When dementia comes for someone we love, how do we maintain connection and relationship? For Suzanne Finnamore it takes accepting that her mother, in her final stage of dementia, lives in another country; Suzanne has needed to learn the customs and accept the differences. When she can accept, there is room for magic, including the magic of living as if there is no death; where everyone we ever loved is still alive. Suzanne is able to see the ways in which her mother is still herself and still vital. She is able to see the beauty of her mother's marriage and the life she built out of loss and challenge. They are able to love each other in the present moment whether all is remembered or nothing is.

Suzanne Finnamore was born in Los Angeles and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She graduated from UC Berkeley in 1982 with a degree in English Literature. She has published four books and has been translated into twenty languages. Her debut novel was a Barnes & Noble Discover New Author selection. Her second book was a Washington Post Book of the Year in 2002. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, New York Magazine, Mademoiselle, Glamour, Marin Magazine, PoetryNow, the San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, and has been included on several Oprah reading lists. She lives with her very last husband, Tom, and their two little dogs. My Disappearing Mother: A Memoir of Magic and Loss in the Country of Dementia began as a column in The New York Times, "Dementia Is A Place Where My Mother Lives. It Is Not Who She Is," which ran on Mother's Day 2022.

What does it take to prepare ourselves to do the work of anti-racism? At this time when there is an outcry against racism and oppression, many white Americans are confronting the hard truth that we benefit from the system that oppresses others. How do we face that truth, which involves a loss of who we thought we were, and find unique actions we can sustain to bring about change? Kate Schatz has been searching for answers to these questions for years and, when her friend W. Kamau Bell offered her up as a white person willing to help Conan O'Brien sort it out, she became a resource for many people asking the hard questions and searching for the true answers.

Kate Schatz is the New York Times-bestselling author of Rad American Women A-Z, Rad Women Worldwide, Rad Girls Can, Rad American History A-Z, the illustrated journal My Rad Life, and the book of fiction Rid of Me. She's a writer, activist, public speaker, and educator who speaks often about feminism, anti-racism, parenting, politics, American history, and more. She lives with her family on the island of Alameda.

Aimee DuFresne lost her father and young husband within a year of each other. Devastated by the loss, she had to choose how to continue living her life. Ultimately, she found the courage not just to live but to create a life beyond what she had imagined. Her choice, to live life to the fullest, led to a career that has included a radio show, several books, and a coaching practice to help other women live their best life, encouraging her clients to live the healthy life she has found for herself. As she says several years later, "My focus is not on the pain of the loss, but the joy in the living."

Kicking off her thirtieth birthday with a surprise celebration in Iceland, Aimee DuFresne was oblivious to the fact that the year would soon be filled with tragedy and unimaginable heartbreak. In the next 12 months Aimee lost the two most significant men in her life: her ailing father and her young husband. In her deepest state of grief, Aimee realized she had a choice: she could simply give up or she could fight to keep going. She began letting go of fears to live her life to the fullest and realized her dream of being an author, a speaker, a radio show host and healthy living chef. After transforming her own life, she now empowers other women around the world to do the same.

Abbe Greenberg and Maggie Sarachek have literally written the book on supporting yourself through anxiety and panic attacks. And of course, they tried it ALL to deal with their own anxiety, because experience is the best teacher! Join us to talk about how they each experienced anxiety, what they did to address it, and what it is like to support others through the same struggle. So much is lost as a result of anxiety; our freedoms, our sense of well-being, relationships and time! But confronting anxiety is possible and, through the process, we can develop a kinder attitude towards all our struggles.

Maggie Sarachek's expertise is counseling and teaching people to find strength through community. As a social worker in a New York City high school, she specialized in the development of youth leadership as well as counseling individuals and families. Maggie has also worked as a special-education advocate, helping families to access services for their children and teens. She became a full-fledged anxiety sister in her mid-twenties while dealing with debilitating anxiety attacks. Since becoming an anxiety sister, she has become the wife of an anxious husband and the mother of two anxious kids proving that anxiety is, indeed, contagious.

Abbe Greenberg started talking at nine months old and hasn't stopped since. She has gotten two degrees in the communication field as well as a certificate in Adult Education and a Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing. In addition to her more than 25-year career as a professor, Abbe has served as a divorce mediator, a Myers-Briggs trainer, a motivational speaker and a communication consultant as well as a teacher development coordinator for several educational institutions. When she is not teaching, writing, researching, or panicking, she spends time with her Anxiety Sister (Maggie), her anxious husband, and her three anxious kids.

Bridey Thelen-Heidel had a chaotic and traumatic childhood with a mother who brought dangerous men into the house and failed to protect the little girl called Bright Eyes. But Bridey was determined to face her traumas and find her way to a beautiful life. In her memoir she describes the road she took to find her way out of the chaos her mother had created. In the process, we can be inspired to imagine that each of us has that potential. Join us for our conversation about what it takes to heal.

