This episode is a special one...

Maria has spent years in the death and grief space, but rarely has she had the chance to sit down with someone who understands her specific experience. She's rarely met someone else whose mom also died when she was very young. Today's guest is Miranda Malone, and she is, unfortunately, also part of the very unique Dead Mom Club that Maria is in.

Miranda is a grief therapist and the creator of The Dead Mom Club. It's a community you never wanted to join but are so glad exists. Through her work, she's challenging outdated ideas about what grief looks like, pushing back on the misconceptions that make grieving people feel like they're doing it wrong, and building a space specifically for those navigating life after losing a mother.

In this conversation they talk about:

About Miranda Malone

📱 Follow Miranda — @deadmomtherapist

More From Philotimo Life

Sign up for our newsletter at philotimolife.com/subscribe

Maria has a soft spot for this one. As a fellow Greek, and a fellow member of the Dead Mom Club, this conversation hit close to home.

She sits down with Gus to talk about his mom Julia, the woman behind some of his most viral social media skits, and the cookbook he wrote in her memory after she died in the summer of 2023.

If you've been on the internet in the last few years, you've probably stumbled across Gus's content. His skits capturing the gloriously unhinged reality of having a Greek mom, with all the intensity, the love, and food mixed together.

In this conversation, Maria and Gus talk about:

About Gus Constantellis

🎤 Gus on Tour — Get Tickets

More From Philotimo Life

Stay Connected

Let the Kids Be Cringe: Toy Story, Play, and the Loss of Make-Believe

It's 2010. Maria is on her first date with her high school crush. They're in a movie theatre watching Toy Story 3. And they're both staring at the ceiling, trying desperately not to cry.

Sixteen years later, there's a new Toy Story in theatres and Maria spent a whole weekend rewatching every film in the franchise to get ready for it.

In this episode, Maria draws on her essay from Musings of Mortals to explore what Toy Story 5 got right about the world Gen Alpha is actually growing up in, with a world of screens before speech, cringe culture as social policing, and play as something increasingly rare and even seen as embarrassing.

This one covers:

Because grief literacy is life literacy, and so is knowing how to play.

Read the Full Written Version

Research & Resources Referenced

You've seen these movies a hundred times. You know every word, every song, every scene. But have you ever stopped to notice how much death is woven through them?

Aladdin. Frozen. Beauty and the Beast. The Little Mermaid. Tarzan. The Lion King.

Every single one of these films includes death. Whether explicitly shown or simply implied. From missing moms and parents, to dying heroes or slain villians. 

This is what we watched as children.

In this episode, Maria shares her talk she did at the 2026 Dying Series Festival in Toronto to explore what Disney films are actually teaching kids about death, grief, and loss, and how this can actually shape the adults they become.

This episode covers:

You can read a version of this talk on her substack here.

A Conversation with Tracey Robertson of the Home Hospice Association

What would it look like if everyone, regardless of income, background, or belief, had access to genuine, compassionate care at the end of life? That's not a hypothetical for Tracey Robertson. It's the work she's been doing since 2014.

In this episode, Maria sits down with Tracey, co-founder of the Home Hospice Association -- a Canadian nonprofit leading the way in community-based palliative care, death education, and grief support. Together, they explore what it means to build an organization in a space most people would rather avoid, and why that work has never been more necessary.

About the Home Hospice Association

Founded in 2014, the Home Hospice Association is a Canadian nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that everyone has access to dignified, compassionate end-of-life care. Through community-based palliative care, grief support, and death education programs, HHA is helping to change the conversation around death and dying -- one person, one family, one community at a time.

Some Important Links

Stay Connected

Sign up for our newsletter at philotimolife.com/subscribe

Grieving the Planet Together: A Conversation with Laura Schmidt of the Good Grief Network

What do we do with the weight of watching the world change in ways we can't control? How do we stay present, stay connected, and stay human, when the scale of what we're facing can feel utterly paralyzing?

This conversation with Laura Schmidt, co-founder of the Good Grief Network, is one Maria recorded late last year… and it has only grown more relevant since.

The Good Grief Network is a nonprofit built on a radical but simple premise: that grief deserves to be witnessed, not bypassed. Through peer support groups and a structured 10-Step Program, they help individuals move through eco-anxiety and climate grief together, building emotional resilience and real community along the way.

