What happens when one of the happiest moments of your life and the worst moment of your life happen within hours of each other?

Ric Hart became a father and a widower almost at the same time.

His wife, Jade, gave birth to their son, Hugo, in July 2018. Hours later, after a catastrophic series of medical events, Jade died.

Two days later, Ric returned home with a newborn.

No partner.

Very little sleep.

A shattered nervous system.

And absolutely no idea how he...

What happens when your wife dies, you're raising three grieving boys, and you have 60 days to leave the country you've called home?

Michael “Mike” Frampton lived that reality.

Before becoming a widowed solo dad, Mike was already managing a marriage marked by serious challenges. His wife, Kim, was a successful doctor and entrepreneur, but behind the scenes, their family was struggling with mental health concerns, relationship instability, and difficult decisions about their children's future.

Then Kim died unexpectedly.

Mike was left raising three young boys in California, facing financial and immigration chal...

Four days before Christmas, everything changed.

On Saturday, Sarah was bowling with her family. On Sunday, she was making gingerbread houses with her children and watching Santa ride through their neighborhood. By Wednesday morning, she was gone.

In this episode of the Solo Dad Podcast, Matt sits down with Tom, a Philadelphia musician and widowed father of three, to discuss the sudden death of his wife from bacterial meningitis and the extraordinary community that helped him keep going.

Tom and Sarah's love story began in Spain, where they were performing at an international...

Seventeen days changed everything.

Shane Musgrove came home from a normal work trip expecting dinner and a movie with his wife, Sonia.

Instead, a stop at a clinic became a trip to the emergency room.

Then came three words:

“You have cancer.”

Seventeen days later, Sonia was dead.

In this deeply personal conversation on the Solo Dad Podcast, Shane walks Matt through the 17 days that changed his family forever—and what happened after everyone else went home and grief became part of everyday life.<...

What does grief feel like when the person who gave your life direction disappears without warning?

In this episode of the Solo Dad Podcast, Matt talks with golf professional, widower, father, yoga teacher, and Wim Hof Method practitioner Kevin Chin about the sudden death of his wife, Terry, and the tools that helped him survive, rebuild, and become unstuck.

Kevin and Terry met through Couchsurfing before apps like Airbnb had become part of everyday life. Kevin was traveling through Florida to play in golf tournaments and hoped to make his trip less lonely. Terry responded...

When someone you have loved for decades dies, the love does not end—but the life you shared changes completely.

In this episode of the Solo Dad Podcast, Matt sits down with author and widower Bill Beckett to talk about his wife, Bonnie, their 27 years together, her cancer journey, and the difficult work of learning to live with the empty side of their bed.

Bill and Bonnie met online in the early days of the internet, long before dating apps, profile pictures, and video calls. Their relationship began through written conversations and long walks in a...

What happens when the person who helped you carry everything is suddenly gone?

In this episode of the Solo Dad Podcast, Matt sits down with Zach, a firefighter, widower, and solo father raising his nine-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter after the death of his wife, Megan.

Zach and Megan had been together since high school. What began with him borrowing her answers in an ACT prep class grew into a 17-year relationship, a marriage, two children, and a life built around family, food, sports, and adventure.

Their lives changed when a wasp sting...

You can love someone deeply and still be powerless to save them.

Josh spent years serving his country.

Then he found himself facing a battle he couldn't solve with training, discipline or determination.

His wife and best friend, Corey, was struggling with alcohol.

What began with increasing alcohol use eventually became serious physical complications, hospitalizations, mobility loss and a year-and-a-half journey in which Josh became not only a husband and father—but a caregiver.

He tried to help.

He tried to reason.

He tried setting bo...

This episode of the Solo Dad Podcast is a deeply honest Solo Mom conversation with Alicia, whose story moves through love, marriage, parenting, mental illness, separation, suicide loss, and the reality of raising grieving children after trauma.

Alicia shares what it was like to love a man whose laugh filled the room, while also slowly watching mental illness change the life they were building. She talks about the impossible choices that came with trying to protect her children, the guilt of needing boundaries, the fear of not knowing what would happen next, and the grief that followed...

In this episode of the Solo Dad Podcast, Matt sits down with Suzie Schumaker for a deeply honest Solo Mom conversation about love, loss, faith, caregiving, and raising kids after the death of a spouse.

Suzie shares the story of meeting her husband Eric as kids in their Orthodox church community, building a life together, grieving the loss of their first daughter, and later facing Eric’s cancer diagnosis during the isolation and restrictions of COVID. Their story is filled with devotion, humor, faith, hard decisions, and the kind of grit widowed parents often discover only after li...

