And this season, I'm like, what, what is a question that I'm either wrestling with or I don't know the answer to. And for me like, I'm trying to end all of these conversations or stitch all of these conversations with questions about hope. And I love that you just brought up beauty because to me, those things are intertwined. You can tell I don't know the answer because I get very choked knowing what you know and living what you live, the whole story of it, not just what the headlines want us to believe, not just what the sound bites want us to believe, not just not just this shallow end of this pool. What does hope look like for you? This is here After, and I'm your host, Megan Divine, author of the best selling book It's Okay that You're Not Okay, And I'm a person completely enamored with interesting conversations about difficult things. Here After is the show where everyone is a out to talk about what's real in the service of a more connected and supportive world. This week on Hereafter, Hi Friends, it's been a bit, hasn't it. I've missed you. The very first full episode of Here After Season two is coming up right after this first break. Don't miss it before we get started. One quick note. While I hope you find a lot of useful information in our time here together, this show is not a substitute for skilled support with a licensed mental health provider or for professionals supervision related to your work. We're back. Welcome to the awkward party. Everybody hereafter the podcast where every conversation centers on difficult things like love and loss and illness and the state of the world, among other things. Doesn't that sound like fun? Okay? If you were here with me for season one, you know it is actually fun in here, even if it doesn't sound like it. But if you're new, welcome. I'm glad you're here. You're gonna love it. I'm Megan Divine. I spent the last ten plus years writing, speaking, pretty much living and breathing grief, the kind of grief that makes the whole world dissolve around you. My book, It's Okay that You're Not Okay, got hundreds of thousands of people talking about that kind of grief and what it really takes to survive and care for each other when life goes horribly wrong. So when I say that I'm really into conversations with interesting people about difficult things. I mean it, The tough stuff is my happy place, as weird as it is to say, but it's not just me anymore. In a culture that's often afraid of big emotions, a lot more people are letting things hurt when they actually hurt, and a lot more people are willing to listen to somebody else's pain without jumping in to fix it for them. And yes, we do have a long way to go. I mean, just ask a grieving person how many times they've heard they're in a better place just this week. But the cultural conversation is starting to change. This podcast is part of that conversation. And again, I am really glad you're here now. Last season on Here After we focused on grief, specifically grief on the job and because of a job, with a special look at the health care industry. My guests were doctors and therapists and social workers. We had some nurses and some rad meditation teachers. We dove into listener questions about grief and boundaries and burnout. If you haven't heard season one yet, friends, that back catalog is just they're waiting for you. But this season is different. At the end of season one, I said we would be back in just a few weeks now. Obviously that turned out to be inaccurate. One of the reasons we took such a long break between season one and season two well, I mean, first, I'm tired and I'm busy, So yes, that is a reason for the long break. But the bigger reason for such a long break between season one and season two as I lost my hope. I lost hope. Friends. There's so much grief in everyday life, not just in our personal lives. But have you looked outside? Have you listened to the news? Every day is a new disaster, some new form of suffering, or some old suffering dressed up in crappier, more obnoxious clothing. It's been a lot just being aware and alive in the world. Almost everyone I know is overwhelmed with grief and illness and change in their own lives. But it's not just our personal lives that feel hard. It seems like the big theme for everybody right now is grief and despair for the world too. I don't think I'm the only one who's lost hope. I mean, just as an example here, this past June, my dad said he no longer felt hope for the world people. My father never gives up hope for anything, and if he's feeling hopeless, we've got a problem. I bet there's a lot of overwhelmed hopelessness going around. It can't possibly just be me. Now. If you've known for a while, if you've listened to me for a while, you would know that I have an issue with the word hope, like the actual word hope. I even wrote about it in my book It's okay that you're not okay. The word hope needs an object right, like the way we use it. You're supposed to have hope in something or hope for something, like I hope I get this job, or I hope the scams come out. Clear that kind of like transactional hope gets squished all the time because things don't always work out, do they. There's also an element of wishful thinking inside that kind of hope, and wishful thinking doesn't change anything so clearly. Even before I lost hope recently, hope and I have had longstanding issues, but losing hope, feeling the absence of it these last few months, that's been a lot harder than I would have thought. So as I sat at thought and reflected and felt my own really big feelings around this, I asked myself what I needed from this season of the show. I want to talk to interesting people, yes, about difficult things, but also I want to feel hopeful about something, about anything. I want to feel hopeful about survival and goodness and beauty and joy. And I want to feel like that hope isn't just wishful thinking or me being naive about the state of the