Atticus is the anonymous poet and New York Times Bestselling author of Love Her Wild, The Dark Between Stars and The Truth About Magic. Dubbed “The World’s Most Tattoo-able Poet” by Galore Magazine, he has been featured in Time Magazine, Elle, The Guardian, Fast Company, Publisher’s Weekly, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, worked with Kygo, Maroon 5, Coach, Absolute Vodka, Stance Socks, Target, Urban Outfitters and Refinery 29, all while wearing a mask and keeping his identity a secret, preferring to send love from the shadows.
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Brian Kelly aka The Points Guy has become one of the top influencers and experts in the travel and hospitality space. Anyone in my close circle knows how passionate I am about travel, my first true love, and my borderline obsession w points. I think I’ve visited 21 countries now and wouldn’t be surprised if guy’s been to the remaining 175.
Brian’s quickly become the go-to-guy when it comes to the Points Game - using lucrative credit card signup bonuses and strategic travel to accrue rewards points that can be redeemed for free trips. For those that play (like me) it’s a legit hobby we take very seriously and all I wanted to do was share my proudest points trips and use up all the recording time.
Brian and I decided to throw the standard interview script out the window and “just have a real conversation” so we could relish in gushing about our passion for travel, revisit some memorable experiences, and chat about the healing power of animals and our shared Pennsylvania roots. And now after our convo, I’m back to planning my Japan trip again, cancer be damned - I might just need to wrangle up a tour guide.
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Writer Gretchen Rubin is widely known as an expert on Happiness and Good Habits. Few know that she actually started her career in law, as Editor of the Yale Law Review and clerking for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court.
One day Gretchen came to an important conclusion about her life: It was time to move off this path because she realized she would rather fail as a writer than succeed as a lawyer. Except she didn’t fail. Gretchen wrote five NYT Bestsellers including “The Happiness Project” - how I was first introduced to her years ago - and more recently, “The Four Tendencies” which we ended up talking a lot about. (FYI I’m a Questioner with a tip to Rebel which apparently Steve Jobs was too)
Gretchenn’s also the co-host of the Happier Podcast, an experienced speaker, wife and mom. Keep in mind The Washington Post called Gretchen “Type A-PLUS” so you might not want to attempt to keep up with this one.
The Four Tendencies Book | Quiz
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Kate Bowler is a religious historian and Professor at the Duke Divinity School. She’s also a witty, warm, wildly successful author, wife and mom living with Stage IV Cancer.
Much of Kate’s early work was focused on the Prosperity Gospel - the belief that if you had the right faith, and prayed the right prayers, God would reward you with health, wealth and happiness.
Soon after writing “Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel” Kate got diagnosed with Stage IV Colon Cancer at the age of 35. Oh, the irony.
Her newest book No Cure for Being Human follows the bestseller “Everything Happens for a Reason: and Other Lies I’ve Loved” which all challenge the American belief that all tragedies are tests of character.
As you’ll hear, Kate felt like an old friend who’d happily greet me on one of those wraparound southern porches with a cup of tea and Ted Lasso biscuits.
We laughed and we laugh-cried as we compared stories and empathized with our shared grief. Because sometimes, there is no good answer to “why us?” but we move forward anyway.
Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved
Everything Happens Podcast
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Sunita Puri is the Medical Director of Palliative Medicine at the Keck Hospital and Norris Cancer Center of the University of Southern California.
She’s also the author of 2019 bestseller That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour. Not since Suleika Jaouad’s Between Two Kingdoms have I experienced such poignant and elegant writing that captures the essence of the author’s experience so expertly.
Sunita documents the life events that led her to the palliative path, the challenges that those in her position face, and offers tools to help readers better communicate with our doctors about what matters most to us.
We chatted about the book and dug into the struggles of leading a department that requires nonstop justification to patients, their families, and even other medical professionals. And we also uncovered what Sunita does to take care of herself - mentally, emotionally, and spiritually - so her job doesn’t rob her of her own personal joy.
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Sister Aletheia was profiled by the NY Times in “Meet the Nun Who Wants You to Remember You Will Die” reviving the Memento Mori movement. Memento Mori is the practice of intentionally thinking about our own death as a means of appreciating the present and living a better life now.
Sister Aletheia’s path to the convent was anything but conventional. She was a rebellious atheist who loved punk rock and spent her 20s volunteering, then working in Bay Area tech before finding her way back to the church. Her Catholic order - the Daughters of St Paul - are known as the #medianuns for their use of social media (even TikTok!) and other modern tools to spread the gospel.
