The Currency of Grief

Death and money are two of the most taboo topics in our society yet they are inevitable for all of us. So why don’t we talk about death and money more? The fact is, we’re all going to have to face our mortality and the mortality of the people we love. During the toughest times in our life, we will also be faced with an overwhelming amount of financial and logistical decisions. These decisions have the power to bring people together or tear families apart. That’s why our mission is so important! Here on The Currency of Grief, we bring death and money to the forefront of the conversation. We’ll feature real life stories from real life people who have navigated the intersection of grief and money. Our guests are not celebrities, they are normal people just like you and me.My name is Justin Weidenfeld, and I’m going to serve as your Grief Financial Officer on the journey that is The Currency of Grief Podcast. My purpose for this podcast is to normalize conversations around death and mone

The Currency of Grief is a society podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 40 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts The Currency of Grief, a society show with 40 episodes published.

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  Episode #40

  EP39: Becky Robison Part 2: Learnings And Advice From Writing My Parents Are Dead, What Now?

  Aug 13, 20261h 16m

  What happens to your stuff, your accounts, and your family if you die without a will? Becky Robison returns with answers nobody wants to need. Becky and Justin pick up their conversation on death and money by tackling the part nobody wants to think through in advance: what actually happens once someone dies. Becky offers practical advice on estate planning that goes well beyond a checklist, pairing the legal groundwork with an honest look at the emotional scarring that can follow when families skip these conversations. She lays out the three documents everyone should have before they need them, and explains why dying without a will hands your choices over to a court that follows rigid blood-relation rules, not your actual wishes. What happens to the people you love who aren't technically your next of kin? From there the conversation gets into the unglamorous reality of settling an estate: the weeks-long wait for death certificates, the hunt for a lawyer you can actually stand to work with for a year, and the special frustration of convincing a bank that you're allowed to touch your dead parents’ money. Becky is refreshingly honest about the parts that feel absurd in the moment, like carrying around what she calls her "Uber Death Notebook" or negotiating with Netflix over a subscription nobody remembered to cancel. Beneath the logistics runs a steadier question. How do you sort through a lifetime’s worth of someone’s belongings without confusing the objects for the person? Becky's answer draws on her training as a death doula as much as her own experience losing both parents, and it lands less on efficiency and more on grace. The paperwork will get done eventually. The grief deserves its own timeline too. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Introduction to The Currency of Grief with Becky Robison 02:19 The To-Die List: Estate Planning Documents Everyone Needs 09:10 Dying With a Will vs. Without a Will 16:15 What an Executor Does First: Death Certificates and Probate 32:52 Why Banks and Investment Firms Make Estate Access So Hard 51:15 What to Do (and Not Do) After an Unexpected Inheritance 1:00:05 Cleaning Out a Loved One's Home Without Losing Yourself 1:10:47 Avoiding Emotional Scarring While Settling an Estate Connect with Becky Robison: Visit the My Parents Are Dead: What Now? website Get a copy of My Parents Are Dead: What Now?: A Panic-Free Guide to the Practicalities of Death Create your free will now Get a copy of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter (The Swedish Art of Living & Dying Series) National Make A Will Month Connect with Justin Weidenfeld: Connect with Justin on LinkedIn Follow The Currency of Grief on LinkedIn Follow The Currency of Grief on Instagram Follow The Currency of Grief on TikTok Subscribe to The Currency of Grief on YouTube Visit Justin’s website bio Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

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  Episode #39

  EP38: Becky Robison: My Parents Are Dead, What Now?

