Megan Basham - In the Valley of Cancer
Conversations That Matter
Jon Harris
4.3 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 May 2026
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jon Harris sits down with journalist and author Megan Basham to discuss her journey of faith amid cancer. While her book Shepherds for Sale climbed the New York Times bestseller list, Megan was undergoing chemotherapy and radiation for stage 3 colon cancer (later upgraded to stage 4).
She opens up about the fear, the fight, the deep spiritual lessons learned in the valley, and how God has drawn her closer to Him through suffering. Megan shares candidly about family, motherhood, processing mortality, the difference in how men and women face terminal illness, rejecting fear through providence, and the surprising peace God has given her.
This episode is a moving testimony of leaning on Christ when everything is uncertain. If you're walking through illness, loss, or uncertainty, Megan’s story will encourage you to trust that no molecule — including every cancer cell — is outside of God’s sovereign control.
0:00 - Introduction & Welcoming Megan Basham
2:10 - Megan's Impact, Shepherds for Sale & Sounding the Alarm
5:30 - The Surreal Year: NYT Bestseller While Fighting Cancer
8:45 - Stage 3 Colon Cancer Diagnosis & Attacks During Treatment
11:40 - Learning Dependence on God & Hidden Blessings
15:20 - Comparing Journeys with Ben Sasse
19:10 - One-on-One Trips with Daughters & Facing Mortality
23:50 - Deepened Prayer Life & John MacArthur's Encouragement
27:40 - Obsession with Statistics & Releasing Control
29:50 - God's Peace, Providence & Gospel Invitation
#MeganBasham #Cancer #Faith #ChristianPodcast #ShepherdsForSale
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Conversations That Matter podcast. I'm your host John Harris, where we forge a bold |
| 0:18.8 | Christian vision for America. Today, it is my privilege to have, for the first time in person, a journalist that has meant a lot to me, who has done a lot of great work in the Southern Baptist Convention and evangelicalism more broadly. And I've just appreciated so much of what she's done, Megan Bashan. Megan, thank you so much for being willing to talk to me today. |
| 0:37.5 | Hey, John. Yeah, it's good to like finally do this, like face to face. This is great. Well, I appreciate your work so much. I felt like when you came on the scene, it was a breath of fresh air. I know me and a few others were trying to sound the alarm on social justice in a Southern Baptist convention and an evangelicalism and your book Shepherds for |
| 0:55.4 | sale and your articles, especially on the Me Too issue, they really vindicated and exposed the problem. |
| 1:04.3 | And I think people see now more clearly because of what you've done. So thank you. Well, thank you |
| 1:08.3 | because I always felt a little guilty that you guys had |
| 1:11.5 | been sounding the alarm so long and the alarm got to me and it woke me up. But then I went, now I'm going to write about it too. And some things took off. And I always want everyone to know. I'm like, listen, these guys were here, you know, doing this work a long time before I showed up. I'm glad that you've done what you've done and you deserve credit for it. |
| 1:30.1 | One of the things that you've done what you've |
| 1:28.1 | done and you deserve credit for it. One of the things that I've been impressed with, and I think |
| 1:33.2 | I've even said at times like, hey, Megan, like, I hope you're not doing too much. Like, take a break |
| 1:38.5 | because you have had past tense, hopefully, and we're praying past tense forever, cancer. |
| 1:45.8 | Yeah. |
| 1:46.5 | While exposing these things. Like literally, your book is sitting on the New York Times best |
| 1:50.8 | sellers list and you're going to chemotherapy. Yeah. And I don't know what that's like. |
| 1:55.7 | I feel like I would just sort of retreat from public life. You felt like there was things |
| 1:59.6 | that need to be said. But today, I think we're going to talk a little bit about that personal journey |
| 2:05.2 | and what the Lord did in your life wondering whether you're going to keep living or |
| 2:09.9 | how long you have so what is that like being successful and having a lot of |
| 2:15.5 | people note I mean New York Times bestseller that's pretty that's the |
| 2:18.6 | that's the top for a book yeah but then you're wondering hey am i going to keep living yeah i mean it was a |
| 2:25.0 | surreal year in 2024 so um you know as we kind of discussed here in the opening i didn't expect |
| 2:32.1 | to start writing about these things um i started writing about them because it kind of came into my own house. |
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