Shows / Kicking Cancer's Ass
Kicking Cancer's Ass
Kicking Cancer’s Ass is the weekly podcast giving cancer survivors, patients, and caregivers hope and power through stories, strategies, and science.
Episodes
Kicking Cancer's AssGenetic Testing for Cancer: What a Genetic Counselor Wants You to Know
Did your 23andMe come back clear? Did your doctor say you don't need genetic testing because you have no family history of cancer? Dr. Kathleen Blazer, a…
Kicking Cancer's AssHow to Build Resilience Before Life Takes a Leg
How do you build resilience before life tests it? Dr. Wayne Rosenfield, PhD, is a psychologist and trauma therapist who lectures on post-traumatic growth after…
Kicking Cancer's AssHow to Help Someone With Cancer (Skip the Pink Ribbon)
Every October the country turns pink, and metastatic breast cancer research gets a sliver of the money. In this solo episode of Kicking Cancer's Ass, Joelle…
Kicking Cancer's AssShe Emailed the Researcher Herself. She Got In.
Wenora Johnson is a patient advocate, an eight-year U.S. Navy reservist, and a survivor of three cancers. She was 45, fit and symptom-free when a FIT test…
Kicking Cancer's AssLynch Syndrome: I Got the Gene From My Mom. My Kids Didn't.
Don Helgeson has had three cancers: melanoma at 27, colon cancer at 37, and stage 3B prostate cancer at 51. One inherited gene connects all three: Lynch…
Kicking Cancer's AssOxidative Stress Is the Root Cause. Nobody's Treating It.
Dr. William Bestermann is an internist and cardiovascular specialist who spent his career treating heart disease, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease, and who…
Kicking Cancer's AssFamily History of Cancer? Yours Might Be Lying to You.
Kathy Baker's family looked like a textbook case for hereditary cancer. Her sister had breast cancer at 32. Her mother had three separate primary cancers. Her…
Kicking Cancer's AssHow to help someone with cancer without making it worse
Somebody you love has cancer and you don't know what to do. You send an article. You say let me know if you need anything. You wait to be asked, and the ask…
Kicking Cancer's Ass9/11 Cancer Killed Him. First He Had to Prove He Was There.
Michael Dorian was a veterinary technician living with AIDS when the towers fell. He put on scrubs, got past the barricades at Ground Zero, and spent 24 hours…
Kicking Cancer's AssMy Dog Got a Colon Cancer Test. This 29-Year-Old Didn't.
Colorectal cancer is no longer a disease of older people. Three out of four cases diagnosed under age 50 are already advanced stage, and the International…
Kicking Cancer's AssBreast Reconstruction Options: What Your Surgeon Won't Quote
Most women deciding on breast reconstruction after a mastectomy are working from fear, not numbers. Dr. Merisa Piper is a reconstructive microsurgeon at UCSF…
Kicking Cancer's AssChildhood cancer: how to protect their childhood
A pediatric cancer diagnosis comes with a plan for the body. It rarely comes with a plan for the child inside it, their identity, their autonomy, their…
Kicking Cancer's Ass5 Daily Habits That Prevent Cancer
Four in ten cancers are tied to risk factors you already control. Cancer cases are set to nearly double by 2050, and they are climbing fastest in younger…
Kicking Cancer's AssThe One Decision That Changed My Cancer Care
Iraq War veteran Laura Pearson was low risk by every measure when she felt a breast lump her mammogram had missed. On this episode of Kicking Cancer's Ass, she…
Kicking Cancer's AssI Went Flat and Never Missed a Beat
Drummer April Samuels was 41 and playing professionally when she was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, an aggressive type that had already run…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 54: He built cancer surgery. Then told us to stop.
Dr. Charles Balch, professor emeritus at MD Anderson Cancer Center, helped make surgical oncology a specialty, led ASCO, and now runs ISOPT, the International…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 53: She Was Asked to Be the One They'd Hate
Most people have never heard of a hospitalist until they meet one. Dr. Monique Nugent practices hospital medicine, the specialty that meets you in the five…
Kicking Cancer's AssSolo Episode 13: What Does It Really Mean to Kick Cancer's Ass?
On the one-year anniversary of Kicking Cancer's Ass, host Joelle Kaufman answers the question the show's name keeps provoking: what does it actually mean to…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 52: Don't Bounce Back. Get Ahead of It.
Naturopathic oncologist Dr. Jessa Landmann joins Kicking Cancer's Ass to make the case that most cancer-treatment side effects, from fatigue to joint pain to…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 51: Cancer Wasn’t the Hardest Part. My Friends Were.
