Hi everyone, from New York Magazine in the Vox Media podcast network, this is on with

Cara Swisher and I'm Cara Swisher and I'm Neymaraza.

If you listen to the show, if you like the show, and if you've heard our work over the

last couple of years, you've really been hearing and liking the work of a woman named

Blakene Shek.

She's been our senior producer, our colleague and a good friend.

She was our first hire here at New York Magazine in Vox when we started this show and

Cara and I started this show a month in and she worked with us for a year before that

at New York Times on our show Sway.

She did and tragically she passed away on Monday, July 24th, after suffering a sudden cardiac

arrest entirely unexpected because she's very healthy.

She ran marathons and was in fact preparing for the New York Marathon later this year.

And she was only 40 years old when she died.

Yeah, she would have turned 41 on Sunday, August 6th.

And so we wanted to do a sin her passing on her, what would have been her 41st birthday,

an episode in honor of her.

And in a moment we're going to bring on Esther Peral to talk with us about this grief

that we're experiencing and making friends and families are experiencing, but really

everyone experiences in their life.

But before we get there, we just wanted to tell you a little bit more about Blakene's.

Yeah, and it worked.

I'll start with work.

...