The Leftover Pieces: Suicide Loss Conversations
Suicide loss changes everything. The Leftover Pieces® Podcast explores life after suicide through honest conversations with survivors, experts, and grieving parents learning to live forward after unimaginable loss. Parents, partners, siblings, and friends share what it means to keep living when the world has been forever changed.
Hosted by Melissa Bottorff-Arey, whose 21-year-old son Alex died by suicide in 2016, the show blends intimate conversations with survivors, healers, and mental health professionals with short solo reflections you can actually use. Together we explore child loss, trauma and nervous-system care, anniversaries and seasons, stigma, faith and meaning, legacy, and the everyday practices that help make life livable again.
At its heart, this podcast is about learning to live forward after loss. We never move on from the people we love, but we can learn to carry the grief differently. This road can feel incredibly lonely—but you are not alone here.
For supporters, educators, and professionals, these conversations also offer insight into the realities of suicide grief and what genuine, non-fixing support can look like.
If you’d like to share your story or expertise, you can request to be a guest through Melissa’s website.
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Content Note
This podcast speaks candidly about grief and suicide loss and may feel activating for some listeners. We avoid graphic descriptions and discussion of suicide methods. Please care for yourself as needed. Melissa is not a doctor or licensed therapist, and nothing shared here should be considered medical or mental-health advice.
The Leftover Pieces: Suicide Loss Conversations
What to Watch (or Not); When Grief Insomnia Hits
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We regularly find suicide as a subject matter on TV and in film these days...or at least more than we used to.... but being surprised by the plot or content is NOT always good. I like to try and give you a heads up when I can, so I am going to dive down the rabbit hole to talk about my current thoughts because I always have a list AND there is always new things coming out OR new ones being discovered...AND because I always go in and out of battles with 'grief insomnia' since losing Alex in 2016., the list needs to be long! As I said last year (in a Sept 2022 episode), when we watch movies with a theme toward suicide, grief or death, does the content activate you or help you? Since the reasons these films, or shows, are made can be so diverse (- to educate, to cause fear or shock or disgust, or even to provoke or bring about change and awareness) so are our reasons for choosing, or not choosing, to watch them.
Today, I explore and discuss just some of the current choices out there. Be sure to also check out the other 3 episodes from past seasons (or earlier this one).
Season 1 Ep 17 -What Am I Watching (aka binging)
Season 2 Ep 17 - To Watch or Not to Watch
Season 4 Ep 8 - Movies, Series & Documentaries; About Suicide Loss & Grief
I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW WHICH ONES YOU HAVE SEEN AND YOUR TAKE ON THEM - from ANY of the episodes! Or others you would recommend watching - or not! I will also disclaim this episode as I do all others - take that which serves you and leave the rest. We are all on a very individual journey, and at different spaces inside of each journey. My heart and thoughts are always with you. The shows/movies that I discuss are not linked, You will have to search them to see where they might currently be available or streaming. - it changes too much to keep up): I am listing them as I discussed them in the episode.
Yes - For Distraction / Entertainment (not grief related, a new topic for me):
The Lost Kitchen
Somebody Feed Phil
Beach Cottage Chronicles
Wednesday
Stranger Things
Road Runner (documentary/biography & it straddles the next category for sure)
Probably (for Most) on Subject of Grief &/or Suicide:
Mare Of Easttown
Unstable
Those Left Behind
Aftersun
Proceed With Real Caution - No for Many:
The Discovery
A Man Called Otto
Super Mario Movie (
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💜 The Leftover Pieces is support central for grieving hearts.
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🛠 Resources for all grievers: Start here.
🤝 One-on-one grief coaching for moms after child loss to suicide: Learn more here.
📞 Need help now? If you or someone you love is struggling with suicidal thoughts, dial 988 in the U.S. & Canada, or text HOME to 741741.