This episode contains an honest discussion about mental health and a brief mention of suicide.

Chris Walker is the creator and executive producer of The Weekly with Charlie Pickering, Hard Quiz and Tomorrow Tonight. As an acclaimed and well-respected leader in his field, you would never know that bubbling away underneath the surface was an enormous grief that has been present within him for more than thirty years.

On Christmas Eve, when Chris was nine years old, he lost his beloved older brother Adam in incredibly distressing circumstances.

The trauma of that day and the grief that followed, manifested in many significant ways.

But Chris is not a victim of his circumstances. He has fought hard to move through the worst of those days, to build a bright future for himself and his family. And he shared a lot of that journey, the highs and the lows, in this conversation.

His message is clear – Chris hopes that in sharing his story and the experiences of the hardest days of his life, that he can help others who may be going through their own experiences of grief. What a gift that is and a beautiful legacy for his much-loved brother Adam.

There is so much more to Chris than his grief, but it was a privilege to honour some of those darker times, and to reflect on the ways that it has evolved for Chris over the years. As I know, it will for you too.

We would love to hear your thoughts on this moving and important conversation.

You can find Chris at @chriswalkertv on Instagram.

Connect with me at @thedaysthatfollow and @thecuriouslifepodcast or via the show email at [email protected]

This episode was edited, and sound engineered by Luke Hensel @lukehensel07.

Lotte Bowser is an inspiring bright light, a writer, an advocate and a young woman who has experienced deep pain and trauma, through the loss of

How does a young person, so full of life and vitality lose their life in such an unfair and unjust way, in circumstances that add to the

Lotte has been through an inconceivable loss, in a time when the whole world was locked away and her closest networks were unable to be

Remarkably, Lotte’s light continues to shine brightly. She is brilliantly articulate, incredibly generous and an inspirational young woman,

You can follow Lotte on socials at @lottebowser and stay tuned for her upcoming podcast too!

Find me at @thedaysthatfollow and @thecuriouslifepodcast or email me directly at [email protected].

Edited by Julie Reynolds of @audiolemonade – www.audiolemonade.com.

This episode comes with a content warning, as it includes an open discussion about baby loss.

The death of a child is such a sensitive topic and one that elicits fear and distress in us all. It’s an experience and an area of discussion that so many of us would prefer to avoid. But it’s for those reasons that we need to have these conversations, because child loss is something that is very real for so many, and we can all learn something about ourselves through these discussions. We can understand how to be a better support to those going through grief and make sense of our own experiences through these stories of terribly sad, senseless loss.

In this episode, I had the privilege of talking with Mikhailla Fitzgerald about the devastating loss of her beautiful baby Foxx, to Group B strep. The loss of a child brings with is a world of pain and grief that changes a parent forever. Through this and the many layers of grief that Mikhailla and her partner have experienced, she was determined for Foxx’s death not to have been in vain.

We talked about the ways that she moved through her grief, what did and didn’t help, how grief hit for her and the things that surprised her most through her darkest days.

Importantly, we talked about how she has transformed her pain into something meaningful, in honour of Foxx’s memory.

One of the ways she has done this, is by creating beautiful books to help parents and children talk about the death of a sibling or a loved

You can find Mikhailla on Insta at @Mikhailla or via her website at www.wholeheartedly.com.au.

Please take a moment to give this show a rating and review on iTunes, to help us get into people’s ears!

You can find me at @thedaysthatfollow and @thecuriouslifepodcast or send me an email at [email protected]

Thank you to Julie Reynolds at @audiolemonade for her audio engineering magic!

When you lose a parent suddenly and unexpectedly, you immediately gain access to a terrible, unenviable club filled with other grieving young people who have lost a parent too soon.  There’s an instant understanding and knowing, that only those who have been through it can truly relate to. Sally Douglas and Imogen Carn are part of that awful club and we connected immediately.

Sal and Im met after the sudden deaths of their mothers just a few short years ago and became firm friends. That meeting sparked the beginning of their collaboration on their community through their Good Mourning podcast, and led to their incredible book of the same name.

In this episode, the three of us shared much of our own experiences with sudden loss, reflecting on our differing grieving styles and touching on the meaning we have all made following the biggest tragedies of our lives so far. We got deep pretty quickly, which is what tends to happen when you meet your clubmates.

It’s a beautiful conversation and one that will resonate on so many levels.

If you have been through any level of grief, you must get yourself a copy of their book. It’s a grief bible, jampacked with anecdotes and journal prompts, that is written both incredibly personally and with the research of many brilliant experts in the field.

You can find Sal and Im at @goodmourningpodcast

Find me at @thedaysthatfollow and @thecuriouslifepodcast and please leave a rating and review on iTunes, so that we can reach as many people as possible.

If you have a question or thoughts about the episode (or indeed anything else!) send me an email at [email protected]– I am so looking forward to connecting.

Welcome to the very first episode of The Days That Follow. This podcast has been a long time coming, 20 years in fact. And to kick us off, we have the beautiful Briony Benjamin, who generously shares her experience of the many layers of grief that accompanied her cancer diagnosis five years ago.

We get down to the details in this illuminating chat about the lived experience of a health crisis and the impact on our loved ones around us. Briony shares her thoughts on what helped and what didn’t, during the days and months following her diagnosis and the ways that her grief has transformed in the five years since.

Briony shared a huge milestone with us, celebrating five years cancer free, and we unpacked some of the revelations and reflections she has had since reaching that important date.

Briony is a shining light, and her generosity and positive outlook is incredible.

This is an important conversation and one that I hope will bring comfort with practical ideas and ways to support those who might need it.

Briony’s book and journal Life Is Tough But So Are You are available here or on socials at @lifeistoughbutsoareyou_ and you can find Briony at @briony_benjamin.

As this is our first ep, we need your help to be heard! Please share this episode with your friends and family, tag us on socials, leave a rating and review on iTunes – every bit helps to get us into new ears.

You can find me (Jana Firestone) on @thedaysthatfollow and @thecuriouslifepodcast (don’t be shy, I love hearing from you!)

All audio engineering and editing by the wonderful Julie Reynolds on @audiolemonade.

Welcome to The Days That Follow, a grief recovery podcast. Hosted by me, Jana Firestone. I am a therapist with many years' experience working in grief and trauma, as well as having a deep and personal understanding of grief from my own life and losses. I shared some of that in my book "Embracing Change" and overwhelmingly, there seemed to be significant interest in diving deeper into grief and making the space for the hardest conversations. 

As the host and Executive Producer of The Curious Life Podcast, I have had the privilege of talking with some of Australia's most well-known people about some of the biggest challenges in their lives. So it made perfect sense, to bring all of these things into one place, to dig down into the mud and to normalise grief and grief recovery in safe way.

The Days That Follow is all about what happens in the day, the months, the years after the hardest times in our lives. I will be talking with well-known and every day people about their experiences through grief and how they have made meaning of the darkest times in their lives. Together we will share and learn from each other, and bring light and hope for those who might be suffering now.

Find us on Instagram at @thedaysthatfollow and for other inspiring chats, at @thecuriouslifepodcast.

I'm so looking forward to going on this adventure with you, and I promise, we will walk these roads together. 

Audio Engineering by Julie Reynolds at www.audiolemonade.com.