Liz Jensen on learning to love life again after devastating loss

The Shift with Sam Baker

Sam Baker Ltd

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.8 • 525 Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2024

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

CONTENT WARNING: There are many moments of joy in this conversation, but please be aware that Liz talks candidly about grief and the sudden death of her son, which some listeners may find upsetting. My guest today is the writer and climate activist Liz Jensen. Half Danish and half-anglo Moroccan, Liz started out as a journalist, working in radio before becoming a BBC producer. Then, Liz turned her hand to novels. She has now written nine, perhaps the best known of which is The Ninth Life of Louis Drax, which was turned into a movie starring Jamie Dornan. Now she has written memoir, one no-one would ever want to write. Your Wild and Precious Life, is, at its heart the devastating story of the nine months after her youngest son Raphael died suddenly at the age of 25. Raph was a zoologist and climate activist, and this is also the story of Liz’s own awakening. She is a founder of Extinction Rebellion Writers Rebel, which combines words and action to highlight the climate and ecological emergency. Liz joined me to talk about surviving the loss of a child, translating grief into hope and opening herself up to the natural world. We also discussed magical thinking, the concept of kairos, the unexpected solace of being part of the terrible club and why she used to want to marry an ape! A note: The episode of The Shift Liz and I discuss in the first five minutes is my conversation with 103-year-old Dr Gladys McGarey, you can listen to it here. * You can buy all the books mentioned in this podcast at The Shift bookshop on Bookshop.org, including Your Wild and Precious Life by Liz Jensen and the book that inspired this podcast, The Shift: how I lost and found myself after 40 - and you can too, by me. * If you enjoyed this episode and you fancy buying me a coffee, pop over to my page on buymeacoffee.com • And if you'd like to support the work that goes into making this podcast and get a weekly newsletter plus loads more content including exclusive transcripts of the podcast, why not join The Shift community, come and have a look around at www.theshiftwithsambaker.substack.com • The Shift (on life after 40) with Sam Baker is created and hosted by Sam Baker and edited by Juliette Nicholls @ Pineapple Audio Production. If you enjoyed this podcast, please rate/review/follow as it really does help other people find us. And let me know what you think on twitter @sambaker or instagram @theothersambaker. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Jamie Lang and Sophie Haboo have arrived on Disney Plus.
0:04.5	We're having a baby.
0:05.5	We're having a baby.
0:07.2	I've always wanted to be mom.
0:09.4	And we're bringing you on our journey through everything.
0:12.4	I have no idea what we're doing.
0:13.6	Thank you. I have more of an idea.
0:15.6	I think of it like a Tamagocchi.
0:17.8	At the end of all of this...
0:20.0	We're going to have a little baby. Raising Chelsea, a Hulu
0:23.7	original series streaming exclusively on Disney Plus. 18 plus subscription required T's and T supply.
0:34.5	Hello and welcome to The Shift, the podcast that aims to tell the no-holds bar truth about being a woman post-40, created and hosted by me, writer and broadcaster, Sam Baker.
0:45.5	My guest today is the writer and climate activist Liz Jensen, half Danish and half Anglo-Moroccan.
0:52.2	Liz started out as a journalist working in radio before becoming a BBC
0:55.8	producer. Then she turned her hand to novels. She's written nine now, perhaps the best known of which is
1:02.2	the ninth life of Louis Drax, which was turned into a movie starring Jamie Dorn. Now she's written a memoir,
1:09.6	one no one would ever want to write.
1:12.8	Your wild and precious life is, at its heart, the devastating story of the nine months after her youngest son, Raphael, died, suddenly at the age of 25.
1:24.1	Raff was a zoologist and climate activist, and this is also the story of Liz's own awakening.
1:30.4	I feel where I feel. It gives me joy to know that they're around. And I think the other thing is I don't fear death.
1:38.3	You know, I think after you've lost a child, you don't really fear death yourself.
1:42.0	Liz joined me to talk about surviving the loss of a child, translating grief into hope
	...

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