CancerTalks Podcast CancerTalks

Deborah Bellen is a personal finance coach who helps people understand their emotional relationship with money. Although she is not professionally a hospice nurse, she has been on eleven hospice journeys with loved ones. From a very young age, Deborah saw that death was a very important part of life. In this episode, she shares many moving stories of what it means to walk with someone between life and death. 
If you enjoy this conversation, please leave a review in your podcast app. CancerTalks is a platform for anyone who has been touched by cancer. Write to us at info@cancertalks.com if you have a story to share. If you’re moved to donate, please visit cancertalks.com/donate.

Megan-Claire Chase, a.k.a. Warrior Megsie, is a breast cancer survivor and advocate from Atlanta. Her blog, Life on the Cancer Train, details her experience as a young adult cancer survivor while advocating for better treatment and resources. It's known for being authentic, raw, and informative - with a twist of humor.
Megan-Claire is a powerful public speaker, researcher, and published writer. Her work has been featured in various magazines, including Cure Magazine, Elephants and Tea, Cancer Today, and WebMD. She's a passionate advocate who uses her life on the cancer train to support and advocate for patients and survivors diagnosed with cancer. 
Special thanks to our guest host, Lisa Nelson, for guiding this conversation! 
If you enjoyed this conversation, please leave a review in your podcast app. CancerTalks is a platform for anyone who has been touched by cancer. Write to us at info@cancertalks.com if you have a story to share. If you’re moved to donate, please visit cancertalks.com/donate.

This week's guest is Elizabeth Benedict - a bestselling author whose novels include Almost and Slow Dancing. Her most recent book is a cancer memoir entitled Rewriting Illness: A View of My Own. Elizabeth's nonfiction spans a range of themes from sexual politics to money to literature and includes The Joy of Writing Sex, which has been the classic reference for writing about sex in fiction for the past 25 years. In this episode, we explore many different ways of understanding the cancer journey, including the way a doctor’s own emotional landscape affects the process of diagnosing a patient. 
If you enjoyed this conversation, please leave a review in your podcast app. CancerTalks is a platform for anyone who has been touched by cancer. Write to us at info@cancertalks.com if you have a story to share. If you’re moved to donate, please visit cancertalks.com/donate.
This episode was produced by Claire de Laszlo Marshall, with editing and original music by Annie Murnighan. 
Elizabeth’s Reading List


In Gratitude by Jenny Diski
The Anatomy of Hope by Jerome Groopman MD
On Mortality by Atul Gawande
Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sontag

Emma King is a midwife in the making, a clinical herbalist, almost a nurse, a birth doula for both postpartum and abortion, as well as a death doula. Emma is a white, monied New Yorker who grew up in Manhattan in a home marked by chronic/terminal illness. She is a big, soft-egoed Leo/emotive perverted Scorpio, sometimes a novice tattooer, a bi, incorrigibly contradictory girl, a lover, and a fighter. 
 

Our guests this week are Claire Jones and Amaranthia Sepia. Not only are Claire and Amaranthia mother and daughter, they are also sisters and soulmates. The episode follows the story of their life together, supporting each other through disability.
Claire and Amaranthia’s most recent project is called Sista Creatives Rising, a platform for events including their upcoming series "Art & Mind," which showcases creative folk who are underrepresented women and marginalized genders.
Claire & Amaranthia’s Resource List:
"The world is what you make it" | Sadhguru | MotivationArk
Audio book: Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav
Audio: 10 Skills That Will Pay Off Forever
Audio: The Positive Affirmation Meditation - Louise Hay
Guided Breathing: Deep Relaxation
Audio: Heal Your Body by Louise Hay
If you enjoyed this conversation please leave a review in your podcast app. CancerTalks is a platform for anyone who has been touched by cancer. Write to us at info@cancertalks.com if you have a story to share. If you’re moved to donate, please visit cancertalks.com/donate

Our guest today is Lisa Nelson. Lisa was born in Jamaica and raised in Queens, New York. She has worked for many years as an oncology social worker and is also an end-of-life doula.
Lisa has a podcast of her own called Diary of a Black Social Worker where she shares diverse narratives of social work practice: Personal triumphs, challenges, education and reflections about the day to day life of an oncology social worker of color. 
Lisa’s Resource List Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey
Couched in Color Podcast with Dr. Alfiee M Breland-Noble
Dear Death: Finding Meaning in Life, Peace in Death, and Joy in an Ordinary Day by Diane Button
A Comforted Heart by Kelly Grosklags
The Bible
Seinfeld episodes