Loss is universal. How we handle it is not. In Episode 506 of the Misfit Social Podcast, Cliff Nance, Paul Cook, and Royce Wilson gather for one of the most candid conversations in the show’s history — a raw, honest look at grief, what it actually means to move through it, and why most of us aren’t doing it well. This episode goes places most business podcasts never do.
The guys walk through the five stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance — not as a clinical checklist, but as lived experience. Royce shares his personal tendency to cycle between depression and bargaining. Cliff opens up about the moment grief over his grandmother’s passing finally landed on him — alone on a highway on his birthday, months after the funeral. Paul reflects on the losses that don’t come with a casket: the end of relationships, the death of a belief system, the slow collapse of an identity you built your life around. These are the existential griefs, and the guys make a compelling case that they’re often harder to move through than the ones society gives us permission to feel.
Key takeaways from this episode:
- The five stages of grief are not linear — you may revisit them in any order, more than once
- Denial isn’t just disbelief; it can look like minimizing (“it’s not a big deal”)
- Anger is a secondary emotion — it activates when we feel a loss of control
- Bargaining is the dangerous loop of rewriting history and asking “what if”
- Depression in grief is not clinical weakness — it’s the moment the loss finally lands
- Forgiveness is a decision, not a feeling — and it’s not the same as trust
- The stories we tell ourselves after a loss become the operating system of our lives
- Nihilism and cynicism feel powerful in grief — but long-term, they’ll eat you alive
The conversation takes a meaningful turn when the group explores forgiveness — not as a soft concept, but as a deliberate act of releasing a debt you can’t afford to keep carrying. They draw a clear line between forgiveness and trust, between setting something down and inviting someone back in. As Royce puts it, there’s a difference between walking in wisdom and still holding the weight of what’s owed to you. That distinction matters.
This episode closes with an encouragement that feels earned: check on your people. Grief doesn’t announce itself, and the people around you may be carrying more than you know. A text, a phone call, a simple “how are you doing” — it makes a difference. The Misfit crew has been that for each other through some of the hardest seasons of their lives, and they want the same for anyone listening.
Watch the full episode below, or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
About the Hosts Cliff Nance is the owner and CEO of Tungco, a global leader in tungsten carbide recycling with over 55 years of industry history. A second-generation leader, Cliff brings faith, family, and straight talk to everything he does. Paul Cook brings pastoral, therapeutic, and leadership experience to the Misfit table — and a willingness to go deep on the stuff most people avoid. Royce Wilson is a key member of the Tungco family and one of the show’s original voices — equal parts candid, self-aware, and hilarious.
Topics: grief, mental health, five stages of grief, loss, forgiveness, acceptance, depression, bargaining, anger, denial, faith, hope, attachment, relationships, human flourishing, emotional health, resilience, Misfit Social Podcast, Tungco
