The Airing of Grief

By Derek Webb

Personal Journals Society & Culture Arts Performing Arts Music

What's The Airing of Grief about?

Recording & compiling conversations about spiritual de/reconstruction, curating them by topic, and releasing them in episodes. Let’s stop having detached debates on social media and really talk.

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The Airing of Grief episodes:

12.03.2019
s3e13: Verse
THE FIRST EPISODE IN OUR MULTI-EPISODE SEASON FINALE! With music being so integral to this podcast, running in parallel to the conversations and correspondence we feature, it’s not surprising that the conversations themselves start to sound like music in their own...
09.20.2019
s3e12: Refrain (A Meditation for Your Cells)
This episode specifically roots us in the sciences of process. A conversation with a molecular biologist invites us to probe deeper… smaller… into our very cells. To find what they have to say about release, surrender, context, and adaptation. How...
09.09.2019
s3e11: Reprise
It’s easy to view our growth as a separate thing from our grief. …Impatiently, we might perceive the process of grief as something that we need to “get through” so that we can “move on” to growth… But in reality,...
08.06.2019
s3e10: Come Home (To Your Body) Part 2
One of the key benefits to embodiment is that it’s substantial by definition. In a room (sanctuary) or a nation where many people are prone to detachment and disembodiment, a lot of hollow ideas and promises get promoted as answers,...
07.29.2019
s3e9: Come Home (To Your Body) Part 1
Some of the most resonant stories in our culture are about either finding or coming back to a place where you belong. Home. But the ultimate home to come home to is yourself. Part 1 (of 2) in our return to...
07.22.2019
s3e8: Plain Sight
There’s a Sufi proverb from Rumi which says, “I SEARCHED FOR GOD AND FOUND ONLY MYSELF. I SEARCHED FOR MYSELF AND FOUND ONLY GOD.” Whatever a ‘divine spark’ might be, it seems to be carried within our humanity. And yet...
07.14.2019
s3e7: Death With Benefits
Reconstruction is complicated. The length of the process we’re in can sometimes leave us longing for simpler times, or at least more simplistic ways of seeing the world. Not so much in missing the ideas themselves that we used...
07.01.2019
s3e6: Valentines Day
Many loves might come and go from your life, but you’re kinda stuck with yourself. Partners, friends, even family members… any time there is loss, the dust settles, and there you are. And that being the case, for those of...
06.23.2019
s3e5: Good Grief
are you tempted to believe that you don’t have a choiceyou’ve been screaming off your head and now you’ve lost your voice that you inherited the curse and everything your daddy said compounding like a chorus or the interest on your...
06.16.2019
s3e4: State Change
There's knowing we need change... and then there's boldly moving into it. In the process of our Becoming, we take on new space, which gives way to new substance… which is only possible from within that new space. Five considerations for this...
06.10.2019
s2e3: The Safest Place
There’s a particular contentment that comes in our falling in love again, dreaming again, hoping again. In our moments of rediscovered innocence, and in our informed and yet defiant idealism. Whatever suffering we endure, there’s always the chance we might shut...
06.03.2019
s3e2: A Greater Presence
In certain religious ways of seeing the world, it can be easy to mistake presence for transcendence. We struggle to fully embody our own experiences in the ‘here and now’ when everything is made to be ‘the somewhere else and...
05.26.2019
s3e1: Targets
For our season premier, we pivot from where we’ve been to lean more on where we are, and where we’re headed. In three stories of birth and rebirth, we look to the attribution of our targets once we’re on the...
02.09.2019
WHERE SEASON 3 IS GOING (and how YOU can be a part of it)!
Season 3 of The Airing of Grief is coming very soon. Here is everything you need to know!
09.09.2018
s2e23: Singing Over Shadows
The Airing of Grief Season 2 has been long and dynamic and varied. So the question arises: How do you “end” a season like this? We’re not sure you really can. So maybe this is more of a pause. An...
09.02.2018
s2e22: Fragments
This is the third and final installment in a series of experimental discussions featuring the producers of The Airing of Grief. In this episode, Kevin shares his story – along with his answers to the "three questions" covered previously by...
08.26.2018
s2e21: Personas
We continue this week with another experimental episode in the form of a conversation between longtime friends. This time, our producers Kevin and Jon explore the "three questions" introduced in our previous episode, "The Meaning We Assign."
08.19.2018
s2e20: The Meaning We Assign
With just a few more episodes left to come in Season 2, we're taking a moment for a more experimental conversation within our format. Three questions. Pause. Take stock. Mark the time. That's what our producers Jamie and Derek are...
08.12.2018
s2e19: Sacred Masculine
From repressive constructs which drag us down and hold us back... some men are fighting the better fight to emerge newly embodied and in touch.
08.05.2018
s2e18: In A Mirror Clearly
So much of our spiritual baggage concerns how we perceive ourselves. Perhaps above all other aspects of reimagining our beliefs, there is an incredible amount of work to be done in reframing our biases and attitudes towards the person in...
07.29.2018
s2e17: Enough
This episode is one that spans many issues and covers an incredible amount of ground thematically. It is a story of childhood disconnection and fragmentation which detaches a person from any confident sense of self. It is a story of the resulting...
07.22.2018
s2e16: Liminal Space
Suspended and waiting and not knowing... It is a place of transition. And if we can learn to embrace the wait, we will also learn that we are being newly formed. Liminal space is where our transformations take their shape.
07.15.2018
s2e15: When the Fires Subside
Here’s to the unexpected devastations and rebirths – the fires which brought us to the ground and then remade us. And here’s to the slow process of grief which yields a steady assent towards something better... It's ironically kind of...
07.08.2018
s2e14: The Source We Carried With Us
Our freedom isn't merely a detachment from the thing causing pain. It's freedom to live wholly, to channel our passions fully, and to work towards creating the kind of world we'd like to live in. When we aren't stifled to...
07.01.2018
s2e13: Complexity and Convergence