world. I want my hope back. It has to be real hope to y'all, not like airy, useless hope. It has to be functional, it has to be logical, it has to be real and rooted in actual reality. I think we only get that kind of hope if we're willing to tell the whole truth about how hard it is to be here. Sometimes, I think we only get that kind of hope if we connect inside the things that hurt, inside the things that overwhelm us. I think we get that kind of hope if we really see each other and wonder about what's next together. Now, my working thesis here is that true connection is probably where hope lives. Hope lives in community, and I hope it lives in conversations with interesting people about difficult things. This season on Hereafter with Me Megan Divine, we go looking for hope. We have got amazing guests this season. Friends, from child welfare advocates to trauma survivors, to community educators to some very cool artists and writers. You're going to hear from people doing the work of looking directly at what hurts and making a home there, finding their own kind of hope there. I'm not gonna lie, friends, I really needed these conversations. I've been learning a whole lot about hope. My own hope circuits are beginning to come back online. Actually, And of course this isn't just about me or my guess. My hope is that you find things to sustain you in each episode, that you find things that feed you, ideas and perspectives that light you up, things that leave you feeling supported wherever you find yourself. I hope that the conversations in season two inspire you to have your own conversations about difficult things, conversations that help you find hope too, And I hope those conversations help you deepen your connections with the people in your life and the world around you. Maybe it's a big hope, but maybe we can find it now. This season focuses more on guests and less on the Q and A that we did last season, But I might pop on with a few solo shows to answer questions and explore issues that you all bring up in your comments and messages. So be sure to share, comment, send me messages, leave us voicemails. You'll hear the number for voicemails in a minute. We're all in this community together, friends, building the world we want conversation by conversation, Hope lives in our connections, and I'm sure it lives in a lot of other places too. Personally, I can't wait to discover all the different kinds of hope and all the different I don't know, homesteads of hope. Gosh, that sounds a little twee okay, but anyway, I can't wait to discover all the different kinds of hope. With this season's gas right alongside you Hereafter with Megan, Divine is the show where everyone's allowed to talk about what's real. This season, if you haven't guessed, it focuses on hope, finding it, losing it, redefining it. In these weird personal and collective times, new shows come out each and every Monday. Everybody's going to take something different from each show. But I do hope you find something to hold onto. Stay tuned to hear how you can tell me all about your kind of hope right after this break. It's good to be back, friends. Hope really is a crowd sourced thing. There are lots of ways to open these conversations on how we survived the hard parts of being human, and I definitely want to hear from you on all this. What are you holding onto right now? Check out Refuge in Grief on Instagram or here after Pod on TikTok to see video clips from the show and leave your thoughts in the comments on those posts. Also have a little patience with us on the whole TikTok thing. It's a learning curve. We'll get there anyway. Be sure to tag us in your conversation starting posts on your own social accounts. Use the hashtag here after pod on all of the platforms so we can find you. We love to see where the show takes you. Everybody, If you want to tell us how today's show felt for you, or you have a request or a question for upcoming explorations of difficult things, give us a call at three to three six three three six eight and leave a voicemail. If you missed it, you can find the number in the show notes or visit I can divine dot ceo. If you'd rather send an email, you can do that too. Write on the website Megan Divine dot ceo. We want to hear from you. I want to hear from you. This show, this world needs your voice. Together, we can make things better even when they can't be made right. You know how most people are going to scan through their podcast Apple looking for a new thing, and they're going to see the show description for hereafter and think, I don't want to listen to difficult things, even if cool people are talking about them. While that's where you come in your reviews for the show, let people know it really isn't all that bad in here. We talk about heavy things, yes, but it's in the service of making things better for everyone. So everyone needs to listen. Spread the word in your workplace, in your social world on social media, and click through to leave a review. You subscribe to the show, follow the show download episodes and keep on listening. I want more Hereafter. Grief education doesn't just belong to end of life issues. As my dad says, daily life is full of everyday grief that we just don't call grief. Learning how to talk about all that without cliches or platitudes or simplistic dismissive statements is an important skill for everyone, especially if you're in any of the helping professions fine trainings, tip sheets, professional resources, and my best selling book, It's Okay that You're Not Okay, plus the Guided journal Fork Grief at Megan Divine dot c O Hereafter with Megan Divine is written and produced by me Megan Divine. Executive producer is Amy Brown, co produced by Elizabeth Fossio, Edited by Houston Tilly and Logistical and Social Media and honestly moral support from Micah. Music provided by Wave Crush, and occasional background noise provided by Luna, The Neighbors and The Leafblowers

