Grief and Light™

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, and she brings a framework that honors how intelligent grief actually is. She shares how grief operates as a form of intelligence, and how to access what it's trying to teach us.

We go deep on the surprising relationship between grief and trauma, Paula's own journey of developing intimacy with her pain, and the growing use of AI in grief support, what it can genuinely offer, and where it keeps us at arm's length from the real work.

We also get into the difference between real curiosity and curiosity that's just fear with better PR. 

Paula explains how our information-gathering instinct, especially in grief, often becomes a way to stay safe rather than a way to grow. And she offers practices for building a relationship with emptiness, with silence, with the parts of ourselves we usually try to outrun.

If you're looking for a different perspective on grief, and ways to move through, tune in.

In this episode:

• Grief as one of life's highest forms of intelligence
• Why grief and trauma are more connected than we think
• What "intimacy with grief" actually looks like in practice
• What "the void" is, and isn't
• How to trust the unknown
• AI in grief processing: where it helps and where it doesn't
• The distinction between true curiosity and fear-based seeking
• Low-dopamine practices for reconnecting with yourself
• Why sitting with emptiness might be exactly what healing requires

💬 "If we deny grief as a universal experience, we deny the pivot point for regeneration and expansion to happen." — Paula Gasparini-Santos

Connect with Paula Gasparini-Santos: 

• Art: https://paulagasparini-santos.com/ 
• Work with Paula: https://www.theconsciousconnection.org/ 
• Substack
• Instagram
• TikTok

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Grief and Light™ is an award-winning, independent podcast exploring the honest, messy, deeply human experience of loss and grief.

Grief-fluency is a life-affirming skill we were never taught. We're here to change that.

Hosted by grief-informed guide and sibling loss survivor Nina Rodriguez, the show fosters a more grief-informed, hopeful world, one conversation at a time. At its heart is one belief: to grieve fully is to live fully. 

Now in Season 5, with 130+ episodes, the show features changemakers, researchers, creatives, and leaders exploring loss, identity, uncertainty, and what it means to keep living when life changes.

Connect with Nina: Website · Instagram · Substack

Subscribe to the newsletter

🏆 Ear Worthy Best Life Lessons 2026 · Signal Awards Silver Winner 2026 · TalkDeath Readers’ Choice Best Podcast 2025 · 2× Women Who Podcast Awards Winner · Podground Editor’s Pick 2026

DISCLAIMER: Grief and Light™ is hosted by a grief-informed guide, not a licensed therapist, doctor, or attorney. Nothing shared here is intended as therapy, medical advice, or legal counsel. Seek qualified support.

Full Disclaimer

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 caregiving for her mother before losing her to breast cancer at 27, and later losing her father to brain cancer, Sundari wasn't just grief-stricken. She was initiated. This conversation explores what that initiation looks like, and how honoring grief as a sacred passage can transform your relationship with loss, your body, and your lineage.

In this episode:

• Caregiving, anticipatory grief, and identity shifts in young adulthood
• Grief as an initiatory and spiritual awakening process
• The somatic side of loss and how the body holds grief
• Reclaiming ancestral rituals, altars, and indigenous death practices
• What a grief or death doula actually does
• Breathwork, candle meditation, and practical tools for tending grief
• Navigating collective grief without losing yourself
• Challenging Western death narratives and systemic barriers

Connect with Sundari Malcolm: 

• Website: ahealingdoula.com 
• Book: Grief Gems
• Instagram: @sundaribliss
• Academy: A Healing Doula Academy

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Grief and Light™ is an award-winning, independent podcast exploring the honest, messy, deeply human experience of loss and grief.

Grief-fluency is a life-affirming skill we were never taught. We're here to change that.

Hosted by grief-informed guide and sibling loss survivor Nina Rodriguez, the show fosters a more grief-informed, hopeful world, one conversation at a time. At its heart is one belief: to grieve fully is to live fully. 

Now in Season 5, with 130+ episodes, the show features changemakers, researchers, creatives, and leaders exploring loss, identity, uncertainty, and what it means to keep living when life changes.

Connect with Nina: Website · Instagram · Substack

Subscribe to the newsletter

🏆 Ear Worthy Best Life Lessons 2026 · Signal Awards Silver Winner 2026 · TalkDeath Readers’ Choice Best Podcast 2025 · 2× Women Who Podcast Awards Winner · Podground Editor’s Pick 2026

DISCLAIMER: Grief and Light™ is hosted by a grief-informed guide, not a licensed therapist, doctor, or attorney. Nothing shared here is intended as therapy, medical advice, or legal counsel. Seek qualified support.

