to look like. Ryon had spent ten years building a life with Laurie, loving her through an extraordinarily difficult illness and eventually becoming a father to their daughter, Sky. Losing Laurie meant grieving the person he loved while also learning how to navigate a future he never expected to face without her. Ryon shares the complicated ...

Send us Fan Mail What does it look like to build a life with someone when you know tomorrow isn't guaranteed? Ryon Harms and Laurie were young and in love when a medical crisis changed everything. After years of unexplained swelling and debilitating pain, Laurie’s scans eventually made their way to a doctor at Harvard, who told her family that she had essentially been walking around with a broken neck. Ryon left his life in San Francisco and drove through the night to be by her side. Af...

Send us Fan Mail Thirteen years after leaving Ethiopia, Isaac Melber returned to the country and family he had never stopped thinking about. The journey brought him back to the village where he was born, to family members he hadn't seen since childhood, and to the graves of the parents he lost so young. He had spent years wondering about the life and people he left behind. Now, he was finally able to ask questions and hear pieces of his own story he had never known. One of those answers would...