In this episode, I sit down with Dean Lambert (The Love Always Project) for a conversation that’s equal parts brutal, honest, and weirdly life-giving—because that’s kind of the only way I know how to do grief. Dean shares the story of his son, Adam: a USMC Corporal who served in Afghanistan and died by suicide one year after coming home, at 24. We talk about what it’s like to lose a child, the surreal details that stick (Adam repeating Adam Sandler dialogue, the last “love you,” the planning, the uniform), and the specific mind-bend of realizing someone you love may have been carrying a plan long before you ever knew. We also get into mental health in the military and how civilians often misunderstand what “the military” even is—because not everyone is a combat role, and not everyone comes out the same. Dean is clear that mental health is deeply individualized—biology, experience, stigma, all of it—and that sometimes the best thing you can do is ask the question, even if it’s awkward. Finally, we talk end-of-life planning in a way that isn’t doom-and-gloom: talking about life now, capturing stories, and remembering funerals are for the living. Yes, I am still obsessed with the idea that everything we say at funerals should be said at birthdays.