A relationship with a sibling holds the keys to our upbringing. No other person knows what it was like to grow up in your family. Some siblings are close, others not, but if you have siblings, it leaves a mark. What happens when sibling dies? There has been very little work done to understand the impact of this under-attended loss. After her own sibling died, Annie Sklaver Orenstein applied all her considerable research talent into better understanding herself and other mourning siblings. The result is Almost a Sibling, a book that carries her own experiences and also those of the many people who shared their stories with her.

When Ashley Jones' daughter died, it threw her into a profound grief she didn't know the way out of. In those early times, pictures brought some comfort. As she moved through her own grief, she wanted to offer that comfort to others. She offered free photo shoots to people anticipating a loss and saw the impact it had. Over time she founded her organization, Momento, to continue to supply photo shoots while offering grief education and organizational consulting. Join us to learn how she found her way forward.

Farah Naz Rishi is Pakistani, American and Muslim. Her memoir, Sorry for the Inconvenience, deftly portrays the overlapping pressures that made it hard to find herself. We'll be talking about grief, family dynamics, tragedies and how to become yourself against the backdrop of family, community and intergenerational overlays. How did Farah learn to live her own life, with so many expectations of who she should be? And how did the difficulties force her to come to terms with her choices?

In her work encouraging healthier relationships as a way to live a happier life, Katarina Blom already knew how key connection is to happiness. Then she was chosen to be the psychologist in a television series called The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, produced by Amy Pohler. Along with an interior designer and an organizer, she supported people to deal with their stuff, leading to surprising changes in their well-being. In the process, it became evident that clearing the roadblocks in our lives, with our stuff AND with our relationships, clears the way for more joy, deeper connection and more authenticity. We'll talk about her work before the show, the filming of the episodes, and how her time with the subjects they supported strengthened her commitment to making room for it all; within community.

Ethan Sisser wanted to die in ecstasy, surrounded by music, community, beauty, but mostly, love. His wishes did not fit neatly into even the hospice paradigm but he was able to draw together a group of supporters, one of whom offered him room in his home so that Ethan's community could care for him in the way he wanted. He also found Aditi Sethi, a palliative care and hospice doctor who agreed to act as his death doula, guiding him (and all of them) along the way. The film of his final days, The Last Ecstatic Days, captures a death epitomizing love and grace, with Aditi guiding those around Ethan to support him as he navigated his final passage from brain cancer. Aditi comes to the show to share what the experience meant to her and how she has evolved her work to embody the message that we can all die in a sacred way with the right resources and a loving community.

Anticipating the joy of welcoming her first child, Lindsey Henke was completely unprepared for the shock of that child's stillbirth. Although Lindsey had been a practicing psychotherapist for a few years, she had not had that much therapy herself. Suddenly, those tools she had learned about, and therapy itself, became invaluable to her. Over time she dedicated herself to working with other people on the journey to and through parenthood as well as the grief that often accompanies life transitions. Her specialization in reproductive mental health, including guiding parents through the multifaceted terrain of infertility, perinatal loss, pregnancy after loss, and the delicate postpartum period, rely on her own experience learning how to love the child she lost.

Personal experience with grief and mental health challenges in her family led Anastasia Zadeik to write her novel, The Other Side of Nothing. The families she wriwtes about struggle to know how to support themselves and each other in all their challenges. Through a spellbinding trip across the country, they slowly find their way. What was it like for her to write it? How did she employ her family experiences to add teh details that gave the story life. And did writing the book help her to come to terms with her own experiences?

As a younger sister, Ona Gritz idolized her older sibling. But as the favored child with a disability, she could see her sister struggling. It was thirty years after the murder of her then pregnant sister, partner and baby that she was finally ready to unpack the effect of that loss and the family secrets that had become interlaced with her pain and guilt. Out of this path towars healing, Ona wrote a book; an ode to her sister and an exploration of all the hidden corners of her family. The result it Everywhere I Look, and through it we can have a conversation about the effect of traumatic loss and everything behind it.

When Dena Rueb Romero discovered a box full of letters and memorabilia in her mother's house, she furtively took it home with her. Although she knew her parents had fled the holocaust, they failed to share the details of their story, choosing instead to focus on the life they made in Hanover, New Hampshire. Diving into their story Dena learned so much about their traumas- and their triumphs. Gaining a greater understanding of their story also illuminated her own, bringing understanding of the ways they passed on their pain and resiliency along the way. A profound example of the healing power of narrative, her book also is a testament to all those who have fled persecution. We'll be talking about loss, grief, trauma across the generations and the power of truth to light our path.

What gets you through your own times of chaos? For Noah Asher, it is a deep Christian faith. Already a practicing Christian, his understanding of how that could support him as he faced prison and profound loss grounded him in his belief. It also led to his work; to support others facing times of chaos, offering the assurance that in going forward we find our deepest callings. With humor and honest sharing about his own experiences, he reinforces the idea that yes, we suffer and also yes, there is a way forward.