Grief Is Not A Dirty Word
Grief Is Not A Dirty Word is a weekly podcast that brings honest, real-world conversations about grief, loss, trauma, healing, and mental health into the light. Hosted by Nick Gaylord, the show creates a safe, compassionate space for anyone navigating the complicated emotions that come with losing a parent, partner, child, friend, relationship, or former version of themselves.
Originally launched as Our Dead Dads, the podcast has evolved into a broader mission: to normalize grief and break the stigma around talking about it. Nick explores every corner of the grieving experience — from anticipatory grief and sudden loss to complicated family dynamics, unresolved anger, identity shifts, and the invisible pain people carry long after the world assumes they’re “fine.”
Each episode features powerful, unfiltered stories from guests who have lived through loss and rebuilt their lives in deeply personal ways. Through conversations centered on resilience, vulnerability, courage, and connection, the podcast helps listeners understand that grief isn’t something to hide — it’s something that deserves space, honesty, and community.
Whether your grief is fresh or decades old, whether it’s tied to death or to a different kind of ending, this show will help you feel seen, supported, and less alone. If you’re looking for meaningful discussions about healing, emotional wellbeing, and the human experience — you’re in the right place.
New episodes every Tuesday.
Listen on all major podcast platforms or at griefisnotadirtyword.com.
Grief Is Not A Dirty Word — because every story matters, every emotion belongs, and healing begins when we speak the truth.
Grief Is Not A Dirty Word
When Addiction Steals Your Child: Katie Rizzo's Journey Through Grief - Episode 88
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WHO THIS EPISODE HELPS
Anyone grieving the loss of a child, supporting someone through addiction, living with complicated grief, carrying guilt after loss, or struggling with the silence and stigma surrounding substance use disorder. This episode is also for parents, caregivers, healthcare professionals, and anyone searching for hope after unimaginable loss.
WHAT LISTENERS WILL GET
A deeply honest conversation about losing a child to addiction, breaking through shame, learning to carry grief instead of outrunning it, and discovering that healing doesn't mean forgetting. Katie shares practical ways she's survived the darkest days through community, creativity, movement, vulnerability and continuing her relationship with her son, Nicholas.
DESCRIPTION
Before there was addiction, there was Nicholas.
That simple truth becomes the foundation of one of the most honest conversations ever shared on Grief Is Not A Dirty Word.
Katie Rizzo joins Nick Gaylord to tell the story of her son Nicholas—not as an addict, but as a shy, funny, athletic young man who loved soccer, superheroes, his brothers, and his family. Together they explore the devastating reality of addiction, the stigma families face after an overdose, and why addiction should be treated as a medical condition instead of a moral failing.
Katie speaks openly about the six-year battle to save her son, the day everything changed forever, the crushing weight of parental guilt, and how she's slowly learned to give herself the same grace she so freely gives other grieving parents.
The conversation also explores Katie's powerful "Trimesters of Grief" framework, why movement and creativity became essential to her healing, the importance of continuing to say a loved one's name, and how grief doesn't have to disappear in order for hope to exist.
This is a conversation about love, addiction, shame, resilience, and learning that the people we lose never stop being part of our lives.
THIS EPISODE ANSWERS
- How do you survive losing a child to addiction?
- Why is addiction a disease instead of a moral failure?
- How do parents cope with guilt after losing a child?
- Why do grieving families need us to continue saying their loved one's name?
- Can grief and joy exist at the same time?
THIS EPISODE ANSWERS
- How do you survive losing a child to addiction?
- Why is addiction a disease instead of a moral failure?
- How do parents cope with guilt after losing a child?
- Why do grieving families need us to continue saying their loved one's name?
- Can grief and joy exist at the same time?
KATIE'S LINKS
WEBSITE: https://www.katierizzo.com
CONTACT: https://www.katierizzo.com/contact
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/katierizzo007/
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