Getting Through Grief — with Humor and Heart
Totally Booked with Zibby
Zibby Owens
4.5 • 643 Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Hear from two amazing women authors who have survived loss and learned to live with it by finding humor in the darkest times. Screenwriter Angela Nissel writes about the loss of her mother — who had been caught up in a deceptive relationship — in Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom is Dead. Content creator Leslie Harter-Berg shares how she survived the sudden loss of her 30-year-old husband while on vacation post-Disneyland with their family and small children in You’re So Strong. The two of them are funny, sensitive souls who should really be friends. Taken together, these two conversations highlight how writing is healing, how humor is necessary, and how we can get through the hardest things life throws our way.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Zibi Owens, and you're listening to Totally Booked with Zibby. Formerly, moms don't have time to read books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest, best-selling, buzziest, or underrated authors and story creators, whose work I think is worth your time. As a bookstore owner, publisher, author, and obviously podcaster, I get a comprehensive |
| 0:24.0 | look at everything that's coming out and spend my time curating the best books so you don't |
| 0:29.3 | have to. |
| 0:30.3 | Stay in the know, get insider insights, and connect with guests like I do every single day. |
| 0:36.2 | For more information, go to zibbimedia.com and follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens. |
| 0:44.6 | I really enjoyed talking to Angela Nissel about good grief, past the bread, mom is dead. |
| 0:51.7 | This book, as well as an episode I filmed with Leslie Harderberg, called You're So Strong, |
| 0:56.9 | on Grief and Letting Go of My Favorite Compliment, make a really interesting duo episode. |
| 1:02.3 | They both talk about grief in different ways. They use humor more so than in lots of other books. |
| 1:09.1 | They really take us into scenes from their life, |
| 1:12.3 | how they got through this time, and how they dealt with all the other issues and ways of |
| 1:16.3 | just being a woman in the context of insane grief. |
| 1:21.1 | Angela Nissel is author of the best-selling comedic memoirs, The Broke Diaries, and Mixed. |
| 1:26.5 | In addition to books, she is a prolific |
| 1:28.1 | TV writer on Scrubs, the Boondocks, and Ginny and Georgia among her credits. Leslie Harderberg, |
| 1:34.3 | who I interviewed live at The Whitby as part of a Totally Book Live series, is the owner and |
| 1:39.7 | creative director of Harder Creative. She's also founder and executive director at Vids for Wids. Her book is |
| 1:46.6 | You're So Strong on Grief and Letting Go of My Favorite Compliment. She lives in Vancouver, |
| 1:51.4 | Washington, with her husband, spoiler, Solomon, and three sons. And the two of them should be friends. |
| 1:59.1 | I have to introduce them after this. |
| 2:01.0 | But in the meantime, I've picked some of the most compelling parts of both of our conversations |
| 2:05.5 | so that you can hear what it's like for both of them, how they can help you or your friends |
... |
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