My Podcast "Sorry For Your Loss" Drops Today!
The podcast that acknowledges we're all grieving, all the time.
Today my new podcast, Sorry For Your Loss, launches. I’ve been working on it with my good friend, Jamie Wilcox, since November, and I’m so nervous, but so excited to share it with you.
Jamie is an old, dear friend of Jake’s from Salt Lake City, and has always been such a delight to be around. While on the phone back in the fall, Jamie jokingly mentioned to Jake that her and I should start a grief podcast because we have both ~been going through it. As soon as Jake mentioned this to me, I said “…I mean I would seriously do that.” I texted Jamie immediately, and luckily, she was in.
When Jamie and I initially started talking, we expressed that we both felt like there’s a pressure in American culture to “shut up and heal.” That bringing up grief is a bummer because people don’t want to think about it. So all of us going through it kind of hobble through life wounded, but unable to acknowledge the wound.
We discussed how grief tends to only be allowed to refer to human death, but that we are all grieving something all the time. Whether it be a loved one or the changing of the seasons, to be alive is to grieve. Though our initial episodes primarily deal with this “traditional” view of grief, as I talk about losing my mom and brother, and Jamie reflects on losing a partner and a best friend, we always talk about something we are in the midst of grieving as well, which has been everything from TV show cancellations to closed bars. We also end the episodes with something that’s been helping us.
As someone who had only done comedic podcasts—or any art for that matter—this was an incredibly daunting experience for me. “WHAT IF PEOPLE THINK IT’S AN ALL OUT BUMMER?” I lamented to Jamie. The truth is: grief is a fucking bummer. But grief can be incredibly funny and life-giving. So, with all the seriousness, devastation and destruction grief brings, we hope we both bring a natural lightness, humor and discovery to the stories we tell.
We wanted a space to talk about the people we lost. How large they loomed, and still do. How great they were. And how we still cannot believe they’re not here. Yes, I am trying to make art and make sense of why they’re gone, but I also just fucking miss my mom and brother so much. Nothing has been the same since they’ve been gone. Their deaths have permanently altered how I live my life. That fact alone needs a lot of processing. For better or for worse, I do my best processing out loud for an audience.
Although people could argue my whole brand has been “Hairy emo girl who does dick jokes” I would see that, and raise it that my whole thing is saying the culturally shameful stuff out loud. Whether it be acknowledging depression and anxiety have done a number on me or that I can’t get tattoos without passing out—yet still continue to pursue them, expressing myself with painful honesty is all I know how to do, and all I really care about doing. Parsing my grief with Jamie on the podcast has helped me accept that the flaw of life that it ends. That it ended too soon for two of my favorite people. It’s nice to have a place to say these things with someone who gets it.
I hope this is cathartic, or relatable, or interesting, or makes cleaning go by faster. I’m just glad I finally have a place to talk about it, and I thank you for listening.
Episodes to come include:
What Not to Say to Someone Grieving
What TO Say to Someone Grieving
The Stages of Grief (and how we got them wrong)
They’ll drop every two weeks. You can follow Sorry For Your Loss here:
Instagram
Facebook
It (should be!) available wherever you get your podcasts. For the other three Overcast users in the world, it’s there, I made sure!
If you like it, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. It would mean the world to me.