  Jul 30, 20261h 11m

  You lose both parents. Then the legal paperwork starts, and no one hands you a manual. Becoming the executor of an estate after a parent dies feels like a job with no training. In this episode of The Currency of Grief, host Justin Weidenfeld sits down with Becky Robison, author of My Parents Are Dead, What Now? and co-host of the Bitching and Mourning podcast, who went through this herself and wrote the guide she needed. Becky found her dad's will and living trust in a box under the Christmas decorations, then spent months guessing what came next. Her mom had died a few years earlier, so when her dad passed, the whole job landed on her with no roadmap. She learned the probate court process from scratch and explains how her dad’s lawyer failed to tell her that she needed to sign an acceptance of trust before acting as the successor trustee. You hear how assets left outside her dad’s living trust sent her to probate court, turning a few gaps in the estate plan into a years-long legal detour. Then comes the human side. Losing a parent flattened her, yet friends showed up with a Twister mat and kept her standing while she handled the accounts. Becky stays honest about the fear of settling an estate alone and the mistakes she made along the way. Nobody warns you what being the executor of an estate after a parent dies truly involves. If you are facing this road or want to spare your own family, press play. Becky gives you the plain, funny walkthrough no one handed her. Follow the show and start with the first real steps. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Meet Accidental Death Expert Becky Robison, Author Of My Parents Are Dead, What Now? 04:46 Losing A Mother To Alcoholism And A Long Decline 07:55 Dad's Stage Four Pancreatic Cancer Diagnosis 16:19 How To Write A Parent's Obituary 19:34 How Money Was Talked About Growing Up 24:06 Becoming the Executor Of an Estate After a Parent Dies With No Instructions 27:33 Best Help And Worst Advice During Estate Settlement 32:56 Telling Her Dad He Wasn't Leaving The Hospital 41:19 Assets Left Out Of The Living Trust 45:51 The Ghost Car Titling Nightmare 51:36 Feeling Alone As A Young Executor 1:00:20 Questions She Wishes She'd Asked Her Parents 1:06:42 Grief Mantras And Advice For New Executors 1:07:54 Where To Find Becky's Book And Resources Connect with Becky Robison: Visit My Parents Are Dead: What Now? website Follow My Parents Are Dead: What Now? on Instagram Get a copy of My Parents Are Dead: What Now? A Panic-Free Guide to the Practicalities of Death book Listen to the Bitching & Mourning podcast Connect with Justin Weidenfeld: Connect with Justin on LinkedIn Follow The Currency of Grief on LinkedIn Follow The Currency of Grief on Instagram Follow The Currency of Grief on TikTok Subscribe to The Currency of Grief on YouTube Visit Justin’s website bio Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

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  Episode #38

  EP37: Michael Lodato: A Son's Crash Course In Death Certificates, Business Inheritance, And Estate Bureaucracy

  Jul 16, 20261 hour

  Nobody prepares you to grieve a parent and manage their affairs at the same time. On The Currency of Grief, host Justin Weidenfeld sits down with Michael Lodato, a Brooklyn-based writer and owner of LiquorPermit.com, who became a co-executor of his mother’s estate in his early thirties after she passed away from melanoma just days before Christmas. Michael and his sister stepped in as co-executors and got a crash course in everything no one talks about. A death certificate needs a raised seal or the DMV turns you away. A lender can repossess a car from the driveway as the estate paperwork sits in limbo. And a one-person consultancy can hold more value than anyone expects. Michael shares what losing a parent at a young age taught him about support systems, from grief groups created for people in their twenties and thirties to the friend who dropped off bruschetta on a hard night. He also tells the story of inheriting a business that many people would have walked away from. Rather than selling his mother's domain and closing her files, he digitized her archive and continued building on the specialized work she had developed throughout her career. Every estate executor faces choices that no checklist can fully cover. This conversation looks at those decisions through the experience of someone who made mistakes, kept the lessons, and found a way to carry his mother’s work forward. For anyone dealing with grief and financial responsibilities at the same time, Michael’s story offers an honest look at finding a way through. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Meet Michael Lodato and His Mother's Story 03:24 Melanoma Diagnosis and the Rush to Hospice 04:42 Family and Friends Rally During Hospice Care 06:44 How Friends Show Up During Grief 10:42 Therapy and Grief Groups for Young Adults 13:28 Writing a Eulogy for a Beloved Mother 19:02 Taking On the Estate Executor Role 21:37 Gathering Death Certificates and DMV Roadblocks 25:03 The Car Repossession Ordeal 28:47 Inheriting His Mother's Liquor Permit Business 34:31 How Grief Reshaped Michael's Career Path 37:35 Financial Inheritance and Selling the House 40:45 Conversations Left Unspoken With His Mother 47:00 How Loss Changed His Approach to Planning 50:01 Inheriting a Dress Shop and Finding Humor in Grief 52:26 Advice for Anyone Facing a Similar Loss 55:56 Honoring His Mother's Legacy With a Park Bench Connect with Michael Lodato: Visit Mike's website Follow Michael on Instagram Visit the Liquor Permit website Connect with Justin Weidenfeld: Connect with Justin on LinkedIn Follow The Currency of Grief on LinkedIn Follow The Currency of Grief on Instagram Follow The Currency of Grief on TikTok Subscribe to The Currency of Grief on YouTube Visit Justin’s website bio Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