A Lewis and Clark College graduate, Bridey Thelen-Heidel lives in South Lake Tahoe with her husband and daughter where she teaches English Literature. A TEDx speaker who performed in Listen to Your Mother NYC, Bridey has been voted "Best of Tahoe Teacher," and her advocacy of LGBTQ+ students has been celebrated by the California Teachers' Association. Her memoir, Bright Eyes, published by SheWrites Press and distributed by Simon and Schuster, releases September 24, 2024.

Francis Weller's new book, In the Absence of the Ordinary, gives us help to face these uncertain times. On the occasion of its publication we share an interview with Francis about his first book, The Wild Edge of Sorrow.

Grief touches us at the outer reaches of our experience, challenging us to respond to new and unfamiliar terrain in our own souls. Finding rituals and pathways to carry us through the mysterious territory of loss encourages new ways to look at life and at ourselves. When we encounter a seasoned guide to walk with us through the unfamiliar terrain, grief can become a journey full of meaning. Francis Weller is such a guide, gently encouraging us towards new territory and integrating many Western and Indigenous traditions to help along the way. What supports us as grievers? What matters to us? What are the many ways to walk this road? And what is awaiting us when we have made room for this deepest of human experiences? These questions are the work of a lifetime. Join us to explore, to discover and to ask what we can do to love ourselves through loss.

Francis Weller is a psychotherapist (retired), writer and soul activist. He is a master of synthesizing diverse streams of thought from psychology, anthropology, mythology, alchemy, indigenous cultures and poetic traditions. Author of the bestselling, The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief; The Threshold Between Loss and Revelation, (with Rashani Réa) and In the Absence of the Ordinary: Soul Work for Times of Uncertainty, he has introduced the healing work of ritual to thousands of people. He founded and directs WisdomBridge, an organization that offers educational programs that seek to integrate the wisdom from indigenous cultures with the insights and knowledge gathered from western poetic, psychological, and spiritual traditions.

For over forty years Francis has worked as a psychotherapist and developed a style he calls soul-centered psychotherapy. As a gifted therapist and teacher, he has been described as a jazz artist, improvising and moving fluidly in and out of deep emotional territories with groups and individuals, bringing imagination and attention to places often held with judgment and shame. His offerings include a 10-session audio series on "Living a Soulful Life and Why It Matters." a 5-session series on ​"The Alchemy of Initiation: Soul Work and the Art of Ripening," and a 4-session series on "An Apprenticeship with Sorrow: Community, Ritual, and the Sacred Work of Grief." (See the Store page for more.)

Francis received a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin Green Bay and two Master's Degrees from John F. Kennedy University in Clinical Psychology and Transpersonal Psychology. His writings have appeared in anthologies and journals exploring the confluence between psyche, nature and culture. His work was featured in The Sun magazine, the Utne Reader, and the Kosmos Journal. He was recently a guest on Season Two and Three of "All There Is" with Anderson Cooper. Francis is currently on staff at Commonweal Cancer Help Program, co-leading their week-long retreats with Michael Lerner. He has taught at Sonoma State University, the Sophia Center in Oakland and has been the featured teacher at the Minnesota Men's Conference. He is currently completing his fourth book, Facing the World with Soul and Why It Matters.

How can we create an open conversation about the damages and continued disconnects which result from racism? Shakti Butler believes that "in order to manifest human rights and dignity for all, it is necessary that we seek union between the head and heart. It is the head that can recognize, analyze and strategize to overcome disparities. It is the heart that obliterates fear." Join us while we talk about the losses we all suffer as a result of institutionalized racism and what we can each do to cultivate a deeper dialogue beyond the boundaries of misunderstanding and stereotype.

Shakti Butler, PhD, visionary, filmmaker, transformative learning educator, wife, mother, grandmother and friend - is President and Founder of World Trust Educational Services, Inc., a non-profit transformative organization. Rooted in love and justice, World Trust produces films, curricula, workshops and programs to catalyze institutional, structural and cultural change.

In 2019 I interviewwed Tembi Locke after her first book, from Scratch, was published. As she launches her second, Forever Now, we revisit our hour together!

When Tembi Locke spent a college semester in Italy, it changed the course of her life. Meeting Saro, the man she would love and marry, filled her with joy and also challenged them both to bridge the gap between his Sicilian farm family and her Houston Texas family of civil rights activists. Over time their persistence and courage began to connect their two families. But no struggle before it could have prepared them for Saro's ten years living with cancer, his death, and Tembi's grief. Who could have predicted that Tembi would find her way forward in grief at the table of her mother-in-law, in her small home in Siciliy. Join us to talk about the road Tembi took to find her future.

Tembi Locke is an actor with more than 60 sixty film and television performances to her credit. A graduate of Wesleyan and a TEDx speaker, she is the creator of TheKitchenWidow.com, an advocacy platform that inspires the art of comfort in times of illness or grief. Originally from Houston, Texas, she lives in Los Angeles with her daughter and second husband. From Scratch is her first book. Please visit her website at www.tembilocke.com.