GRIEF AND LIGHT
This space was created for you by someone who gets it – your grief, your foundation-shattering reality, and the question of what the heck do we do with the shattered pieces of life and loss around us. It’s also for the listener who wants to better understand their grieving person, and perhaps wants to learn how to help. Now in its fourth season, the Grief and Light podcast features both solo episodes and interviews with first-hand experiencers, authors, and professionals, who shine a light on the spectrum of experiences, feelings, secondary losses, and takeaways. As a bereaved sister, I share my personal story of the sudden loss of my younger brother, only sibling, one day after we celebrated his 32nd birthday. I also delve into how that loss, trauma, and grief catapulted me into a truth-seeking journey, which ultimately led me to answer "the calling" of creating this space I now call Grief and Light. Since launching the first episode on March 30, 2023, the Grief and Light podcast and social platforms have evolved into a powerful resource for grief-informed support, including one-on-one grief guidance, monthly grief circles, community, and much more. With each episode, you can expect open and authentic conversations sharing our truth, and explorations of how to transmute the grief experience into meaning, and even joy. My hope is to make you feel less alone, and to be a beacon of light and source of information for anyone embarking on this journey. "We're all just walking each other HOME." - Ram Dass Thank you for being here. We're in this together. Nina, Yosef's Sister -- For more information, visit: griefandlight.com
Episodes
In a world where grief is often tied to family ties and romantic relationships, the loss of a friend can feel isolating and unrecognized.
Hannah Rumsey is a writer, certified Grief Educator, and the founder of Friends Missing Friends. After losing her best friend Lauren in 2015, Hannah went searching for support and found almost nothing. No grief groups. Not even a Google search result that addressed her experience directly. What sh...
What does it mean to stay human in a world increasingly run by AI?
In this episode, Nina sits down with Patrice Poltzer — Gracie Award–winning former TODAY Show producer and co-founder of My Story Pro — about the everyday griefs and shifts of our era: the loss of certainty, the erosion of critical thinking, and the disappearing line between who we are and the tools we rely on.
Patrice shares how a cross-contin...
What does it mean to advocate for yourself as a female patient, especially in healthcare systems that often overlook women’s pain, symptoms, and lived experiences?
In this episode we welcome Spencer Moore, founder and host of The Hairy Chin, certified women’s health coach, certified breast health educator, and certified breathwork specialist, for a powerful conversation about women’s health advocacy, chronic illnes...
How do you navigate life after multiple losses and still make space for joy, purpose, love, and hope?
In this deeply honest conversation, grief and soul purpose coach Tara Accardo joins Nina Rodriguez to explore what it means to live through layered grief, traumatic loss, and major life transitions while rebuilding your sense of self.
After losing both of her parents to cancer within six months, navigating the isolation of the 2020 p...
What does grief look like when it lives inside a body that can't always feel safe? Dr. Amanda Whitehouse joins Nina to explore food allergy anxiety, trauma, and the layered losses that chronic illness brings.
Summary:
Grief doesn't only come from death. Sometimes it comes from a diagnosis. From the life you imagined slipping away, from food becoming a source of fear, from watching your child struggle to breathe and feeling helpless. ...
What happens when grief doesn’t just take your person, but reshapes your identity, your faith, your career, and your sense of what’s possible?
In this episode of Grief and Light, Nina Rodriguez sits down with Destiny Rael, a trauma-informed life and grief coach, group facilitator, and sibling loss survivor, for a deeply personal and expansive conversation about what it means to live with grief and still create a meaningf...
Sylvia Wolfer has lived through a lifetime of loss. Her father died suddenly when she was seven. Her younger brother, Johan, at sixteen. Her older brother, Stefan, in 2019. Her mother in 2023.
She has navigated decades of layered grief. Through neuroscience, mindfulness, and work in the body, she has come to understand that grief can be in your life without running your life. In fact, you get to be "the boss."
In this conversat...
Paula went into "the void," and returned with a question that changed her life: What if grief is actually the highest form of intelligence?
In this episode of Grief and Light, I sit down with trauma and grief therapist and artist, Paula Gasparini-Santos, to explore a different way of understanding grief, one where loss becomes a portal, and "the void" transforms us.
Paula's work sits at the intersection of trauma therapy and grief, a...
What if grief wasn't something to survive, but something to move through with presence, ritual, and the full weight of your body?
