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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
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For more information, visit: griefandlight.com
Episodes
115 episodes
Life After Sibling Loss: Identity, Faith & Following Your Destiny | Destiny Rael
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,...
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Grief Doesn’t Have to Rule the Show: Living Alongside Compounded Grief with Sylvia Wolfer
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 lay...
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Grief as the Highest Form of Intelligence: Paula Gasparini-Santos on Trauma, Transformation & Sitting with the Unknown
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...
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When Loss Becomes Initiation: Somatic Grief, Ancestral Practices, and Sacred Healing with Sundari Malcolm
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...
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The final "goodbye": Estrella Quiroz on losing her father & co-founding Last Farewells
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 trave...
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The Family Tree That Ends With Me: Reclaiming Legacy as a Childless, Childfree Woman
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 e...
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Brotherhood Is Medicine: How Broreavement Is Changing the Way Boys and Men Grieve | Podcasthon 2026
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 ab...
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Saving Lives Through Harm Reduction with Thomas Guerra | Podcasthon 2026
PODCASTHON SPECIAL EPISODE Part of the world's largest charity podcast event — raising awareness for causes that matterWhat does harm reduction actually look like, and how is it saving lives right now?In this impac...
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Jewelry As a Voice: Empowering Survivors and Economic Resilience with Amanda Nicol
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. Am...
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Now That She's Gone: Mother Loss, Health Anxiety, and Legacy with Chelsea Ohlemiller
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 No...
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How Art Helps You Heal Grief (And Become Who You Truly Are) with Susie Stonefield
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 betw...
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Year of the Fire Horse 2026: What it Means for Grievers
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...
Grief, Poetry, and Resilient Leadership: Carl Manlan on Love, Loss, and Legacy
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 thoug...
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Hope is a Verb: Staying Human in Uncertain Times
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 an...
Curating Grief: Charlene Lam on Choosing What to Keep vs Release After Loss
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 cur...
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100 Episodes of Leaning Into Grief — Navigating Life Shifts with Matt & Nina
Episode 100 of Grief and Light marks a meaningful milestone shaped not only by consistency and care, but by the relationships formed along the way. Nina Rodriguez chose to honor this moment with a feed swap: a deep...
Women Who Podcast: Kathy Barron on Grief, Creativity, and Building Community
An honest exploration of grief, creativity, and community with the visionary behind Women Who Podcast magazine—covering storytelling, anticipatory grief, and the movement to amplify women’s voices in podcasting.In this ...
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How solo travel helped this Latina find herself again with Bianca Alba
Sometimes, healing begins in motion. In this episode, Nina Rodriguez sits down with Bianca Alba, founder of This Latina Travels, to explore how grief, identity, and travel intertwine. What starts as a conversation ...
Get Griefy With Us: A Grief Week Roundtable on How Loss Shakes Up Family and Community
What happens when you gather a circle of grievers, creators, and grief-literacy leaders around one table and ask them to tell the truth about how loss has reshaped their families, and their lives?In this special Grief Week episode of Gr...
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Evolving and Growing with Grief: A Grief Awareness Week Roundtable with 3 Grief-focused Podcasters
What happens when three grief podcasters sit down to talk about the happiest–saddest time of the year?In this special Grief Awareness Week episode, three grief storytellers and space-holders — Nina Rodriguez (
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The Light That Shines Through Me: Tiriq Rashad on Grief, Family, and Spoken Word
Some stories are written in ink. Others are written in loss, love, and everything that comes after. Today’s guest is Tiriq Rashad, spoken word artist, whose life has been shaped by the grief of losing his daughter, brother, a...
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How Digital Data Is Rewriting Suicide Prevention with Kim Burditt Barlett
Grief doesn’t just reshape us, it can redirect the entire course of our lives in ways we never saw coming. ***Video available here***For Kim Burditt Barlett, tha...
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Sibling Loss and Disenfranchised Grief with Dr. Angela Dean
How does life shift when you lose the only person who shared your beginnings — your earliest memories, your inside jokes, your sense of home?In this tender and illuminating conversation, host Nina Rodriguez sits down with Dr. A...
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Healing in the Himalayas: Motorcycle Therapy and Making Meaning After Sibling Loss with Ben Forman
When Ben Forman lost his brother Sam, his world shifted overnight, leaving him with survivor’s guilt, grief for what could have been, and a search for meaning. In this episode of Grief and Light, Ben shares ho...
No Man Walks Alone: A Journey Across America for Men’s Mental Health with Robb Pollard
No man should have to carry it alone.Many men are hurting in silence, and Robb Pollard knows that silence well.In this deeply human conversation, Nina Rodriguez sits down with Robb Pollard, founder of Walk With Me Br...
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