Sister and I talked about our society’s avoidance of death, her ongoing wrestling match with God when it comes to the world’s suffering, and why reflecting on death isn’t a morbid affair, but a healthy and healing practice that can help us accept the inevitable with hope.
Meet the Nun Who Wants You to Remember You Will Die (NY Times, May 2021)
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BJ Miller is a Hospice & Palliative Care Doctor with a unique path that brought him to this work.
As a sophomore at Princeton, while goofing around one night with his buddies, BJ climbed on top of a sleeping commuter train and was immediately electrocuted by 11,000 volts. As a result, BJ lost both his legs at the knee and one arm making him a triple amputee.
BJ and I talked not about his accident or the fact that he now has two futuristic metal blades for legs, but about his deep care for his patients and what he hopes to achieve with his virtual palliative services practice, Mettle Health.
TED Talk: “What Really Matters at the End of Life” (2015)
Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday (2017)
NPR’s Fresh Air: After A Freak Accident, Doctor Finds Insight Into Living Life and Facing Death
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Writer and Comedic Actress Annabelle Gurwitch has a story I first read about in the New York Times in November that caused my own jaw to drop.
Last summer, Annabelle walked into an Urgent Care Clinic in a mini mall for a COVID test...and walked out with a Stage IV lung cancer diagnosis.
She shared her story along with how she’s managing life her now with this chronic, terminal illness that thankfully hasn’t robbed her of her humor.
NYT Op-Ed: The Coronavirus Saved My Life
You’re Leaving When? Adventures in Downward Mobility
Tiny Victories Podcast
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Greg McKeown is a bestselling author and the host of the popular podcast What’s Essential where he talks to a wide range of guests about prioritizing what matters most in life.
Yes, we hit on his new book Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most a follow up to his first NYT bestseller, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less but the bulk of our conversation was SO not the heady academic one I expected.
Instead Greg was courageously vulnerable in sharing his own family struggles over the last two years as they navigated a scary road with their daughter struck by a mysterious brain condition that doctors had no answers for.
Hear how Greg found the lighter path and now has an even deeper appreciation for the moments that matter.
Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most
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Meet my personal palliative care nurse, Cecilia Benns. If you don’t know what that is job is, or you associate it with hospice care for people who are like days out from dying, you’re not alone, and we’re here to help.
Hoping people walk away with some new knowledge - I myself had no idea about these kinds of resources for people in my situation - because the more I learn, the more comfortable and confident I feel when the fear creeps in about my eventual demise. Another reminder that bringing these conversations to light has the power to ease so much suffering.
And you’ll see how special this Georgia Belle is. Cecilia is a literal angel walking the earth who sees her job as one of the most honorable, treasured and deeply meaningful ones on the planet - and the universe paired her with me. I look forward to her care as she shepherds me through each stage of this process until I cross the earthly finish line and move on to my next adventure.
In our final AKTIV Against Cancer Spotlight, Ethan Zohn interviews gymnastics legend and ovarian cancer survivor Shannon Miller. Learn more about AKTIV Against Cancer and donate if you can on behalf of No Time to Waste!
TRU Community Care (www.trucare.org) serving Boulder County
Find Palliative Care Services Near You
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Dr. Martin Inderbitzin is a world-renowned Swiss-German Neuroscientist and Mindset Specialist whose previous research focused on stress, emotions and understanding how the brain and the body processes it all.
Then 9 years ago, he received a gut-wrenching pancreatic cancer diagnosis which forced him to take his life’s work and put it into practice for himself as a patient now grappling with his mortality. Not to mention deciding to train for a triathlon - with zero experience in the sport - and transforming himself into an athlete which Ethan Zohn will talk to him about in this week’s AKTIV Against Cancer Spotlight.
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Brad Ludden was a young professional whitewater kayaker whose life was first touched by cancer at 12 years old when his aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer. By 18, he was sharing his passion for kayaking with pediatric oncology patients and soon after, founded First Descents to help young adults in the cancer community experience the adventure and community of the outdoors free of charge. 20 years later, the organization is still thriving, offering more than 70 programs across the county in 2021 including rock climbing, surfing, whitewater rafting and more. All this, started by a guy whose good looks and good heart earned him the title of Cosmo Magazine’s Bachelor of the Year back in 2008. True story! Check out our IG :)
On this week's AKTIV Against Cancer Spotlight Segment, host Ethan Zohn interviews former NFL Star and Cancer Crusher Merril Hodge. Learn more at www.aktivagainstcancer.org/podcast and donate if you can on behalf of No Time to Waste!
