Radiolab: “Match Made in Marrow”

Podcast: Radiolab (WNYC Studios)
Episode Date: November 10, 2017
Hosts: Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich
Guests: Janelle Jenny, Jim Monroe

Episode Overview

“Match Made in Marrow” is an exploration of a truly remarkable human connection—a bone marrow donation between two strangers—and how vastly different meanings can be drawn from a single miraculous event. Janelle Jenny, an atheist photographer from Milwaukee, and Jim Monroe, a Christian magician from Texas, find themselves forever linked by a life-saving medical procedure. The episode follows their stories, from the unlikely circumstances that brought them together to their ongoing efforts to reconcile their sharply divergent worldviews, all while navigating what it means to be “the missing piece” in someone else’s life.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. How Janelle Came to Be a Donor

• The Random Encounter
  • Janelle attended a rock concert (Warped Tour) as a teenager, stumbling across a tent recruiting bone marrow donors (02:18).
  • She casually signed up:

    “I always thought that, you know, it would just be an amazing opportunity to be the one person who could do something for somebody that, like, literally no one else in the world could.” — Janelle Jenny (03:24)

• The Call
  • Six months later, she was identified as a possible match:

    “We’ve narrowed you down to be a preliminary match for a patient.” (04:31)

  • She proceeded without hesitation, eager to help and marveling at the possibility of being someone’s only lifeline (05:01).

2. Bone Marrow Donation: The Science and Experience

• Testing and Donation
  • Explains the medical and genetic prerequisites for a bone marrow match (05:15).
  • Janelle was the perfect match out of 8 million registrants—an extraordinarily rare occurrence (06:15).
  • She describes the donation process, which, unlike traditional bone marrow harvesting, involved boosting her white blood cell count through injections and then extracting stem cells via apheresis (07:13–08:17).

    "You pretty much sit still for six hours. They suck all your blood out, put it in a machine, and give you back what they don't need." — Janelle (08:00)

3. Jim’s Story: From Cancer to the Connection

• Background

  • Raised in California and Texas, former promising baseball pitcher whose career ended due to injury (12:07–12:57).
  • Transitioned to magic after being inspired by a trade show magician as a child (13:13–13:48).
  • Developed a creative and spiritual partnership with Tennyson, a fellow magician and Christian (13:13–15:24).

• Personal Tragedy and Crisis of Faith

  • Tennyson's ambiguous death devastated Jim, leading to depression, marriage strain, and a sense of spiritual void (16:36–17:11).
  • Soon after, Jim experienced excruciating leg pain that led to his leukemia diagnosis (17:31–17:47).

• Leukemia Diagnosis and Waiting for a Miracle

  • “Your bone is breaking on its own from the inside.” — Doctor to Jim (17:57)
  • Faced imminent death without a transplant; underwent painful chemo while waiting for a donor (18:11–18:38).
  • At the lowest point, Jim was told:

    “There’s one person that we’ve been able to identify on the planet… there’s one.” — Phone call to Jim (19:36)

4. The Spiritual and Symbolic Resonances

• Transplant as Rebirth

  • Jim received Janelle’s marrow three days after his own birthday, echoing resurrection imagery central in Christianity (22:09–22:41).
  • The donation is framed as a literal and spiritual "rebirth," which Jim experiences as a deeply personal miracle and affirmation of faith.

• Janelle’s Atheism

  • Despite being the “savior” in Jim’s personal narrative—and in his Christian stage show—Janelle does not share his religious convictions and finds herself playing a symbolic role she doesn’t believe in (35:02).

5. Aftermath: Public Advocacy and Divergent Narratives

• Jim’s Magic Show (“The Maze”)
  • Uses their story to evangelize at live events; includes the “rebirth” narrative, culminating in Janelle appearing on stage as his “savior” (31:46–37:26).
  • Janelle’s presence inspires massive sign-ups for bone marrow donation—hundreds per show (37:26–38:11).
• Janelle’s Internal Conflict
  • She begins to feel like an “imposter” for embodying a role in a faith tradition she does not share:

    “There was a part of me that felt a little bit of an imposter.” — Janelle (46:34)

  • The impact, however, leads her to keep participating, focusing on the tangible good being done.

