Grief Is My Side Hustle

Ep. 53. Reid Peterson: Grief Refuge

Reid Peterson

FOUNDER/CREATOR

Grief Refuge content is created by Reid Peterson, MA. Reid achieved a Masters Degree in Transpersonal Psychology (Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, 2007) and is certified in Death & Grief Studies by the Center for Loss & Life Transition. After losing his biological father to suicide in 2006 and his stepfather to cancer in 2016, Reid felt a calling to help the grieving find peace and purpose after loss.

 

https://www.griefrefuge.com

Ep. 52. Marisa Renee Lee: Author Grief is Love

Marisa Renee Lee is the CEO of Beacon Advisors, co-founder of Supportal, and founder of The Pink Agenda.

Supportal is a platform that makes it easy for people to respond when someone they care about is faced with a life-changing challenge. With a focus on experiences that are difficult to deal with and difficult to respond to, Supportal features first-hand accounts of people who have experienced life-changing challenges. They detail the best and most thoughtful ways people in their lives responded and Supportal provides recommendations that will make it easy for others to do the same.

In addition to her work on Supportal, Marisa runs Beacon Advisors, a mission driven consulting firm that allows her to support a variety of institutions on organizational development, executive coaching and donor advising. Until 2017 Marisa served as the Managing Director of the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance (MBK Alliance), a nonprofit born out of President Obama's call to action to address the barriers to success that boys and young men of color disproportionately face along the life path. Through her work with MBK Alliance, Marisa led a collaborative, cross-sectoral movement that united business, philanthropy, nonprofit, and community leaders, to increase pathways of opportunity for young men of color.

 

https://www.marisareneelee.com/about

 

https://www.instagram.com/marisareneelee/

 

Ep. 51. Kim Murray: Widow 411

Kim Murray shares her story of her young husband, Mark's death from a brain tumor when she was just 44 and her kids were 8 and 10. Kim talks about the early days, how friends and spirituality helped, and the secondary hardships of loss.

 

Kim created widow 411 to provide support to others experiencing loss.

https://widow411.com/start-here/

Ep. 50. The Grieving Brain: Mary-Frances O’Connor PhD

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Mary-Frances O’Connor, PhD is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, where she directs the Grief, Loss and Social Stress (GLASS) Lab, which investigates the effects of grief on the brain and the body. O’Connor earned a doctorate from the University of Arizona in 2004 and completed a fellowship at UCLA. Following a faculty appointment at UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, she returned to the University of Arizona in 2012. Her work has been published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, and Psychological Science, and featured in Newsweek, the New York Times, and The Washington Post. Having grown up in Montana, she now lives in Tucson, Arizona. For more information go to https://www.maryfrancesoconnor.com/

 

 

Loss of a loved one is something everyone experiences, and for as long as humans have existed, we have struggled when a loved one dies. Poets and playwrights have written about the dark cloak of grief, the deep yearning, and devastating heartache of loss. But until now, we have had little scientific perspective on this universal experience.  In THE GRIEVING BRAIN: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss (HarperOne; February 1, 2022; Hardcover) renowned grief expert, neuroscientist, and psychologist Mary-Frances O’Connor, Ph.D., shares groundbreaking discoveries about what happens in our brain when we grieve, providing a new paradigm for understanding love, loss, and learning.

 

In The Grieving Brain, O’Connor, who has devoted decades to researching the effects of grief on the brain, reveals a fascinating new window into one of the hallmark experiences of being human. She makes cutting-edge neuroscience accessible and guides us through how we encode love and grief. With love, our neurons help us form attachments to others; but, with loss, our brain must come to terms with where our loved ones went, and how to imagine a future that encompasses their absence. Significantly, O’Connor debunks Kubler-Ross’ enduring idea of the “Five Stages of Grief” and sets a new paradigm for understanding grief on a neurological level.  

Ep. 49. Grieving Mother: Megan Hillukka

Grief and Loss supporter and content creator Megan Hillukka's beautiful baby, Aria, died in her sleep 2.5 years ago.  She wasn't sick she just never woke up.  Since that impossible day, Megan spends every day grieving and living, using the tools she learned and now teaches to others.

Join us for this moving conversation on how to move forward carrying grief.

https://www.meganhillukka.com

Ep. 48. Creator of Grief and Grits: Randi Pearlman Wolfson

Join Meghan for this discussion with Grief and Grits creator, Rani Pearlman Wolfson. Randi talks about her experience as a lifelong griever, and the legacy of hope she has created in with her children's book and her educational platform

 

https://www.griefandgrits.com

Ep. 47. Inez Ribustello: Author of Life After Windows

On 9/11 Inez Ribustello worked her dream job at Windows on the World at the top of the World Trade Center.  She lost 85 friends and colleagues. Inez talks to me about what it has meant to build a life after such tremendous loss. 

 

Eastern North Carolina native, Inez Ribustello, got her start in the world of food and wine after moving to New York City to pursue a career in cooking. She chose New York’s Institute of Culinary Education to jumpstart her new path, where she began to learn about wine. From there, she worked at Best Cellars, the groundbreaking, mid-priced wine store on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Her wine career took a huge leap forward when she became an Assistant Cellar Master at the renowned World Trade Center restaurant Windows on the World. In a very short time, she was promoted to Beverage Director, putting her in the position as wine buyer for the largest grossing restaurant in North America. 

 

The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 impacted her both personally and professionally.

Having lost friends, colleagues, and her job in the attacks, she had to face her future. She chose

to throw herself into her work and took the position of Beverage Director for Blue Fin Restaurant

in the W Hotel-Times Square. Her work received rave reviews from New York Magazine

Ep. 46. Eileen Robertson Hamra

Meghan Talks to Eileen about her Book Time to Fly which tells the story of losing her beloved husband Brian in a plane crash on Christmas Eve when her three children were very small.  Creator of Fit Together, Eileen is a believes in taking care of your body, and also your mind.  Her book Time to fly highlights her belief that we are still connected even in death and all the signs we can receive if we are open to it.

https://www.eileenrobertsonhamra.com

Ep. 45. Disenfranchised Grief with journalist/author Simon Kuper from The Financial Times

In This bonus episode I talk with journalist Simon Kuper about his recent article on Disenfranchised Grief in the Financial Times.  Simon explores the feelings of those left behind when an unvaccinated loved one dies of COVID.

 

https://www.ft.com/content/a1b5350a-4dba-40f4-833b-1e35199e2e9b

Ep. 44 Leslie Gray Streeter: Author of Black Widow

In this laughter filled episode Meghan talks with Leslie Gray Streeter, author of the beautiful book Black Widow, about the sudden death of Leslie's husband, Scott.  This show covers music, friendships, dating, and honoring the love that is left behind.

 

Leslie Gray Streeter:

Born in hood-adjacent Baltimore City, Leslie is a University of Maryland College Park graduate, a veteran journalist and someone always looking for new ways to tell stories, both her own and those in her communities. She also really likes vegan cheese, because she’s a now a vegan and can’t eat real cheese anymore. But she’s mostly cool with it.

Leslie has done a lot of cool media situations, mostly from some bedroom or other, since “Black Widow” came out. It’s not the tour she chose, or even the world she thought she or anyone else were living in, but this book has found people in their lowest moment and helped them feel they were a little less alone.