Christmas is supposed to be all twinkly lights and joy and chaotic family WhatsApps… but for a lot of people, it’s also the time when grief hits the hardest. The quiet moments get louder. The empty chair feels bigger.

According to YouGov research for Co-op Funeral Care, 13 million people in the UK who’ve recently lost someone are struggling with loneliness and their mental health this Christmas. Thirteen million. It’s a reminder that grief doesn’t pause just because everyone else is wearing matching pyjamas and drinking mulled wine.

So this is for anyone moving through December with a heavy heart. Grief isn’t neat. It isn’t linear. Your “first” Christmas without someone might feel impossible. Your fortieth might surprise you with a wave you didn’t see coming. There isn’t a right way to feel. There isn’t a wrong one either.

Today I am speaking with Jennie Cashman, about her experience with grief at Christmas and how you can support yourself and others at this time.

Why Aren’t We Talking About This? is a series of honest conversations about the stuff we rarely discuss but probably should - big feelings, weird thoughts, life, death, and all the messy, beautiful parts of being human.

Hosted by me, Carly Osman-Holme, on a quest to dodge a full-blown existential crisis. I’ve reached that point in life where I’m asking the big questions: How did I get here? What do I actually want? And why didn’t they teach us any of this in school?

I’ve been sober for almost three years now-  after a long, grey relationship with alcohol. One that swung between binging and self-loathing. Eventually, the morning-after anxiety just became too much, and I gave up drinking.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t the full-blown reckoning that followed. I hadn’t realised how much of my life was centred around alcohol. Celebrate something? Have a drink. Bad day? Have a drink. Out and about? Let’s get another bottle.

So much of my identity, my fun, my freedom, even my friendships, had become wrapped up in drinking.

Today’s conversation with Helen Masters, founder of Sober AF, we talk about the warped perspective of drinking that we have as a society and how it is very possible to divorce sobriety and fun.

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Why Aren’t We Talking About This? is a series of honest conversations about the stuff we rarely discuss but probably should - big feelings, weird thoughts, life, death, and all the messy, beautiful parts of being human.

Hosted by me, Carly Osman-Holme, on a quest to dodge a full-blown existential crisis. I’ve reached that point in life where I’m asking the big questions: How did I get here? What do I actually want? And why didn’t they teach us any of this in school?

A passing comment at an ultrasound, that I didn’t think anything of to sitting in a conference room years later, going into a full state of panic. Dense breasts. Not a term that I knew anything about, yet, having them increases my chance of getting breast cancer 4-6X, AND breast cancer within dense breasts is often undetectable within regular mammograms, putting women with dense breasts at even higher risk.

Breast Cancer is something that is very present in my life today, with a number of very dear friends having been diagnosed in the last few years. All women in their late 30s, early 40s. 

Todays conversation with Adrian Waller is one that I think all women need to hear. Not to freak anyone out, but to help them understand and advocate for themselves.

All the details about the Micrima breast screening can be found at www.micrima.com

Why Aren’t We Talking About This? is a series of honest conversations about the stuff we rarely discuss but probably should - big feelings, weird thoughts, life, death, and all the messy, beautiful parts of being human.

Hosted by me, Carly Osman-Holme, on a quest to dodge a full-blown existential crisis. I’ve reached that point in life where I’m asking the big questions: How did I get here? What do I actually want? And why didn’t they teach us any of this in school?

GLP-1s are everywhere- whispered at school gates, dissected on Reddit at 2am, dropped casually into brunch chat like everyone suddenly got a medical degree. A year ago most of us had never heard the term. Now it’s Hollywood’s worst-kept secret, the NHS’s newest headache, and the quiet pressure sitting behind half the conversations women have about their bodies.

But beneath the glossy “skinny reveal” culture and celebrity confessions lies a far messier truth. one nobody seems willing to say out loud.

In our conversation, Bertie pulls back the curtain on what GLP-1s really are- the tool, the trap, the cultural tidal wave, and why so many women are stepping into something that feels like salvation, only to discover a silence no one prepared them for.

This isn’t a story about weight loss.

Why Aren’t We Talking About This? is a series of honest conversations about the stuff we rarely discuss but probably should - big feelings, weird thoughts, life, death, and all the messy, beautiful parts of being human.

Hosted by me, Carly Osman-Holme, on a quest to dodge a full-blown existential crisis. I’ve reached that point in life where I’m asking the big questions: How did I get here? What do I actually want? And why didn’t they teach us any of this in school?

When it happened to me, coming up to 5 years ago, I was mortified. Humiliated even. How could it happen to me. I was the person who worked hard, was focused delivered, and yet the business no longer wanted me. Enter shame spiral. I had equated my self worth with my job title.

According to studies 44% of people will get made redundant at som point of their careers, yet despite the likelihood of this happening, redundancy is still shrouded in shame and embarrassment. 

This weeks ‘Why aren’t we talking about this’ episode with Jarrod Cocksedge is talking about Redundancy. How for many people the experience is akin to grief, how LinkedIn is the last place you should be hanging about on and how to use it as a reframe and reset. It’s raw and frank and for anyone who is in the middle of it, hopefully it shall give you some comfort and support.

Why Aren’t We Talking About This? is a series of honest conversations about the stuff we rarely discuss but probably should - big feelings, weird thoughts, life, death, and all the messy, beautiful parts of being human.

Hosted by me, Carly Osman-Holme, on a quest to dodge a full-blown existential crisis. I’ve reached that point in life where I’m asking the big questions: How did I get here? What do I actually want? And why didn’t they teach us any of this in school?

Intuition. I would say mine's pretty strong- whether I actually listen to it is another story.

In today’s episode, I talk with Sim Stevens about intuition: how it looks, how it feels, and how to tell when it’s really intuition talking.

Why Aren’t We Talking About This? is a series of honest conversations about the stuff we rarely discuss but probably should - big feelings, weird thoughts, life, death, and all the messy, beautiful parts of being human.

Hosted by me, Carly Osman-Holme, on a quest to dodge a full-blown existential crisis. I’ve reached that point in life where I’m asking the big questions: How did I get here? What do I actually want? And why didn’t they teach us any of this in school?