🎙 Tides of Grief — Finding Healing, Habit & Meaning in Water with Kylie KuhlmannEpisode 26 | Go Wildly Podcast

🕊 In loving memory of Dylan Works (January 12, 1989 – March 25, 2025).

About this Episode

What do you do when the ground shifts beneath you — and the only thing that steadies you is water?

In this episode, we sit down with Kylie Kuhlmann — farmer, sailor, outdoor educator, and lifelong seeker of wild places — for an honest, moving conversation about grief, growth, and what it means to build a new life from the inside out.

Kylie grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, far from any farm or ocean. Over time, a pull toward the edges shaped a life lived seasonally: farming in summer, facilitating at outdoor schools, and following rivers and oceans wherever they led.

We talk about forming new habits and neural pathways in the wake of loss, the metaphors water offers for living through change, and how relationships with wild places can quietly become relationships with ourselves.

In This Episode

• Kylie's journey from Chicago to farming and sailing in Oregon
• How grief reshapes us — and what it takes to build new patterns
• New habits and neural pathways: the science and soul of change
• Water as healer — cold plunges, hot springs, ocean living, river travel
• What sailing taught Kylie about surrender, presence, and trust
• Finding meaning in outdoor work and seasonal living
• Lessons for life from wild places

💙 If you or someone you know is struggling with grief, text CONNECT to 741741 to reach a Crisis Counselor 24/7, free of charge.

About Kylie KuhlmannKylie Kuhlmann grew up in the suburbs of Chicago but has spent her adult life chasing the places that feel most alive — farms, oceans, rivers, and the wild margins in between. She works seasonally on farms and at outdoor schools, and in the off-season follows the water wherever it leads. She has lived aboard sailboats, worked harvests, and learned to meet grief with the same curiosity she brings to an unfamiliar coast.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_saltyfarmer_22

About Go WildlyGo Wildly is a storytelling podcast rooted in Southern Oregon — real people, real stories, wild places. New episodes every week.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@gowildlypodcastSpotify: https://tinyurl.com/spotifygowildlypodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/gowildlypodcastWebsite: https://www.gowildlypodcast.com

CreditsHosted, Edited & Produced by Go Wildly PodcastTheme Music: "Rainmaker" by Jared Masters — used with permissionMemorial Music: "Drift Boat Kitchen" by Tommy Letchworth, Smiley T and The Tall Trees — used with permission

KeywordsGo Wildly Podcast, Southern Oregon podcast, grief and healing, Kylie Kuhlmann, water healing, sailing lifestyle, farm life Oregon, outdoor educator, neural pathways grief, habit formation after loss, cold water therapy, hot springs Oregon, ocean living, seasonal living, place-based healing, transformation, women in the outdoors, resilience, Dylan Works, Smiley T and the Tall Trees