The Thing Nobody Warns a Man About Joelle ended the episode with a lightning round. One or two words per answer, quick as she could ask. Then she got to this…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 50: Annabelle Gurwitch Has Stage 4. And Better Things to Do.
Two Stages. Same Silence. A few months into her Stage 4 lung cancer treatment, Annabelle Gurwitch’s son came home from college and found her unconscious on the…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 49: MDS, AML, Liver Failure. We Ran It Like a Startup.
Heidi Kay Carson's husband Chad was 33, healthy, and holding a PhD in computer science when a routine blood test set off a 14-year medical odyssey that ended…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 48: Chemo Ended. Two Weeks Later, I Hiked Zion.
Two weeks after her last chemo infusion for HER2-positive breast cancer, yoga teacher Larissa Noto hiked Zion National Park. Her oncologist found out about the…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 47: She Pulled Up My Breast MRI. I Wasn't Even Dressed.
Why does the second cancer hit harder than the first? Even when it’s smaller? Even when you’re a psychotherapist? Dr. Erin Gray, two-time cancer survivor…
Kicking Cancer's AssSolo Episode 12: The Most Common Cancer Post on Reddit Has Three Words
Everyone said Joelle was done with cancer. She wasn't. Three years past her pathologically complete response, she has a urologist, a cardiologist, and an…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 46: She Didn't Ask What I Needed. She Already Knew.
Twenty-five years of friendship trained Jessica Rosenbaum for the call she didn't want. When Joelle was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer the day…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 45: Your Blood Shows Cancer Is Back 8 Months Before a Scan Does.
The technology exists. The blood draw is simple. So why won't most oncologists order it? Amy Delson has been treated for cancer four times. She's currently in…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 44: 3 Cancers. A Brain Tumor. His Doctors Wouldn't Give Him a Prognosis.
"You're the only person who truly cares about you." Jeffrey Eisenberg faced three cancer diagnoses during the pandemic: stage 1 colon cancer that turned into a…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 43: There's a Drug That Prevents Breast Cancer — And It's Blocked
"30 times more women die from breast cancer than need a liver transplant because of UPA. And yet the drug is paused." What if the drug that could prevent your…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 42: It's Emergency Contraception. It Reduces Breast Cancer Risk. Your Oncologist Has Never Heard of It.
A drug that reduces pre-cancerous breast cells has been sitting in U.S. pharmacies for twenty years. OB/GYNs prescribe it every day. Most oncologists have…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 41: Sex After Cancer: What No One Tells Men
"If someone would have told me there was a vacuum erection device — I wouldn't have even had to have it in my hand yet. But if I had just known that was there…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 40: How to Keep Your Hair During Chemo (and How to Afford It)
"8% of female patients said they would forgo chemotherapy due to fear of hair loss. We actually had one of those patients that we worked with that became not a…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 39: The #1 Cause of Death in Cancer Survivors (Not Cancer)
"The leading cause of non-cancer death in cancer survivors is heart disease. The treatments for cancer may be increasing your probability of getting heart…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 38: Your Tamoxifen Dose Is Too High — And a Clinical Trial Proved It
"The majority of cancer drugs are registered at the dose which is intolerable for the majority of women. It causes a lot of clinical and financial toxicity."…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 37: From brain tumor at 21 to America's first cancer rights lobby
"I found one anchor. It was unique to me." Matthew Zachary was 21, a piano prodigy, when a brain tumor diagnosis stripped him of nearly every bodily function…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 36: Nine Lines of Treatment and Still Running Marathons | Bill Thach
"I normalize all my traumas according to my therapist. But seriously — how can you not normalize it? Because this is reality now. It's my normal now." Bill…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 35: From Broadway to stage 4 diagnosis: building a career that cancer can't cancel
I told my oncologist that treatment's going to have to wait 'cause I'm booked up. And she just looked at me with eight eyes and said, “Valerie, if you don't…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 34: The Career Crisis After Cancer No Executive Expects
"I felt like I had been derailed. We had built our careers over several decades and we knew what the challenges were in building our careers as well. We had to…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 33: Talking About Sex - Women, Cancer, Menopause
“I talk about my sparkle and I just felt like… hormone blockers took my sparkle. That cognitive side of it, the lack of desire, feeling just fatigued... during…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 32: How 47,000 women proved risk-based screening stops late-stage breast cancer | Laura Esserman
"Why can't we build a contraceptive that reduces breast cancer risk? That's the way to get rid of breast cancer. I don't want to just keep treating it. I want…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 31: The Cancer Support Program Most Patients Miss: 100+ oncology nurses guiding you on care journey
"Call us. Get into the program and allow us to help you. You need someone there to help you. Cancer is a journey—you've got to have a support system." In this…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 30: The Cancer Innovation Bottleneck: Why Your Immune System Is Smarter Than Any Drug
“I love the idea of kicking cancer’s ass. It’s what I get up every day to do.” In this powerful and eye-opening episode, Dr. Karen E. Knudsen, CEO of the…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 29: My Brother Saved Me From Cancer (Now I Have His DNA)
Brad Buchanan survived an incurable lymphoma, but the treatment—a stem cell transplant from his brother—almost killed him. His new immune system attacked his…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 28: Using AI to Find Rare Cancers
What happens when a blood test shows circulating cancer DNA—but no doctor can find the tumor? Or when a child spends five years being tested, hospitalized, and…
Kicking Cancer's AssThe Cancer Playbook: 6 Months of Expert Strategies to Take Back Control
You never choose the pitch, but you always choose the swing. After 6 months of interviewing top oncologists, resilient survivors, and even my own family, I’ve…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 27: Easier, earlier cancer detection? Coming soon to a lab near you (we hope).
