by Lindsey Fenton | Dec 15, 2025 | News Over Noise, What's New
Sneak peek at Season 4 of News Over Noise!
When student journalists at Indiana University published routine accountability reporting, they didn’t expect pushback from the institution they were covering. What followed raises urgent questions about press freedom, power, and who gets to decide what counts as journalism.
In this episode of News Over Noise, hosts Matt Jordan and Cory Barker speak with Jim Rodenbush, former director of student media at Indiana University, about:
-The events that led to his removal
-Increasing institutional pressure on student newsrooms
-The political climate shaping higher education
-The growing divide between public relations priorities and independent reporting
The story unfolding in Indiana reflects a broader national trend, one with real consequences for student journalists, local communities, and the future of accountability reporting as local newsrooms continue to shrink.
Listen to the episode: News Over Noise 402.
News Over Noise explores how to separate spin and clickbait from quality journalism and why that skill is essential for a healthy democracy. A co-production of WPSU and the Penn State College of Commuications.
by Lindsey Fenton | Nov 23, 2025 | Medium, What's New, Writing
This is a hard one to put out there.
In my work, I talk often about grief literacy and secondary losses. Recently I realized that one of my own secondary losses has been the sense of familiarity I used to have with my own body.
This story is not about weight. It’s about identity, confidence, and the ways grief reshapes us in quiet but profound ways. Even with years of experience in grief education, living through these changes has been humbling.
I’m sharing this piece because I believe vulnerability is part of grief literacy and because many people are carrying similar invisible shifts.
If it resonates, you can read the full story here:
https://medium.com/women-write/the-reality-of-grief-when-secondary-loss-shows-up-as-a-gain-2bd2f0819842
by Lindsey Fenton | Aug 11, 2025 | Medium, What's New, Writing
I recently published my first piece as an author for Open to Hope: The Sounds of Grief.
Since my mom died, I’ve been cataloguing what I think of as “the sounds of grief.” So far, I’ve documented five. Some are raw and animalistic. Others are quiet, barely audible. One is silence. And one may be surprising.
Writing this essay gave me a new way to sit with my own grief while also exploring the universal (yet deeply personal) ways loss expresses itself.
You can read the full piece here: https://www.opentohope.com/the-sounds-of-grief/
As you do, I invite you to reflect: What does your grief sound like?
by Lindsey Fenton | Jul 25, 2025 | Speaking Grief, What's New
I had the incredible honor of guest-hosting this very special episode of Dougy Center’s Grief Out Loud podcast so Jana DeCristofaro, LCSW, longtime host of Grief Out Loud and Advocacy & Education Manager at Dougy Center, could shift to the guest role and share about her love and grief for her beloved dog, Captain.
I first connected with Jana in 2018 and since then, we’ve become colleague friends, finding common ground in our commitment to grief work as well as in our dedication to our fur babies. I’m, unfortunately, intimately acquainted with the pain of pet loss, having said goodbye to my own dog, Birch, in 2022. Jana’s openness in navigating her own grief has been both moving and validating and I was grateful she agreed to this podcast “takeover.”
Together, we delve into how Captain came into Jana’s life, the complexities of caregiving for an aging pet, the difficult decisions surrounding their end-of-life, and the subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways pet grief can be minimized or dismissed…and how we can internalize those messages in surprising ways.
Click here to listen.
*Content Note: we discuss tender topics like end-of-life caregiving for a pet, including the decision-making process around euthanasia, so please take care as you listen.
by Lindsey Fenton | Jul 24, 2025 | Speaking Grief, What's New
In 2018, I began developing an initiative with the working title “The Grief Project.” It would eventually become WPSU’s Speaking Grief, and it would change my life.
In the early days, we were told no one would want to fund a project about grief. Thankfully, those voices were wrong. We connected with the New York Life Foundation, a leader in childhood bereavement, who immediately understood the power of storytelling and educational media in advancing grief literacy.
As fate would have it, the project we had been building for years launched in May 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic thrust grief into the global spotlight.
Five years later, I still get emails, sometimes weekly, from organizations hosting screenings and discussions inspired by Speaking Grief. In nearly two decades in public media, I’ve worked on many projects I’m proud of, but none have generated this level of sustained engagement.
This flagship initiative became the foundation for related projects like Learning Grief and Follow the Nudge, all built on the same hope: to help people feel less alone in their losses and to give families, communities, and professionals the tools to better support one another.
To mark this five-year milestone, Penn State Outreach recently featured the project in an article that includes a Q&A with me about the journey and its impact, which you can read here.
WPSU also created a short video capturing the project’s on-going impact:
https://player.vimeo.com/video/1106149926?badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479
As WPSU continues to celebrate the five-year anniversary and ongoing impact of Speaking Grief, I’m reflecting on what an extraordinary journey this project has been, why we do what we do, and how powerful it is when media connects hearts as well as minds. I am endlessly grateful to the teams, partners, and grieving people who make this work possible.
Every message we receive from someone who feels less alone reminds me why this work matters.
by Lindsey Fenton | Jun 4, 2025 | Speaking, What's New
I had the honor of presenting at the 2025 National Alliance for Children’s Grief Symposium in Kansas City, MO. My session, Internet Killed the Video Star: Effective Strategies for Facilitating Learning and Engagement in a Changing Media Landscape, explored how grief professionals can expand the reach and relevance of their work through strategic media choices.
We covered everything from choosing the right modality to framing content for real-world application, all with the goal of creating more inclusive, engaging educational experiences.
Huge thanks to everyone who showed up, asked thoughtful questions, and made it such an energizing session.
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