Grief with Carla Fernandez

Denizen

Our guest for this episode is Carla Fernandez, co-founder of The Dinner Party, a platform for young adults who have lost someone close to them. The Dinner Party now operates in over 100 cities around the world and has been featured in media outlets such as NPR, CNN, and the New York Times. Carla is also a designer, facilitator, and strategist whose work brings creativity, joy, and connection to the roots of our most intractable problems. She is also currently writing a book called Renegade Grief.

In this episode Jenny and Carla discuss:

• Carla's experience losing her father [4:53]
• Jenny's reflections on losing her parents [8:37]
• Grief, public heath, and policy [13:43]
• Grief vs. trauma when someone close to you dies [16:00]
• Lessons in self-compassion [18:23]
• The impact of the decline of religion on grieving [21:34]
• Death and forgiveness [22:06]
• The Dinner Party and its learnings [25:44]
• The importance of community and relationships as a foundation for systems change [33:20]
• Grief and growth [38:36]
• Accepting death and living intentionally [41:46]
• Discomfort with difficult emotional experiences [46:29]
• Interconnection and grief [47:17]
• Carla's upcoming book, Renegade Grief [53:22]

Resources

• The Dinner Party
• The Smell of Rain on Dust: Grief and Praise, Martin Prechtel
• The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss, Mary-Frances O'Connor
• Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Loving and Dying, Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush
• I'm Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy
• Limitless with Chris Hemsworth (final episode is about death)
• Facing the Climate Emergency: How to Transform Yourself with Climate Truth, Margaret Klein Salamon