Ghosted

This week on Ghosted, I’m talking to Paulina about losing her 12-year-old little sister, Yesenia, in a car accident.

Paulina shares what it was like to be in the car the day her sister died and the complicated reality of being the surviving sibling. We talk about the weight of that word “surviving”. The guilt, the gratitude, the responsibility, and the love that never leaves.

She opens up about how faith has carried her and her family through the unimaginable, and how they’ve learned to stay deeply connected while still honoring that everyone grieves differently

We spend time celebrating Yesenia, a light, a force of joy at just 12 years old, and the way Paulina chooses to live fully in her honor.

This episode is about giving yourself grace. About surviving something you never should have had to. About recognizing your luck and your heartbreak at the same time.

And about loving someone so much that you carry them forward with you.

In this episode of Ghosted, we’re joined by Kristina, who shares what it was like to compete on Survivor 49 while carrying profound grief with her.

Kristina opens up about honoring her mom, who passed away due to addiction, and how being on the show during the anniversary of her mother’s death became an unexpected moment of connection rather than isolation. She talks about seeing pieces of her mom everywhere while filming and how Survivor ultimately became a space for healing.

We also dive into Kristina’s advocacy work, how she uses her mom’s story to speak openly about mental health and addiction, and why these conversations are often avoided within Black communities and why she’s determined to change that.

This conversation is fun, lighthearted, and full of Survivor talk, while also holding space for deeper truths about grief, legacy, and finding meaning in unexpected places. Kristina is thoughtful, honest, and such a joy to talk to. This episode is a reminder that grief doesn’t stop life, but it can walk alongside it.

In this episode of Ghosted, I sit down with Isabella to talk about losing her dad to early-onset Alzheimer’s, a diagnosis that came when he was just 47 years old.

Isabella shares what it’s like to grieve someone who is still alive, the slow and heartbreaking process of watching a parent decline, the anticipatory grief that starts years before death, and the loneliness of navigating a disease people don’t always recognize as sickness, especially when someone is young.

We talk about her and her mom’s fierce advocacy, traveling to DC year after year to fight for awareness and funding, and how caregiving reshaped their family. Isabella reflects on the milestones her dad wasn’t there for, including her wedding, and how grief evolves as life keeps moving forward, especially after becoming a mother herself.

At the heart of this conversation is love. This is a conversation about loss, advocacy, invisible grief, and finding meaning in the most unfair circumstances.

Alex lost his dad when he was just nine years old, the day before his tenth birthday. Now, 25 years later, he’s learned how to live alongside that loss, not around it.

In this episode, we talk about memory, grief that doesn’t disappear, and the deep respect we hold for the moms who stepped up and raised us. Alex shares why he chose to propose to his wife on the anniversary of his dad’s death, how vulnerability creates connection, and the lessons his dad left behind that still shape the way he lives, loves, and shows up.

A conversation about grief, growth, and the quiet ways love never really leaves us.

In this episode of Ghosted, Rose shares the story of her mom, Patty, her best friend and the kind of woman who made everyone feel seen. Patty led with kindness, curiosity, and generosity, always meeting people where they were and taking the time to truly learn who they were.

Rose reflects on what it’s like to grieve a parent who shaped the way you move through the world, and how love doesn’t disappear when someone dies. In honor of her mom, Rose is running the marathon for Dana-Farber, turning grief into purpose and carrying Patty’s legacy forward, one mile at a time.

If you’d like to support Rose and honor Patty’s life, you can donate here:

https://danafarber.jimmyfund.org/site/TR?fr_id=2520&pg=personal&px=2741474

This episode is a reminder that love can keep moving, even after loss.

this episode of Ghosted, Gillian shares what it was like to lose her mom at 17 after years of addiction. We talk about growing up in a complicated family dynamic, holding anger alongside deep love, and grieving a parent who wasn’t always able to show up the way you needed.

Gillian reflects on the nickname her mom gave her, “sparkle,” and how that reminder of being deeply loved still carries her through grief. We also talk about the support she’s found in her boyfriend and friends, and the quiet heaviness that comes with milestones like her sister’s wedding, when loss can feel especially close.

