409: What if your child’s death opened up your life’s purpose?
This Is Actually Happening
Audible
4.6 • 10.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2026
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After building the loving family she always wanted, a woman loses her youngest son to an unsecured gun, and turns her grief into a fight to protect other children.
Today’s episode featured Kristin Song. Kristin Miller Song is a writer and speaker whose work examines what it means to live through a profound before-and-after moment, and how a life is reshaped when certainty disappears. Her writing centers on loss, endurance, family, and moral reckoning, and is grounded in lived experience rather than instruction or argument. She has a memoir coming out next year.
You can email Kristin at kristins1021@gmail.com. Kristin is on Substack @KristinMillerSong1, on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/kristin.song.58
On LinkedIn @Kristin Song
Kristin’s website where you can learn more about Ethan’s law and donate: https://songstrong.org/
Producers: Whit Missildine, Andrew Waits, Sara Marinelli
Content/Trigger Warnings: child death, gun violence, death by gunshot, unsecured firearms, traumatic grief, loss of a child, descriptions of a child’s fatal injury, parental guilt, suicidal ideation/depression, cancer and death of a parent, alcoholism, infidelity, divorce/family estrangement, financial insecurity, criminal/legal proceedings, and references to the Holocaust, explicit language
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Read more about Whit’s insights into each episode on Beyond The Story Substack: whitmissildine.substack.com. On the Substack, Whit will be sharing personal reflections on the deeper themes that emerge from each episode and from across the conversations he’s been immersed in for years, including the psychology of radical transformation, the power of storytelling, the lessons of trauma and healing, and how we die to an old Self and are reborn. He’ll share behind-the-scenes glimpses into the making of the show and his own personal journey in creating it.
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Intro Music: “Sleep Paralysis” - Scott Velasquez
Music Bed: Uncertain Outcomes
Services
If you or someone you know is struggling with the effects of trauma or mental illness, please refer to the following resources:
National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Text or Call 988
National Alliance on Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264
National Sexual Assault Hotline (RAINN): 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of This Is Actually Happening, |
| 0:04.3 | ad-free right now. |
| 0:06.3 | Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app. |
| 0:09.4 | This Is Actually Happening features real experiences that often include traumatic events. |
| 0:13.7 | Please consult the show notes for specific content warnings on each episode, |
| 0:17.0 | and for more information about support services. |
| 0:21.6 | I just wanted the floor to open up and swallow me, because at that moment, everything I knew, |
| 0:30.6 | and loved and trusted, literally imploded in front of my eyes, and I just knew that it was never going to be the same. |
| 0:46.9 | From Audible Originals, I'm Whitmissible Dine. |
| 0:50.9 | You're listening to This Is Actually Happening. |
| 0:57.0 | Episode 4. You're listening to This Is Actually Happening. Episode 409 |
| 0:59.3 | What if your child's death opened up your life's purpose? |
| 1:10.5 | Whether you're exploring your fascinations or discovering new ones, |
| 1:14.6 | Ottawa has stories that will introduce you to your most fascinating self. |
| 1:18.4 | Tap into a whole new world of heated conversations with a saucy romantic series. |
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| 1:51.4 | I'm Leon Nefok. |
... |
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