Breathing Wind Podcast
Breathing Wind
Writing from the Heart with Dr. Jason Ridler: Finding unexpected new directions from grief and tragedy
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Writing from the Heart with Dr. Jason Ridler: Finding unexpected new directions from grief and tragedy

Grief shakes the illusions about how the world works

“The joy was not just in the simple stuff — like a good cup of coffee and being being mindful and present — but experiencing joy, looking for joy, and having a hand in it. And knowing that does not have to be completed necessarily by somebody validating it.”

-Dr. Jason Ridler


This episode is part of a Breathing Wind miniseries titled Finding Unexpected Joy, hosted by Sarah Davis. The Finding Unexpected Joy miniseries explores the idea that joy can happen in the midst of grief, and that maybe we don’t know yet what might come out of our grief journeys.


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In this episode, Sarah talks with Dr. Jason Ridler (Dr. Jay) about the act of writing as a way to process by doing, how his grief transformed his relationship to writing, and how he connected back to the joy of why he became a writer in the first place. Dr. Jay is an historian, writer, and teacher of creative writing who has worked for such clients as Johns Hopkins University, Google, and the US Naval Academy, among others. A former punk rock musician and cemetery groundskeeper, Dr. Jay remains a loyal but critical form of professional wrestling.

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