A "So-Called" Normal Life: Erin Zammett Ruddy's Little Book of Life Skills

On the show today, I welcome one of my advocate heroes, Erin Zammett-Ruddy, a young adult cancer survivor I met during the LIVESTRONG days in the early 2000s. She may have barely crossed the 5-year survivor finish line (that’s what we called it back then), but she was — and still is — a force to be reckoned with. She was a “big-time big city” magazine journalist writing for Glamour when a random asymptomatic diagnosis of Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia changed everything. She broke the mold and went public — something considered shocking for the time — and began a now legendary and award-winning column entitled “Life with Cancer" — making her one of the first media cancerlebrities of all time. There’s so much to unpack with Erin, the least of things her choice to temporarily quit chemo to become a biological mom, confronting her sister’s cancer diagnosis two years after her own, maintaining her career, speaking all over the world, raising a shit ton of money for charity — you get the picture. Now a happily thriving 40-something raising three kids and married to the same man who stuck with her during the dark days, Erin’s still here and kicking more ass than ever with her new book, “The Little Book of Life Skills: Deal With Dinner, Manage Your Email, Make a Graceful Exit, and 152 other Expert Tricks". Enjoy the show.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.