In this episode, co-hosts Julie and Red sit down with Dr. Joshua Black, a leading researcher on grief dreams, to explore the powerful ways our minds process loss while we sleep. Dr. Black explains what grief dreams are, why they’re so common after losing someone we love, and how these dreams can range from deeply comforting to emotionally unsettling.

We discuss the emotional meaning people often attach to dreams and why dreaming of loved ones who have passed can feel incredibly real. Dreams can support healing, create ongoing bonds with the deceased, and challenge our cultural understanding of grief itself. On a personal note, Julie, Red and Joshua all share grief dreams they have experienced as well.

Whether you’ve experienced vivid dreams after loss or are simply curious about how grief shows up in the subconscious, this conversation offers insight, validation, and a deeper understanding of how love and loss continue—sometimes, even while we sleep.

Have feedback about the podcast? Have an idea for a future episode? Get in touch with us: whatnow@hospicepeterborough.org

In this returning episode of The Written Word, the co-hosts revisit a familiar and much-loved format—this time in conversation with Dr Natalie Whiting. Having explored the power of the written word together before, they now welcome Natalie, a palliative physician, to share some of her own writing and reflections from the edges of lived experience.

Together, they explore how poetry and lyrics can speak where ordinary language falters. When life becomes too complex or tender to explain, the written word can gesture toward the ineffable—offering resonance rather than resolution. This episode invites listeners to pause, listen, and consider how words can hold what cannot be neatly spoken.

Have feedback about the podcast? Have an idea for a future episode? Get in touch with us: whatnow@hospicepeterborough.org

In this podcast we are delighted to welcome Dr Jan Hux, a retired physician and past CEO of Diabetes Canada. Jan’s husband Edwin died in 2020 and she shares with us her journey of grief as a widow. Jan reflects on the past 5 years and candidly explores the challenges of spousal death and the transition to a life in which Edwin is physically absent. She shares with clarity some of the surprises, both difficult and healing that she encountered along the way. What shines through is the genuine love Jan and Edwin shared, and still do.

Have feedback about the podcast? Have an idea for a future episode? Get in touch with us: whatnow@hospicepeterborough.org