Jessica McBee Gardner - The Ugly Parts of Grief

Betsy Kaplan - Tragedy and Chaos

This week on Ghosted, I’m joined by Betsy for a conversation about grief, healing, and learning to hold two truths at once. After losing her dad to suicide and navigating the chaos of loving someone struggling with alcoholism, Betsy shares how she built Grief, Sweat & Tears into a movement and community for grievers everywhere. We talk about radical acceptance, honoring complicated relationships, carrying grief into major life moments like her wedding, and how she’s found herself in the happiest season of her life while still deeply grieving her dad. This episode is honest, nuanced, heartbreaking, hopeful and such a special conversation about what it means to love, lose, and keep living.

Jessica McBee Gardner - The Ugly Parts of Grief

This week on Ghosted, Jessica shares an incredibly honest conversation about grief, mental health, and what it means to keep going after unimaginable loss. Within the last six years, Jessica lost her mom, dad, and brother. In this episode, she opens up about each loss, the anxiety and emotional weight that followed, and the ugly parts of grief that people don’t talk about enough. She also vulnerably shares her experience spending time in a mental health facility and how grief can impact every part of your life. This conversation is raw, transparent, heartbreaking, and hopeful all at once. It’s a reminder that struggling does not make you broken, and even in the darkest moments, there is still a way through. More than anything, this episode beautifully honors Jessica’s family while shining a light on mental health and the reality of living with grief.

Carys Anderson-Jones - Beyond The Surface

In this episode of Ghosted [https://www.instagram.com/ghostedbygrief/?utm_source=chatgpt.com], we go beyond the surface. Cary opens up about losing his brother to suicide and how that loss changed the way he views mental health, relationships, and the conversations we avoid having. Together, we talk about grief, vulnerability, the pressure to say “I’m fine,” and why honest connection matters more than ever. This conversation is raw, emotional, and a reminder that healing starts when we stop keeping everything at surface level.

Riki Zahn - Making Healing Cool

Riki lost her dad at eleven. At the time, all she wanted was to feel normal again. In this episode, we talk about what it’s like to grow up with grief and how that experience evolves as you do. What felt confusing and isolating as kids shows up differently in adulthood, in friendships, relationships, and the way we process emotions. We get honest about the tragedy of losing our dads young, the pressure to “be okay,” and the things people say (and shouldn’t say) when someone is grieving. Riki also shares how she turned her pain into purpose through After Hours Club, creating spaces where mental health feels accessible, real, and even… cool. This is a conversation about loss, but also about growth, connection, and what it means to rebuild something beautiful from it.

Kara Sheinman - Moment for Marc

Kara spent three years as her dad’s primary caregiver as he battled a rare neurological disease, grieving him long before he was gone. In this episode, she shares what it was like to love someone through a slow loss: watching him lose different parts of himself, while caregiving became her entire identity. We talk about anticipatory grief, the weight and meaning of being a caregiver, and the disorienting question of who you are when that role suddenly ends. Kara reflects on honoring her dad at her wedding by playing drums like he once did, and how her experience led her to create Moments by Kara. continuing to make meaningful moments in his memory. This episode is about love, identity, and the kind of grief that unfolds over time.