Better Living Through Dying, with Annabelle Gurwitch

About this episode

Meghan Daum interviews Annabelle Gurwitch about her experience with cancer and her new memoir.

This week Meghan is joined by actor, humorist, and six-time author Annabelle Gurwitch, who returns to the podcast to discuss her new memoir, The End of My Life Is Killing Me: The Unexpected Joys of a Cancer Slacker . Annabelle was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer during COVID, entirely out of the blue, after what she assumed was a meaningless cough. Five years later, she remains an outlier on a targeted therapy that has kept her stable. In this conversation, Annabelle talks about how she has resisted the sentimental clichés surrounding illness, why she rejects the idea that cancer is a "battle," and how humor, contrarianism, and facing "the shipwreck of the soul" have shaped the way she lives now. Guest Bio: Annabelle Gurwitch is an actress, activist, and New York Times bestselling author of six books and two-time finalist for the Thurber Prize. Her essays have appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and Hadassah Magazine , among other publications. Her six books include the New York Times bestseller and Thurber Prize finalist I See You Made an Effort . Annabelle co-hosted the fan favorite Dinner & a Movie on TBS, was…

People in this episode

Host: Meghan Daum

Guest: Annabelle Gurwitch

Topics covered

• cancer
• humor
• memoir
• illness
• personal narrative
• patient advocacy

Keywords

• cancer
• humor
• memoir
• Annabelle Gurwitch
• Meghan Daum
• patient advocacy
• illness

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, The New Yorker, New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Hadassah Magazine

Books & works: The End of My Life Is Killing Me: The Unexpected Joys of a Cancer Slacker, I See You Made an Effort

More episodes of The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum

• Can Spencer Pratt Save Los Angeles? · May 5, 2026 · 45 min
• When Wokeness Stops Working: Brendan O'Neill's VIBE SHIFT signals a new era · April 27, 2026 · 1h 6m
• The Emaciated Elephant in the Room: Are GLP-1s causing us to lose our minds as well as weight? · April 14, 2026 · 1h 2m
• The Truth About Street Homelessness · April 7, 2026 · 1h 16m
• How To Develop A Curiosity Practice · April 1, 2026 · 16 min
• Lionel Shriver's Most Problematic Novel Yet · March 23, 2026 · 1h 9m