In this episode, Nina Rodriguez sits down with Sundari Malcolm, a birth, grief, and death doula, yoga and breathwork teacher, author of Grief Gems, and founder of A Healing Doula Academy. Raised by Yogi parents, Sundari brings a deeply embodied and ancestrally grounded lens to loss.
After seven years careg...
Before he passed, Estrella's father left her a message worth more than billions:
✨ "I hope a million angels look after you." ✨
Those seven words changed everything.
They carried her through grief. They inspired her to travel to over 50 countries. And they ultimately led her to co-found Last Farewells — a platform helping people leave their own meaningful messages for the ones they love, even after they're...
In this deeply personal reflection, Nina Rodriguez shares her experience with the profound grief and loss of her only sibling, and the realization that the family tree may end with her.
This emotional healing journey is further explored through her contributions to Get Griefy Magazine, offering a space for shared understanding.
Nina Rodriguez shares a powerful reflection on redefining legacy beyond lineage, revealin...
Grief and Light is proud to participate in Podcasthon 2026, the world's largest podcast charity initiative, joining podcasters across the globe to amplify the organizations doing work that the world needs to hear about. Learn more: podcasthon.org
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What happens when men are never given permission to grieve?
In this episode, we hear from Daniel Ratchford, founder and president of Broreavement, and Quaheem Brooks, two men who are...
PODCASTHON SPECIAL EPISODE Part of the world's largest charity podcast event — raising awareness for causes that matter
What does harm reduction actually look like, and how is it saving lives right now?
In this impactful episode, we explore the realities of addiction, harm reduction, and the ongoing fight to save lives. Thomas Guerra of F-Fent.org shares personal insights, dispels common myths, and highlights the vital work bei...
In this heartfelt episode, Nina Rodriguez interviews Amanda Nicol, a museum-quality jewelry designer and survivor of intimate partner violence (IPV), about transforming trauma into empowerment through her one-of-a-kind jewelry. Amanda shares her journey of resilience, community support, and the importance of storytelling and purpose in her work.
Jewelry One of a KIND is a Miami-based jewelry house creating one-of-a-kind pieces desig...
What does it mean to carry a mother’s love forward after she’s gone? How do you parent a child with life-threatening food allergies?
In this heartfelt conversation, Nina Rodriguez sits down with Chelsea Ohlemiller, author of Now That She’s Gone: A Daughter’s Reflections on Loss, Love & a Mother’s Legacy, to explore the enduring impact of mother loss.
Chelsea shares how the sudden death of her mother ...
What if the mess you've been avoiding is actually the doorway?
In this episode, host Nina Rodriguez sits down with transformational creativity and grief coach Susie Stonefield to explore the powerful connection between grief and creative expression.
Susie believes creativity isn't a luxury or a talent reserved for the few. It's a birthright. And in times of loss and healing, it can become one of our most powerful companions.
Tog...
February 17, 2026 marks a rare cosmic convergence that happens once every 60 years.
In this solo episode, we explore the intersection of grief and the Year of the Fire Horse, a powerful metaphor for riding the uncontrollable momentum of loss while finding your center in the chaos.
We're standing at the threshold of three major energetic events: the Chinese Lunar New Year (Year of the Fire Horse), an Aquarius Solar Eclipse, and a rar...
What does grief teach us about how to live, lead, and love? What happens when the work we do in the world meets what we’re carrying inside?
In this episode, host Nina Rodriguez sits down with development practitioner, global thought leader, and poet Carl Manlan, author of i can breathe, for a moving conversation on grief, legacy, resilience, and meaning.
Carl reflects on how loss reshaped his understanding of resilience...
In this solo episode of Grief and Light, Nina Rodriguez reflects on the ambient grief many of us are carrying in response to global, political, and collective uncertainty.
After taking a pause to tend to her own nervous system and grief, Nina shares a reflection rooted in presence rather than answers, exploring what it means to keep creating, caring, and staying human when the world feels overwhelming and dissonant.
Drawing on grief ...
How do we decide what to keep after a loved one dies?
In this insightful episode, Nina Rodriguez is joined by grief coach, curator of The Grief Gallery™, and author, Charlene Lam, for a deeply human conversation about curating grief: the tender, often overwhelming process of choosing what to keep after loss.
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After the sudden death of her mother in 2013, Charlene found herself alone with the re...
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