When so much of who we are told to be is rooted in fear and simplistic thinking... embracing confusion and complexity is a truly revolutionary act.
06.24.2018
s2e12: Original Innocence
We are born innocent. But then many of us are told we’re born guilty – accountable to some choice we didn’t make, but should definitely suffer for anyway. That framework of belief weighs heavily on Christians. Those of us raised...
06.17.2018
s2e11: In Our Wake
There are consequences to administering a certain worldview, and shaping people's beliefs and religious practices. And there are consequences to stepping away from those things and leaving that life behind.
06.10.2018
s2e10: Sacred Feminine
Within the church, many women learn from the earliest age to deny themselves space, a voice, their own power, etc. The narratives surrounding women are strong, and can convince even the abused that their abuse is somehow justified, natural, fitting......
06.03.2018
s2e9: The Outside Body
A "still, small voice." So they used to say. And whatever we call that voice – whether "spirit" or "body" or "gut" – it's there. An intuition. Giving us a greater sense of... something.
05.27.2018
s2e8: All of Me is Here
The defiant act of demanding to be whole and known in our fulness is one of the most essential, healing things we can do. The pain of this disruption and redefinition is inevitable. But "the art of life is choosing...
05.20.2018
s2e7: The Long Road Home
Silence. Loss. Addiction. Pain. The alienation of repression. The forced-feeding of narratives which foster our unhealthy reliance on an "Other." These are all things that can distance us... from ourselves. All things that can leave us feeling disembodied from who...
05.13.2018
s2e6: Either Side of the World
It’s harder to see honestly in the distance when we’ve had such a culture of blindness up close. When it comes to love and justice, a people who run from it in their own home are not going to be...
05.06.2018
s2e5: A Reimagining in Three Acts
From the experiences common to so many of us, to the experiences of others that we're just now coming to understand... we are surrounded by opportunities to imagine everything differently. Our full presence is required for this moment.
04.29.2018
s2e4: Shallow Answers in the Deep
In our insistence on oversimplification, we do not preserve an honest view of the core of things. In fact, we fail to recognize essential depth. Fail to appreciate nuance and diversity. Fail to comfort with any real traction. This avoidance of anything...
04.22.2018
s2e3: From Cage to Catalyst
Could our wounds be catalysts for new life within the very structures which caused them? Could there be a way forward for some of us that doesn't leave faith behind entirely? Is it possible to cling to a beautiful essence...
04.16.2018
s2e2: As Good As You Have Always Been
Coming of age is hard enough without a religious culture feeding you the narrative that you are... somehow... especially defective. But what if the burden of words and ideas that you were forced to live under were lies? What if they denied...
04.15.2018
s2e2: As Good As You've Always Been
Coming of age is hard enough without a religious culture feeding you the narrative that you're somehow especially defective. But what if the burden of words and ideas that you were forced to live under were lies? And what if shedding...
04.01.2018
s2e1: False Start
We begin season 2, not with a story of deconstruction... But with a deconstruction of our deconstruction. A disruption to our disruption. A platform offered, and taken, only to be refused. And all of it is valid. This is a moment's pause...
02.26.2018
Surprise Episode: A Reckoning Between Seasons
This surprise bonus episode is a sneak peek of what's to come. BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, it's a special request for your help in making season 2 happen.
02.11.2018
Ep 13: Goodbye For Now
We don't have any power over where we come from, or what we're told to think or be. We only have power over what we choose to do with all of that. And that's enough.
02.04.2018
Ep 12: Fingers Crossed
A persistent thread of doubt is worth pulling on. It might just lead us somewhere better. Or it might even lead us back with a new perspective that makes everything we've known real and meaningful for the first time. But it...
01.28.2018
Ep 11: I Am Redeeming This Guitar
If you think about it, virtue can be even more significant when it's detached from religious order or lawful observance. Goodness is truly remarkable when the person displaying it doesn't believe it factors into any sort of endgame or grand...
01.21.2018
Ep 10: Dodged A Bullet
If you ever happen to go through a season of dramatic change, some people will simply refuse to take you seriously. They'll dismiss you, talk down to you, or otherwise treat you as though you've changed flippantly. Often, they will...
01.14.2018
Ep 09: I Will
Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance. That's what they say are the "five stages of grief." It's a good list. But the idea that such a world-shattering process could ever be neatly labeled or easily digested really does a disservice to...
01.07.2018
Ep 08: The Braver One
Tragedy is hardest on those left behind to remain in its wake. Sickness, death, loss... It is what it is. And even though all of these things affect every one of us, they never stop feeling alien. They never stop feeling like...
12.31.2017
Ep 07: Easter Eggs
A lot of us know what it can be like to raise the sort of questions about church and faith that most other believers seem unwilling to ask... Whether we're seeking clarification over some clearly poisonous idea, or challenging the...
12.25.2017
BONUS EPISODE: A Conversation With the Producers of The Airing of Grief
We gathered for a mid-season 1 special episode and ended up talking for 2 hours. The first segment we're making available here is an introduction to that conversation, and a way for us to introduce our listeners to who we...
12.24.2017
Ep 06: Chasing Empty Mangers
We find ourselves living within the stark contrast. The new normal. The bottom of the pit after a long fall. We find ourselves at a time when all the dynamics we've known have shifted, and we begin to feel truly...
12.17.2017
Ep 05: Love Is Not A Choice
The biggest surprise that comes with wrecking your life as you knew it is often how eerily quiet the aftermath can be. You almost wish everything about it would be more epic – that your existence could be scored and...
12.10.2017
Ep 04: A Tempest In A Teacup
For so many Christians experiencing doubt and grief over a loss of faith, identity crisis has become their reality. There's this new and constant companion with them – an alien presence in their lives who turns out to be themselves....

