Giving Grief Grace, a Grief Podcast for the Sandwich Generation
Loss changes everything. But it doesn't have to have the last word. Giving Grief Grace is a podcast dedicated to those in the throes of caregiving and loss with honest, compassionate conversations about grief, healing, and what it means to keep living after loss. Hosted by Lisa Hartung, a speaker, HR professional, and fellow griever, each episode creates space for the stories we don't always know how to tell.
From disenfranchised and hidden grief, to grieving while parenting, to the ways men experience loss differently, to the unexpected power of creativity and legacy, this show covers grief in all its forms. Featuring expert guests, real stories, and practical tools you can use right now.
If you've lost someone you love or are in the throes of caregiving, you belong here.
New episodes drop every Sunday. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
Giving Grief Grace, a Grief Podcast for the Sandwich Generation
Episode 47 - When Men Get Breast Cancer: Jake Messier on Stigma, Stage 4, and Breaking the Silence
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What happens when a man is diagnosed with a disease the world has decided belongs to women? Jake Messier, known as @theguywithstage4breastcancer, is living that answer every single day. After a stage 2 breast cancer diagnosis in 2023 progressed to metastatic disease in August 2025, Jake turned his 30-year marketing career into a mission: building the largest male breast cancer community in the world and refusing to let men suffer in silence.
In this conversation, Jake opens up about finding a lump while putting on deodorant and brushing it off because no one had ever taught him that men could get breast cancer, too. He discusses the nearly year-long ordeal of four inconclusive biopsies, the moment he got the call that changed everything, and how he has recorded his experience from the highs to the vulnerable lows.
We dig into the toxic masculinity that literally keeps men out of treatment rooms, the staggering fact that very little funding is specifically dedicated to male breast cancer, and what it means to plant trees you'll never sit in the shade of. Jake also shares the story of a man who hid his breast cancer for 14 years and why Jake's platform finally made him feel brave enough to call himself a survivor.
This episode is for anyone who has ever loved someone with cancer and didn't know what to say, and for every man who went on with his day when he should have made a call.
Find Jake online:
Website: theguywithstage4breastcancer.com
Instagram & TikTok : @theguywithstage4breastcancer
LinkedIn: Jake Messier
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Special thanks to:
Podcast Editor Jacqueline van Bierk of Pink Star Music
Podcast Music Good_B_Music
