Welcome to Season Three, a shorter season devoted to exploring how families and kids respond to the grief associated with fire losses. Laurel Braitman is the best-selling author of Animal Madness and What Looks Like Bravery, the latter of which is a memoir about losing her father when she was a teen, then her family home in a fire when she was an adult, and soon after that, her mother to cancer. Laurel knows a lot about adolescent grief and fire loss, so I knew she'd be a great guest to kick off this season devoted to the recent wildfires in Los Angeles. Laurel shares deeply about the loss of her father and how her coping mechanisms of striving for excellence in all things didn't end up serving her very well as she matured. Losing the family ranch in a wildfire brought some things into focus, and she was able to support her mother at the end of her mother's life. I learned a lot from this conversation about how such different types of losses were inextricably linked in Laurel's life. Being a writer, she's articulate and insightful about the various strands of grief and how they've become part of her story.

To hear another interview with Laurel about fire loss, I recommend her interview on rebuilding after fire with Slate's, "How To" podcast.

If you would like to support this show, please subscribe to my Substack to receive bi-weekly episodes and occasionally a newsletter in your inbox. You can also support the show monetarily by becoming a paid subscriber there.

Special thanks to Josephine Wiggs for the song "Time Does Not Bring Relief" from her album "We Fall."

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I recorded this episode with Benji Gabler in October 2024 which seems like a lifetime ago. I had planned to publish it in January and then the fires happened and I shifted gears to try to address the losses of my community. But once I finished season 2 I still wanted to publish this episode with Benji, which is a beautiful conversation about fatherhood as it relates to early loss, something I haven't had an opportunity to address before. Benji lives in Isreal which added another layer of interest for me as I have always admired Jewish traditions around death and mourning. Being a therapist, Benji brought a lot of self-awareness and depth to this conversation and our views on parenting and grief were remarkably in sync. I loved how Benji was able to hold a lot of sadness along with gratitude for the loss of his father when he was just six years old and the way he was supported by his community growing up.

If you'd like to learn more about Benji please visit his website https://www.bsgpsychotherapy.com

I will be taking a break from the podcast while I work on a mini-season devoted to fire loss and its effects on families and kids.

If you would like to support this show, please subscribe to my Substack to receive bi-weekly episodes and occasionally a newsletter in your inbox. You can also support the show monetarily by becoming a paid subscriber there.

Special thanks to Josephine Wiggs for the song "Time Does Not Bring Relief" from her album "We Fall."

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this last episode, I spoke with AJ Johnson about the early loss of her mother when she was 16, as well as how she's navigating the collective grief we're all experiencing here in LA. AJ is a hilarious person, and I was giggling throughout the interview despite the heaviness of this moment in our city. I met AJ at Comfort Zone Camp, so we talked about camp and the tools it has given her to manage her grief from adolescence into adulthood and how she's using those tools now. I especially love how she talks about asking for what you need, which is something I've been learning ever since the wildfires overwhelmed LA a few weeks ago. But AJ had many other anecdotes to share about what she's learned about her grief and how to ask for what she needs.

I apologize for the lack of editing on this last episode as my editing platform just stopped working for some unknown reason. So, this is an unedited recording of an awesome conversation. I don't think there is too much I would have taken out other than annoying background sounds, but I would have done that if I could.

If you would like to support this show, please subscribe to my Substack to receive bi-weekly episodes and occasionally a newsletter in your inbox. You can also support the show monetarily by becoming a paid subscriber there.

Special thanks to Josephine Wiggs for the song "Time Does Not Bring Relief" from her album "We Fall."

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.