May 28, 2021

Good Grief!

So many of us, we don’t want to think about death. We avoid grieving when we lose someone, distract ourselves, look away. In this episode, at a moment when so many families are mourning, we have stories of people figuring out how they’ll grieve, and doing a pretty good job of it.

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Transcript

Note: The internet version of this episode contains un-beeped curse words. BEEPED VERSION.

Prologue

Ira talks with comedian Rob Delany, who suffered the worst kind of loss a parent can endure — the death of his two-year-old son, Henry. Rob describes what his grief has been like and what he’s learned from it. (11 minutes)

By

Ira Glass

Act One

Goodbye Mr. Facey

Producer Chana Joffe-Walt wondered what it was like for surviving MTA employees coping with the loss of their co-workers due to Covid-19. She met one in particular who’s had a hard time saying goodbye. (12 minutes)

Here's the memorial video the transit authority in New York City made to remember its workers who died from COVID.

By

Chana Joffe-Walt

Act Two

When It Rains

Producer Sean Cole has, unfortunately, experienced something known as “cumulative grief” this year. He writes about the multiple upheavals he’s been dealing with. (13 minutes)

By

Sean Cole

Act Three

The Caretaker

Producer Bim Adewunmi travels to the site in Minneapolis where George Floyd was murdered by a police officer. It’s become a huge, make-shift memorial, big enough to absorb the grief of all-comers who wish to pay homage. (10 minutes)

By

Bim Adewunmi

Aviva DeKornfeld

Act Four

All My Love

One of the 590,000 casualties of U.S. Covid-19 this year was Leiah Danielle Jones. She was one of the “long haulers,” and she died in March 2021. But not before writing her own obituary. (7 minutes)

Song:

“The Other Side” by Judith Hill

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