Getting Back Up Podcast: Finding Life After Death
Two fathers. Two stories of loss. One mission to get back up. Real conversations with two men learning to navigate life, raise children, and find love again…after loss. Hosted by Jamal Jones and David McClain, Getting Back Up: Life after Death is a real, raw, and often humorous podcast about what comes after the unthinkable—losing a partner, facing grief, and finding your way through it. As two widowers, now devoted girl dads (and one remarried man), Jamal and David create space for honest conversations around healing, identity, and starting over. Getting knocked down is part of life. Getting back up is how we live.
Episodes
Episode 35: In-Laws or Out-Laws? — Dealing with Their Family After You Move On
Moving forward after loss isn’t just about you—it can shift every relationship connected to your past. In this episode, Jamal and David tackle one of the most complicated dynamics widowers face: navigating relationships with in-laws while building a new life.
They share their personal experiences—from deep bonds that continue to grow, to re...
Episode 34: Bitter Sweet Sixteens — Navigating Fatherhood Through Milestones
Turning sixteen is supposed to be a celebration — a moment where parents look at their daughters and realize childhood is slowly giving way to adulthood. But for widower fathers, milestones like a Sweet Sixteen can carry a different emotional weight.
In this episode, Jamal and David reflect on their daughters’ sixteenth birthdays and the bittersw...
Episode 33: Am I Depressed… or Am I Grieving?
In this episode, Jamal and David take on a question many widowers wrestle with quietly: Am I depressed… or am I grieving? It’s a question that usually shows up late at night, in the quiet moments when the distractions fade and the weight of loss feels hardest to understand.
Together, they unpack what grief often looks like in men — exhaustion, irritability, numbness, brain...
Episode 32: Telling the Story With Heart — A Conversation with Dr. Nicole Clark
In this episode, Jamal and David sit down with Dr. Nicole Clark, Emmy award-winning anchor and reporter for Spectrum News Texas — but before the newsroom, before the camera, there was nearly two decades in psychology.
Nicole opens up about how her background as a Ph.D.-level psychotherapist shapes the way she tells stories today — especia...
Episode 31: Grief Beyond Death — A Conversation with Jocelyn Barrera of The Christi Center
In this on-location episode in Austin, Jamal and David sit down with Jocelyn Barrera, Executive and Clinical Director of The Christi Center, to explore grief in all its forms — not just death, but displacement, illness, violence, and the quiet losses that reshape families.
Jocelyn shares her journey from bilingual services coord...
Episode 30: “If Only I Had…” — Living With the Loop of Regret (Part 2)
In Part 2 of our conversation on regret, Jamal and David move from awareness to release. Many widowers quietly believe that suffering proves love — that carrying guilt forever somehow honors their wife. But what if that belief is the very thing keeping you stuck? In this episode, we challenge the idea that love requires lifelong punishment and off...
Getting Back Up: Finding Life After Death (Season 1)
Episode 29: “If Only I Had…” — Living With the Loop of Regret (Part 1)
In Part 1 of this raw and reflective conversation, Jamal and David open up about one of the hardest truths many widowers face: regret. The kind that creeps in with the silence — “If only I had noticed sooner… said more… done it differently…” The kind that loops in your mind at night an...
Getting Back Up: Finding Life After Death (Season 1)
Episode 28: What Must Be Carried (Pt. 2 ) w/ Whitney Lyn Allen
In this second half of our conversation with grief coach and author Whitney Lyn Allen, we explore the deep complexities of what it means to truly move forward. Whitney opens up about the delicate balance she now lives — raising two young boys, coaching others through loss, writing, speaking pu...
Getting Back Up: Finding Life After Death (Season 1)
Episode 27: What Must Be Carried (Pt. 1 ) w/ Whitney Lyn Allen
In this deeply personal conversation, we sit down with Whitney Lyn Allen—grief coach, attorney, author, and widow—to talk about the life she built with her late husband Ryan, and how she’s navigated life after his sudden passing from a rare reaction to a bee sting. In Part 1 of our two-part se...
