Hey, I'm Flor Lichtman, and you're listening to Science Rite-A.

Today in the podcast, how do you write the story of cancer?

If you want to understand your disease in a metaphorical way, if you want to think of it as an enemy, think of it as an enemy.

If that's harmful to you, if that's going to hurt, you don't do it.

There's no one way of thinking about cancer.

20 years ago, a young oncologist, overwhelmed by the intensity of treating cancer patients, started

journaling to process his feelings. That cathartic

act eventually turned into a Pulitzer Prize-winning book that fundamentally changed the way

that millions of people understand cancer, the emperor of all maladies. The book turns 15 this

winter, and its author, Siddartha Mukherjee, is now one of the most celebrated modern science writers.

We're talking with Sid about how our understanding of cancer prevention and treatment has evolved and how his understanding of cancer has changed, too.

Sid, welcome back to Science Friday.

Thank you for having me.

You study cancer, you treat cancer, you write about cancer.

And I want to start with a writerly question.

How do you think about cancer narratively?

Is it a character to you?

Is it a David and Goliath story?

And how has that story changed since you wrote the book?

Well, the stories remain in some ways the same.

The closest I can describe it, close I can describe cancer, is a many-headed hydra.

It's obviously something that's penetrated our lives in very complex ways. You know, we say something is a,

...