6. Attempting Dialogue and Telling “Both Sides”

• The Live Conversation (St. Cloud, MN)
  • Facilitated by the Radiolab team, Janelle and Jim engage in a rare, vulnerable dialogue about what their experience means—differently—for each of them (45:21–60:40).
  • Janelle’s take: Simple “goodness”—capital G—sits above creed, and the chain of goodness is what matters most (48:49).
  • Jim’s perspective: Goodness is not enough—relationship with God is essential; but ultimate judgment is not his role (50:32, 57:09).

    “I'm not the one who is sent into the world to judge. … I’m not commanded to do anything but to love and to start conversations.” — Jim Monroe (57:09)

  • Both navigate the discomfort and affection of being each other’s “miracle” despite irreconcilable beliefs.

7. Chance or Design?

• Radiolab’s Investigation
  • Explores whether their connection was statistically likely or “miraculous,” using metaphors such as the golf ball landing on a blade of grass—improbable, but inevitable for someone (51:35–52:38).
  • For Jim, it’s multi-layered and more than just chance; for Janelle, it’s an awe-inspiring piece of randomness (53:02–54:33).

8. Finding Common Ground

• Humility, Grace, and Co-Existence
  • Both express the necessity of humility (“humus” = dirt) and mutual respect in living with both closeness and difference (58:56–60:40).
  • Neither tries to “win” the debate. Instead, they model how two people can be intimately connected while disagreeing on life’s biggest questions.

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On Being a Match:

  “You are the ideal person in this 8 million person registry to donate for this patient. You are a perfect match, and will you do it? And I was like, absolutely.” — Janelle Jenny (06:15)

• The Miracle Call:

  “There’s one person that we’ve been able to identify on the planet out of all the databases, everything, there’s one.” — Jim Monroe (19:36)

• On Feeling Like an Imposter:

  “There was a part of me that felt a little bit of an imposter.” — Janelle (46:34)

• Jim’s Perspective on Judgment:

  “I'm not commanded to do anything but to love and to start conversations.” — Jim Monroe (57:09)

• Janelle on “Big-G Goodness”:

  “At the very top is good with the capital G. And it’s underlined, too.” — Janelle Jenny (49:18)

Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• Janelle signs up at concert: 02:18–03:22
• Janelle gets the match call: 04:20–06:15
• Donation process described: 07:13–08:17
• Jim’s story: career, magic, crisis: 12:07–17:11
• Jim’s leukemia diagnosis: 17:31–17:57
• Jim gets the “miracle” call: 19:36–20:10
• Transplant and spiritual language: 22:09–22:41
• First meeting/awkwardness: 25:32–27:07
• Jim’s stage show explanation: 31:46–37:26
• Janelle’s “imposter” feeling: 38:44, 46:34
• Public dialogue: both perspectives: 45:21–60:40
• Radiolab on probability and meaning: 51:35–54:33

Flow and Tone

• Compassionate, curious, and respectful.
• Ample humor and self-awareness, especially regarding cultural and religious divides.
• Deeply empathetic exploration of what it means to forge unlikely bonds—and to disagree with dignity.

Takeaway

This episode is a luminous meditation on chance, faith, and the ties that bind us. At its heart are two people forced into closeness by biology and kept close by mutual respect, even though they see the universe—and the meaning of their own encounter—in completely different lights.

Links & Resources Mentioned

• Be the Match Registry: Be The Match
• Jim’s Magic Show: What Is The Maze?

For anyone considering joining the bone marrow registry, this episode is an inspiring reminder that anyone, at any time, could be the missing piece in someone else’s story.