This conversation is about complicated grief, family, and the truth that love doesn’t disappear.

In this episode of Ghosted, I’m joined by my first international guest, Jane, calling in from Australia.

Almost three years ago, Jane lost her mom very suddenly and traumatically. Her mom wasn’t just her parent — she was her favorite person, her anchor, her safe place. In the midst of unimaginable grief, Jane made a decision that felt completely unthinkable to most people: just six months after her mom died, she moved to Australia knowing absolutely no one.

What might sound “crazy” on paper became one of the most healing choices of her life.

We talk about what it’s like to grieve someone who was your everything, the strange loneliness that comes when the world keeps moving while your heart stays behind, and the quiet pressure of being a happy, bubbly person when you’re still carrying so much loss. Jane opens up about how supportive her friends have been, but also how painful it can be when life moves forward without the person you lost.

We also spend time honoring her mom — who she was, the lessons she left behind, and how her love continues to shape Jane’s life. Today, Jane hopes to become a grief counselor and has created a space for honest conversations around loss through her Instagram, Deadddserious

This episode is about grief without borders, healing that doesn’t look linear, and learning how to carry the people we love into the lives we’re still building.

In this episode of Ghosted, Jack shares his story of losing his fiancé just three months after their engagement on Christmas Eve. We are releasing this conversation during the holidays because grief does not pause when the world feels festive, and for many people this season can be one of the hardest.

Jack opens up about what it means to mourn not only the person you loved, but also the life you were building together. We talk about how he began posting on social media as a way to process his grief and connect with others, and why it can sometimes feel harder to be fully honest with family and friends, not because they do not care, but because you do not want to feel like a burden.

He shares what it has been like learning to feel excited about building a new life, what dating looks like after loss, and the lesson his late husband left him with, to live in the moment. Jack also reflects on the deep relationship he continues to have with his fiancé’s family, the stability that support has given him during this time, and his hope to one day create a fund to help others navigating grief.

This conversation is about love, loss, and choosing to keep living, even when life looks nothing like you imagined.

In this week’s episode of Ghosted, Carl Radke opens up about the life and loss of his brother, Curtis, who died of a drug overdose on August 10, 2020. In a conversation that is honest, vulnerable, and deeply human, Carl reflects on the realities of loving someone battling addiction, the stigma, the fear, the frustration, and the fierce, complicated love that never goes away.

Carl shares what it was like growing up alongside Curtis’s early struggles, the toll it took on their family, and the resentment that built as he watched addiction pull his brother further away. He speaks candidly about his own relationship with substances, the shame he carried, and the moment he finally confronted his truth, all shaped by the grief that followed Curtis’s death.

We talk about grieving in public, the pressure to appear strong, and the moments that broke him, from the phone call that changed his life to returning home and facing the urge to numb everything.

Curtis’s memory fuels Carl’s purpose today: breaking generational cycles, choosing honesty over perfection, and using his story to help others. Together, we explore grief that is layered with anger, love, guilt, and pride, and the ongoing work of rebuilding yourself after loss.

This is an episode about brothers, about addiction as a disease, about the complexity of grief, and about the legacy Curtis left behind: resilience, heart, and the reminder that telling the truth, even when it is hard, is its own kind of healing.

In this week's episode, Dani — a big sister whose life has been shaped, expanded, and brightened by her brother Jacob, who died at 24. Jacob was pure creativity: theater kid, writer, and artist. He was sick as a teenager but lived his 24 years with a magic and energy that everyone around him still feels.

In this conversation, Dani shares the hilarious and heartbreaking pieces of grief — like the shows Jacob never got to see (Wicked, and Mormon Wives), the wedding he won’t physically attend, and the way he would absolutely roast her for being on a grief podcast.

We talk about how grief sneaks into every room, and how the hardest part is when people write Jacob out of the stories. Dani says her duty as a big sister is to keep his memory alive — because his biggest fear was being irrelevant or forgotten.

It’s emotional, funny, grounded, and full of the kind of love only siblings understand.