Unspoken Stories: Where Listening Meets Loss
In a recent episode of the End of Life University podcast with Dr. Karen Wyatt, The Good Listening Project’s Executive Director, Jenny Hegland, spoke about the transformative power of listening and poetry to bring humanity back into healthcare. Their conversation offered a moving look at how TGLP’s work helps people feel seen and heard, especially in moments of grief and transition.
What made this interview particularly special was hearing Dr. Wyatt reflect on her own experience as a poemee, sharing a story from early in her medical career that had stayed with her for decades but gone unspoken. Together, Jenny and Dr. Wyatt explored how poetry can honor such stories, deepen empathy, and help us heal. The episode closed with Jenny reading Andrea Gibson’s poem When Death Came to Visit — a remarkable reflection on how poetry can transform the way we relate to death, loss, and grief.