Send us Fan Mail

Episode 49: Dad, I Need to Talk to Mom

Sometimes there are moments in raising children when you can almost hear the words: “I really wish Mom was here for this.” For a widowed father, those moments can be especially difficult—because sometimes your child needs the parent who isn't there, and you have to figure out how to show up anyway.

In this deeply personal episode, Jamal and David talk about the conversations that can leave a father feeling completely out of his depth. From puberty, relationships, and growing into adulthood to mental health, identity, and the complicated questions that come with growing up, they explore what happens when your children bring you something they might naturally have taken to Mom.

They talk about the pressure fathers can feel to fill the space their wives left behind, the difference between listening and trying to fix everything, and the importance of building a trusted village around your children. Because you can't become the parent your child lost. But you can remain the parent who's still here—present, available, honest enough to say “I don't know,” and willing to find someone who does.

Don't disappear because you're uncomfortable. Show up.

Getting Back Up: Finding Life After Death is a podcast that explores the raw, unfiltered reality of surviving profound personal loss—and finding a way forward. The idea for the podcast was born after David and Jamal met in 2023. Both widowers, who had lost their wives to cancer, quickly found a deep connection through multiple conversations about pain, perseverance, and parenthood. They realized that while men often bond over music, sports, or TV, they rarely speak candidly about loss or emotional recovery. Getting Back Up was created to change that narrative—blending the everyday with the existential in a format that’s as relatable as it is real.

Getting knocked down is part of life. Getting back up is how we live.

Hosts: David McClain & Jamal Jones
Executive Director: Marlon Jackson
Editing: Marlon Jackson
Music:
Grenada, "Treasure"
McDonald, Otis, "Phife for Life", otismusic.com

Thank you for listening! Follow us on Instagram/TikTok @getbackuppodcast and on X @GBUpodcast

Send us Fan Mail

Episode 48: Nobody Knows What to Do With the Empty Chair

When your spouse dies, your family doesn't simply become the same family minus one person. The entire family changes.

In this episode, Jamal and David explore the roles their wives occupied that became even more visible after they were gone. Mother. Wife. Daughter. Sister. Friend. Family connector. Tradition keeper. The person who remembered the birthdays, managed certain conversations with the kids, maintained relationships, or simply brought a presence to the family that no one else could replicate.

They talk about the pressure widowers can feel to fill every role, the people who unexpectedly step forward to help, and the traditions and relationships that inevitably change after loss. Most importantly, they confront a difficult truth: you can't replace the person who sat in that empty chair—and you don't have to. The work is learning how to care for the family that's still here while honoring the space of the person who isn't.

"Maybe the goal isn't filling the empty chair. Maybe the chair stays empty, but everybody around it learns a new way of being together."

Getting Back Up: Finding Life After Death is a podcast that explores the raw, unfiltered reality of surviving profound personal loss—and finding a way forward. The idea for the podcast was born after David and Jamal met in 2023. Both widowers, who had lost their wives to cancer, quickly found a deep connection through multiple conversations about pain, perseverance, and parenthood. They realized that while men often bond over music, sports, or TV, they rarely speak candidly about loss or emotional recovery. Getting Back Up was created to change that narrative—blending the everyday with the existential in a format that’s as relatable as it is real.

Getting knocked down is part of life. Getting back up is how we live.

Hosts: David McClain & Jamal Jones
Executive Director: Marlon Jackson
Editing: Marlon Jackson
Music:
Grenada, "Treasure"
McDonald, Otis, "Phife for Life", otismusic.com

Thank you for listening! Follow us on Instagram/TikTok @getbackuppodcast and on X @GBUpodcast

Send us Fan Mail

Episode 47: The Signs You’re Healing (Even If It Doesn’t Feel Like It)

Healing after loss rarely announces itself. There’s usually no big breakthrough or morning when you wake up and suddenly feel “better.” More often, it shows up quietly—in the first laugh that doesn’t bring guilt, making plans months into the future, sleeping a little better, enjoying time with your kids, or realizing grief wasn’t the first thing on your mind that morning.

In this episode, Jamal and David reflect on the small, sometimes overlooked signs that showed them life was beginning to return. They talk about the temptation to measure healing by whether you still hurt, why difficult days don’t erase progress, and how easy it is to miss how far you’ve come when you’re focused on what’s still missing. Healing doesn’t mean the grief disappears. Sometimes it simply means your life has slowly started expanding around it.

“What if healing isn’t the absence of grief? What if it’s the return of life?”

Getting Back Up: Finding Life After Death is a podcast that explores the raw, unfiltered reality of surviving profound personal loss—and finding a way forward. The idea for the podcast was born after David and Jamal met in 2023. Both widowers, who had lost their wives to cancer, quickly found a deep connection through multiple conversations about pain, perseverance, and parenthood. They realized that while men often bond over music, sports, or TV, they rarely speak candidly about loss or emotional recovery. Getting Back Up was created to change that narrative—blending the everyday with the existential in a format that’s as relatable as it is real.

Getting knocked down is part of life. Getting back up is how we live.

Hosts: David McClain & Jamal Jones
Executive Director: Marlon Jackson
Editing: Marlon Jackson
Music:
Grenada, "Treasure"
McDonald, Otis, "Phife for Life", otismusic.com

Thank you for listening! Follow us on Instagram/TikTok @getbackuppodcast and on X @GBUpodcast