Episode One: Defining Grief in America
We speak to grief experts, psychologists, sociologists, and researchers on grief, trauma, and loss to define grief and loss and their many manifestations. We outline how the American experience of grief is unique and how other cultures may be different. We set the stage for the explorations of grief and the impact of NOT addressing it, particularly in a post-Covid age — and how the truth about grief may look completely different from what we think it to be.
GUESTS:
George A. Bonanno
George A. Bonanno is a Professor of Clinical Psychology and Chair of the Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology at Columbia University's Teachers College. He has researched different kinds of potentially traumatic events, such as a terrorist attack, disaster, war, assault, life-threatening injury, and bio-epidemic, but also other demanding experiences, such as bereavement, divorce, and job loss. His research has repeatedly challenged conventional wisdom by demonstrating that human beings are typically highly resilient to these events.
Natalia Skritskaya
A researcher and clinical psychologist who was a member of the team that started the Center for Complicated Grief at Columbia University. Natalia is a cognitive-behavioral therapist who has been involved in research on complicated grief for a decade with a particular interest in the role of maladaptive thoughts. Her research is focused on real life issues and she maintains an active clinical practice focused on complicated grief.
KEY QUESTIONS:
How does truth reveal itself in grief?
How much does reconciliation have to do with processing grief? Are they the same?
Does restitution have to do with grief?
How much does honoring our grief have to do with our future?
What can we learn from other places — South Africa, Germany — and how their culture has shifted by honoring grief?
How do we draw from our cultures to create a new Mash-Up American grief practice?
RESOURCES:
The American Workplace Isn’t Prepared for This Much Grief • The Atlantic
Dr. Alan Wolfelt Opens Center for Naturally Complicated Grief • Center for Loss
Good Grief: Is there a better way to be bereaved? • The New Yorker
America's lack of bereavement leave is still causing a grief crisis • Business Insider
Our Strange, Unsettled History of Mourning • The New Yorker
The Dark Side of the Houseplant Boom • The Atlantic
Why Americans Can’t Cope with Trauma • Foreign Policy
Grief in the Covid Era Will Weigh on the American Psyche for Years to Come • Stat News
We Need More Time to Mourn • The Awl
Death, American Style • Psychology Today
Migratory Grief: The Atlantic
Grief and the American Workplace • Zeff Law Firm
WHITE PAPERS:
CREDITS:
Grief, Collected is a production of The Mash-Up Americans. Executive produced by Amy S. Choi and Rebecca Lehrer. Senior editor and producer is Sara Pellegrini. Development Producer is Dupe Oyebolu. Production manager Shelby Sandlin. Original music composed by The Brothers Tang. Sound design support by Pedro Rafael Rosado. Website design by Rebecca Fernandez. Grief, Collected was supported in part by a grant from The Pop Culture Collaborative.