In Part 1, we talked about why the current tools fail many women. Why mammograms miss tumors and why we rely on the “smush test.” It was…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 26: Most cancer detection tools fail because they weren’t built for early detection.
In this emotional and mind-expanding episode, Dr. Peter Kuhn—a physicist turned cancer researcher—joins Joelle Kaufman to talk about his mission: eliminating…
Kicking Cancer's AssSolo Episode 11: Stop Waiting for “Good Days.” Manufacture Them Instead.
What if your worst days didn’t have to be bad? What if you could manufacture a good day, even in the middle of a crisis? In this episode, host Joelle…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 25: The Mindset Shift That Makes Cancer Less Terrifying
 When English teacher Lesley Kaminski got the notification “invasive breast cancer” on her Apple Watch mid-class, her world stopped. But what happened…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 24: How to Reverse an Insurance Denial For Cancer Care
If your insurance denies your cancer treatment, it can feel terrifying — but a “no” is not the end. Most people don’t know that 75% of insurance appeals win…
Kicking Cancer's AssSolo Episode 10:Start Cancer Prehab: Strengthen Your Mind & Body Now 💪🧠
Are you facing cancer treatment and wondering what you can do right now to improve your results? This isn’t about being a warrior; it’s about being…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 23: Cancer Recovery: Why You’re So Damn Tired (and How to Fix It)
Why does cancer recovery leave you so damn tired — even when your scans are clear? Dr. Amy Morris, former cancer pharmacist, ovarian cancer survivor, and…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 22: Cancer Doesn’t Have to Take Your Hair
Cancer makes you feel like everything is being taken from you — your routines, your certainty, your identity. But what if it didn’t have to take your hair? In…
Kicking Cancer's AssSolo Episode 09: Cancer Just Hit Your Holidays—Do This Before Thanksgiving
When cancer crashes into your life right before a holiday, everything changes. Suddenly the day that’s “supposed” to be about gratitude, food, and connection…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 21: Make Your Body Cancer-Hostile with This Hormone
The FDA just removed a major warning label from hormone therapy — a sign that science around women’s hormones is changing fast. But what does this shift really…
Kicking Cancer's AssSolo Episode 08: Cancer Scanxiety Explained: Why Waiting Hijacks Your Brain
Why does waiting for scan results feel like your nervous system is vibrating? Because your brain hates uncertainty more than bad news—and it’s trying to…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 20: When Cancer Doesn’t Get to Decide Your Timeline
What happens when a doctor tells you “it’s not good” and you’re only 42? Miguel Rueda got one of the rarest prostate cancer diagnoses…
Kicking Cancer's AssSolo 7: Why A Cancer Diagnosis Makes You Mad
Why does hearing “it’s malignant” make you want to scream, cry, or punch a wall—sometimes all in the same hour? Your body just learned about…
Kicking Cancer's AssEpisode 19: The Survivorship Lie: What No One Tells You About Menopause After Cancer (with Dr. Mindy Goldman)
When treatment ended, no one offered me survivorship care. It was just — “You’re done. Be grateful.” In this episode, Dr. Mindy Goldman, Chief Clinical Officer…
Kicking Cancer's AssSolo 6: How I Took My Power Back — When Cancer Cancelled My Surgery
The day before my preventive mastectomy, I got a call that changed everything. The surgery was cancelled — because cancer was already here. In this solo…