I missed you, and I hope you missed me too! Drumroll, please…we are coming back with a 3rd Season on Mother’s Day! Yay. I can't wait for you to get to meet all of these amazing humans. So many stories, people to learn from...and a big reminder that you are not alone in this journey. We got you and we GET you!  This show is for you, the living.  I can't wait to talk to you soon. And remember, our summer Mother's Grave Retreat is June 8-11, 2023 and all the information on how to register, or donate to help someone else attend, is right here (https://danablack.org/retreat)! We hope you will join us at the lake!  You can also sign up for our Mother's Grave newsletter at our website (https://danablack.org/podcast), or follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mothersgravepodcast/?hl=en) for more photos and behind the scenes podcast content.   Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Welcome to the last episode of Season 2! Yay! Do you believe that someone can love more than one person during their lifetime? Do you ever wonder what your parent’s sexual history or desires were? Are you curious about how to talk to your own young daughters about intimacy and sex and pleasure? Are you craving hearing a guest play guitar during a podcast interview? Well then we have the conversation for you! Cory Goodrich is an actor, singer, musician, songwriter, painter, mother, and the writer of a poignantly funny, forgiving, warm, and honest memoir called Folksong: A Ballad of Death, Discovery, and DNA. Cory seemed to always be curious about whether or not the man who raised her was her actual biological father, and after her mother died she found letters and a photograph that proved her greatest fears. In her memoir, Cory writes “Like my mother, I have things to erase. I am not a bastard. I am a love child. I am their child, borne and shaped by their love.” Thanks for being here! This show isn’t just about our moms, it’s about us. Sign up for all the latest news around this podcast, and see behind the scenes content on our website (https://danablack.org/podcast). AND the next Mother's Grave retreat is LIVE. Come attend this incredible experience on the water from June 8-11, 2023. Join us for community, story sharing, healing, levity, friendship and rest. More info about this life changing retreat can be found ⁠here!⁠ (https://danablack.org/retreat) Follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mothersgravepodcast/). Links mentioned in the episode: https://righttoknow.us - Great website with lots of info on NPEs and Late Discovery adoption. They have a list of counselors and other classes. https://corygoodrich.com/book - Cory’s website and a link to buy her book, Folksong: A Ballad of Death, Discovery, and DNA https://music.apple.com/us/album/long-way-around/1577281366 - Cory’s full album Long Way Around. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Today, it’s just you and me in front of a crackling fire talking about holidays past, American Girl Dolls, and inherited objects that are heavy literally AND figuratively. Grab a cup of hot cocoa, put on a warm robe and let’s process some grief around the holidays and reminisce together. Happy holidays, to you and yours … however you celebrate.  Thanks for being here! This show isn’t just about our moms, it’s about us. Sign up for all the latest news around this podcast, and see behind the scenes content on our website (https://danablack.org/podcast). Follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mothersgravepodcast/). Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

This episode features my first pair of siblings! Billy and his sister Evelyn are actually half siblings, and they grew up in Texas. Their mother was raised a missionary kid, became a beloved math teacher, loved to travel, had a cackle that could cut thru the room, birthed a mini version of herself in her daughter Evelyn, and was taken from this life way too soon, and eclipsed way too often during her lifetime, and beyond. Billy and Evelyn want to make sure their mother doesn’t get eclipsed ever again, and that she is forever “known.” Thanks for being here! This show isn’t just about our moms, it’s about us. Sign up for all the latest news around this podcast, and see behind the scenes content on our website (https://danablack.org/podcast). AND the next Mother's Grave retreat is LIVE. Come attend this incredible experience on the water from June 8-11, 2023. Join us for community, story sharing, healing, levity, friendship and rest. More info about this life changing retreat can be found here! (https://danablack.org/retreat) Follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mothersgravepodcast/). Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

