Hey, Science Quickly listeners, Rachel here.

I just wanted to give you a heads up that I'll be taking a short break from hosting the pod to go on parental leave.

But don't worry, I'm leaving you in excellent hands.

Award-winning journalist Kendra Pierre-Lewis is stepping in to host Science quickly while I'm gone.

You might recognize her from the late Gimlet Media Podcast How to Save a Planet,

or from her work at Bloomberg, The New York Times, Popular Science, and lots of other outlets.

She's taking the helm starting in November, and I'll be coming back into your feed sometime in the spring of 2026.

So see you next year. And as always, thanks for listening.

Music fear. And as always, thanks for listening. For Scientific American Science Cookley, I'm Kendra Pira Lewis, in for Rachel Feldman. When someone we love dies, we often yearn for the impossible.

One more conversation.

Maybe we want the opportunity to finally gain clarity about a difficult relationship, or to say

I love you one last time to someone we cherish. While raising the dead is still out of reach,

more and more people are turning to generative AI tools such as replica to conjure the essence

of their loved ones and have those final conversations. Some users claim these so-called

grief bots have helped them process loss, but mental health experts are not so sure. Here to walk us

through the story is science writer David Barabee, who authored an upcoming future for Scientific American

about the growing use of grief bots. Thank you so much for joining us today, David.

I'm very happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

It was really a lovely reading your piece.

Sort of one of the first questions that I thought was interesting is in the piece,

you don't just talk about people who have used, you know, what you call grief bots.

You actually used one yourself. Can you walk us through a little bit of the process of what

...