View all newsletters
Sign up to our newsletters

Support 110 years of independent journalism.

  1. Culture
10 July 2019updated 23 Jul 2021 10:58am

Griefcast is a surprisingly funny and frequently moving podcast

By Anna Leszkiewicz

Cariad Lloyd was only 15 when her father died, and in her own words, they “didn’t have the greatest relationship at that time”. Almost 20 years later, she found she was still travelling through different forms of grief. So she began Griefcast, a podcast that she sees as “a chance to talk, share and laugh about the weirdness of grief and death – but with comedians”.

The result is a surprisingly funny and frequently moving series that explores the pain, confusion and above all love that all grieving people feel. Over the course of each hour-long episode, guests such as Adam Buxton, Robert Webb, Sara Pascoe and Gemma Whelan remember the people they have loved and lost. They tell the story of that person’s life and death, and talk about their own experiences with grief. Lloyd chats cheerfully about loss and often jokes about “the club” that all those who have lost a loved one find themselves in, and everyone will eventually join.

There is black humour, as well as the laughter of relief that comes with recognition, as Lloyd bonds with guests over magical thinking or death anxiety. And there are tears, too. While Lloyd often comforts crying guests, in a particularly painful recent episode she cries as she listens to the music writer Jayson Greene talk about his daughter, Greta. Greta died in a terrible accident when she was two years old: sitting on a park bench, a falling brick from a crumbling windowsill hit her head. “This was not just tragic,” Greene says. “It was meaningless.” But the particular horror of his story doesn’t stop him from coming to profound conclusions about the nature of love and life after death. In fact, Griefcast reminds us that while there is no “hierarchy of grief”, and no two stories of loss are the same, we are united by our most powerful feelings. 

Content from our partners
Development finance reform: the key to climate action
Individually rare, collectively common – how do we transform the lives of people with rare diseases?
Future proofing the NHS

This article appears in the 10 Jul 2019 issue of the New Statesman, The state we’re in

Select and enter your email address Your weekly guide to the best writing on ideas, politics, books and culture every Saturday. The best way to sign up for The Saturday Read is via saturdayread.substack.com The New Statesman's quick and essential guide to the news and politics of the day. The best way to sign up for Morning Call is via morningcall.substack.com Our Thursday ideas newsletter, delving into philosophy, criticism, and intellectual history. The best way to sign up for The Salvo is via thesalvo.substack.com Stay up to date with NS events, subscription offers & updates. Weekly analysis of the shift to a new economy from the New Statesman's Spotlight on Policy team. The best way to sign up for The Green Transition is via spotlightonpolicy.substack.com
  • Administration / Office
  • Arts and Culture
  • Board Member
  • Business / Corporate Services
  • Client / Customer Services
  • Communications
  • Construction, Works, Engineering
  • Education, Curriculum and Teaching
  • Environment, Conservation and NRM
  • Facility / Grounds Management and Maintenance
  • Finance Management
  • Health - Medical and Nursing Management
  • HR, Training and Organisational Development
  • Information and Communications Technology
  • Information Services, Statistics, Records, Archives
  • Infrastructure Management - Transport, Utilities
  • Legal Officers and Practitioners
  • Librarians and Library Management
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • OH&S, Risk Management
  • Operations Management
  • Planning, Policy, Strategy
  • Printing, Design, Publishing, Web
  • Projects, Programs and Advisors
  • Property, Assets and Fleet Management
  • Public Relations and Media
  • Purchasing and Procurement
  • Quality Management
  • Science and Technical Research and Development
  • Security and Law Enforcement
  • Service Delivery
  • Sport and Recreation
  • Travel, Accommodation, Tourism
  • Wellbeing, Community / Social Services
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
THANK YOU