Sep 29, 2026 · 49 min · 12 segments
In this episode, Hsien talks with Dr. Mary Ellen Macdonald, a social scientist and palliative care researcher working in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Hsien and Mary Ellen discuss the importance of grief…
Mary Ellen MacDonaldGuestHsien SeowHostSammy WinemakerHost
Hmm, that's, that's a really hard question that I always answer it the same way.
Yet, it's kind of strange in that I was not ever thinking that this was going to be something that I was going to focus on.
And so that's why I always struggle with this question, because it just came onto my desk one day that there was a job opportunity in pediatric palliative care.
And I went, oh, maybe I'll share that opportunity with some colleagues because someone else will want that job.
And like, I literally, you know, you did the forward to friends, look, there's a job someone might be interested in.
And I actually had a senior professor who then sent me a personal message thing.
I think you should look at this because I know the people who are kind of, you know, posting this position and they're good people.
And then I went to the job interview still thinking this is not for me.
And it was that classic like, oh, you know, I don't do palliative care.
You know, I don't know what kind of person that is, but this very special person to be able to talk about death, dying and loss, and especially with children.
and a researcher and you would know this feeling like anything can be interesting when you kind of look at it from the frame of research and all of a sudden I was like getting intrigued by this topic that I knew absolutely nothing about.
And the person who was interviewing me gave me a challenge and gave me a book, actually, and said, I want you to go home and read this book.
And it was Myra Bluebon-Lagner's Private World of Dying Children and gave me the book and said, go home and read it and then come back and talk to me.
Hmm, that's, that's a really hard question that I always answer it the same way.
Yet, it's kind of strange in that I was not ever thinking that this was going to be something that I was going to focus on.
And so that's why I always struggle with this question, because it just came onto my desk one day that there was a job opportunity in pediatric palliative care.
And I went, oh, maybe I'll share that opportunity with some colleagues because someone else will want that job.
And like, I literally, you know, you did the forward to friends, look, there's a job someone might be interested in.
And I actually had a senior professor who then sent me a personal message thing.
I think you should look at this because I know the people who are kind of, you know, posting this position and they're good people.
And then I went to the job interview still thinking this is not for me.
And it was that classic like, oh, you know, I don't do palliative care.
You know, I don't know what kind of person that is, but this very special person to be able to talk about death, dying and loss, and especially with children.
and a researcher and you would know this feeling like anything can be interesting when you kind of look at it from the frame of research and all of a sudden I was like getting intrigued by this topic that I knew absolutely nothing about.
And the person who was interviewing me gave me a challenge and gave me a book, actually, and said, I want you to go home and read this book.
And it was Myra Bluebon-Lagner's Private World of Dying Children and gave me the book and said, go home and read it and then come back and talk to me.
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