What's The Airing of Grief about?

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The Airing of Grief episodes:

s3e13: Verse

s3e12: Refrain (A Meditation for Your Cells)

s3e11: Reprise

s3e10: Come Home (To Your Body) Part 2

s3e9: Come Home (To Your Body) Part 1

s3e8: Plain Sight

s3e7: Death With Benefits

s3e6: Valentines Day

s3e5: Good Grief

s3e4: State Change

s2e3: The Safest Place

s3e2: A Greater Presence

s3e1: Targets

WHERE SEASON 3 IS GOING (and how YOU can be a part of it)!

s2e23: Singing Over Shadows

s2e22: Fragments

s2e21: Personas

s2e20: The Meaning We Assign

s2e19: Sacred Masculine

s2e18: In A Mirror Clearly

s2e17: Enough

s2e16: Liminal Space

s2e15: When the Fires Subside

s2e14: The Source We Carried With Us

s2e13: Complexity and Convergence

s2e12: Original Innocence

s2e11: In Our Wake

s2e10: Sacred Feminine

s2e9: The Outside Body

s2e8: All of Me is Here

s2e7: The Long Road Home

s2e6: Either Side of the World

s2e5: A Reimagining in Three Acts

s2e4: Shallow Answers in the Deep

s2e3: From Cage to Catalyst

s2e2: As Good As You Have Always Been

s2e2: As Good As You've Always Been

s2e1: False Start

Surprise Episode: A Reckoning Between Seasons

Ep 13: Goodbye For Now

Ep 12: Fingers Crossed

Ep 11: I Am Redeeming This Guitar

Ep 10: Dodged A Bullet

Ep 09: I Will

Ep 08: The Braver One

Ep 07: Easter Eggs

BONUS EPISODE: A Conversation With the Producers of The Airing of Grief

Ep 06: Chasing Empty Mangers

Ep 05: Love Is Not A Choice

Ep 04: A Tempest In A Teacup