In this deeply moving conversation, Danny Leslie joins Matt to talk about love, loss, solo parenting, and the ways grief changes shape over time.

Danny reflects on the long road of Raf’s cancer, the heartbreak of becoming the one who had to carry impossible news, and what it has looked like to raise their daughters while keeping her presence alive in everyday family rhythm. He shares how writing, walking with a weighted vest, and choosing to “participate with grief” helped him move from hiding in pain to carrying it in a more honest way.

This e...

In this episode of the Solo Dad Podcast, Dustin Morrow shares the story of how he and Mallie met, built a life together fast, welcomed their son Tristan, and then had everything change when back pain turned into a devastating cancer diagnosis. What followed was a two-year caregiving journey filled with hospital visits, hard conversations, hospice, and the helpless reality of loving someone through something you cannot fix. 

Dustin talks openly about being both caregiver and dad, what it was like watching Tristan grieve at such a young age, and how faith, support from other solo dads, a...

Jason opens up about losing his wife Heather unexpectedly, raising a daughter through grief, and the heavy guilt he carried in the years that followed. He shares what helped him heal, including therapy, hard-earned honesty, and learning to put down the things that were numbing the pain instead of helping him face it. The conversation also moves into something many widowed parents wrestle with but don’t always talk about openly: dating again, loving again, and blending a family while still honoring the spouse who died. This is a raw, grounded episode about healing, health, parenting, and what it me...

What happens when grief doesn’t just visit once—when it repeats? In this conversation, Michael Chapman and Matt talk through the kind of loss that changes your nervous system: sitting in a hospital room watching “a repeat of history,” the exhaustion that makes reality blur, and the moment a nurse gives permission to step away—because sometimes that’s when it happens. 

They get into the parts people rarely say out loud: the numbness that shows up as a survival skill, the impossible job of telling your kids their mom is gone, and the ongoing tug-of-war between holdi...

In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, Michael Chapman—an author and twice-widowed dad—shares what it’s like to love, lose, and keep showing up. From walking through terminal cancer to the shock of the silence after, Michael opens up about grief waves, “two dates on the calendar,” and the moment he realized moving forward isn’t forgetting—it’s surviving.

Book Available here:

https://www.amazon.com/Two-Days-Calendar-Life-Lessons/dp/B0DK6DFT5D

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

“It’s different now and that’s OK,” says Abel Keogh, author, blogger, relationship coach and host of YouTube channel Widower Wednesday. Abel became a widower 21 years ago at the age of 26 when his wife took her own life while she was seven months pregnant. He started anonymously blogging during that first year as a widower, sharing his experiences and awkward dating stories. The blog soon took off as there were virtually no other resources for widowers at the time. After receiving so many of the same questions and issues from widowers and the women dating them, he began writing...

“I’m worth whatever I think I’m worth,” says Ken, describing the mindset he adopted while beginning to date after losing his wife. Rather than thinking of their widower status as baggage, solo dads who are preparing to date again should remember that if their amazing wives once loved them, then another amazing person will, too. They also agree that knowing what they might have done differently in their first marriage gives them the unique opportunity to do better in future relationships. Ken was able to gain valuable insight into his marriage by reading the journals his wife kept thr...

“I’m still on a kind of mixed-grief journey, I guess,” says John Smith, father of two, who lost his wife Kathy to colon cancer nearly two years ago. She was diagnosed just as the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 an official emergency. They were living with her parents at the time, and John discusses the challenges he faced with his in-laws in the immediate period following Kathy’s death. Their approach to grief was completely different from his—they almost pretended it wasn’t happening—and they ended up having separate services. It was a lesson in recognizing that each pers...

“You’re never done with grief,” says Jim T., who has the rare distinction of being twice widowed. His first wife Melinda was killed in a car accident shortly after they moved to Knoxville Tennessee to found an Eastern Orthodox Church there. Melinda’s death brought the new congregation together, who were still relative strangers, as they rallied around Jim in support. He describes the beautiful rituals and traditions of that sect of Christian faith, and shares what church elders told him about the significance of the date of her death. 

Earlier this year, Jim’s second wife Tracy...

Content warning: this episode talks about suicide and parental/spouse death.

“It's not the loss that causes your pain. It's your thoughts and feelings about it,” says Jay Deutsch, who joins the podcast, serendipitously, on the birthday of his late wife, Larissa. Her battles with depression ultimately lead to her taking her own life, leaving Jay a widower with two young children. He discusses the effects and consequences that grief had on himself and his children. 