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  Episode #38

  EP37: Michael Lodato: A Son's Crash Course In Death Certificates, Business Inheritance, And Estate Bureaucracy

  Jul 16, 20261 hourS0

  <p>Nobody prepares you to grieve a parent and manage their affairs at the same time. On The Currency of Grief, host Justin Weidenfeld sits down with Michael Lodato, a Brooklyn-based writer and owner of LiquorPermit.com, who became a co-executor of his mother’s estate in his early thirties after she passed away from melanoma just days before Christmas. </p> <p> </p> <p>Michael and his sister stepped in as co-executors and got a crash course in everything no one talks about. A death certificate needs a raised seal or the DMV turns you away. A lender can repossess a ca...

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  Episode #37

  EP36: Nikki Sherman: Don't Die Overseas

  Jul 2, 20261h 4m

  When your spouse dies abroad, nobody warns you that the paperwork battle might outlast the worst of the grief. Nikki Sherman was living in the UK with her husband Scott and their daughter when Scott died suddenly at 52 from a pulmonary embolism. Settling an estate after a spouse dies is hard enough. Doing it across two countries, during a pandemic, while raising a teenager, is another thing entirely. On The Currency of Grief, host Justin Weidenfeld talks with Nikki about the side of widowhood that nobody prepares you for. Not the sadness, but the bureaucracy. The phone calls where you tell the same story over and over. The financial institutions with different requirements. The Medallion Signature Guarantee rabbit hole that took years to resolve. The guilt of not being able to work, while quietly being relieved you didn't have to. Nikki's experience with death overseas and probate in two countries lasted nearly three years. What got her through it was life insurance that paid out immediately, joint accounts that transferred without a fight, and a will that was recognized on both sides of the Atlantic. Her story is one of grief and growth in equal measure. She stayed in the UK, raised her daughter through it, built a new life, and came out the other side with hard-won clarity about what it really takes when a spouse dies abroad and leaves you holding everything. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 When a Spouse Dies Abroad: Nikki Sherman's Story 04:01 Scott Sherman: Life, Love, and 20 Years in the UK 09:31 What Is a Pulmonary Embolism and Why It's So Deadly 13:51 Making Decisions While Drowning in Grief 14:17 Funeral Planning Overseas and Celebrating a Life Well Lived 23:27 Traveling With Human Remains on an Airplane 25:46 Settling an Estate After Spouse Dies: The Financial Reality 27:45 UK vs. US Assets and How Joint Accounts Saved the Day 31:34 Why Having a Will Across Two Countries Matters 36:09 Life Insurance After Spouse Dies: The Emotional and Financial Truth 37:17 When Grief Makes It Impossible to Go Back to Work 41:37 Life Insurance as a Financial Lifeline for Widows 46:53 Probate in Two Countries: UK First, Then the US 47:23 The Medallion Signature Guarantee Nightmare for Expats 53:19 What Nikki Wishes She Had Done Differently 55:36 How This Experience Changed Her Relationship With Money 58:11 Honoring Scott's Legacy and Finding Life After Loss Links: Visit the Widowed and Young website Apply to the Experience Camps programs Connect with Justin Weidenfeld: Connect with Justin on LinkedIn Follow The Currency of Grief on LinkedIn Follow The Currency of Grief on Instagram Follow The Currency of Grief on TikTok Subscribe to The Currency of Grief on YouTube Visit Justin’s website bio Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

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