Excerpt from a podcast that was originally published on November 17, 2022. Posted for RTDNA award contest.
What is the sound of a breaking heart? How do you grow a new one in the echo of loss? In 2022, celebrated jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon returned for a second season of her award-winning podcast Great Grief in an effort to answer those questions. Each episode is a meditative and uplifting journey of story and song, exploring loss, love, and how to move forward with grief as a constant companion.
This is an excerpt from the season's first episode “Falling.” Fall is a season of transformation and loss. Leaves fall, preparing for the long winter and the rebirth awaiting us all on the other side. In this episode, Nnenna contemplates falling as she returns to a once-familiar place for her and her late husband Phil: the Duke Cross-Country Course.