GRIEF AND LIGHT™ Podcast

This space was created for you by someone who gets it: the grief, the foundation-shattering reality, and the very human question of what the heck do we do with the shattered pieces of life and loss around us?

Grief is not something to fix. It needs expression, loving witnessing, tending, and integration.

This space is for you whether you're navigating your own grief or trying to better understand someone you love who is grieving, and how to show up for them.

Grief and Light™ is a 3x award-winning, independent podcast fostering a more grief-informed, hopeful world, one honest conversation at a time. Now in its fifth season, with 130+ episodes and new conversations every Tuesday, the show explores the many ways loss changes us, from the feelings and secondary losses we don't always anticipate to questions of identity, meaning, and what it looks like to keep living when life as we knew it has changed.

Hosted by Nina Rodriguez, a grief-informed guide and sibling loss survivor, the podcast features solo episodes and conversations with first-hand experiencers, authors, and professionals across psychology, medicine, research, film, advocacy, and beyond. Season 5 widens the lens further, welcoming changemakers working across advocacy, technology, and organizational leadership to explore how we navigate uncertainty, change, and the world we're living in.

Grief and Light began with my brother Yosef. He was my only sibling, and he died suddenly in 2019, one day after we celebrated his 32nd birthday. As I searched for information and conversations that could help me make sense of grief, I was struck by how little there seemed to be in the public discourse. I wanted more honest conversations, more curiosity, and fewer platitudes. So I decided to create the space I wished I could find.

Since launching on March 30, 2023, Grief and Light has grown into an award-winning podcast recognized by the Signal Awards, Ear Worthy, TalkDeath, Women Who Podcast, and others. What began as a personal search for understanding has become part of a bigger mission: helping us get better at something we're all going to experience.

"Grief-fluency is a life-affirming skill that most of us were never taught. I'm working to change that." ~ Nina Rodriguez

We live in a grief-averse, grief-illiterate culture. Through the podcast, speaking engagements, workshops, writing, and facilitated conversations, I work to make grief more speakable, support more grief-informed workplaces and spaces, and help people navigate loss without rushing, fixing, or pretending.

This isn't about finding a silver lining or turning pain into a lesson. It's about making room for the full human experience, where grief and joy can coexist, where hope doesn't require us to bypass the hard parts, and where we can find meaning on our own terms.

My hope is that you leave these conversations feeling a little more understood, a little more equipped with language for what you're experiencing, and a little more curious about how we can show up for ourselves and one another.

Because to grieve fully is to live fully.

• Watch or listen: griefandlight.com/podcast
• Resting Grief Face | Newsletter
• Substack

“We're all just walking each other home.” — Ram Dass

Thank you for being here.

We're in this together.

Nina Rodriguez, Yosef's Sister

WRITER | SPEAKER | PODCASTER

Founder x host, Grief-informed guide | Grief and Light™