Infinite Loops Danielle Crittenden - Dispatches from Grief (Ep. 313)
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May 7, 2026 
Danielle Crittenden, journalist and memoirist who wrote Dispatches from Grief, recounts the sudden loss of her daughter and why she turned to writing. She talks about grief’s physical shock, the surreal bureaucracy after death, the loneliness of bereaved parents, moments of dark humor amid tragedy, EMDR therapy, reburials and uncanny signs, and how love and grandparenthood reshape life after loss.
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The Morning Danielle's Life Cleaved In Two
- Danielle describes the sudden phone call revealing her 32-year-old daughter Miranda had died and how her life cleaved into before and after.
- She explains Miranda had a prior brain tumor and pituitary removal, needed exact medication dosing, and a dosing error likely caused sudden death, which set the scene for the memoir.
Grief As An Identity-Severing Experience
- Grief radically transforms identity: Danielle says you are hurled into an alternative universe and become a different person overnight.
- She frames writing as a way to name and convey the incurable pain that standard self-help glosses over.
Grief’s Physicality And Trapped Memories
- Grief has profound physical effects: Danielle links severe grief to nervous system dysregulation and higher mortality among bereaved parents.
- She compares trauma processing to PTSD and later credits EMDR for helping reprocess trapped memories.
