Karl Kuehn's album, Blue Water, released under the name Gay Meat, was written under the worst possible circumstances. The former Museum Mouth drummer/singer's mom Karen suffered six grand mal seizures in a row in 2018 causing a traumatic brain injury. And as Karl put his touring life on hold to care for his mom, he found that writing songs about what he was going through was a bit therapeutic. Karen passed away in January 2021 and, in the aftermath, Karl finished the album as a tribute, of sorts, to his mom.
Given that the last two episodes of Chip Chats were grief-related, after reading about Karl's story, I reached out to see if he'd like to share his story - the good and the bad - and he agreed to be my guest.
This podcast is not turning into a grief podcast, but I think these conversations are important to have and if hearing people who are on grief journeys can help just one person, it's absolutely worth it.
Check out Gay Meat's Blue Water: https://gaymeat.bandcamp.com/album/blue-water
16 Feb 2026
Child Loss and Grief - A Conversation with Jude Smith
Chip Chats is not turning into a "sad dads" podcast, but the conversations about losing children and the grief journey is an important one.
In 2021, as a 14-year-old, Nell Smith recorded an album of Nick Cave covers with The Flaming Lips and performed "Red Right Hand" on the Stephen Colbert Show.
Now that Nell had caught people’s attention, she started working on her own music. She worked with artists like Penelope Isles and Shred Kelly and had completed 10 songs with an eye on packaging them up for her first proper solo album. On October 6, 2024, after spending the day shooting footage for the “Split in the Sky” video, Nell was involved in a fatal single-car accident. Just like my own daughter, Liv, Nell had passed away at the age of 17.
Nell’s dad Jude reached out to tell me he had listened to my episode with Ben Kweller and Rocky Votolato and, while painful, he was appreciative that we had shared our stories. He told me about about a Memorial Fund that the family has started to honor Nell and I asked if he’d want to come on the Chip Chats podcast to talk about Nell, his grief journey, the fund and more. I’m so thankful that he agreed. As you’ll hear in the episode, I mentioned that I wish Jude and I had never met, if losing children was the commonality between us, but because of our experiences, I now consider him to be part of my Grief Bros family.
Learn more about the Nell Smith Memorial Fund: https://www.nellsmithmusic.com/about-memorial-fund (https://www.nellsmithmusic.com/about-memorial-fund)
15 Dec 2025
Child Loss and Grief - A Conversation with Ben Kweller and Rocky Votolato
Ben Kweller, Rocky Votolato and I are members of a club that we didn't ask to join, don't want to be in, and can never leave. All three of us lost children suddenly and unexpectedly - Ben lost Dorian on February 27, 2023, Rocky lost Kienan on December 6, 2021, and I lost Liv on June 4, 2018.Hopefully, by the three of us sharing our stories, we can offer insights into what it's like to lose a child and provide some sort of hope for new and old members of this club. My deepest and sincerest thanks to Ben and Rocky for joining me and for sharing their stories.
Songs featured in this episode:
"Shattered Stars" by Rocky Votolato
"Oh Dorian" by Ben Kweller (featuring MJ Lenderman)
"Star String Radio" by Rocky Votolato
"Olivia Midnight" by Paper Airplane
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Spotify
5.0 / 5
2 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 19 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
25
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
32
Contact Chip Chats
Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of Chip Chats?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
