Melissa is the epitome of responsible. She loves following rules and has spent her whole life trying to be the best person possible. But accidents happen, and one winter morning, a split second changes everything she thought she knew about hers

Listen To This: "TED Talks Daily" with Nora McInerny

Apr 16th, 2019 19m 16s

That's right! Nora did a TED Talk, and it's on "TED Talks Daily" and we want to make sure you got to hear it.Support our new independent production (and get bonus content galore!) by joining TTFA Premium. We now offer tiers as low as $4.99 / m

Motherless Day

May 3rd, 2022 57m 15s

Some holidays are just more loaded than others, depending on our individual experiences. When you’re grieving the loss of your mother — either because they’ve died or because you don’t have a relationship with them — what the heck are you suppo

Cynthia

1 Mar 23rd, 2021 36m 25s

Cynthia is a Latina adult woman living with autism. In this episode, she lets us in on her world, what her life was like growing up, and what she experiences today as an autistic adult.Oh! Also, Cynthia made a Spotify playlist just for you, dea

Don't You Want Somebody to Take Care of You?

2 Mar 2nd, 2021 1h 5m

Gina became a caregiver at a young age. By age 6, she was emotionally responsible for her mother, her brothers and herself, and she learned to mute her own needs for the sake of others. As an adult, she’s still shaking off the long-term effects

That Good Night

1 1 Feb 9th, 2021 50m

It’s not just dying that is hard. It's not just the prospect of death. It's the recognition of it. It’s the conversation around it... which is often no conversation at all. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Sunita Puri about care at the end of

Rebecca Black is Back

Nov 10th, 2020 45m 15s

Ten years ago, Rebecca Black was a 13-year-old girl who made a music video with her friends honoring everyone's favorite day of the week (you know the one).The music video wasn't great. But it also wasn’t great that the video quickly went vira

Come Meet Drayden

Sep 8th, 2020 42m

Drayden is a Black boy with Autism Spectrum Disorder. His mother, Dana, has been consistently fighting and pushing to get him the diagnosis and services he deserves (and needs!) since he was just a few months old. This episode is one about rac

Rose Tulip

May 22nd, 2018 44m 34s

The difference between a love story and a military love story is just one word, but that word represents a huge scheduling issue: the military. Matthew and Rose are both in the Air Force, and when they get together, they know they’re signing up

Bryson’s Purpose

Mar 27th, 2018 44m 43s

Chelsey and Kevin's 3-month-old son, Bryson, was in his second week of daycare when he died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS. When a baby dies of SIDS, it's almost like saying there's no cause of death. It's horrifying to think about,

Route 91

Mar 13th, 2018 46m 50s

On the eve of Kelli's 25th birthday in 2017, she and her boyfriend find themselves running for their lives in a dystopian nightmare. They'd planned to spend the weekend in Las Vegas at the Route 91 country music festival to celebrate the dawn

Incompatible With Life

Dec 12th, 2017 35m 43s

At 32 weeks pregnant, Cat and Jim find themselves planning for their son’s death while hoping for his birth. This is a story of a life and a death, extraordinary in every way.

23: Live with Dessa, Alyssa Limperis and Geoffrey Wilson

Dec 5th, 2017 55m 31s

TTFA is live from the historic Fitzgerald Theater in downtown St. Paul, MN! Featuring conversation with writer/rapper/entrepreneur Dessa, who took to science to overcome a bad love. And with comedian Alyssa Limperis, whose father died of gliobl

Introducing Childhood

Nov 21st, 2017 28m 58s

Malena is 10 years old, and she worries a lot. About her grades. About her procrastination. About her dad. Especially about her dad. Kids are the best. They’re smart and funny and deeply empathetic. And they – and their thoughts and feelings –

Best Friends Forever

Sep 25th, 2017 33m 12s

America has a garbage attitude toward grief — we know this. Bereavement leave generally means you get 2-3 business days to mourn a partner, a child, a parent, a sibling. But what about when your very best friend in the world dies? What then? W

Baby Huey

Sep 20th, 2017 35m 38s

Courtney and Jay are parents to 9-year-old Bruce, who they affectionately call Baby Huey. Bruce has never had a friend. Never had a playdate. Never been invited to a birthday party. He has fragile X syndrome, and that diagnosis makes his young,

Is It OK?

Apr 10th, 2017 21m 21s

Alysha-Aubrey sent us a story about both her parents falling seriously ill at the same time, and the toll it took on her as a teenager. And she ended her story with a question about whether or not it’s OK that she doesn’t feel OK … even though

Help Me Remember

Dec 26th, 2016 41m 20s

Dawn is a nurse. In June of 2015, she was injured on the job by one of her patients and suffered a traumatic brain injury. Dawn’s husband and their kids have been in deep, deep grief since that day in 2015. Not because Dawn died — she’s very mu

Me, Too

Dec 19th, 2016 39m 57s

Danni Starr had everything she wanted: a successful radio career, a husband and a new baby. But off the air, motherhood wasn't all that great. In fact, it was awful. Nothing had prepared her for the postpartum depression and anxiety that quickl

I’ve Made a Huge Mistake

Dec 5th, 2016 47m 12s

Eva Hagberg is young, ambitious and about to get her Big Break — a byline in the New York Times! And then, she publishes an error. A big factual error. In the New York freaking Times! Cue the breakdown. If you've ever laid in bed replaying your

The Milkman's Baby

1 2 Dec 8th, 2020 34m 10s

Morgan Jerkins spent many months piecing together the patchwork of her own family history, and many weeks literally wandering in the lands they had been rooted to so many years before. Hers is a story about the privilege of documentation, the s

Independent Woman

Nov 2nd, 2021 49m 48s

Grief doesn’t always mean the loss of a person. It can also mean the loss of who you used to be. The loss of the life you thought you were going to have. Gina is 43 years old. She’s single without kids. She’s a producer and world traveler (25 c

Happyish Holidays 2020

1 Nov 24th, 2020 50m 13s

This episode features conversations with people doing the best they can in difficult circumstances. Like Dr. Lucy Kalanithi, whose husband Dr. Paul Kalanithi was a notable and rising brain surgeon who wrote When Breath Becomes Air, a bestsellin

Are You Tenants Of This Building?

1 Sep 29th, 2020 40m

In May 2020, a viral video filmed by two young men pushed them to the top of everyone’s news feed. Suddenly, it seemed the whole world knew what had happened to Abdi and Salman while they were working out in the gym of the Minneapolis office bu

9 Things

1 Mar 17th, 2020 47m 8s

Laura McKowen is sober. Drinking used to be her "thing," and what she's learned in sobriety is that we all have a thing — something we'd be better off without that we just ... keep doing. Maybe that's scrolling your phone or Googling your ex (n