Grief doesn’t just break your heart—it can rewire your theology, your body, and your whole relationship with God.

In “Grief and Religion,” Dionne C. Monsanto and Yvette Love Dávila are joined by Rev. Dr. Elizabeth “Liz” Rios—Afro-Boricua pastor, scholar, justice leader, and founder of Passion2Plant—for a candid conversation about what faith looks like when the miracle you prayed for doesn’t come. Because Dr. Rios has also lost a child, the table expands into Three Mothers, One Aché—three women speaking from lived experience, not performance.

Together, they explore the silence that follows loss, the pressure to perform “faithful” grief, and the ways inherited theology can fail us when it’s built to explain pain instead of accompany it. Dr. Rios offers permission—clear and uncompromising—to grieve honestly, question openly, and trust that faith can hold lament, anger, rest, and becoming.

This episode also honors the practical, embodied ways love shows up, and the spiritual practices that sustain us inside and outside the church—without rushing healing or demanding closure.

Aché.

Two Mothers, One Aché: A Grief Dialogue is produced and distributed by Merrick Studios and hosted by Yvette Dávila and Dionne C. Monsanto. Each episode offers a brave and intimate space where grief is spoken aloud, healing is shared, and love refuses to fade—listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever your journey takes you.

Join the conversation on Instagram @2mothers1achepod and learn more at wearemerrickstudios.com/two-mothers-one-ache-pod.

Original music by Dasan T. Broadnax, known artistically as O.D. Mongrel. Discover more of his work on all streaming platforms.

This episode is an invitation back to the kitchen table, where grief and love tell the truth together.

Yvette and Dionne explore how community can feel like refuge and overwhelm at the same time, how grief can make you crave connection while needing to disappear, and how protection can look like sunglasses, silence, or staying upstairs. We talk about who shows up when everything falls apart, who surprises you, and who pulls away—not always out of harm, but out of fear, confusion, or their own unprocessed grief.

Together, we reflect on transactional relationships, chosen family, and the quiet wisdom of practical care: bringing food without asking, getting bodies moving, making decisions for someone whose heart is already carrying too much. We also offer a forward-looking practice—creating a small circle of trusted people who know your signs, hear the unspoken, and have permission to step in when words fail.

And we close honoring beloved names Sophia Annalise and Princess Grace – breathing life into memory, love, and community that endures beyond isolation.

Aché.

Two Mothers, One Aché: A Grief Dialogue is produced and distributed by Merrick Studios and hosted by Yvette Dávila and Dionne C. Monsanto. Each episode offers a brave and intimate space where grief is spoken aloud, healing is shared, and love refuses to fade—listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever your journey takes you.

Join the conversation on Instagram @2mothers1achepod and learn more at wearemerrickstudios.com/two-mothers-one-ache-pod.

Original music by Dasan T. Broadnax, known artistically as O.D. Mongrel. Discover more of his work on all streaming platforms.

In Part 2 of Grief and Addiction, the conversation deepens—and so does the truth.

Yvette shares the moment her grief was fundamentally reshaped: learning that addiction played a direct role in her son Dasan’s death. With compassion and courage, she reflects on the question that changed everything—What would life have looked like if addiction had continued?—and how that reckoning opened a path toward forgiveness, faith, and self-compassion.

Joined again by licensed professional counselor and addiction specialist Jill Mackey, Dionne and Yvette explore the emotional complexity of addiction-related loss: guilt and relief existing side by side, survivor’s guilt, generational trauma, and the quiet exhaustion of waiting for “that call.” They unpack why grief can increase vulnerability to addiction, how numbing behaviors show up in everyday life, and what it means to truly let go of the “why.”

This episode is about learning to hold love and loss in the same body.
About releasing blame without erasing truth.
About forgiving yourself so you don’t lose what you still have to what you’ve already lost.

As always, this is a space for honesty, breath, and remembrance. Take your time with this one. You may want to listen more than once.

Aché.

Two Mothers, One Aché: A Grief Dialogue is produced and distributed by Merrick Studios and hosted by Yvette Dávila and Dionne C. Monsanto. Each episode offers a brave and intimate space where grief is spoken aloud, healing is shared, and love refuses to fade—listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever your journey takes you.

Join the conversation on Instagram @2mothers1achepod and learn more at wearemerrickstudios.com/two-mothers-one-ache-pod.

Original music by Dasan T. Broadnax, known artistically as O.D. Mongrel. Discover more of his work on all streaming platforms.