GRIEF AND MEDIA PROJECT is a newsletter and podcast exploring the intersection of grief, relationships, media, and pop culture.

Hi! I’m Alex Piscatelli, the creator of GRIEF AND MEDIA PROJECT. I’m writer, podcaster, and Gemini moon based in the San Francisco-Bay Area. (But I’m from San Diego, something I don’t shut up about!! Ask me about my favorite California burrito.) I’m currently a graduate student at San Francisco State, researching the ways grief is represented in various media—television, film, and popular music—and how audiences understand and interpret its representation.

I have always had a deep affinity for media and popular culture—an unsurprising fact if you knew how often I would read Seventeen Magazine and watch America’s Next Top Model reruns growing up. Grief, though, was something I tried to avoid until I no longer was able to.

My dad died in 2013 when I was 17, and my mom died in 2022 when I was 25. The loss of my parents is even more of an Earth-shattering and isolating experience than I could ever think to describe. As such, I turned to media—television, film, music, and books—to feel less alone. This process gave me the idea to start a database of media that portrays grief. But I love writing and talking and being on the internet! So I couldn’t stop there.

The GRIEF AND MEDIA PROJECT is…

🪩 A newsletter, with (sometimes) weekly updates, essays, and media deep dives

🪩 A podcast, which includes a weekly radio show live on KSFS Radio Thursdays at 9 to 10:15 a.m. PST

🪩 A video series (coming April 2026!)

This project in its entirety is dedicated to my mom, Ellen, and my dad, Ron. They always told me I can do anything I want to do and be anything I want to be. This has given me unbridled confidence to put myself and my heart onto the internet in such a way, but this is only a small piece of all the reasons for which I’m grateful for them. I hope this project shows everyone who encounters it how much I love them.