What's new at The Broken Pack
The new site is live. A book club for surviving siblings begins now.
"We read to know we are not alone."
~William Nicholson, Shadowlands
One of the hardest things about losing a sibling, sometimes, is not the loss itself. It is the people around you who do not quite know what to do with it. The friend who means well and changes the subject. The coworker who never asks. The relative who tells you, six months in, that they thought you would be doing better by now. They are not usually intentionally unkind. They just do not know, and many conversations with someone who does not know makes the room feel a little lonelier than it was before.
Somewhere along the way, you start to find the people who do know. Another surviving sibling on Instagram who comments on a post and means it. A podcast guest whose story sounds uncomfortably like yours. A line in a book that makes you set the book down for a minute. You start to notice the difference. A room gets quietly larger when someone in it understands.
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The Broken Pack is built out of those people. It is a pack, which means it is a way of moving together, with hopes that it becomes a way of carrying your sibling grief in the company of others instead of alone.
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After months of work, the new website thebrokenpack.com is finally live. I rebuilt it from the foundation up so it could hold what surviving siblings actually need. New pages. New resources. A new home for the podcast archive. Room for what is coming.
The Broken Pack is grounded in two things: lived experience and contemporary grief theory. I am a surviving sibling, a psychologist, and a thanatologist trained in grief work. The frameworks you find here come from grief theorists and the researchers who understand loss, sibling grief, disenfranchised grief, and contemporary grief work, not from personal experiences or opinions. You will not find the five stages here, or grief packaged into a quick fix. All of these pieces matter.
More podcast conversations are on the way very soon, and Wild Grief, which you are reading right now, will be moving at an increasing cadence going forward.
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Today, I'd like to announce our newest offering: Tony's Corner, a sibling loss book club. It is opening with its first book and scheduled live and recorded community event.
Tony's Corner is named for my brother, who loved to read. It is a virtual room of people who already get it, with a book on the table between us. The book is the reason we are in the room together. Your sibling is the reason you are.
The first book is Brilliant Disguise by Susan Kellam. Susan was the guest on Episode 43. She is a journalist and a surviving sister. Her brother Robert died by suicide at thirty-nine. She set out to write a rock and roll memoir, and an agent told her to put him at the center. The book is the long arc of coming to know him through writing, set against 1970s New York. Kirkus gave it a starred review. Susan’s writing reads like a novel and is truly moving in so many ways.
We are reading it through May and into June.
The live session with Susan is Saturday, June 13, 2026 at 2:00 PM ET. It will be approximately an hour and recorded for replay.
How to be in the room
The live session is pay-what-feels-right, with a $1 minimum. The recording is available on the same terms for anyone who cannot make it live. Paid Wild Grief subscribers attend free and keep the replay. Some people can give more so others can give less. That is how a pack works.
For where to find Brilliant Disguise and more details (as well as an adorable Olan Mills portrait of Tony reading as a toddler), visit Tony's Corner on our site. You can also pick the book up anywhere books are sold, including your local independent bookstore, your public library, or from a shop near you. Affiliate links on our website further support The Broken Pack.
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You may be wondering why now.
For six years now I have been finding the people who get it. A podcast guest who sat with the silence between questions instead of filling it. A reader who emailed at three in the morning and signed off with “thank you for saying the thing.” A friend who, even though she has not lost a sibling, has learned to ask me how I am and then actually wait for the answer. These are the people who make me less alone in the world that I am now moving through without Tony. The continuing bond is real. Yet, it is also easier when other people can see it with you.
Tony loved to read. He read constantly, broadly, and without much regard for whether anyone else had read what he was reading. He left books on the steps, in the backseat, on the floor, and on the couch. Reading has made me feel connected to him.
I wish I had had these books then, and a community of surviving siblings who already knew. The books existed somewhere. The community existed somewhere. I just did not know where to find either one in those first lonely weeks and months. This book club is the room I would have wanted six years ago, and you are welcome in it.
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You do not have to carry this alone. There is a room here, and a date on the calendar, and a book on its way to readers. Susan and I are saving seats for whomever shows up.
Thank you for being here.
Warmly,
Angela
Tony’s little sister 🐺
The Broken Pack: Stories of Sibling Loss is available wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Disclaimer: Wild Grief is written by Dr. Angela Dean, PsyD, FT, GTMR (psychologist, thanatologist, and surviving sibling). Interactions with The Broken Pack, LLC and its content do not constitute a therapeutic or professional psychological relationship with Dr. Dean. All content is educational and informational, not clinical advice. If you or someone you know is in crisis, please reach out to your local crisis line or warm line, or visit findahelpline.com.