Terminally Online

Endless Thread

WBUR

Reddit, Technology

4.2 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 7 March 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"Should I be joking at a time like this?"

That's the question then 33-year-old Brooke Eby asked herself when she uploaded her first piece of TikTok comedy in 2022, about being diagnosed with a terminal illness. Brooke's since built an audience of hundreds of thousands of people who are rooting for, and laughing with, her. Sometimes it gets weird. Brooke talks to Ben and Amory about how facing death changed her relationship with social media and online community.

Show notes:

Brooke Eby's TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube
ALSTogether
When Your Terminal Illness Makes You a TikTok Star (The New York Times)

This episode was written and produced by Grace Tatter. It was co-hosted by Amory Sivertson and Ben Brock Johnson. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski.

Transcript

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0:30.1	Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken, a podcast from BU's Mayrotra Institute
0:36.3	that explores questions like,
0:38.1	Why are executives paid so much? Do they deserve it? Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
0:46.2	WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:59.5	Brooke, thank you so much for hanging out with us.
1:00.6	Thanks for having me.
1:09.3	This is all pre-recorded, so you may hear us stumble over things, questions that we want to ask you, in which case we'll just do them again.
1:13.6	Feel free to do the same if you start an answer and you want to say it differently.
1:14.6	Sounds good. Go for it.
1:15.3	And you're allowed to swear it because it's a podcast.
1:18.4	Noted.
1:18.9	If that's your jam.
1:20.3	It's actually like my New Year's resolution is to do it less.
1:23.0	So I'm trying not to.
1:24.3	But like I think that's such a cliche New Year's resolution that never really
1:28.9	sticks, you know? No, I don't know anyone who's trying to swear less. I think in these times
1:32.9	people are swearing more. Yeah, it's the inverse, perhaps. I'm Brooke Eby. I'm currently in
	...

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