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I’m sure you know Matthew McConaughey. He’s an Academy Award-Winning actor, a proud Texan, a Philanthropist, a new owner of Austin’s MLS team and most recently, a NYT bestselling author for his memoir, Greenlights.
What Matthew and I talked about in our conversation hit deep. We talked about my current cancer situation and how I’m doing what I can to make the most of it. We debated over how much fight to bring to life vs how much flow and how to know what’s needed when. And we agreed that the only certainty in life is death so you’d better be out living it.
In this week’s AKTIV Against Cancer Spotlight, host Ethan Zohn interviews XC Ski Star Kikkan Randall who three months after achieving a lifelong goal of winning an Olympic gold medal, got diagnosed with Stage 2 triple positive breast cancer. Learn how this amazing 5-Time Olympian and World Champion’s “dive” or “thrive” attitude and commitment to exercise helped her stay positive throughout her cancer journey.
Buy his memoir Greenlights
Learn more about AKTIV Against Cancer and donate to the cause if you can!
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Oceana Sawyer is a former corporate trainer at companies like HP and Levi Strauss now turned death doula. Just like birth doulas who help bring babies into this world at the beginning of life, a death doula helps actualize the emotional and spiritual wishes of the dying at the end of life.
For anyone who’s ever wanted to know what dying’s like, in this conversation Oceana details every single step of her father’s passing and the experience was far more beautiful than I ever would have expected. The more I learn about what happens at the end of life, the more comforted I feel. Let’s get these conversations out into the light.
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AKTIV Against Cancer Spotlight
American Tennis star James Blake lost everything and won his life back after a potential career ending injury and caring for his father Thomas Blake. On this week's AKTIV Against Cancer Spotlight, hear all about this Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year Award Winner’s inspiring story of compassion and grit and the ways in which he’s supported the cancer community.
Learn more about AKTIV Against Cancer and donate to the cause if you can: www.aktivagainstcancer.org/podcast
There’s so much behind the 10,000 kilowatt smile of media mogul Katie Couric. More than just sunshine, Katie’s known tragedy and loss in her personal life and gained wisdom in hindsight from those experiences. After her first husband passed away from colorectal cancer, Katie founded Stand Up to Cancer which has since raised over $600M for cancer research. We talked about the need for us to bring honest conversation about mortality into the light, and the comfort it could bring to people if we did.
The episode wraps with our first AKTIV Against Cancer Spotlight featuring No Time To Waste Founder Alison Hadden as she talks with host Ethan Zohn about the role of exercise in her own cancer treatment and how she applies her athlete's mindset through its ups and downs.
Next Question with Katie Couric on Apple Podcasts
Pre-Order Going There on Amazon!
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We’re going to take a little hiatus from the weekly podcast production machine which has been churning and burning for 6 months now. I don’t imagine it will be too long because #notimetowaste but follow @notimetowasteproject on IG for updates.
I shared a personal update and then announced an exciting new partnership with AKTIV Against Cancer led by previous pod guest Ethan Zohn! After we return from the break, at the end of select No Time to Waste episodes, Ethan will share stories of cancer survivors - professional athletes, Olympians and everyday people - who’ve benefited from integrating physical activity into their treatment. For more, visit www.AKTIVagainstcancer.org.
Hang tight. We’ll be back soon!
I only recently got introduced to Maggie Smith - the poet, not the actress - when I stumbled upon her book Keep Moving that I really loved. Whereas most books about navigating grief and loss have a somber, self-reflective tone, hers included short motivational quotes with more of a Ted Lasso vibe.
Maggie was not the tortured creative soul I expected from a poet. Thanks to her big energy, high wattage smile and sense of humor, we had a blast in our convo and now I’m thinking about getting into poetry.
Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change
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I genuinely believe my dad embodies much of what No Time to Waste is all about. I’ve witnessed first-hand his zest for life, his sense of adventure, his desire to help people and his evolution as a self-aware human. And I’ve realized only in recent years how proud I am to be my father’s daughter.
We talk about his non-linear career path from flower delivery truck driver to park ranger to attorney to therapist, how for a few short years we became a horse family (but not in the traditional sense), and why my dad sees heartbreak as the price to pay for big love.
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