Full Disclaimer

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 gone.

In this inspiring episode, Estrella Quiroz, self-proclaimed "life enthusiast" and death tech entrepreneur, opens up about the moment her father's passing cracked her world open, and how she transformed that pain into a mission: to help others "leave no words left unspoken."

Her story is about more than grief. It's about agency, faith, acts of kindness, and what it really means to leave a legacy.

What you'll take away:

+ Why the words we leave behind matter more than anything else
+ How faith and personal values can anchor you through unimaginable loss
+ What "end-of-life planning" looks like when it's driven by love, not fear
+ How one woman turned heartbreak into a movement

💬 What message would you want to leave behind?

🔔 Subscribe for conversations about purpose, resilience, and living fully, even in the face of loss.

Key Topics:

• The powerful story of Estrella’s father’s voicemail and its influence on her life
• Her experience traveling solo across 50+ countries and how loss shifted her priorities
• The origins of Last Farewells and its mission to fill the emotional gap in end-of-life planning
• How creating last messages can bring peace and agency during grief
• The role of faith and spirituality in healing and purpose
• Insights into death tech: what it is, how it works, and its impact
• The importance of authenticity and acts of kindness in content creation
• Personal stories of helping others, from an elderly grandmother to terminally ill patients
• The significance of signs, synchronicities, and trusting life's journey

Connect with Estrella Quiroz & Last Farewells:

• lastfarewells.com
• Instagram: @lastfarewellsapp x @estrellaq95

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Grief and Light™ is an award-winning, independent podcast exploring the honest, messy, deeply human experience of loss and grief.

Grief-fluency is a life-affirming skill we were never taught. We're here to change that.

Hosted by grief-informed guide and sibling loss survivor Nina Rodriguez, the show fosters a more grief-informed, hopeful world, one conversation at a time. At its heart is one belief: to grieve fully is to live fully. 

Now in Season 5, with 130+ episodes, the show features changemakers, researchers, creatives, and leaders exploring loss, identity, uncertainty, and what it means to keep living when life changes.

Connect with Nina: Website · Instagram · Substack

Subscribe to the newsletter

🏆 Ear Worthy Best Life Lessons 2026 · Signal Awards Silver Winner 2026 · TalkDeath Readers’ Choice Best Podcast 2025 · 2× Women Who Podcast Awards Winner · Podground Editor’s Pick 2026

DISCLAIMER: Grief and Light™ is hosted by a grief-informed guide, not a licensed therapist, doctor, or attorney. Nothing shared here is intended as therapy, medical advice, or legal counsel. Seek qualified support.

Full Disclaimer

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, revealing how our influence, choices, and relationships create a ripple effect that endures long after we're gone.

She dives into the societal stories that tie worth to continuity and permanence, and explores how legacy is actually about the imprint we leave: the lives we touch, the courage we inspire, and the rooms we fill with our presence.

Key Points:

• Why the traditional family tree is only one metaphor for continuity
• How our influence extends through relationships, not just DNA
• Surprising insights into the fragility of digital memories and the illusions of permanence

In a world where milestones like marriage and children are no longer guaranteed, Nina offers a liberating perspective: Legacy is less about who continues your bloodline and more about the ways your life radiates outward. 

She challenges you to consider how your unique story, actions, and relationships form a lasting imprint, even if you never become a mother or an ancestor in the traditional sense.

How does your life echo in the lives of other simply by the way in which you exist?

Key topics:

• The burden of being the "last" in a family line after the loss of loved ones
• The societal narrative of legacy tied to reproduction and lineage
• The distinction between lineage (biological) and legacy (relational, influence)
• How non-biological relationships shape our sense of legacy
• The impermanence of digital memories and the illusion of permanency
• Legacy as diffusion, participation, and ripple effect rather than extension
• The importance of intentional impact over recognition or recognition
• Practical ways to reframe personal legacy in a shifting world

Read on Get Griefy Magazine: The Family Tree That Ends With Me

Visit getgriefymagazine.com

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Grief and Light™ is an award-winning, independent podcast exploring the honest, messy, deeply human experience of loss and grief.

