About the Podcast
“Grief can be heavy, isolating and daunting to talk about. Creating conversations about grief in community helps destigmatize this very natural human experience while reminding others they’re not alone.”
Breathing Wind is about grief and loss and how we journey with these lifelong companions. We offer warm, honest and insightful conversations for the introspective at heart. Launched in 2019 as a personal grief project following the death of Sarah’s dad, the podcast struck a chord with listeners looking for a space to feel less alone in their grief. Quickly, a dedicated community grew around the candid and compelling conversations with others who knew grief just as intimately and those who offered guidance for navigating this universal human experience.
Meet the hosts — Sarah & Naila
We are two introspective, adventurous humans — writers and perhaps, not surprisingly, introverts! We candidly share our thoughts on grief and loss, how we’re living and growing alongside our grief, what we’ve learned and continue to learn, and why we believe that doing our part to create a more grief-literate world is helping build a gentler, kinder world.
For both of us, the death of our fathers allowed us to see life differently.
Breaking us open in ways both anticipated and utterly unfamiliar.
We bring that perspective, plus our unique experiences, to this podcast.
“The goal for this podcast is simple: We want you to have more space to hear your voice, connect to your story and honor the truth of your own journey. ”
Sarah Davis
Sarah Davis is the owner of The Connected Podcaster and co-host of Breathing Wind.
Through her business, she helps heart-centered individuals and organizations find their voice, speak authentically, and build community through their podcasts.
When she's not working with her amazing clients, she works as an instructional designer in Des Moines, IA.
Sarah is a lifelong learner. She credits this to her father’s love of learning (and hobbies!) and to her early experience living abroad in China.
When her dad passed away, she hiked part of the Camino de Santiago to honor him and spread his ashes. It was there that she learned the power of her voice, community and grief story sharing – and then wanted to share that with others.
You can find Sarah at www.connectedpodcaster.com and on Instagram at @theconnectedpodcaster.
Naila Francis
Naila Francis is a writer, grief coach, death midwife and ordained interfaith minister — and a co-host of Breathing Wind. Her dad died of esophageal cancer in 2012, the year after a beloved father figured died of pancreatic cancer. Those losses eventually led to her vocation holding space for the grieving and dying.
Through her practice This Hallowed Wilderness and her work as an officiant, Naila offers coaching, ritual and ceremony for people at many of life's sacred thresholds, including birth, marriage and death. Whether she’s one-on-one with a client or offering a workshop or other group event, she brings a love of poetry, nature and community to her work.
Naila is also a founding member of Salt Trails, a Philadelphia collective making grief public and visible through community rituals, and a Pachakuti Mesa carrier in the Indigenous Andean tradition.
Her life thus far has been one of many hats since her first job after college was as a police reporter for a local newspaper. She later went on to interview dozens of artists and entertainers as a features writer, including Pink, kd lang, Brandi Carlile and James Earl Jones.
When she’s not grief-tending or creating ritual space, you can often find her steeped in wonder (and maybe singing) in her favorite cathedral, the woods; savoring a new chocolate mug cake recipe; writing poems; and dreaming of her favorite grief allies, the grey whales she once kissed in Baja, Mexico.
All of Naila’s episodes can be found here.
Meet Our Dads
