Great Grief

Welcome to Season 3 of Great Grief . In this episode, I sit with the word “loss.” What does it mean to lose something? A bag. A job. A sense of direction. A beloved. What does it mean to feel lost yourself? Through...

Welcome to Season 3 of Great Grief! This season I’m listening closely—to stories, songs, and the quiet places where grief lives beneath the surface. In this opening episode, I share ancestral stories of my grandmother...

December has been calling all year long. This holiday offering from Great Grief is an invitation to pause, to listen, and to remember what the heart craves — belonging, rest, and communion with spirit. Featuring a...

Grief comes to live with us all eventually, and she needs no invitation. In this bonus holiday episode of Great Grief , Nnenna Freelon appreciates the quiet moments shared in the kitchen with her late father and wonders...

Grief cannot tell time. She comes and goes as she pleases. In this bonus holiday episode of Great Grief , Nnenna Freelon remembers the lessons of her grandmother, honors those we've lost, and holds space for our holiday...

The festive season carries such a high expectation of joy that can feel inaccessible for so many grievers. In this previously-recorded live edition of Great Grief , Nnenna Freelon gathers with community to create a warm...

How do we communicate with those who have “gone?” Is it even possible? In this episode of Great Grief , Nnenna Freelon sets about asking the moon, the sun, and even the leaves how she might get in touch with her beloved...

Grief can take us to our knees—right back to the dirt, dust, and the earth, from which all things grow. In this episode of Great Grief , Nnenna Freelon consults Mother Nature—and a Black woman hemp farmer—to lean into...

In this episode of Great Grief , we follow Nnenna Freelon on a walk through the woods, where she contemplates autumn, the changing of the seasons, and the possibility of renewal after everything dies. Read a transcript...

Great Grief with Nnenna Freelon , season 2: "Seasons of Change," launches November 28, 2023. The seasons are changing, an apt metaphor to talk about the shedding, withering, and falling away that accompanies the most...

The podcast Great Grief takes shape around Nnenna’s own great grief, which she experienced after the death of her husband, Philip Freelon, in 2019. A wife for nearly 40 years, Nnenna wonders in this episode what to make...

Our relationship with our hair is a complicated entanglement. It holds our history, personality, and identity. It also holds our grief. In this episode, "Hairstory," Nnenna sits us down in the chair at her mother’s...

No woman makes it through life without a sister. In grieving the death of her baby sister, Nnenna alights on all the ways Black women experience sisterhood. Through faith, family, and struggle, we inhabit a deep...

Grief is a woman with plenty to say. This shape-shifting step-sister of ours wasn’t originally a part of the plan, but now she is coming with—no choice there. But did you know you also have the ability to shape your...

Grief is your shape-shifting step-sister. While she wasn't originally part of the plan, now she is coming with—no choice there. In order to shape your grief, you must first be willing to meet her where she lives. With...