Grief-fluency is a life-affirming skill we were never taught. We're here to change that.

Hosted by grief-informed guide and sibling loss survivor Nina Rodriguez, the show fosters a more grief-informed, hopeful world, one conversation at a time. At its heart is one belief: to grieve fully is to live fully. 

Now in Season 5, with 130+ episodes, the show features changemakers, researchers, creatives, and leaders exploring loss, identity, uncertainty, and what it means to keep living when life changes.

Connect with Nina: Website · Instagram · Substack

Subscribe to the newsletter

🏆 Ear Worthy Best Life Lessons 2026 · Signal Awards Silver Winner 2026 · TalkDeath Readers’ Choice Best Podcast 2025 · 2× Women Who Podcast Awards Winner · Podground Editor’s Pick 2026

DISCLAIMER: Grief and Light™ is hosted by a grief-informed guide, not a licensed therapist, doctor, or attorney. Nothing shared here is intended as therapy, medical advice, or legal counsel. Seek qualified support.

Full Disclaimer

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

***

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 building something life-affirming: a brotherhood for men and boys of color navigating the turbulent, often silent, experience of grief and loss.

Broreavement was born from personal pain and transformed into a mission. A mission to break the stigma around men's grief, create safe spaces for emotional expression, and prove that healing doesn't have to happen alone.

This episode celebrates the power of shared stories, safe spaces, and community efforts to heal grief and build resilience among men and youth. If this message resonates with you, consider supporting or joining Broreavement’s mission to expand the healing brotherhood.

This conversation explores:

• The origin story behind Broreavement and the loss that sparked it 
• Why men and boys of color are often the most underserved when it comes to grief support 
• How vulnerability, trust, and brotherhood become tools for healing 
• The role of everyday activities (like cooking, sports, art, finances, fishing) in creating connection
• Community programs like prom suit drives and after-school initiatives that offer hope to young people in grief 
• Their vision for taking Broreavement national, and eventually global 
• How you can support this work and create ripple effects of healing in your own community

This one is for every boy and man who was told to hold it together.

Resources & Links: 

• broreavement.org
• 🌟Donate Here🌟
• @broreavement

From workshops to recreational outings to educational resources, Broreavement meets men and boys where they are, offering practical tools, emotional guidance, and real community to those navigating the loss of a loved one. Because healing looks different for everyone, and support should too.

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Grief and Light™ is an award-winning, independent podcast exploring the honest, messy, deeply human experience of loss and grief.

Grief-fluency is a life-affirming skill we were never taught. We're here to change that.

Hosted by grief-informed guide and sibling loss survivor Nina Rodriguez, the show fosters a more grief-informed, hopeful world, one conversation at a time. At its heart is one belief: to grieve fully is to live fully. 

Now in Season 5, with 130+ episodes, the show features changemakers, researchers, creatives, and leaders exploring loss, identity, uncertainty, and what it means to keep living when life changes.

Connect with Nina: Website · Instagram · Substack

Subscribe to the newsletter

🏆 Ear Worthy Best Life Lessons 2026 · Signal Awards Silver Winner 2026 · TalkDeath Readers’ Choice Best Podcast 2025 · 2× Women Who Podcast Awards Winner · Podground Editor’s Pick 2026

DISCLAIMER: Grief and Light™ is hosted by a grief-informed guide, not a licensed therapist, doctor, or attorney. Nothing shared here is intended as therapy, medical advice, or legal counsel. Seek qualified support.

Full Disclaimer

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 being done in communities everywhere, from music festivals to college campuses and beyond.

This conversation explores:

• The current state of overdose deaths and recent trends: around 80,000 in 2024, a significant drop from 110,000
• The importance and impact of harm reduction strategies like naloxone / Narcan distribution and fentanyl test strips
• 5 common misconceptions about recovery and substance use
• The role of stigma and language in shaping perceptions and community support
• Community awareness and systemic support in combating the overdose crisis
• Family dynamics in recovery and supporting loved ones through systemic understanding
• The evolving landscape of drug toxicity
• Advocacy for funding and policy reforms supporting harm reduction
• Personal stories of life-saving interventions and full-circle moments in the field
• How everyone can contribute, from sharing information to volunteering and donating

Connect with Thomas Guerra:

• 🌟 Donate Here 🌟
• f-fent.org
• Harm Reduction Resources
• Upcoming Trainings
• Instagram
• Previous podcast episode with Thomas Guerra

About F-Fent.org:

F-fent.org is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit fighting the fent@nyl crisis through education, harm reduction, and community outreach. The goal is life-saving awareness without judgment. Donate Here

About Podcasthon:

Podcasthon is the biggest charity event in the podcasting world: a fast-growing non-profit initiative uniting thousands of podcasters globally. Hosts dedicate one episode to a charity of their choice, releasing them simultaneously each mid-March to create a massive, international wave of inspiring audio content.

