Transcript
Dr. Sanjay Gupta (0:05)
Welcome to chasing life. You know, this is my favorite time of year. I just celebrated a birthday. It is fall. And of course, it is time for Halloween. A time for trick or treating and haunted houses and all sorts of ghouls and witches and of course, zombies. In today's episode, however, I'm going to be talking about a different kind of zombie. We're not talking about the brain eating variety, but maybe something just as haunting. Cancer zombies.
Jonathan Gluck (0:32)
There's a whole category of people now who are in this in between world where they're neither sick or well, but they're living with a permanent condition for longer than any of us ever did before. And I came up with this term that I call us cancer zombies.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta (0:51)
That is Jonathan Gluck. He's a writer and the author of a new book called An Exercise in Uncertainty, A Memoir of Illness and Hope. It's about his odyssey with incurable cancer that has been going on for more than 20 years.
Jonathan Gluck (1:06)
So, you know, zombie. Zombies are half dead and half alive. Cancer zombies are half sick and half well, and doomed to be that way forever. The same way zombies are doomed to be half alive forever.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta (1:17)
Full disclosure. Jonathan's nephew Ben is my executive producer. But I'm not doing this interview today because of a personal connection, but rather because I read the book and I think his journey has a lot to teach us. And candidly, I don't know how I feel about this term cancer zombie. It's his description of a growing group of patients, himself included, who are living with chronic cancer for years, even decades. Oftentimes, these are patients who are told they have no other options and they don't have that long to live. But here they are. And today we're going to hear his story about living in a liminal space defined by uncertainty. I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and this is Chasing Life.
Jonathan Gluck (2:14)
Hey, Sanjay. How are you?
Dr. Sanjay Gupta (2:16)
I'm doing well.
Interviewer (possibly Dr. Sanjay Gupta or a co-host) (2:16)
How you doing?
Jonathan Gluck (2:17)
I'm well, thanks. It's nice to meet you finally. I've heard so many wonderful things about you over the years from Ben and also just wanted to say thank you again for providing the blurb for the book.
Interviewer (possibly Dr. Sanjay Gupta or a co-host) (2:27)