After an encounter with Larissa at her gravesite, and later with a woman he described as his “twin fl...

“You’re not only experimenting with dating, you’re experimenting with your new self,” says Ken Brown as he joins The Solo Dad Podcast along with Ben Janoski to discuss what it means to return to the dating world as young widowers with children. Some of what’s discussed, such as ghosting, how soon to meet in person and getting catfished, will be familiar to anyone navigating the contemporary dating world. More unique is what they dub the ‘picture purge,’ which is how to feature mementos of your dead wife in a way that doesn’t erase her from your daily life...

Mathew talks to his mother Jo Ann, who became a widow at the age of 37, after Mathew’s father died of a massive heart attack while on a business trip. Jo Ann soon moved Mathew, then 11, and his 6-year-old brother Jonathan from Southern California to Northern California to begin a whole new life. Throughout what was an overwhelming time, Jo Ann encountered many acts of kindness and connection that showed her that the Universe was looking out for her, as it looks out for all of us. She also found solace in her faith, and a sense of community fr...

Solo But Not Alone - Mathew Bradley

When he lost his wife, Marci, to cancer in 2018, Matt was left to navigate raising his one-year-old daughter, Blair, on his own. Matt reached out to other dads dealing with loss, and in 2021 he launched Solo Dad Podcast. 

Check out the rest of the interview and all things great about being a father to daughter at 

https://www.audible.com/pd/Girl-Dad-Nation-Podcast/B09PK4PKDB

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

Ben is partaking in - https://drinkspindrift.com/

Matt is enjoying - https://oldforgedistillery.com/spirits/moonshine/oatmeal-cookie-moonshine/

Anger management ideas:

https://www.fatherly.com/anger-management/


EMDR - https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/emdr-what-is-it#:~:text=Eye%20movement%20desensitization%20and%20reprocessing%20(EMDR)%20is%20a%20fairly%20new,%2C%20rape%2C%20or%20car%20accidents.


Bi lateral Movement Therapy - https://anxietyreleaseapp.com/what-is-bilateral-stimulation/

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

In this deeply personal Widow Wednesday episode of the Solo Dad Podcast, Matt steps into the guest seat to share the story that led him into widowhood, solo parenting, and ultimately the creation of the Solo Dad Podcast community. Recorded during Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, the episode offers a raw, unfiltered look at caregiving, anticipatory grief, and life after losing a spouse to colorectal cancer.

Matt recounts the months following his wife Marcy’s cancer diagnosis, which came just 86 days after the birth of their daughter. He walks through the shock of learning the cancer ha...

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

Season 2

Ben and Matt catch up after taking a much needed break that was extended by injury. 

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

Widow Wednesday - Meet Adam, young father of 3 daughters, made a widower after his wife journey with breast cancer come to an end. He shares is long relationship with loss in his life, early struggles with addiction, all preparing him for the most difficult journey yet. Finding support and community is ways he never imagined.

Follow Adam on Tiktok at  BeEazyVegito https://www.tiktok.com/@beeazyvegito?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

Find us where ever your ears roam
-Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/show/4juZNMsIh5EK5k1QS7pet4?si=5281795548894903

Matt, Ben and Ken catch up, talk end of summer trips, beginning of school planning, and how being flexible is paramount in this Solo Dad journey. Talking about how to outsource things we can't do and when NOT to measure yourself against an impossible standard.

Find us where ever your ears roam
-Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/show/4juZNMsIh5EK5k1QS7pet4?si=5281795548894903
-iTunes:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-solo-dad-podcast/id1573131421
-Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Podcast/B08JJNFC2K?action_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp&shareTest=TestShare

In this episode, Matt, Ben, and Ken talk about the real-life collision of solo parenting, grief, and the return to routine. From back-to-school transitions and last-minute childcare scrambles to grief triggers hiding in familiar places and family trips, this conversation captures how loss keeps showing up in everyday moments. They also share what it looks like when kids begin talking about death out loud, and how solo parents learn to guide those conversations with honesty, care, and courage. This is a powerful CLIMB episode about Learning how grief lives in ordinary life and Movement toward...

Back-to-school season hits different when you’re solo. In this re-release, Matt and Ben trade stories about the end-of-summer shift—camp schedules, supply lists, and the two-week gap that can wreck childcare plans if you aren’t thinking way ahead. Along the way, they get into what widowed parenting really demands: making big decisions without a partner to “bounce it off,” managing a household that used to run on division-of-labor, and learning the hard way why passwords, auto-pay setups, and financial systems matter after loss. 

They also talk about the emotional side nobody sees—grief fog, decision doubt, retail...