Learn more at: podcasthon.org

Supporting harm reduction saves lives

Everyone has a role: through donation, education, compassionate language, volunteering, or sharing this episode.

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Grief and Light™ is an award-winning, independent podcast exploring the honest, messy, deeply human experience of loss and grief.

Grief-fluency is a life-affirming skill we were never taught. We're here to change that.

Hosted by grief-informed guide and sibling loss survivor Nina Rodriguez, the show fosters a more grief-informed, hopeful world, one conversation at a time. At its heart is one belief: to grieve fully is to live fully. 

Now in Season 5, with 130+ episodes, the show features changemakers, researchers, creatives, and leaders exploring loss, identity, uncertainty, and what it means to keep living when life changes.

Connect with Nina: Website · Instagram · Substack

Subscribe to the newsletter

🏆 Ear Worthy Best Life Lessons 2026 · Signal Awards Silver Winner 2026 · TalkDeath Readers’ Choice Best Podcast 2025 · 2× Women Who Podcast Awards Winner · Podground Editor’s Pick 2026

DISCLAIMER: Grief and Light™ is hosted by a grief-informed guide, not a licensed therapist, doctor, or attorney. Nothing shared here is intended as therapy, medical advice, or legal counsel. Seek qualified support.

Full Disclaimer

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 designed to be collected. Small batch. Handcrafted. Built to last.

Amanda’s jewelry and story highlight how art, purpose, and community can foster healing and resilience after trauma. Explore her work and consider engaging with her workshops for a meaningful experience that supports survivors and promotes social impact.

Key Topics:

• The concept of resilience as a model, not just a metaphor, and how Amanda applies it through her jewelry business
• Personal stories behind her jewelry pieces, including reflections on grief, trauma, and healing
• The role of community involvement and advocacy in addressing violence, substance abuse, and mental health
• How creative expression can reclaim agency and aid in trauma recovery
• Ethical and sustainable practices in jewelry making, including fair wages and environmental considerations
• The power of shared experiences, community workshops, and experiential gifting in strengthening bonds
• Practical insights on balancing business growth, activism, and authentic storytelling

IPV Data & Resources:

• A 2018 by the CDC found ~$104,000 is the average cost of IPV per female survivor in the U.S. (Source)
• The lifetime economic cost of IPV in the U.S. is estimated at $3.6 trillion. (Source)
• freefrom.org
• Reports by FreeFrom
• Nat'l Survivor Financial Security Map & Score Card (search your state)

Connect with Amanda Nicol:

• jewelryoneofakind.com
• Shop Collections
• Book a Meeting
• Experiences / Workshops Page
• @jewelry_oneofakind
• Substack: Jewelry One of A KIND Journal
• LinkedIn

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Grief and Light™ is an award-winning, independent podcast exploring the honest, messy, deeply human experience of loss and grief.

Grief-fluency is a life-affirming skill we were never taught. We're here to change that.

Hosted by grief-informed guide and sibling loss survivor Nina Rodriguez, the show fosters a more grief-informed, hopeful world, one conversation at a time. At its heart is one belief: to grieve fully is to live fully. 

Now in Season 5, with 130+ episodes, the show features changemakers, researchers, creatives, and leaders exploring loss, identity, uncertainty, and what it means to keep living when life changes.

Connect with Nina: Website · Instagram · Substack

Subscribe to the newsletter

🏆 Ear Worthy Best Life Lessons 2026 · Signal Awards Silver Winner 2026 · TalkDeath Readers’ Choice Best Podcast 2025 · 2× Women Who Podcast Awards Winner · Podground Editor’s Pick 2026

DISCLAIMER: Grief and Light™ is hosted by a grief-informed guide, not a licensed therapist, doctor, or attorney. Nothing shared here is intended as therapy, medical advice, or legal counsel. Seek qualified support.

