Podcast Preview and Name Reveal

Jul 29, 2024

Hello everyone. The podcast release date is less than two months away. I’ve shared Dr. Fisher’s story with my patients for years and I’m so excited for you to hear it!

I’ll get to the name in a minute, but first, let me introduce this week’s guest.

Dr. Edward Levine is a professor of surgery at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He is also head of the Division of Surgical Oncology at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center and an expert in hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC). HIPEC is a complicated surgical treatment for abdominal tumors like cancers of the appendix and ovaries.

Dr. Levine has been a tremendous mentor for me over the years and was a wonderful resource for the podcast. In this condensed conversation, we talk about history of surgery, why he chose to work with cancer patients and Dr. Fisher’s vision for cancer care.

Levine also shared how early in his career he became inadvertently entangled in the controversy that ensnared Fisher. He talks about how that impacted cancer research and why he still never gives his office the phone number of where he’s staying on vacation.

Ed Levine taught me how to think about cancer and is one of the best people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. I know you’ll enjoy hearing what he has to say.

And now for the big reveal

Drumroll please….

Less Radical

is the story of how a Jewish kid from Pittsburgh became the world’s expert in breast cancer. In this six-episode series, I will take you into the operating room, the White House and the halls of Congress to show how one man fought for patients and found a better way to cure cancer.

We will cover Fisher’s contributions to our modern understanding of cancer and how Washington politics toppled him from the height of power and ruined his career, an experience that haunted him until his death.

The production team at Yellow Armadillo Studios has done a terrific job of crafting an experience that captures Fisher’s persistence in the face of seemingly insurmountable hurdles.

I look forward to hearing your reactions to his struggles, his brilliance and his legacy which reflect the conversations we’ve been having here at Cancer Culture

Discussion about this podcast

Less Radical

Less Radical is the story of Dr. Bernie Fisher, the surgeon-scientist who not only revolutionized breast cancer treatment, but also fundamentally changed the way we understand all cancers. He was an unlikely hero-- a Jewish kid from Pittsburgh who had to make it past antisemitic quotas to get into med school. And the thanks he received for his discoveries? A performative, misguided Congressional hearing that destroyed his reputation and haunted him until his death.

Over six episodes, radiation oncologist Dr. Stacy Wentworth will take you into operating rooms, through the halls of Congress, and into the labs where breakthrough cancer treatments were not only developed, but discovered.

If you or someone you know has had breast cancer, Bernie is a part of your story-- and you’re a part of his.

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