This week on Live! with Fefe & Freddy, we held space for something we don’t always talk about publicly: grief. After losing a friend suddenly, we wanted to acknowledge the heaviness in our community and explore what grief looks and feels like for different people. Freddy shared deeply personal insight into the stages of grief, collective grieving, and why no one gets to decide how someone should mourn.

In A Closer Look at Current Events, we unpacked a full slate of big stories. The U.S. Mint officially retired the penny, the government shutdown finally ended, and federal workers and military personnel are beginning to receive their delayed pay. We also discussed the lawsuit filed by transgender Air Force members who abruptly lost access to their early retirement benefits — a major story during Trans Awareness Week.

On the political front, Michelle Obama said once again that she will not run for president, while Trump suddenly announced support for releasing the Epstein files. In health and science, new research shows that meditation can rapidly reprogram the body for stress recovery, and scientists developed a gel that may finally allow enamel to regrow.

We closed the episode with unexpected good news: a new “LitBox” vending machine in Washington, D.C. that sells books from small press authors — a creative win for the arts during a tough political climate.

It was an emotional, meaningful episode with reminders about the imp