Good Grief

Finding a final resting place fro my mom's remains was an incredibly complicated and difficult processes. We had a lot of expectation for how we would feel and how we should feel which lead to a lot of guilt and uncertainty. In this episode we unpack all of this and talk a little about how art theory relates to grief. Enjoy! You can find transcripts and more images from these episodes here: medium.com/@blakeoftoday If you like this episode, please subscribe, share with your friends and give us a positive rating. Want more? follow me @blakeoftoday on all the social medias or just reach out blakeoftoday@gmail.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/good-grief/message

This week is a little different. I explore the passing of my good friend Lara, the tattoos we got together and the history of Japanese and Maori tattoos. This episode deals quite a bit with the feelings experienced when a friendship is estranged when someone passes. I also talk a bit about my failed music career and my years in the Slam poetry scene in LA. You can find transcripts and more images from these episodes here: medium.com/@blakeoftoday If you like this episode, please subscribe, share with your friends and give us a positive rating. Want more? follow me @blakeoftoday on all the social medias or just reach out blakeoftoday@gmail.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/good-grief/message

Being a non-traditional family, my mom and I created our own rituals to figure out how we fit in the world. This week I talk about those as well as taking a deep dive into the significance of rituals for processing grief and understanding our own identity. You can find transcripts and more images from these episodes here: medium.com/@blakeoftoday If you like this episode, please subscribe, share with your friends and give us a positive rating. Want more? follow me @blakeoftoday on all the social medias or just reach out blakeoftoday@gmail.com Music: "The Vowels Pt. 2" Why "Bite The Hand" Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus & boygenius "Bad Things to Such Good People" Manchester Orchestra & Julien Baker "Faded" P.O.S "Something" Julien Baker "Coming Home" Lucero "Velodrome" Dessa --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/good-grief/message

Social media generally, and Facebook specifically, are difficult to navigate when you're processing loss. This episode gets into my first experiences with social media and death over ten years ago, and how it changed the way I processed my mom's passing. This episode also has some helpful information for how you can manage the accounts of a deceased person. You can find transcripts and more images from these episodes here: https://medium.com/@blakeoftoday If you like this episode, please subscribe, share with your friends and give us a positive rating. Want more? follow me @blakeoftoday on all the social medias or just reach out blakeoftoday@gmail.com Music: "Overjoyed" Sapient "Survival Fantasy" "What Will Save You" Kyle Morton "Parallel Jalebi" Four Tet "Carissa" Sun Kill Moon "Dress" "Uncantena" Sylvan Esso "Stardust" Petal "Get Out the Car" Aesop Rock --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/good-grief/message

Funerals are hard, and as an increasingly secular society we have moved farther away from the traditions of honoring the dead, shielding ourselves from these really uncomfortable moments. In this episode I talk about my mom's memorial service and both of her weddings, as well as some useful information about what to expect in the last days of a terminally ill person's life. If you like this episode, please subscribe, share with your friends and give us a positive rating. Want more? follow me @blakeoftoday on all the social medias or just reach out blakeoftoday@gmail.com Music in this episode: Gang of Youths, "Atlas Drowned" Petal, "I'm Sorry" The National, "Vanderlyle Crybaby Greeks" Broke for Free, "As Colorful as Ever" Julien Baker, "Something" Gang of Youths, "Go Farther in Lightness" Sun Kill Moon, "I Can't Live Without My Mother's Love" (Sandy) Alex G, "Sportstar" Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/good-grief/message

My mom and I were both endorphin junkies, and this episode unpacks our bond as well as the chemical processes that your brain experiences when you exercise. Specifically I talk a lot about how and why exercise is a powerful antidepressant, and how I used it cope with my grief. This episode also goes into a lot of detail about catharsis and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. If you like this episode, please subscribe, share with your friends and give us a positive rating. Want more? follow me @blakeoftoday on all the social medias or just reach out blakeoftoday@gmail.com A full transcript of this episode can be found here: https://medium.com/@blakeoftoday/good-grief-episode-four-catharsis-56c071d1eeb4 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/good-grief/message

In this episode address the process of notifying my mom's estranged friends and family of her passing. The episode admittedly gets pretty heady and deep into some barstool philosophy, but this is how I was actually processing this task, so, like everything on this podcast, know that it was, if nothing else, very real. If you like this episode, please subscribe, share with your friends and give us a positive rating. Want more? follow me @blakeoftoday on all the social medias or just reach out blakeoftoday@gmail.com Find a full transcript of this episode here: https://medium.com/@blakeoftoday/good-grief-episode-three-schr%C3%B6dingers-cat-5970fc4c55d5 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/good-grief/message

As humans, the way we make and process memories is haphazard at best. When you are processing a particularly traumatic experience, the death of a parent in my case, your brain does all kinds of crazy tricks to protect you by masking or hiding some of these memories. In this episode I explore some of these common faults and walk you through my own experiences with them. ----- Here is a link to the playlist mentioned at the end of the episode: https://open.spotify.com/user/spotifyblake/playlist/3mJjonOE5OiAn0NLJtR8KR?si=s4PRJPemQ4aASCNUcJT7vA Find a transcript of this episode here: https://medium.com/@blakeoftoday/good-grief-episode-two-nostalgia-f7dd9482131b --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/good-grief/message

Insomnia is one of the more common side effects of grief, it's also a weird condition that I shared with my mom. In this episode I talk about my experiences with insomnia and grief....and picking up on baristas when I was a younger man. If you like this episode, please subscribe, share with your friends and give us a positive rating. Want more? Follow me @blakeoftoday on all the social medias or just reach out blakeoftoday@gmail.com You can also read a transcript of this episode here: https://medium.com/@blakeoftoday/good-grief-episode-one-insomnia-d3126bd3ae73 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/good-grief/message

On January 14th 2018, I lost my mom to a very brief but brutal fight with lung cancer. She was 57. A few weeks prior we were binge watching “Cheapest Weddings” on Netflix and eating turkey burgers together, a lot of people say this but we really didn’t see it coming. This podcast is my personal journal, processing mechanism, and an attempt to bring the conversation about mourning and loss to the forefront of our zeitgeist. If you like this episode, please subscribe, share with your friends and give us a positive rating. Want more? follow me @blakeoftoday on all the social medias or just reach out blakeoftoday@gmail.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/good-grief/message