The Dead Dads Podcast
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Stories You Keep

Nicknames. Moments. Jokes. The small stuff that becomes everything later.

The Dead Dad Joke: Why Your Friends Will Never Understand Your Dark Humor

The Dead Dad Joke: Why Your Friends Will Never Understand Your Dark Humor

You drop a joke about your dad's urn while sitting at the bar and suddenly everyone is staring at their shoes. You thought it was a perfectly timed observation

·7 min read
The Modern Man's Guide to Grief Podcasts: Why Raw Storytelling Beats Clinical Advice

The Modern Man's Guide to Grief Podcasts: Why Raw Storytelling Beats Clinical Advice

If someone hands you one more pamphlet with a serene beach on the cover and talks about the "stages of grief," you might actually lose your mind. There is a spe

·7 min read
My Dad's Obituary Was a Disaster — Here's What It Should Have Said

My Dad's Obituary Was a Disaster — Here's What It Should Have Said

The obituary said he was a "devoted husband, father, and grandfather who enjoyed golf." He hated golf. He went twice. Both times he lost balls in the rough, swo

·8 min read
How to Carry Your Father's Legacy Forward Without Forcing It

How to Carry Your Father's Legacy Forward Without Forcing It

Most men don't lose their father once. They lose him again, slowly, every time a year passes without mentioning his name. It doesn't happen all at once. There's

·7 min read
What Your Kids Inherit When You Stop Talking About Your Dad

What Your Kids Inherit When You Stop Talking About Your Dad

Bill Cooper's kids started stopping at Frank's headstone on their own. Not because anyone assigned it. Not because there was a family rule. Just because Frank w

·7 min read
What I Wish I Had Asked My Dad Before He Was Gone

What I Wish I Had Asked My Dad Before He Was Gone

Most men can name it in under ten seconds: the one question they never got to ask. Not "I love you" — most of us knew that, roughly. The question. The one about

·8 min read
When His Song Comes On: Music, Memory, and Grief After Losing Your Dad

When His Song Comes On: Music, Memory, and Grief After Losing Your Dad

You're in the car. You're fine. You've been fine for months, actually — functioning, getting things done, handling it. Then a song comes on. And suddenly you're

·7 min read
The Best Advice My Dad Ever Gave Me Wasn't Advice At All

The Best Advice My Dad Ever Gave Me Wasn't Advice At All

Most men who lose their dads can't recall a single piece of formal wisdom their father gave them. But they can describe exactly how he held a steering wheel. Wh

·3 min read
My Dad's Most Annoying Habits Are the Ones I Miss Most

My Dad's Most Annoying Habits Are the Ones I Miss Most

You're sitting at the dinner table. Everything's normal. Then you hear it — a low, contented hum coming from somewhere in the room. You freeze. That sound doesn

·9 min read
Why Telling Strangers About Your Dead Dad Is the Grief Ritual Nobody Recommends

Why Telling Strangers About Your Dead Dad Is the Grief Ritual Nobody Recommends

At some point after your dad dies, you develop a quiet social contract with everyone you meet: they don't ask, you don't tell. It feels like consideration. It's

·7 min read
How to Talk About Your Dad With People Who Never Met Him

How to Talk About Your Dad With People Who Never Met Him

Most men who've lost their dad describe the same small, specific dread: someone asks "what was your dad like?" and the question just sits there. Too big to answ

·7 min read
Nobody Asks to Join the Dead Dads Club — But the Members Make It Survivable

Nobody Asks to Join the Dead Dads Club — But the Members Make It Survivable

You didn't apply for membership. There was no ceremony. One day your dad was alive, and then he wasn't — and now you belong to a club nobody talks about out lou

·7 min read
Dad Jokes After Loss: How to Keep Your Father's Humor Alive Without the Guilt

Dad Jokes After Loss: How to Keep Your Father's Humor Alive Without the Guilt

The first time you caught yourself about to tell one of your dad's terrible jokes — the one he told at every family dinner, the one that made everyone groan on

·8 min read
Beyond the Obituary: How to Write a Tribute That Actually Sounds Like Your Dad

Beyond the Obituary: How to Write a Tribute That Actually Sounds Like Your Dad

The average obituary reads like a LinkedIn profile drafted by someone who met your dad twice. Name, dates, survived by, a hobby or two — and gone. If the man sp

·8 min read
My Dad's Favorite Saying Annoyed Me for Years. Now It Gets Me Through Everything.

My Dad's Favorite Saying Annoyed Me for Years. Now It Gets Me Through Everything.

