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Best Overall Podcast - 2024 Ear Worthy
True stories of healing, grief, and starting over.
A grief and healing podcast. Host Matt Gilhooly has honest conversations with real people about sudden loss, trauma, and the moment their lives split into before and after. New episodes every Wednesday and Sunday.
Start Here
New here? These six are a good place to begin.
11
May 24, 2022
The Dichotomy of Grief - My Story | Matt Gilhooly
In this episode, we flipped the script so I could tell my story. Throughout the first batch of episodes, the guests (and listeners) asked when I would tell my story. So, in this episode, my first guest, Christin Lindley, leads the conversation as I share the pivotal moments that shaped my life and eventually led to The Life Shift podcast.
259
June 24, 2026
Adoption: The Chapter You Thought Was Finished
Adoption, Identity, and Finding Home
207
Oct. 7, 2025
Sally McQuillen on Carrying Her Son’s Light Forward After His Death
Psychotherapist and author Sally McQuillen shares her journey of sobriety, child loss, and finding gratitude while carrying her son’s light forward.
234
Feb. 17, 2026
Grief: Making Something Beautiful From What Broke
A quiet conversation about learning to stay open and find meaning when life moves you through loss and change.
245
May 6, 2026
Part of Me Died That Day: Learning to Live After the Worst Day of Your Life
Stephen Panus lost his 16-year-old son Jake in a sudden accident. This conversation explores grief, forgiveness, guilt, and what it means to keep walking when part of you didn’t survive.
275
Aug. 19, 2026
147 Days: Raising and Losing My Sister
A woman who became a parent at twenty two learns that loving someone completely, and losing them, means grieving out loud and finding your center again.
Recent Episodes
298
Nov. 8, 2026
Widowed After 45 Years: How Writing Gave Me a Reason to Get Up
Have you ever had an ordinary afternoon that turned out to be one of the most important of your life? Pam was 38, living a life she calls a blessing, with a loving husband, great friends, and a house that was always ready for the next party. Then one afternoon around her pool, she got to know her younger brother as an adult for the very first time. Less than three weeks later, he was gone. That was the first of many losses. Her brother, her mom, her dad, and then Jim, the husband who walked be
297
Nov. 4, 2026
Time: When My Father Said It Just Went So Fast
Jennifer Griffith learned at 13 to carry her family's silence. Hear how her father's last words sent her to the page at 42, and what it took to finally write the book.
296
Nov. 1, 2026
Belonging: Leaving the Only Life I Had Ever Known
Margaret Eastman Smith left the movement she was born into at 35 and drove to Boston to start over. Hear what she kept and what she left behind.
295
Oct. 28, 2026
Letting Go: The Afternoon My Mother Said It Was Time
Oliver Christen came home for one year and stayed. Hear how he supported his mother at the end of her life and what it taught him about letting go.
294
Oct. 25, 2026
She Woke Up Paralyzed on Her Honeymoon & Finally Questioned Her Checklist Life
Charu Moorjani woke on her honeymoon unable to lift a croissant. Hear how that morning cracked open a checklist life and led her back to herself.
293
Oct. 21, 2026
Undercover Cop with a Deathwish, and the Man With Grief Behind Him
Former Queensland detective Todd Maguire spent years undercover as "Donny" trying to outrun grief. Here's how a memoir and his own family finally brought him back.
292
Oct. 18, 2026
Forty Seizures in Six Weeks: Learning to Stop Hiding
Travis White hid his seizures and depression for fifteen years. A 2024 crisis and a call to 988 finally pushed him toward the help that changed everything.
291
Oct. 14, 2026
Stranded at Sea When the World Shut Down
After surviving an assault in her first months in Los Angeles, Angela Harger Thompson said yes to sailing the Pacific with no experience, got stranded at sea when COVID shut the world down, and came home knowing she no longer had to wait to be chosen.
290
Oct. 11, 2026
Just Call Him: Estrangement, Grief, and the Father I'll Never Fully Know
Poet Brittany Perham stopped talking to her alcoholic father for almost 15 years. After he died, she learned he'd named her executor of a deeply indebted estate.
Recent Blog Posts
Nov. 8, 2026
How to Use Writing as a Grief Journal After Losing a Spouse
Writing through grief can provide a vital anchor when the loss of a spouse of 45 years leaves your daily routine shattered. This guide explores how putting pen to paper offers a concrete reason to get out of bed, helps process complex trauma, and tr…
Nov. 4, 2026
How to Leave Tech Sales and Finally Write the Book You've Put Off for Years
Leaving a stable career in technology sales to pursue a lifelong dream of writing a book is a daunting transition, especially after spending decades hiding family secrets and playing the role of the grown-up. This guide explores the exact mindset sh…
Nov. 1, 2026
Starting Over at 35: How to Leave Everything You Know and Build a Life From Scratch
Starting over at 35 without a map, a template, or a safety net requires stripping away decades of inherited expectations to discover who you truly are beneath the roles you were handed. When you walk away from the only life you have ever known, the …