When young adults get cancer

Today, Explained

Vox

Daily News, Politics, News

4.4 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Getting a cancer diagnosis at any age is life changing. But when you’re in your 20s or 30s, it can feel like hitting the pause button on life. That’s how some young cancer survivors described it in this episode that originally ran earlier this year.Since the episode first aired, research has come out about cancer in young people. You can read Dylan Scott’s reporting on the research here. This episode was produced by Victoria Chamberlin, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Patrick Boyd and Andrea Kristinsdottir, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. A meeting of the Pink Ribbon Breast Cancer awareness organization. Photo by JASPER JACOBS/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at ⁠vox.com/today-explained-podcast.⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What do James Vanderbeek, Dwayne Wade, and Kate Middleton have in common?
0:06.1	They're all youngish people who have been diagnosed with cancer.
0:09.8	And it's not just famous people.
0:11.2	Younger and younger people are getting cancer more and more.
0:14.4	That's facts.
0:15.1	So we here today explained wanted to figure out why and figure out how people are dealing with this.
0:20.5	So we sent out our
0:21.4	producer, Victoria Chamberlain, to meet up for young adults with cancer. Victoria, where'd you go?
0:27.1	I didn't go anywhere, Sean. You didn't go anywhere. You failed. The pandemic changed everything,
0:31.7	including cancer support groups. So there's one that used to happen in person. And then it shifted
0:37.3	to Zoom so that more
0:39.3	people from around the country could go and people who are immune compromised because they
0:43.3	have cancer. Okay, so you hit up a Zoom?
0:45.4	I hit up a Zoom with a whole bunch of 30 to 40-year-olds who are in the thick of cancer
0:50.6	diagnosis and survivorship. Okay, what Victoria learned.
0:55.9	Coming up on Today Explained.
1:04.8	What did the Supreme Court's recent decision on affirmative action actually change?
1:07.5	And what does it mean for who gets into elite colleges?
1:10.8	I'm Preet Bharara, and this week, Yale Law Professor Justin Driver joins me on Stay Tuned with Preet
1:13.4	to trace the history of affirmative action
1:15.7	and explain where we are
1:17.4	in light of the Supreme Court's ruling
	...

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