
Grief House - Portals
An ongoing exploration of the complexity of being human, through monthly conversations about trust, loss, feelings and perspective.
Episodes
86 episodes
I Am Making You Inside My Head
In this episode of the podcast Sascha and I discuss the nature of reality. We consider the practical appeal of living inside a consensus reality, the value of remembering that real doesn't mean absolute and what it's like when truth...
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33:16

The Reality of Grief - Community Stories from The Portland House
We are thrilled to share our first community stories episode. We look forward to weaving and sharing the experiences of our grief house community members. Our theme this month is perspective and reality - the conversatio...
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33:50

Violet Is Not Waking Up, What Happens Next?
In this special episode I talk with Serena Trexler about her experiences as a death care worker, death rights advocate and green death/human composting engineer. We Discuss Serena's personal relationship with the dead and their bodi...
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45:21

Webs
In this episode Sascha and I talk about webs. We ponder the way they are spun from hunger and instinct. How hope weaves a web, how death works in the weaving. We consider the web from a spider's perspective - how they nev...
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42:50

(No True) Beginnings
In this episode, Sascha and I try to put our fingers on the ache inside beginnings. We wonder about the way life grows out of death, how joy grows alongside sorrow, and whether anything ever really starts for the first time.In an act of...
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54:32

We'll Die Soon (therefore) Look For Miracles
In this episode Sascha and I contemplate miracles, reality and how the two things intersect.We discuss: my father's death and the dog miracles that came in its wake, the delusion/magic weaving Sascha's mother practiced in her l...
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49:11

Prayer For Relief with Krystle May Statler
In this episode Sascha and I talk with Poet (And Grief House board member and collaborator) Krystle May Statler about her brother BJ and her life with and without him since his murder in 2019 by the ...
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47:33

I Trust Us
In this special episode Sascha sits down and talks with Jojo Donovan about trust and invitations. Jojo is good and wise and kind and perfect, as we find her always. Sascha (who is also good and kind and wise and perfect) feels lucky to be in a ...
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55:12

Open Invitation
In this episode Sascha and I talk about how it feels to extend and be offered open invitations. We agree that, from both directions, it is simply the best. We try to figure out what makes it possible to do this glorious, simple thing; consider ...
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48:44

Capacity for Love
In this episode Sascha and I talk with Heather Dorfman about love, grief, and interconnection. Heather tells us how standing trees send water and nutrients to their fallen family and wh...
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51:47

Solving For Love
In this episode Sascha and I discuss long-term relationships, letting go and staying connected, distance and persistence. We explore the idea of our selves as stacking dolls and strata of earth, contemplate forever, and devote ourselves to note...
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51:56

Villain
In this short episode we explore the roles, burdens and responsibilities of heroes, villains and victims. Sascha tells me I'm not the villain I write myself as in the stories in my head, and I begin to believe her.
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32:50

Falling Lessons
In this episode on trust Sascha and I share lessons our mothers taught us about how to fall.We discuss falling well down flights of stairs, fallen cakes, and Mario Brothers' leap-and-falls. We explore the way lessons are taught in commu...
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48:10

Trust Falls with Cheryl Delany, MS, LPC
In this special episode Sascha talks with Cheryl Delany of Bit By Bit Counseling about control, perfectionism, chaos and letting go. They delve into the particular trust fall experienc...
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41:47

Fledging - Par 2 Of A Two Part Series
In part two of this series Sascha and I talk about the concept of fledging more generally: what happens when we're tossed from our nest into inhospitable landscapes? Has the goal always been to send our young ones off to better worlds? What hap...
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1:07:42

Fledging - Part 1 Of A Two Part Series
The two episodes in this series are a recording of a long conversation Sascha and I had whilst sitting in a mountain house in Georgia. Over coffee and tiny supermarket donuts we talked for (literal) hours about our maternal lines: where our mot...
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44:17

Grief House Q's and A's
In this episode Sascha and I respond to some frequently asked (and a few unasked) questions about The Grief House.The sound quality is a little off in this episode. You might ask Q: Laura, did you chose to record this sitting c...
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49:36

Death Companions
In this episode, Sascha, Jana DeCristofaro and I open a discussion with our death companions about how we might spend our final incarnate moments together.Being variously acquainted with/inclined toward the idea of death companions that...
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51:26

Our Mothers' Bodies
In this episode Sascha and I respond to the essay, The Body Of My Mother by Perdita Finn:Tell me about your mother’s body. Her hands and her feet, her belly and ...
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48:23

Disappointment Creatures (starring) Jana DeCristofaro
In this very special episode Sascha, Jana and I introduce ourselves and each other to our disappointment creatures. They are a rag-tag crew, but (in my opinion) overall pretty great. I would send them on any number of missions together.
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51:35

Wild Grief Creature Encounters starring Jana DeCristofaro of the Dougy Center
In this special episode Sascha, Jana DeCristopharo of the Dougy Center and I search out and approach our wild grief creatures. Some of them are lava monsters, some are trapped behind sliding doors. They are vaporous, shocked, frozen and misunde...
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1:03:05

When Harry Met Sally (and by Harry, we mean us and by Sally we mean the endless universe)
In this episode Sasha and I tell our love stories with the universe. When she first caught our eye, our courtship, the rough parts, the different ways we made up and how we feel about each other now. It's a lot like the movie when ...
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1:01:49

Sascha + Laura = LOVE
In this episode (which I accidentally posted unedited the other day, and 14 of you listened to, likely with a feeling of confusion, before Sascha realized what I'd done and fixed it) Sascha and I say I love you to each other, again and again.&n...
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45:36