This episode’s guest is Rachel Matlow, a producer, audio content creator, and writer based in Canada. They created one of my favorite audio pieces ever, “Dead Mom Talking,” which won the Third Coast International Audio Festival Best New Artist award in 2016. I discovered the piece in 2021 and haven’t stopped thinking and telling people about it since. As Rachel’s mother was dying, Rachel recorded the two of them as they binge-watched TV, traded dark humor, and talked. That way, months after their mom’s death, Rachel could sneak in one more conversation with the person they needed to hear from the most. In this episode, we talk about loving our mothers despite their decisions around medical care, how it’s important to get your end of life AND after death party plans in order. We chat about Rachel’s memoir Dead Mom Walking: A Memoir of Miracle Cures and Other Disasters, our mother’s ashes, and you will get to hear the ultimate “exit interview” in the form of their mother’s final words of wisdom, humor, and musings about their extraordinary child. Go buy (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/588401/dead-mom-walking-by-rachel-matlow/) Rachel’s memoir Dead Mom Walking: A Memoir of Miracle Cures and Other Disasters, and check out the full CBC Radio “The Sunday Edition” feature here (https://www.cbc.ca/radio/sunday/the-resilience-of-fort-mcmurray-prison-ombudsman-leaving-halifax-dead-mom-talking-the-existentialist-caf%C3%A9-1.3557099/dead-mom-talking-a-rachel-matlow-documentary-1.3557114). Thanks for being here! This show isn’t just about our moms, it’s about us. Sign up for all the latest news around this podcast, and see behind the scenes content on our website (https://danablack.org/podcast). You can also learn all about our NEW Mother's Grave Retreats (https://danablack.org/retreat), and sign up for information about our next one this summer, June 8-11, 2023! Follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mothersgravepodcast/). Links Mentioned in This Episode: Third Coast Audio piece https://thirdcoastfestival.org/feature/dead-mom-talking (https://thirdcoastfestival.org/feature/dead-mom-talking) Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Greg Geffrard lost his Haitian mother when he was only 16. She died from AIDS, but that is only a part of her story. This is an episode about a black son seeing his mother’s infectious “joy” and wanting to protect it. It’s about what it is like to watch the women in your life being mistreated and hurt by the men who were supposed to be your role models. It’s about revisionist history towards our parents, and the many faces of our mothers. It’s about the advice we give young people when dealing with grief and learning to ask the right questions. Thanks for being here! This show isn’t just about our moms, it’s about us. Sign up for all the latest news around this podcast, and see behind the scenes content on our website (https://danablack.org/podcast).  Follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mothersgravepodcast/). Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Welcome to the second season of I Swear on My Mother’s Grave podcast. In this episode, we go back to my mom's former classroom at Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream, Illinois, where she taught honors biology for over 20 years. She retired in 1996, and trust me when I say that the room looked like a time capsule—completely the same as it was when she left. I'm not exaggerating!  My guest, Mandy Walsh, was one of my mom's students. Join us as we both see the classroom again for the first time in years, then sit in tiny classroom desks among test tubes and lab tables to talk with Deb Cartwright, one of the school’s assistant principals and a former mentee of my mom’s. We chat about my mother's fashion sense and what it's like to grapple with burnout and career identity as a woman. Plus: a poem written by Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins resurfaces (because my mom must have somehow known this particular student of hers would become famous)! And ... did my mom drink her own urine? It’s still a mystery.  Thanks for being here! This show isn’t just about our moms, it’s about us. Sign up for all the latest news around this podcast, and see behind the scenes content on our website. (https://danablack.org/podcast) Follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mothersgravepodcast/). Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Welcome to the 2nd Season of I Swear on My Mother’s Grave podcast. My second guest this season is the one and only…Peter Sagal, the long running host of NPR’s news/trivia game show Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! In this episode, Peter and I chat about dealing with grief on a public stage, running, divorce, new marriages, new babies, chronic pain, Jewish mothers, and a word called “forgiveness?” Thanks for being here! This show isn’t just about our moms, it’s about us. Sign up for all the latest news around this podcast, and see behind the scenes content on our website. (https://danablack.org/podcast) Follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mothersgravepodcast/). Links Mentioned in This Episode: Check out New Leonard Media (https://newleonard.com/), where I did this interview up in Michigan: “New Leonard Media, providing audio and video support to leaders of positive change. Based in Traverse City, MI." Go buy Peter's book, The Incomplete Book of Running: https://bookshop.org/books/the-incomplete-book-of-running-9781508276548/9781451696257 (https://bookshop.org/books/the-incomplete-book-of-running-9781508276548/9781451696257) Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

We are back, baby! Welcome to the 2nd Season of I Swear on My Mother’s Grave podcast. My first guest is my friend Lauren Montgomery. She is an amazing actor, a new mom, and a professor at Chicago’s Truman College. In this episode, we talk about preparing for my wedding this past summer, how to manage a big life moment without your mom by your side, how romantic relationships are modeled to us by our folks, and when your own mother asks you to be her maid of honor.  Thanks for being here! This show isn’t just about our moms, it’s about us. Sign up for all the latest news around this podcast, and see behind the scenes content on our website. (https://danablack.org/podcast) Follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mothersgravepodcast/). Links Mentioned in This Episode:  Trust me, if you are into beautiful art and amazing oracle cards, Sarah Greenman is your person. Check her out: https://www.sarahgreenman.com/store Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Hey, I'm back! Real quick...to let you know that I am getting married this week! Ahh! And it's on the patio of my 95 year old Nana's nursing home. In this bonus/mini episode, I wanted to talk thru some of my fear around the words "till death do us part", navigating triggers around wedding planning in a world that loves making sure your Mom is present for everything, blue eye shadow and remembering to be present on the big day. I miss talking to you all, and I hope to come back with an amazing Season 2 in a few months. Click on our NEW website (https://danablack.org/home) made by THE Tony Howell, and sign up for emails about the upcoming season, and a fall 2022 retreat experience we are creating at Cypress Resort and Marina (https://www.cypressofantioch.com/book.html). And thanks to Amanda Mayo (https://howtopodcastcorp.com/) for editing this episode, and Lauren for being so funny and wise.  As always, come follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mothersgravepodcast/) for more photos and content. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.