Most people can quote their dad's favorite saying without thinking. What they can't tell you is exactly when it stopped being background noise and started being

·9 min read
The Questions You'll Wish You Asked Your Dad (And How to Get Them on Tape)

The Questions You'll Wish You Asked Your Dad (And How to Get Them on Tape)

When your dad dies, you don't just lose him. You lose the family archivist, the keeper of inside jokes, and the only guy who actually remembers how to fix that

·7 min read
Why Laughing at Your Dad's Memory Isn't Disrespectful — It's How You Survive

Why Laughing at Your Dad's Memory Isn't Disrespectful — It's How You Survive

Nobody tells you that the first time you genuinely laugh after your dad dies, it will probably be because of something he did. Maybe it is the memory of him swe

·8 min read
Inheriting the Groan: Why Your Dad's Terrible Jokes Are the Best Way to Grieve

Inheriting the Groan: Why Your Dad's Terrible Jokes Are the Best Way to Grieve

The joke was terrible. The kind of joke that makes everyone in the room look at the floor while the air goes completely still. He told it at every holiday, ever

·6 min read
If You Don't Talk About Your Dad, He Disappears — Here's How to Stop It

If You Don't Talk About Your Dad, He Disappears — Here's How to Stop It

There is a version of losing your dad that doesn't look like grief. It looks like a Tuesday afternoon at the hardware store where you realize you can't quite re

·7 min read
Your Dad Deserves More Than a Funeral: Why Celebrating His Life Matters

Your Dad Deserves More Than a Funeral: Why Celebrating His Life Matters

The second death happens quietly. It happens when you stop saying his name, when the stories dry up, when his birthday becomes just another Tuesday. Nobody warn

·8 min read

The Grief Tourist: Why Returning to Your Father's Favorite Places Actually Helps

Grief doesn't announce itself politely. It ambushes you at a Dairy Queen, a hardware store, a fishing lake — somewhere completely ordinary and completely his. Y

·7 min read

The Unedited Man: Why Raw Grief Stories Build Stronger Communities Than Polished Ones

Most grief content asks men to arrive with a lesson. Something learned. Something survived. Something redeemable enough to justify taking up airtime. But the co

·8 min read

If You Stop Telling Dad Stories, He Disappears — Here's How to Keep Him Around

There's a line that tends to land hard once you've lost someone: *"If you don't get to talk about the people, they disappear."* Not dramatically. Not all at onc

·6 min read

How to Start a Legacy Project for Your Dad (And Why It Actually Helps)

Most men who lose their fathers do one of two things: keep everything, unable to throw away a single wrench — or get rid of it all fast, because looking at it i

·8 min read

Your Dad's Story Is Disappearing. Here's How to Stop It.

Fathers are the most under-recorded members of most families. They show up in photographs. They're present at holidays. But the sit-down, ask-about-your-life co

·3 min read

Your Dad's Voice Is Gone. Here's How to Make Sure Yours Isn't.

Somewhere on your phone right now, there's probably a voicemail you've never deleted. Not because you need it. Because it's the last recording of his voice, and

·9 min read

Beyond the Eulogy: Building a Living Tribute That Grows With Your Grief

The casserole parade ends around day four. The sympathy cards trail off by week two. And somewhere around month three, the world has quietly decided you should

·8 min read

The Letter You Never Sent Your Dad and Why Writing It Might Be the Point

Erik Reagan planned to write his father a letter. He had the idea last December, his dad's birthday month, then pushed it to Christmas, then decided Father's Da

·8 min read

The Dad Jokes He Never Got to Tell (And Why You Should Make Them Up)

There's a specific kind of silence that follows the death of a father who was funny. Not famous-funny. Not open-mic funny. Just *dad*-funny. You notice it the f

·7 min read

Beyond 'He Was a Good Man': How to Write a Eulogy That Gets Your Father Right

Most eulogies for fathers describe someone who never actually existed — a man who was patient, wise, and never once difficult to love. That version of your dad

·8 min read

Beyond RIP: How to Write a Eulogy That Actually Sounds Like Your Dad

Most eulogies for dads say the same three things: he worked hard, he loved his family, he'd give you the shirt off his back. They're not wrong. They're just not

·8 min read

How to Honor Your Dad's Memory: Rituals That Actually Keep Him Present

Most men don't set out to forget their dads. They get busy, stay quiet, and handle it. Then one day — standing in a hardware store, or watching their kid score

·8 min read

How to Remember Your Dad Without It Destroying You Every Time

The hardware store will get you. Not the funeral, not the eulogy — the hardware store, six months later, when you reach for your phone to ask him a question he'

·8 min read
Childhood Memories After Your Dad Dies: Why Going Back Is the Way Forward

Childhood Memories After Your Dad Dies: Why Going Back Is the Way Forward

There's a Dairy Queen that Dead Dads co-host Scott Cunningham visits every year on his dad's birthday. Not because it's the best soft serve in town. Because it'