And this season, I'm like, what, what is a question that I'm either wrestling with or I don't know the answer to. And for me like, I'm trying to end all of these conversations or stitch all of these conversations with questions about hope. And I love that you just brought up beauty because to me, those things are intertwined. You can tell I don't know the answer because I get very choked knowing what you know and living what you live, the whole story of it, not just what the headlines want us to believe, not just what the sound bites want us to believe, not just not just this shallow end of this pool. What does hope look like for you? This is here After, and I'm your host, Megan Divine, author of the best selling book It's Okay that You're Not Okay, And I'm a person completely enamored with interesting conversations about difficult things. Here After is the show where everyone is a out to talk about what's real in the service of a more connected and supportive world. This week on Hereafter, Hi Friends, it's been a bit, hasn't it. I've missed you. The very first full episode of Here After Season two is coming up right after this first break. Don't miss it before we get started. One quick note. While I hope you find a lot of useful information in our time here together, this show is not a substitute for skilled support with a licensed mental health provider or for professionals supervision related to your work. We're back. Welcome to the awkward party. Everybody hereafter the podcast where every conversation centers on difficult things like love and loss and illness and the state of the world, among other things. Doesn't that sound like fun? Okay? If you were here with me for season one, you know it is actually fun in here, even if it doesn't sound like it. But if you're new, welcome. I'm glad you're here. You're gonna love it. I'm Megan Divine. I spent the last ten plus years writing, speaking, pretty much living and breathing grief, the kind of grief that makes the whole world dissolve around you. My book, It's Okay that You're Not Okay, got hundreds of thousands of people talking about that kind of grief and what it really takes to survive and care for each other when life goes horribly wrong. So when I say that I'm really into conversations with interesting people about difficult things. I mean it, The tough stuff is my happy place, as weird as it is to say, but it's not just me anymore. In a culture that's often afraid of big emotions, a lot more people are letting things hurt when they actually hurt, and a lot more people are willing to listen to somebody else's pain without jumping in to fix it for them. And yes, we do have a long way to go. I mean, just ask a grieving person how many times they've heard they're in a better place just this week. But the cultural conversation is starting to change. This podcast is part of that conversation. And again, I am really glad you're here now. Last season on Here After we focused on grief, specifically grief on the job and because of a job, with a special look at the health care industry. My guests were doctors and therapists and social workers. We had some nurses and some rad meditation teachers. We dove into listener questions about grief and boundaries and burnout. If you haven't heard season one yet, friends, that back catalog is just they're waiting for you. But this season is different. At the end of season one, I said we would be back in just a few weeks now. Obviously that turned out to be inaccurate. One of the reasons we took such a long break between season one and season two well, I mean, first, I'm tired and I'm busy, So yes, that is a reason for the long break. But the bigger reason for such a long break between season one and season two as I lost my hope. I lost hope. Friends. There's so much grief in everyday life, not just in our personal lives. But have you looked outside? Have you listened to the news? Every day is a new disaster, some new form of suffering, or some old suffering dressed up in crappier, more obnoxious clothing. It's been a lot just being aware and alive in the world. Almost everyone I know is overwhelmed with grief and illness and change in their own lives. But it's not just our personal lives that feel hard. It seems like the big theme for everybody right now is grief and despair for the world too. I don't think I'm the only one who's lost hope. I mean, just as an example here, this past June, my dad said he no longer felt hope for the world people. My father never gives up hope for anything, and if he's feeling hopeless, we've got a problem. I bet there's a lot of overwhelmed hopelessness going around. It can't possibly just be me. Now. If you've known for a while, if you've listened to me for a while, you would know that I have an issue with the word hope, like the actual word hope. I even wrote about it in my book It's okay that you're not okay. The word hope needs an object right, like the way we use it. You're supposed to have hope in something or hope for something, like I hope I get this job, or I hope the scams come out. Clear that kind of like transactional hope gets squished all the time because things don't always work out, do they. There's also an element of wishful thinking inside that kind of hope, and wishful thinking doesn't change anything so clearly. Even before I lost hope recently, hope and I have had longstanding issues, but losing hope, feeling the absence of it these last few months, that's been a lot harder than I would have thought. So as I sat at thought and reflected and felt my own really big feelings around this, I asked myself what I needed from this season of the show. I want to talk to interesting people, yes, about difficult things, but also I want to feel hopeful about something, about anything. I want to feel hopeful about survival and goodness and beauty and joy. And I want to feel like that hope isn't just wishful thinking or me being naive about the state of the