Getting Back Up: Finding Life After Death (Season 1)
Episode 26: The Cost of the Craft with Russell Hornsby
In Part 2 of our powerful conversation with actor Russell Hornsby, we move from personal loss to professional sacrifice—and how they’re more connected than people think. Fresh off filming two back-to-back movies in Atlanta, Russell talks with Jamal and Dave about what it means to be away from your fam...
Getting Back Up: Finding Life After Death (Season 1)
Episode 25: Black Men, Cancer, and the Fight for Our Lives
In this special episode, Jamal and David head to Clark Atlanta University to sit down with researchers, doctors, and survivors at the frontlines of cancer care and advocacy. From pioneering lab discoveries to deeply personal stories of survival, this episode connects science with the soul.
We talke...
Getting Back Up: Finding Life After Death (Season 1)
Episode 24: A New Year. A New You.
It’s 2026—and for those of us navigating life after loss, the new year can feel less like a reset and more like a reckoning. In this episode, Jamal and Dave reflect on entering a fresh calendar year while still carrying the weight of grief, change, and growth. Together, they talk about what it really means to ...
Getting Back Up: Finding Life After Death (Season 1)
Episode 23: When the Job Is Gone, Who Are You? with Degion Craddock
In this episode, Jamal and David sit down with marketing pro and former Dell colleague Degion Craddock—a talented, driven brother who found himself suddenly laid off and in unfamiliar territory. Degion opens up about what it’s been like to face rejection after rejection, redefin...
Getting Back Up: Finding Life After Death (Season 1)
Episode 22: For the People - A Conversation with our Community
In this episode, Jamal and Dave step back from the mic to reflect on the journey so far—and to respond to you, the Getting Back Up community. Since launching, we’ve received love, critique, DMs, and real talk from people across the country. And today, we’re talking about it all.
What’s landed. ...
Getting Back Up: Finding Life After Death (Season 1)
Episode 21: A Son’s Reflection on Love, Loss, & Legacy with Russell Hornsby (Part 1)
In this deeply personal conversation, Jamal and David sit down with acclaimed actor Russell Hornsby to talk about the kind of loss that doesn’t always make headlines—but leaves a lifelong imprint. Known for his roles in Fences, Grimm, The Hate U Give, BMF, and many m...
Going into Thanksgiving and somewhat taking a break.
We are thankful to our fans and listeners and grateful for this community.
Getting Back Up: Finding Life After Death is a podcast that explores the raw, unfiltered reality of surviving profound personal loss—and finding a way forward. The idea for the podcast was born after David and Jamal met in 2023. Both widowers, who had lost their wives to cancer, quickl...
Getting Back Up: Finding Life After Death (Season 1)
Episode 20: Children and Grief with Kelly Medvin (LPC)
In this episode, Jamal and Dave sit down with Kelly Medvin, a licensed professional counselor from New Jersey whose work with grieving families began with her own story—losing her sister suddenly and stepping in to support her young nieces and nephews through unimaginable pain. That personal loss beca...
Getting Back Up: Finding Life After Death (Season 1)
Episode 19: Life After Loss w/ Melody Rollins Downes (Part 2)
In Part 2 of thier powerful conversation, Melody opens up about the final chapter of her husband’s life—the caregiving, the chaos, the clarity, and the quiet moments in between.
This episode goes deeper into how they managed their marriage, family, and friendships while facing the unimaginable. ...
Getting Back Up: Finding Life After Death (Season 1)
Episode 18: Life After Loss w/ Melody Rollins Downes (Part 1)
In this episode, Jamal and David sit down with Melody Rollins Downes, a close friend, mother, and widow, to explore the full story—not just the moment of loss, but the life that came before it. Melody opens up about her childhood, her marriage, and what it meant to love deeply—and then lose sud...
Getting Back Up: Finding Life After Death (Season 1)
Episode 17: The Holidays After Loss
For anyone grieving, the holiday season doesn’t just bring lights and cheer—it brings shadows, silence, and reminders of what (and who) is missing. In this episode, Jamal and Dave get real about what it’s like to face your first holiday after losing someone you love—and every holiday after that.
Through personal stories ...
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