Blake Porter: Losing an OmaBlake Porter: Losing an Oma
The Mayo Lab Podcast with David Magee
Student Blake Porter talks about losing his oma during high school, how grief affected his emotions and behaviour, and the support and outlets that helped him cope. The conversation touches on therapy, male vulnerability, and using creativity and radio to carry his grandmother’s positive influence forward.
19:53•22 Sept 2026
Grief, Granola Bars and Growing Up: Blake Porter on Losing His Oma
Episode Overview
- Grief can linger and resurface, so sharing it with others and not isolating yourself is crucial.
- Therapy helps most when you actively participate: "You only get what you put into it."
- Creative outlets like filmmaking, broadcast media, and radio can channel pain into something meaningful.
- Shifting focus from constant sadness to appreciation of positive memories can soften the weight of loss.
- Vulnerability is hard, especially for young men, but opening up to safe people can significantly lighten the emotional load.
“"At some point I started to say that my mood is close to that of a granola bar… it looks fine until you open it, and then it just falls apart everywhere."”
What makes a recovery story truly inspiring? This conversation between freshman student Blake Porter and host Tyler Barber centres on grief, mental health, and finding new ways to keep going when everything feels too heavy. Blake talks about losing his oma, the grandmother who was the emotional anchor between his divorced parents and a calm "breather" during stressful transitions.
Her sudden death from a brain aneurysm, on top of the chaos of Covid and starting high school, left him feeling like one of his main support systems had been "ripped out from under" him and sent him into a bit of an emotional free fall. He’s honest about how those unrecognised feelings showed up as anger and fights, and how being nudged into therapy helped him finally put words to what he was going through.
Blake makes it clear that therapy isn’t magic, saying, "You only get what you put into it," and compares it to working on a project where the project is yourself. You’ll also hear how he found healthier outlets through creativity: filmmaking, news broadcasting, and now hosting a high-energy music slot on Rebel Radio, where he tries to carry forward his oma’s message of positivity and learning something every day.
Blake shares what grief has taught him, including his shift from clinging to sadness to focusing on gratitude for the time he had with her: imagining she’d say, "Don't be sad that I'm gone, just be happy that it happened." He offers straight-talking advice for students who feel stuck in grief: don’t treat your pain as something separate from you, share the weight with others, and express it through hobbies or passions.
With touching humour (including his "granola bar" metaphor for barely-held-together emotions) and gentle honesty about male vulnerability, this conversation will speak to anyone who’s ever felt like their heart shattered right in the middle of term. Who could you share your burden with today, so it feels just a little lighter?
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