Journalist Erika Mahoney was six months pregnant and live on air at her radio job in central California when she got a call that changed her life forever.

It was her mother, back home in Boulder, who told Mahoney that there was an active shooter at their local King Soopers in Table Mesa.

Mahoney distinctly remembers the way her heart sank when her mother told her that her father had just gone grocery shopping.

Twelve long hours later, the two found out that Mahoney’s father, Kevin Mahoney, was one of the 10 people killed in the 2021 Boulder King Soopers mass shooting.

On the sleepy afternoon of Monday, March 22, 2021, the then 22-year-old shooter drove to the grocery store and began shooting people in the parking lot, before he walked into the store and shot several more. He, who was convicted more than three years later, is currently serving 10 life sentences in the Colorado Department of Corrections. 

In the immediate aftermath, Mahoney remembers how her inbox filled with interview requests from the media, suddenly putting her on the other side of her career.

“I was honestly torn if I could or if I should, but fairly quickly, I realized I did want to speak out because I wanted the world to know that my dad’s a human being who shouldn’t have been gunned down at a grocery store,” Mahoney said. “I did a lot of interviews with my Mom, and it filled me with a sense of purpose.”

Now, four years later, Mahoney is hosting the podcast “Senseless,” which tells her journey of personal grief and how the mass shooting affected residents.

The eight-part series premiered on June 17.

The podcast has already seen major success, with the first episode ranking No. 2 in Apple Podcasts’ Society & Culture rankings.

The first two episodes detail how Mahoney dealt with the death of her father, and later parts broadened out to examine how grief struck all walks of life in Boulder.

Throughout the series, Mahoney will speak to survivors of the shooting, medical staff at Boulder area facilities who treated victims and the gunman, grief experts, local activists, as well as U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse and Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty.

The podcast highlights all elements of what people deal with in the aftermath of a mass shooting but ultimately focused on how individuals cope and carry on in the face of tragedy.

Mahoney told The Denver Gazette that her dad had been the “perfect girl dad” and always carved out special time for her when she was growing up. She remembers the two of them seeing action movies and eating sushi together in her childhood.

Most of all, prior to his death, she was excited to see him become a grandfather.

“I’ll never forget being in the hospital room after my daughter was born, holding her and sobbing, thinking, how am I going to protect you in a world that didn’t protect my dad?” she said.

After the loss of her father, Mahoney struggled every day with depression and anxiety.

Eventually, after witnessing the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting happen in 2022, she reached out to a grief therapist who was able to get her back on her feet.

“We have to keep finding joy, and sometimes it takes a long time to find that light again,” she said. “But we know our loved one would want us to keep living.” 

In part, the series has been another way for Mahoney to move forward, and she said the response has been beyond her wildest dreams. Many people have reached out to her to discuss their own grief journeys since the podcast’s debut.

“We’re stronger than we think, and sometimes being stronger means being softer,” she said. “I used to hate the word strong, because I felt like, ‘Why should I be strong?’ I’ve come to learn that being stronger means being softer, being vulnerable, all these things that I’m trying to incorporate into the story.”

As for the podcast’s name “Senseless,” Mahoney said it takes on a few meanings — including her trying to make sense of the loss she suffered.

“We talk about senseless gun violence all the time, and what’s primarily senseless about it is that it’s preventable. I’ve been in a position to make sense of the senseless, like so many people in America are today,” she said.