Media makers: grief activist Lisa Keefauver
Video by Esther Shubinski, Many Trails Production, and Rob VanAlkemade for Medicinal Media with editing assistance by Levan Amiranishvili. Our nonprofit generates funding in multiple ways, including through affiliate linking. When you purchase something through an affiliate link on this site, the price will be the same for you as always, but we may receive a small percentage of the cost.
Medicinal Media will occasionally survey individuals who make media of all kinds about their relationship with art and technology — from early media in childhood to the media they create personally and professionally — and its impact. In this video, Lisa Keefauver, MSW, grief activist, social worker, narrative therapist, author, and educator, gives us a glimpse into some of her hows and whys on navigating grief. Lisa's understanding of grief comes from her own life — including childhood trauma, the sudden death of her husband/coparent, and her experience with cancer (which she was undergoing treatment for at the time this piece was filmed).
Lisa is the host of top-rated podcast Grief is a Sneaky Bitch, an adjunct professor of loss and grief at the University of Texas at Austin, and a thought leader across media platforms. Watch her recent TEDx Talk: Why knowing more about grief can make it suck less and stay tuned for the release of her book Grief Is a Sneaky Bitch: An Uncensored Guide To Navigating Loss in June 2024.
Special thanks to: Steph Jagger, Cyndie Spiegel, Michelle Hord, Colin Campbell, and John A. Powell.
Lisa Keefauver began her podcast about grief from scratch, in part as a way to reconnect with people after the sudden death of her husband. Today she marvels at what a “powerful medicine it is for us to have representative stories out there.”
Lisa enjoys scuba diving, hiking, and connecting with people as a counselor, teacher, author, podcast host, and grief activist.
Lisa’s audience is filled with people who have found her work organically and come together to form a supportive community around the subject of grief.
Lisa has found solace over the years in sharing people’s stories, pushing back against toxic positivity, and using humor as a balm to grief. She continued her podcast during her chemotherapy for breast cancer “because you never know who’s story is going to touch someone’s life and transform their grief.”
Lisa recently completed chemotherapy, followed by radiation therapy. Through her struggles, she shares the important message with us that “grief can be a gift.”
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Written by Karin Olander. Illustration by Guille Manchado