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Grief & Happiness

Grief & Happiness

By: Emily Thiroux Threatt
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About this listen

Aloha! Welcome to the Grief and Happiness podcast. My name is Emily Thiroux Threatt, and I am your host. I am the author of Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief, The Grief and Happiness Handbook, and creator of Grief and Happiness Cards: Gentle Support for Dealing with Grief and Finding Happiness

My purpose with the Grief and Happiness Podcast is to demonstrate to people who are dealing with grief and loss that they can grieve and be happy at the same time. The wide variety of guests address the myriad of issues that arise with loss and the spectrum of how grief and happiness relate. After a loved one dies, often people say they will never be happy again. By covering thought-provoking topics like creativity, compassion, community, purpose, inner peace, strength, coping, surrendering, and resilience with authors, speakers, coaches, and friends, listeners find inspiration and confidence guiding them on their grief journey. Each week the podcast showcases an interview with an inspiring guest and an additional brief podcast with a message of support and comfort.

Anyone dealing with grief or loss can come to the Grief and Happiness podcast to find comfort, support, love, and happiness. You are welcome here to learn ways to live your best life.

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Emily Thiroux Threatt Hygiene & Healthy Living Personal Development Personal Success Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Social Sciences
Episodes
  • "Sorrow Is Not a Waste": Why This Author Believes Grief and Happiness Can Coexist

    "Sorrow Is Not a Waste": Why This Author Believes Grief and Happiness Can Coexist
    Apr 14 2026
    If you've ever felt torn between honoring your grief and allowing yourself to be happy, Episode 420 of the Grief and Happiness podcast is for you. Author Steve Beal Sr. shares how years of visiting aging family members and simply showing up became the foundation of his book Generation Jumping. Through storytelling and faith, Steve makes a compelling case that sorrow and happiness are not opposites — and that the stories we carry from those we've lost are a legacy worth telling before time runs out.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:57) Steve Beal Sr.'s journey from family storyteller to published author(04:06) The race against time: why Steve urgently wrote down his family's stories(07:43) How asking the right questions can bring a loved one's memories back to life(09:21) The origin of "Generation Jumping" and what it means to cross generational lines(12:32) The four pillars of the book and why urgency is the most important one(16:49) Why different memories of the same moment are something to celebrate, not correct(19:22) The unexpected reward of simply showing up for the people you love(22:02) Steve's first encounter with grief — and why a funeral felt more like a family reunion(25:10) "Sorrow is not a waste": how hope transforms grief without erasing itSteve Beal Sr. is an author, speaker, and storyteller whose debut book, Generation Jumping: Losing Those Who Are Not Lost, grew organically from decades of notes and conversations with aging family members in New Brunswick, Canada. Shaped by a deeply rooted Christian faith and a lifetime of witnessing loss — from his grandmother's joyful 1985 funeral to walking alongside his father in his final years — Steve writes with a humble, pastoral voice about legacy, redemption, and hope. A self-described storyteller at heart, he spent 25 years writing sports articles to lift up young athletes before channeling that same spirit into honoring the ordinary people who lived through extraordinary moments.In this episode, Steve shares how those years of intentional presence with his elders — asking questions, recording memories, and making trips his mother couldn't make alone — naturally became the book he never set out to write. He reflects on coining the term "generation jumping" at a family member's deathbed, when he found himself the only younger person in a room full of elders who had warmly welcomed him into their circle. He speaks candidly about the urgency of capturing family stories before they disappear, and about the unexpected difficulty of writing about his late father nearly a decade after losing him. Throughout, Steve articulates a faith-rooted perspective that mirrors the spirit of this podcast: that grief and happiness are not opposites, but coexist authentically — and that hope, not the absence of sorrow, is what ultimately redeems loss.Connect with Steve Beal Sr. :WebsiteFacebookLinkedInBook: Steve Beal Sr. - Generation Jumping: Losing Those Who Are Not LostLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    30 mins
  • The Magic of Kindness

    The Magic of Kindness
    Apr 10 2026

    I’m sure we have all had times when we don’t feel our best for one reason or another. When that happens, we have a choice. We can remain sad, or grumpy, or just feeling bad, or we can figure out how to do something about it.


    Let's Connect:

    • You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking here
    • You can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.
    • You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:
    • You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking here
    • Request your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide here


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    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    4 mins
  • Eight Months, Four Diagnoses, Zero Answers: Why She Stopped Trusting Doctors and Healed Herself

    Eight Months, Four Diagnoses, Zero Answers: Why She Stopped Trusting Doctors and Healed Herself
    Apr 7 2026
    If you've ever made a decision out of panic — about your health, your grief, or your life — episode 418 of Grief and Happiness is essential listening. Author and life coach Mia Godfrey shares how losing her father, her first husband, and her sister across three decades left her without the tools to cope — until a therapist handed her a journal and changed everything. From the realities of caregiving to a terrifying liver diagnosis she refused to rush, Mia's story is a masterclass in never letting fear make your decisions for you.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:55) Mia Godfrey: author, life coach, keynote speaker, youngest of ten from Romania(01:18) Three devastating losses across three decades — and no tools to grieve(05:35) Why she left Romania: addiction, shame, and a love story(07:46) Growing up under communism and her father's survival lessons on the Danube(10:50) Her sister: 13 months apart, inseparable — and why her loss broke everything(11:26) What 11 months of caregiving taught her about grace and self-neglect(14:43) Why honoring a loved one's treatment decisions matters — even when it's hard(17:23) The end-of-life conversations she refused to have — and what it cost her(19:30) How to navigate conflicting medical advice and advocate for yourself(22:41) A terrifying liver diagnosis and why she refused to let fear decide(33:58) On living guilt-free while grief and happiness coexistMia Godfrey is a certified life coach, Bible counselor, keynote speaker, and author originally from Romania, where she grew up the youngest of ten children under communist rule. She came to the United States in 2008 through marriage, and over the past two decades has built a career spanning leadership, talent acquisition, and her own coaching practice, Scribbled Pages International Life Coaching. Her debut memoir, Buried, Not Broken: A Memoir of Survival, Sisterhood, and Starting Over, is the through-line of this conversation — a raw, cross-cultural account of loss, caregiving, and the unexpected healing that came from putting her story on the page.In the episode, Mia traces a lifetime of grief she never had the tools to process: the death of her father at 18, the sudden loss of her first husband at 42 (whose end-of-life conversations she shut down, leaving her financially and emotionally unprepared), and the 11-month caregiving journey that ended with her sister's death from ovarian cancer in 2023 — the loss that finally broke her open. It was her therapist who suggested journaling, a practice Mia resisted before eventually turning those pages into her memoir. She speaks with hard-won clarity about what caregiving taught her: that self-neglect is not devotion (she compromised her own health so severely that she faced a frightening liver diagnosis shortly after returning home), that patients must be allowed to make their own treatment decisions, and that panic is the worst basis for any medical choice. Her own health scare — which resolved after months of conflicting diagnoses and a deliberate pause to research rather than react — anchors her central message: weigh all options, and never let fear make the decision for you.Connect with Mia Godfrey:WebsiteBook: Mia Godfrey - Buried, Not BrokenLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    36 mins
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