·8 min read
Songs That Belong to My Dad Now Whether I Like It or Not

Songs That Belong to My Dad Now Whether I Like It or Not

You're in a grocery store parking lot. A song comes on the radio — something your dad would have called "a classic" with zero irony — and suddenly you can't mov

·7 min read
My Dad's Advice vs. Reality: What Losing Him Taught Me About the Voice in My Head

My Dad's Advice vs. Reality: What Losing Him Taught Me About the Voice in My Head

You didn't write any of it down. Nobody does. You figured there would be time, that you'd absorb it the way you absorbed everything else he said — passively, h

·7 min read
Beyond 'He Would Have Loved This': Authentic Ways to Honor Your Dad's Legacy

Beyond 'He Would Have Loved This': Authentic Ways to Honor Your Dad's Legacy

"He would have loved this" is the most common thing people say about a dead dad. It's reflexive. It's kind. And for the first year or two, it does real work — i

·7 min read
Everything I Wish I Had Asked My Dad Before He Died

Everything I Wish I Had Asked My Dad Before He Died

The day after your dad dies, you become a detective working a cold case with almost no evidence. You knew him as Dad. You didn't know him as a person — and now

·7 min read
Your Dad Was More Than an Obituary: How to Keep His Real Story Alive

Your Dad Was More Than an Obituary: How to Keep His Real Story Alive

The obituary gave him two paragraphs. Survived by. Predeceased by. A list of hobbies that sounded like they were written by someone who'd met him once at a work

·8 min read
The Memory Box: Tangible Ways to Keep Your Dad From Disappearing

The Memory Box: Tangible Ways to Keep Your Dad From Disappearing

At some point after your dad dies, you realize you can no longer quite hear his voice in your head. Not the words — the actual sound. The specific timber of it.

·8 min read
Five Ways to Introduce Your Newborn to the Grandfather They'll Never Meet

Five Ways to Introduce Your Newborn to the Grandfather They'll Never Meet

You are holding the most important person your dad will never meet. The grief in that sentence is its own specific species — not just loss, but a second loss la

·8 min read
Beyond the Obituary: How to Write a Personal Eulogy for Your Father When the Funeral Is Over

Beyond the Obituary: How to Write a Personal Eulogy for Your Father When the Funeral Is Over

The obituary said he was a veteran, a devoted father, and a woodworker. It did not mention the time he drove four hours in a snowstorm to deliver a drill you fo

·7 min read
Beyond the Obituary: How to Recover the Stories Your Dad Never Got to Tell

Beyond the Obituary: How to Recover the Stories Your Dad Never Got to Tell

The average obituary runs about 200 words. It tells you where your dad worked, who he survived, and when the service starts. That's about it. Everything actuall

·8 min read
His Jokes Still Land: Keeping Your Dad's Sense of Humor Alive After He's Gone

His Jokes Still Land: Keeping Your Dad's Sense of Humor Alive After He's Gone

You didn't choose to start humming at the dinner table. You didn't decide to make that particular noise when you're really enjoying a meal. And then one day som

·7 min read
How to Keep Your Dad's Stories Alive for the Next Generation

How to Keep Your Dad's Stories Alive for the Next Generation

"If you don't get to talk about the people, then they do disappear, right?" That line came from a guest wrapping up a conversation on the [Dead Dads Podcast](h

·8 min read
From Touch Football to Touchstones: Creating New Rituals to Honor Your Dad

From Touch Football to Touchstones: Creating New Rituals to Honor Your Dad

The touch football game ended the year your dad's knees gave out. Then he died, and nobody even mentioned it. That's how rituals go — not with a funeral, just a

·7 min read
How Revisiting Your Dad's Favorite Places Actually Helps You Grieve

How Revisiting Your Dad's Favorite Places Actually Helps You Grieve

You didn't plan to fall apart in the hardware store. You were just looking for deck screws. But something — the smell of cut lumber, a display of propane fittin

·8 min read
Your Dad's Values Don't Die With Him — Here's How to Keep Them Alive

Your Dad's Values Don't Die With Him — Here's How to Keep Them Alive

Silence is not neutral. When you stop talking about your dad — when the weeks after the funeral turn into months, and the months harden into years of not saying

·8 min read
How to Build a Legacy Project That Actually Keeps Your Father Alive

How to Build a Legacy Project That Actually Keeps Your Father Alive

If nobody talks about him, he disappears. That is not sentiment. That is just how memory works. Within two generations, most people are gone from living memory

·8 min read
The Voicemail You Never Deleted: Why Your Dad's Voice Still Hits Different

The Voicemail You Never Deleted: Why Your Dad's Voice Still Hits Different

You weren't looking for it. You were scrolling past parking confirmations, a dentist reminder, something from three years ago about a barbecue. And then there i

·7 min read