CHANG: And acceptance.
SONIA MANZANO: (As Maria) Big Bird, we still have our memories of him.
CAROLL SPINNEY: (As Big Bird) Yeah, memories. Right.
CHANG: Those five words have become a common vocabulary to process the unimaginable, especially this last year, when millions of people lost family or friends to COVID-19. So the podcast "Radiolab" took a closer look at where those five stages of grief came from. Producer Rachael Cusick went in search of the woman who came up with that list, and she joins us now to tell us more about her.
Welcome.
RACHAEL CUSICK: Hi. Thank you.