Silver fox Anderson Cooper has been helping his grieving followers to process their feelings. Back in 2022, Cooper announced on his podcast All There is with Anderson Cooper, that he would be accepting voicemails of people who were grieving or had learned something from grief which could help others through an ‘Online Grief Community.’ Fast forward to 2023, the popular broadcast journalist had listened to over 1,000 submissions of people who had shared their stories of grief.
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The 57-year-old podcast host introduces the online grief community in a brief video on the website. He begins by saying, ‘Grief can feel so lonely,‘ and that sentiment rings heartbreakingly true. The online community created by Anderson Cooper goes beyond just videos of him speaking; he actively engages with followers and community members in the comments section, ensuring genuine connections and contributing to the difficult conversation about grief.
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Anderson says there are two things to help with grief:
- Talking about it.
- Listening to others talk about their grief experiences.
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With the thousands of voicemails uploaded to the online community, Anderson has listened to each one, spending over 43 hours to hear out everyone’s stories of grief and loss. Although Cooper had apprehensions on whether audiences would connect with this type of podcast, within a few days of posting the first episode, the podcast found itself at the top spot of the Apple podcast chart.
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Why Did Anderson Start the Podcast?
In 2019, Anderson lost his mother–famous and iconic designer, socialite, and American royalty Gloria Vanderbilt, at the age of 95 to stomach cancer. She is buried at the Vanderbilt Family Cemetery along with Anderson’s older brother Carter who died of suicide at the age of 23 in 1988 and her husband Wyatt Cooper who died during open heart surgery from a heart attack in 1978. All this being said, Anderson realized he was the only member left in his immediate family.
When Anderson was going through his mother’s belongings, he realized that she had kept everything, and this sent a flood of emotions through him. To cope with this, he did what a season journalist would do– he recorded memos.
“I found myself overwhelmed by this wilderness of grief. One of the ways I got through it was by creating a narrative. I started recording voice memos of my thoughts and feelings on my phone.”
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His personal recordings were helpful to him, and in time, he had enough memos collected to consider that this might also help others who are going through the same motions of grief.
“After my mom’s death, I had no choice but to face it. I realized I could deal with my own feelings of sadness in a journalistic way—as a correspondent from the world of grief.” He adds, “As I’d find things among my mother’s belongings, I’d go down new rabbit holes. I’d find Christmas cards from long ago or a box of my father’s belts. I’d struggle to throw anything away. It all became inspiration for podcast conversations.”
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Launched in September 2022, the podcast has invited guests such as Tyler Perry, Whoopi Goldberg, Andrew Garfield, among many others. More importantly, Anderson has given his followers a chance to share their stories, to ask for help within the ‘Grief Community,’ and to listen to others who have grieved or are grieving. With thousands of stories out there, Anderson Cooper is appreciated by his followers who know that he is genuinely trying to help with the process of trying to figure out this difficult time in people’s lives.
Comments on the Online Grief Community have been nothing but supportive to the members of the community and to Anderson:
- “Such a remarkable story of survival. Thank you Anderson for helping all of us! These conversations are much needed, by many. “
- “Such a great episode. Love hearing your mom. Love hearing your journey. So glad you are getting assistance to process the grief. Love Andrew’s [Garfield] perspective. And love this safe space to come and be together as a community.”
- “I just found this community. I am grateful to Anderson for recognizing the importance of talking about grief. It’s something that only someone who has experienced it, could have done. I lost my youngest son in January of 2021. Just seeing those words typed, feels like it’s someone else that must have written them. But it’s me. As parents, we are not meant to know the date of our childs’ death. But Jan. 22, 2021 is now a date that I know. Anyway – that’s all I can say right now. Except thank you for acknowledging grief and how profound and everlasting the impact is. “
Grief is never easy, and it can be hard to understand, but remember that there are people willing to listen to your stories. If you’d like to hear others’ stories or share your own, you can visit the Online Grief Community here. You can also check out the All There is podcast here.