Full Disclaimer

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 in 2017 reshaped her identity, her marriage, and her parenting, and how writing became both a lifeline and a way to honor her mom’s encouragement. Together, they reflect on how grief evolves over time, what it means to feel “motherless" or "homeless," and how legacy is something we live, not just something we inherit.

The conversation also moves into the realities many don’t name: health anxiety after loss, the emotional complexity of hospice, modeling grief for children, and the grief of final goodbyes. 

Chelsea opens up about how honoring her mother’s encouragement to write became a way to stay connected to her, and how storytelling can transform pain into meaning through writing as both a therapeutic outlet and a living legacy.

They also speak candidly about:

• Parenting children while actively grieving
• Modeling healthy emotional expression
• The strain grief can place on marriage
• Health anxiety after sudden loss
• The emotional and practical realities of hospice care
• The sacred, complicated nature of final goodbyes

The episode closes with an important and often overlooked conversation about severe food allergies and anaphylaxis; an area Chelsea advocates awareness around as a mother navigating the daily vigilance that comes with protecting a child’s life.

This is a conversation about resilience, vulnerability, and the courage to feel deeply, while still choosing to live, love, and create.

Takeaways:

• Loss reshapes identity, relationships, and how we see ourselves.
• Legacy is something we live, not something frozen in the past.
• Modeling honest grief gives children permission to feel.
• Children often show intuitive wisdom in loss.
• Grief can strain marriage and calls for compassion.
• Health anxiety after loss is common and valid.
• Hospice can be a compassionate, supportive transition.
• Final goodbyes are rarely tidy.
• Severe food allergies and anaphylaxis need greater awareness.
• We can carry grief and still live fully in their honor.

Connect with Chelsea:

• Website
• Get the Book
• @hopeandharshrealities

Resources:

• The Shock of Anaphylaxis
• foodallergyawareness.org

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Grief and Light™ is an award-winning, independent podcast exploring the honest, messy, deeply human experience of loss and grief.

Grief-fluency is a life-affirming skill we were never taught. We're here to change that.

Hosted by grief-informed guide and sibling loss survivor Nina Rodriguez, the show fosters a more grief-informed, hopeful world, one conversation at a time. At its heart is one belief: to grieve fully is to live fully. 

Now in Season 5, with 130+ episodes, the show features changemakers, researchers, creatives, and leaders exploring loss, identity, uncertainty, and what it means to keep living when life changes.

Connect with Nina: Website · Instagram · Substack

Subscribe to the newsletter

🏆 Ear Worthy Best Life Lessons 2026 · Signal Awards Silver Winner 2026 · TalkDeath Readers’ Choice Best Podcast 2025 · 2× Women Who Podcast Awards Winner · Podground Editor’s Pick 2026

DISCLAIMER: Grief and Light™ is hosted by a grief-informed guide, not a licensed therapist, doctor, or attorney. Nothing shared here is intended as therapy, medical advice, or legal counsel. Seek qualified support.

Full Disclaimer

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.

Together, they explore how art-making without rules, outcomes, or expectations creates space for emotional healing and truth to surface. They move through grief in its many forms: the death of loved ones, identity shifts, coming out later in life, complicated emotions like anger and guilt, and the collective grief so many of us carry in uncertain times.

Susie shares her personal journey through loss and self-discovery, and how those experiences shaped the judgment-free spaces she now holds for others through one-on-one grief coaching and intimate small group "Deep Dives." Her work lives at the intersection of mess and meaning. The messiness of life, she says, isn't something to clean up. It's something to honor.

This episode is an invitation to anyone navigating loss, identity, or the quiet ache of feeling stuck. Pick up the art supplies. Feel what's there. Make something from it. Not to fix grief, but to sit beside it.

This episode explores:

• Why creativity is a powerful companion to grief
• The myth that only “artists” are creative
• Grief beyond death: identity shifts, coming out later in life, and life transitions
• Art journaling as a cathartic emotional practice
• Creating safe, judgment-free spaces for vulnerability
• Honoring anger, guilt, and the full emotional spectrum
• The impact of collective grief in today’s world
• Finding joy alongside sorrow through creative expression
• Why sharing our stories fosters connection and healing

Reflection Invitation:

• What emotion have I been trying to tidy up instead of express?
• What would it look like to create without needing it to be “good”?
• What might emerge if I gave myself permission to make something from my grief?

