Command F: Grief After the Machine Starts Speaking Back

What happens when technology promises to keep a conversation going after death? Jenna Arnold speaks with grief educator CJ Infantino, death doula and Buddhist chaplain Alex Sarkissian, and Jewish scholar David Zvi Kalman about grief bots, digital memory, and what it means to be witnessed. Drawing on the death of his wife and his experience raising three children, Infantino challenges the idea that grief is a problem someone else can fix. Sarkissian brings us to the bedside: a good death depends on the individual, and compassionate support begins with their needs, choices, and fears. He asks what happens when an AI companion built for engagement turns comfort into dependence—and whether it knows when to stop. Kalman brings Jewish mourning practices into the conversation: shiva, comforting mourners, and kavod ha-met, the dignity owed to the dead. A simulation might feel comforting, unsettling, or both. Whose needs does it serve, whose consent does it assume, and does it help us face the reality of loss? This episode asks what we owe the living who carry an absence—and the people whose memories we are turning into something that speaks back. Full transcript and show notes available at thelandofand.live