ep.187: Ellen Kelsay--Work Health & Grief in the Workplace

Danielle Crittenden is a journal who's world was cleaved in two: into the life before her daughter Miranda was found dead in her Brooklyn apartment, and the life after. In this luminous memoir, Crittenden maps the territory of profound loss with the clarity of a foreign correspondent filing reports from a country no parent ever wishes to visit. She is a journalist, author, and former host of the podcast The Femsplainers, known for her incisive and original commentary on women, family, and modern life. In addition to writing a popular monthly newsletter on Substack, her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and more. She is the author of five books, including What Our Mothers Didn't Tell Us: Why Happiness Eludes the Modern Woman, praised by Vanity Fair as the work of "one of the most important new thinkers about women and family." Her novel Amanda Bright @ Home was the first modern work of fiction to be serialized in The Wall Street Journal. She is also co-author of the cookbook From a Polish Country House Kitchen, written with Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Anne Applebaum. Born in Toronto, she now lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, journalist and author David Frum.

Today Meghan sits down with the extraordinary Paolo Presta to talk about how honoring his beloved mother's life and death informs the passion and purpose he and his husband, Patrick pursue daily. Paolo has always been a big dreamer. Growing up in a large Italian family in Chicago, his dream was always to be a part of the entertainment business in Hollywood. It seemed impossible at the time, so he knew he needed a little help. For years, Paolo wrote to "The Oprah Winfrey Show" asking Oprah to help him fulfill that dream. Finally, in November of 2004, Oprah Winfrey surprised Paolo at his father's grocery store and gave him a speaking role on NBC's "Will & Grace". His reaction is regarded as one of the greatest surprise moments in "The Oprah Show" history! He then moved to Los Angeles where he transitioned from acting to working behind the scenes in the world of daytime talk shows ("The Ellen DeGeneres Show" & "The Talk"). All of those experiences brought Paolo to fulfill his greatest life-long dream of hosting his own talk show. His greatest mission is to show people that with a big dream and a lot of hard work, anything is possible!

Helping People and Organizations Navigate Change with Resilience, Connection & Purpose Kate Doerge is a USA TODAY bestselling author, motivational speaker, certified grief coach, and founder of Penny’s Flight Foundation. Through heartfelt storytelling, research-backed insights, and practical strategies, Kate inspires audiences to navigate change, embrace resilience, and lead lives filled with greater purpose and connection. After losing her father, her mother, and her 16-year-old daughter, Penny, Kate made the choice to transform unimaginable loss into a movement centered on hope, action, and possibility. That journey became the foundation for her bestselling book, Reimagining Grief, and the keynote presentations she now shares with organizations, leadership teams, healthcare systems, nonprofits, and conferences across the country. Kate’s presentations are emotional without being heavy, inspiring without being cliché, and always grounded in practical tools audiences can begin using immediately.

Amanda McCracken dated over 100 men by her late thirties, certain she was doing everything right to find lasting love. She wasn't. At 39, her therapist handed her the word that finally made sense of it all: limerence — an obsessive, addictive longing that feels like love but runs on fantasy instead of reality. Ten years of research (and a lot of hard-won self-honesty) later, Amanda is a journalist and self-described "limerence expert" whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Vogue, National Geographic, and NPR. Her new memoir, When Longing Becomes Your Lover, blends neuroscience, cultural criticism, and raw personal story to unpack why we chase people who can't love us back — and how to stop. She hosts the podcast The Longing Lab, gave a TEDx talk on the subject, and coaches writers and speakers out of Boulder, Colorado, where she lives with her husband and daughter. Social handles

Marisa Renee Lee is the award-winning, bestselling author of Grief is Love: Living with Loss and the newly released Waiting for Dawn: Living with Uncertainty. Her work on grief and healing has been featured on Good Morning America, NPR, Fox & Friends, in Vogue, and in The Atlantic, among other outlets. She previously served as a deputy director in the Obama White House and is now CEO of Beacon Advisors, a social-impact consulting firm. She holds a dual degree from Harvard College and lives in New York with her husband, Matt, and son, Bennett. Marisa cared for her mother, Lisa, who lived with MS and died of breast cancer in 2008 — the loss that shaped her thinking on grief. She's also spoken openly about infertility and pregnancy loss. Marisa's second book, published by Hachette (April 2026). Where Grief is Love reframed grief as an extension of love, Waiting for Dawn turns to the uncertainty that surrounds loss — chronic illness, systemic instability, the "in-between" that doesn't resolve on schedule. It draws on a two-year stretch in which she lost her mother-in-law and was navigating Long COVID while writing the book. Central idea: self-preservation, not forced positivity, is the way through prolonged uncertainty — offering a "compass," not a roadmap. Contact & Socials