Connect with Susie Stonefield:

• susiestonefield.com
• Book a Discovery Call
• FREEBIE: Grief & Creativity Workbook
• The Geography of Grief
• Milton Marks Family Camp

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Grief and Light™ is an award-winning, independent podcast exploring the honest, messy, deeply human experience of loss and grief.

Grief-fluency is a life-affirming skill we were never taught. We're here to change that.

Hosted by grief-informed guide and sibling loss survivor Nina Rodriguez, the show fosters a more grief-informed, hopeful world, one conversation at a time. At its heart is one belief: to grieve fully is to live fully. 

Now in Season 5, with 130+ episodes, the show features changemakers, researchers, creatives, and leaders exploring loss, identity, uncertainty, and what it means to keep living when life changes.

Connect with Nina: Website · Instagram · Substack

Subscribe to the newsletter

🏆 Ear Worthy Best Life Lessons 2026 · Signal Awards Silver Winner 2026 · TalkDeath Readers’ Choice Best Podcast 2025 · 2× Women Who Podcast Awards Winner · Podground Editor’s Pick 2026

DISCLAIMER: Grief and Light™ is hosted by a grief-informed guide, not a licensed therapist, doctor, or attorney. Nothing shared here is intended as therapy, medical advice, or legal counsel. Seek qualified support.

Full Disclaimer

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 rare planetary alignment that amplifies our ability to speak the truths of grief.

Whether you believe in astrology or not, there's something palpable in our collective.

This episode offers practical rituals, collective practices, and gentle guidance for grievers at every stage of their journey. If you've ever felt like grief is a wild horse you can't control, this conversation is for you.

Key Takeaways:

Grief is more like riding than walking. You can't outrun it or think your way past it.

The Fire Horse rewards courage, not readiness. Take one small brave step toward what your grief has frozen, even if you don't feel ready yet.

Eclipse energy initiates six-month cycles. What you set in motion today—a grief intention, a conversation, a ritual—will carry forward through August 2026.

Your healing is connected to collective healing. The Aquarius eclipse asks: what happens when we stop performing "fine" and bring our grief into community?

Words carry more weight today. Speak your person's name, say the unsayable, let the imperfect words come.

Transformation happens inside containment. If you're in early grief and the "Fire Horse energy" feels like too much, remember the butterfly emerging from the chrysalis. The quiet, hidden work is still transformation.

Fire destroys and illuminates. Grief burns away what no longer serves while lighting the path forward.

Who This Episode Is For

• Anyone navigating the early, raw stages of grief
• Grievers who feel stuck or frozen in their process
• People looking for ways to mark significant dates or thresholds in their grief journey
• Those seeking community around loss
• Anyone who has felt like grief is a wild, uncontrollable force
• Those looking for grief support resources to share

Sources:

Today.com - "What the Solar Eclipse in Aquarius on February 17 Means for Your Sign"

Khanji School - "Year of the Fire Horse 2026: meaning and Chinese culture"

Elle Australia - "What Lunar New Year's 'Year Of The Fire Horse' Means For 2026"

Moon Omens - "Mercury in Pisces 2026: the Language of Soul" and "Solar Eclipse in Aquarius 2026: A New Timeline"

Bonnie Sorsby Astrology - "Aquarius Eclipse February 17, 2026 Deep Dive + Full Guide"

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Grief and Light™ is an award-winning, independent podcast exploring the honest, messy, deeply human experience of loss and grief.

Grief-fluency is a life-affirming skill we were never taught. We're here to change that.

Hosted by grief-informed guide and sibling loss survivor Nina Rodriguez, the show fosters a more grief-informed, hopeful world, one conversation at a time. At its heart is one belief: to grieve fully is to live fully. 

Now in Season 5, with 130+ episodes, the show features changemakers, researchers, creatives, and leaders exploring loss, identity, uncertainty, and what it means to keep living when life changes.

Connect with Nina: Website · Instagram · Substack

Subscribe to the newsletter

🏆 Ear Worthy Best Life Lessons 2026 · Signal Awards Silver Winner 2026 · TalkDeath Readers’ Choice Best Podcast 2025 · 2× Women Who Podcast Awards Winner · Podground Editor’s Pick 2026

DISCLAIMER: Grief and Light™ is hosted by a grief-informed guide, not a licensed therapist, doctor, or attorney. Nothing shared here is intended as therapy, medical advice, or legal counsel. Seek qualified support.

Full Disclaimer