world. I want my hope back. It has to be real hope to y'all, not like airy, useless hope. It has to be functional, it has to be logical, it has to be real and rooted in actual reality. I think we only get that kind of hope if we're willing to tell the whole truth about how hard it is to be here. Sometimes, I think we only get that kind of hope if we connect inside the things that hurt, inside the things that overwhelm us. I think we get that kind of hope if we really see each other and wonder about what's next together. Now, my working thesis here is that true connection is probably where hope lives. Hope lives in community, and I hope it lives in conversations with interesting people about difficult things. This season on Hereafter with Me Megan Divine, we go looking for hope. We have got amazing guests this season. Friends, from child welfare advocates to trauma survivors, to community educators to some very cool artists and writers. You're going to hear from people doing the work of looking directly at what hurts and making a home there, finding their own kind of hope there. I'm not gonna lie, friends, I really needed these conversations. I've been learning a whole lot about hope. My own hope circuits are beginning to come back online. Actually, And of course this isn't just about me or my guess. My hope is that you find things to sustain you in each episode, that you find things that feed you, ideas and perspectives that light you up, things that leave you feeling supported wherever you find yourself. I hope that the conversations in season two inspire you to have your own conversations about difficult things, conversations that help you find hope too, And I hope those conversations help you deepen your connections with the people in your life and the world around you. Maybe it's a big hope, but maybe we can find it now. This season focuses more on guests and less on the Q and A that we did last season, But I might pop on with a few solo shows to answer questions and explore issues that you all bring up in your comments and messages. So be sure to share, comment, send me messages, leave us voicemails. You'll hear the number for voicemails in a minute. We're all in this community together, friends, building the world we want conversation by conversation, Hope lives in our connections, and I'm sure it lives in a lot of other places too. Personally, I can't wait to discover all the different kinds of hope and all the different I don't know, homesteads of hope. Gosh, that sounds a little twee okay, but anyway, I can't wait to discover all the different kinds of hope. With this season's gas right alongside you Hereafter with Megan, Divine is the show where everyone's allowed to talk about what's real. This season, if you haven't guessed, it focuses on hope, finding it, losing it, redefining it. In these weird personal and collective times, new shows come out each and every Monday. Everybody's going to take something different from each show. But I do hope you find something to hold onto. Stay tuned to hear how you can tell me all about your kind of hope right after this break. It's good to be back, friends. Hope really is a crowd sourced thing. There are lots of ways to open these conversations on how we survived the hard parts of being human, and I definitely want to hear from you on all this. What are you holding onto right now? Check out Refuge in Grief on Instagram or here after Pod on TikTok to see video clips from the show and leave your thoughts in the comments on those posts. Also have a little patience with us on the whole TikTok thing. It's a learning curve. We'll get there anyway. Be sure to tag us in your conversation starting posts on your own social accounts. Use the hashtag here after pod on all of the platforms so we can find you. We love to see where the show takes you. Everybody, If you want to tell us how today's show felt for you, or you have a request or a question for upcoming explorations of difficult things, give us a call at three to three six three three six eight and leave a voicemail. If you missed it, you can find the number in the show notes or visit I can divine dot ceo. If you'd rather send an email, you can do that too. Write on the website Megan Divine dot ceo. We want to hear from you. I want to hear from you. This show, this world needs your voice. Together, we can make things better even when they can't be made right. You know how most people are going to scan through their podcast Apple looking for a new thing, and they're going to see the show description for hereafter and think, I don't want to listen to difficult things, even if cool people are talking about them. While that's where you come in your reviews for the show, let people know it really isn't all that bad in here. We talk about heavy things, yes, but it's in the service of making things better for everyone. So everyone needs to listen. Spread the word in your workplace, in your social world on social media, and click through to leave a review. You subscribe to the show, follow the show download episodes and keep on listening. I want more Hereafter. Grief education doesn't just belong to end of life issues. As my dad says, daily life is full of everyday grief that we just don't call grief. Learning how to talk about all that without cliches or platitudes or simplistic dismissive statements is an important skill for everyone, especially if you're in any of the helping professions fine trainings, tip sheets, professional resources, and my best selling book, It's Okay that You're Not Okay, plus the Guided journal Fork Grief at Megan Divine dot c O Hereafter with Megan Divine is written and produced by me Megan Divine. Executive producer is Amy Brown, co produced by Elizabeth Fossio, Edited by Houston Tilly and Logistical and Social Media and honestly moral support from Micah. Music provided by Wave Crush, and occasional background noise provided by Luna, The Neighbors and The Leafblowers