Grief is a Language ™ with John Onwuchekwa

13: When Grief Has Nowhere to Go: Beleaf on Losing His Sister and the Grief He Didn't Know How to Carry

What do you do when grief keeps showing up long after the funeral is over? In this deeply moving episode of Grief Is A Language, Beleaf Mel joins host John Onwuchekwa fo

Why “Sorry for Your Loss” Isn't Always What Someone Grieving Needs

What do you say to someone who's grieving when no words seem right? In this segment of Grief Is A Language, John Onwuchekwa, Dave Barnes, and James Roberson explore why t

12: How to Communicate With Someone Who's Grieving: The Power of Listening, Laughter & Presence

What do you say when someone is grieving and there are no words that can make it better? On today’s episode, John Onwuchekwa sits down with comedian Dave Barnes and past

Generational Grief: How Do You Understand the Pain Your Family Never Talked About?

What do we lose when we know what our parents lived through, but not how they felt while living through it? Rich reflects on his mother’s cancer, his parents’ immigration

11: Grief Is a Written Language: How Putting Loss Into Words Can Help Us Process It

What happens when grief is too complicated to say out loud? In Part 2 of Grief is a Language™ conversation with Dave, Rich Perez, and James Roberson, they explore grief

How to Listen When Grief Speaks Through Your Body

Grief does not always arrive as words. Sometimes it shows up as exhaustion, tears, tension, or a body that simply refuses to keep pushing. In this conversation, John and

10: Grief Is a Body Language: Why Loss Can Feel Like Exhaustion, Anxiety and Shutdown

What if your body knows you’re grieving before you do? In this Part 1 episode, John Onwuchekwa sits down with Dave, Rich Perez, and James Roberson for a deeply honest co

Tembi Locke on the Grief You Can’t Escape and the Beauty You Can Create

Tembi Locke shares how widowhood changed her relationship with grief and inspired From Scratch. Using grief as a rock in the road, she explains why she stopped trying to

9: When a Writer Can’t Find the Words for Grief: From Scratch Author Tembi Locke on Widowhood

In this episode of Grief Is A Language, John Onwuchekwa sits down with Tembi Locke for a beautiful conversation about grief, language, memory, writing, love, and the slow

Why We Police Our Own Emotions While Grieving

Grief and joy are often treated like opposite emotions, but what if they can exist at the same time? John Onwuchekwa and Jessica Hurley unpack the “shoulds” we place on g

8: Anticipatory Grief: Learning to Live While You’re Waiting for Loss with Jessica Hurley

In this deeply reflective episode of Grief Is A Language™, John Onwuchekwa is joined by EPYC Media Network’s founder and producer Jessica Hurley for a conversation about

She Hid Her Pregnancy for 20 Years. Here’s What Shame Did to Her Identity | Dr. Zoe Shaw

Psychotherapist Dr. Zoe Shaw shares how becoming pregnant at 15, being sent away to a pregnancy home, and hiding the adoption of her first daughter shaped decades of comp

7: Complex Shame™: How Unprocessed Grief and Guilt Shape Your Identity with Dr. Zoe Shaw

Grief is like a shadow that follows you, waiting to meet you when you think you've outrun it. In this pilot episode of Grief is a language, host John Onwuchekwa welcomes

Why This Hospital Chaplain Stopped Trying to Fix People’s Grief

Hospital chaplain Joon Park explains how to support someone who is grieving without trying to fix their pain. He and John explore why grief has no timeline, how well-inte

6: What Witnessing 1,000 Deaths Taught Hospital Chaplain Joon Park About Grief, Faith and Loneliness

Some people catch dreams, but others catch grief — holding space for pain, honoring loss, and ensuring no one suffers alone. Today, host John welcomes Joon Park, a hospi

Why Grieving People Want You to Ask About the Person They Lost

What happens when the smallest detail suddenly reminds you that someone is gone? In this segment of Grief Is A Language™, Natalie and John explore the sharpness of absenc

5: Compounded Grief: Coping With Multiple Losses and the Numbness of Grief with Natalie Lauren Sims

On today’s episode, John Onwuchekwa sits down with Natalie Lauren Sims to explore what grief actually feels like when loss comes in waves. From losing multiple family mem

Trip Lee on Chronic Illness, Ambiguous Grief and Feeling Alone

John Onwuchekwa and Trip Lee explore how the brain learns to live after loss and why chronic illness creates a uniquely lonely kind of grief. Trip opens up about grieving

4: Intangible & Tangible Grief: Trip Lee on His Chronic Fatigue Diagnosis, Losing His Father, and the Life He Thought He'd Live

Grief, chronic illness, and unshakable resilience—this powerful episode dives into Trip’s raw 18-year journey with chronic fatigue syndrome.  Today, John Onwuchekwa sits

Why Your Brain Still Expects the Person You Lost with Dr. Mary-Frances O'Connor

Why does your brain still expect someone after they die? Grief neuroscientist Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor explains how the grieving brain processes loss, why loved ones bec