Understanding Eco-Anxiety & Climate Grief

If some of the concepts in this episode are new to you, here are a few places to start:

Bonus Resources & Good Grief Network Updates

Subscribe

Subscribe to our mailing list at www.philotimolife.com/subscribe 

Grief, Memory, and the Stories We Don't Tell: A Conversation with Kiran Rai and Baljit Sangra

Some stories don't just move you, they quietly rearrange something in you. Time is one of those.

Last year, Maria sat down with Kiran Rai and Baljit Sangra, two storytellers whose work has long lived at the edges of what South Asian stories are "supposed" to look like. They explore grief, aging, love, and loss with an honesty and tenderness that is rare and necessary.

Their film, Time, is a deeply intimate documentary that follows an elderly woman navigating the loss of her husband to dementia. It's a meditation on memory, devotion, and what remains when so much has slipped away. What makes it especially extraordinary is that the woman at the centre of the film is Baljit's own naniji, Jeet Kaur.

About Kiran Rai & Baljit Sangra

Kiran Rai and Baljit Sangra are storytellers, filmmakers, and photographers whose work centres underrepresented voices and challenges cultural taboos around grief, aging, and family. Together, they are the team behind By The Kollective — a creative studio committed to authentic, human-centred storytelling.

🎬 Watch the Time trailer

🌿 By The Kollective

🖼️ Buy Baljit's Prints

Stay Connected

Sign up for our newsletter at philotimolife.com/subscribe

Ritual Is for Everyone: Ceremony, Grief, and the Moments We Forget to Mark

What if the moments we grieve most quietly are the ones most deserving of ceremony?

Maria sits down with Megan Sheldon, founder of BeCeremonial and one of the most thoughtful voices working at the intersection of ritual, grief, and what it means to be human. 

Megan is a cultural mythologist, humanist celebrant, and end-of-life doula based in BC. They discuss how Megan found her way to this work from a young age, what it felt like to experience recurrent pregnancy loss without any ritual framework to hold it, and how those invisible moments of change became the heartbeat of everything Be Ceremonial is built on. 

They also dig into what it means to approach grief and ceremony outside of religious tradition, and why secular ritual might be one of the most important things we're collectively missing.

Upcoming Events & Workshops

 Bonus Resources

Stay Connected

Sign up for our newsletter at philotimolife.com/subscribe

Dead Mom? Same.

Maria sits down with Amanda Katz, founder of The Parentless Club, to talk about what it really means to live without a parent, and why community might be one of the most powerful tools we have for navigating grief.

After losing her mother at a young age, Maria knows firsthand how isolating this kind of loss can feel, and how rarely we're given real space to process it. In this conversation, Amanda shares her own experience with parental loss, what moved her to create The Parentless Club, and how a Toronto-based community has grown into a gathering place for people who just get it.

They explore why belonging matters so much in grief, how creative and communal spaces can hold what words sometimes can't, and what it looks like to build something meaningful out of loss.

If you've lost a parent, or love someone who has, this one's for you.

About The Parentless Club

The Parentless Club is a Toronto-based community offering connection, shared understanding, and mutual support for people who have lost a parent. Through events, fundraising for mental health initiatives, and online resources, they're making sure no one has to grieve alone.

Upcoming Events

Bonus Resources

Stay Connected

Sign up for our newsletter at philotimolife.com/subscribe

The holiday season is often called "the most wonderful time of the year," but for many, it’s anything but. Instead, it can bring a swirl of heavy emotions and bittersweet memories. In this more sombre, heartfelt episode (very off-brand for us – we know!), we dive into how grief and the holidays often collide, shaping everything from traditions to mental health.

In this quickie episode, we touch on:

This episode is a gentle reminder that grief and love often coexist. We wish you the holiday season that you need, and we can’t wait to see you in the New Year.

Additional Resources:

Philotimo Life episodes are now recorded in Miraki Life Workspace, a creative co-working space that fosters community and collaboration. Be sure to follow Philotimo Life on Instagram at @philotimolife and sign up for our newsletter at philotimolife.com/subscribe.

Background music by Oleksii_Kalyna from Pixabay.