All There Is with Anderson Cooper

This episode, the season finale, is a reminder that none of us is alone in our grief. Anderson shares some of the thousands of extraordinarily moving voicemail messages he's received from listeners. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Charlie Shelin was an exceptionally bright child who worked hard for years to keep the dark thoughts in his head from consuming him. In this moving conversation, his dad, Randy, talks with Anderson about Charlie's mental health struggles and the layers of grief their family has lived with for years.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shamayim Harris, known in Detroit as Mama Shu, knows all too well the pain of loss. In 2007 her 2-year-old son Jakobi Ra was killed in a hit and run accident, and in 2021 her other son Chinyelu was murdered. Mama Shu talks with Anderson about how she worked hard to, in her words, “turn my grief into glory and my loss into love.” Focusing on one block in her neighborhood, she began cleaning up blighted properties and has created the non-profit Avalon Village, which aims to be a safe and welcoming space for kids in her community. “This is grief,” she tells Anderson, “it just looks beautiful.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When best-selling author Nicole Chung's adoptive parents died, she felt all alone. Her family had unraveled, and there was no one else who remembered what she was like as a little girl. Nicole speaks with Anderson about carrying her parents' memories alone and the search for her birth parents, which led to a series of surprising discoveries. You can call and leave a message at: (917) 727-6818. We'd especially like to hear if there's something that you've learned in your grief that might help others.

When Naomi Judd died by suicide in 2022, after a long struggle with mental illness, her daughter Ashley found her. In this deeply moving, revealing, and insightful conversation Ashley Judd talks about the trauma she has worked hard to face, the grief she now feels, and how her mother's spirit is still very much alive in her life.

The podcast is taking a short break, new episodes of All There Is will return January 10th. In the meantime, we are sharing Anderson's powerful conversation with Stephen Colbert from the first season of the podcast. Can we learn to love the things we most wish had never happened? Can we really become grateful for grief? Heartbreak? The deaths of loved ones? Stephen believes we can and explains why and how. It is a deeply moving, thought-provoking, and at times funny conversation that Anderson says has had a major impact on his life.

Amanda Petrusich, a talented writer for The New Yorker who often covers music, lost her husband, Bret Stetka, suddenly in 2022. Their daughter, Nico, was just 13 months old. Amanda talks with Anderson about grieving an unexpected loss, while navigating life as a single parent. They also explore the constantly changing nature of grief, the role music has played for Amanda and how she talks about Bret with her daughter.

Katie Talman, was grieving an unimaginable loss when she left a message for Anderson Cooper, one of more than a thousand voicemails he received from podcast listeners. Anderson called Katie back at her home in Texas and she agreed to share her story. When Katie was 23 weeks pregnant, her daughter Everly died. “Nothing could have prepared me to deliver a stillborn baby,” Katie says. The grief over her daughter's death, the silence in the delivery room, the inability of some in her life to understand or even acknowledge the depth of her pain - Katie and Everly's story is a moving testament to a family's love and a mom's courage in the face of the greatest loss.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“You gotta come home, there's been an accident.” It was 1972 when Joe Biden heard the news that changed his life forever: his wife Neilia and 13-month-old daughter Naomi were killed in a car crash. Decades later his beloved son Beau died of cancer. In this deeply personal interview President Biden reveals how he has found solace in his grief and learned to search for purpose beyond his pain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grief doesn't just go away, no matter how hard we may want it to. So how can we live with it and learn from it? These are the questions Anderson Cooper struggles to answer after the first season of All There Is ends. Anderson spends months playing more than 1000 unheard voicemail messages about grief from podcast listeners, and once again finds himself in his basement surrounded by boxes, full of letters, photos and objects that belonged to his late father, mother, and brother. He also talks with psychotherapist and author Francis Weller, whose book “The Wild Edge of Sorrow” gives him hope. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do we ever move on from grief, or do we just learn to live with it? In Season 2 of All There Is, Anderson Cooper continues his deeply personal journey to understand his own feelings of grief in all its complexities, and in moving and honest discussions, learn from others who've experienced life-altering losses. All There Is with Anderson Cooper is about the people we lose, the people left behind, and how we can live on – with loss and with love. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anderson is pleased to present the first episode of Audie Cornish's new podcast: The Assignment... but first a conversation on the intimacy of podcasting with Audie and Anderson.Fiery Twitter threads and endless news notifications never capture the full story. Each week on The Assignment, host Audie Cornish pulls listeners out of their digital echo chambers to hear from the people who live the headlines. From the sex work economy to the battle over what's taught in classrooms, no topic is off the table. You can find The Assignment wherever you get your podcasts.To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

Anderson shares poignant and profound messages from listeners and reflects on the conversations he's had during the first season of the podcast.To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

Writer and poet Elizabeth Alexander talks with Anderson about how she and her two children coped with the sudden death of her husband, Ficre, ten years ago, and the recent death of her father.To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

Artist and composer Laurie Anderson reflects on the death of her husband, rock legend Lou Reed and also her beloved dog Lolabelle. She talks with Anderson about grief and the unexpected feelings she has experienced surrounding loss.To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

Filmmaker Kirsten Johnson lost her mother to Alzheimer's in 2007, now her father has dementia, and is disappearing before her eyes. As Kirsten struggles with grief over the inevitable loss of her father, she finds ways to celebrate his life and get closer to him. She tells Anderson it's never too late to get to know someone you love more deeply even after they are gone.To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

When Molly Shannon was four, her mother, baby sister and cousin were killed in a car crash. Her father was at the wheel. Growing up, few people ever spoke with her about her grief. She and Anderson explore how early loss shaped both their lives, and propelled them forward in unexpected ways.To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

In this deeply personal episode, Anderson reflects on the suicide of his brother, Carter, and the impact that loss still has on his life today. Anderson is joined by Dr. BJ Miller, a hospice and palliative care physician whose sister, Lisa, died by suicide. BJ brings exceptional wisdom to a difficult conversation and suggests some surprising ways to think about sadness and grief. This episode contains discussions of suicide. If you or someone you love is struggling, call the national suicide and crisis lifeline at 988.To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

Can we learn to love the things we most wish had never happened? Can we really become grateful for grief? Heartbreak? The deaths of loved ones? Stephen Colbert believes we can, and sits down with Anderson to explain why and how. It is a deeply moving, thought-provoking, and at times funny conversation that Anderson says has had a major impact on his life.To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

Alone in his late mother, Gloria Vanderbilt's apartment, Anderson begins recording his thoughts and memories as he packs up her things. He makes some unexpected discoveries while sorting through boxes of love letters, journals, and cherished keepsakes. Feeling isolated and alone in his grief, Anderson reaches out to a close friend of his mother, who joins him to share insights about her and suggestions about what to do with the things she left behind.To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

Anderson Cooper takes us on a deeply personal exploration of loss and grief. He starts recording while packing up the apartment of his late mother Gloria Vanderbilt. Going through her journals and keepsakes, as well as things left behind by his father and brother, Cooper begins a series of emotional and moving conversations about the people we lose, the things they leave behind, and how to live on - with loss, with laughter, and with love.   To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy