About this episode
Plus: her complicated relationship with antidepressants, weathering fertility struggles, and aging in public.
Sara Bareilles joins Dan to discuss her new album Good Grief, a record she made after losing three close friends — Chad Joseph, Gavin Creel, and poet Andrea Gibson. The conversation covers grief as a transformative force, medication and mental health, fertility struggles and miscarriage, the creative process as spiritual transmission, aging without intervention, and patriotism as grief.
In this episode we talk about:
Grief is a shortcut to the truth — it strips away distraction and forces presence
"Name it to tame it" — putting feelings into words reduces their power
Sara's fear that medication would suppress her artistry turned out to be the opposite: Lexapro felt like "a return to herself"
The creative process as clearing a channel rather than owning the output — music arrives, it isn't manufactured
"Nothing to fix" — acceptance as a countercultural act in an era of optimization
Acceptance isn't resignation — you can surrender to what is and still take compassionate action
Grief of country: loving America and mourning what it's becoming aren't mutually exclu