Cancer

Screenwriter Will Reiser coped with his cancer diagnosis by thinking up ideas for cancer comedy movies with his best friend, actor Seth Rogen. Rogen and actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt now star in a film based on Reiser's life. Both Gordon-Levitt and Reiser join Fresh Air for a conversation about the film.

Peter Cameron's new novel about a young nurse is consummate English country home novel. Put the kettle on and settle in -- but don't get too comfortable: Cameron's writing is full of sharp angles an unanticipated swerves into the droll and the downright weird.

In her new book, Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History, Florence Williams offers her take on why breasts are getting bigger and developing earlier, why tumors seem to gravitate toward the breast, and how toxins from the environment may be affecting hormones and breast development.

For decades, San Francisco DJ Cheb i Sabbah has explored numerous fusions and reconfigurations of North African, Middle Eastern and Indian music styles. He's now in the midst of a health crisis, and many of his musician friends are lending support through a benefit album.

Tig Notaro walked onstage hours after finding out she was diagnosed with cancer, and talked about it in a standup comedy set that Louis C.K. described in a tweet as masterful. Notaro talks with Fresh Air's Terry Gross about the set, titled Tig Notaro: Live.

Louis C.K. decided to offer Tig Notaro: Live exclusively on his website when he saw the comedian perform a set just hours after receiving her cancer diagnosis.

Falco plays ER nurse Jackie Peyton, who is competent at her high-stress job but struggles with addiction. The sixth season of Nurse Jackie begins Sunday on Showtime.

The 19th century painter wasn't always "very pleasant" and he was a "man of massive contradictions," Spall says. So Spall says he had to "dig deep" to play the title role in Mr. Turner.

Oncologist Theodora Ross discusses the hereditary nature of cancer and her own predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer, which led her to have a double mastectomy and to have her ovaries removed.

How genetics is profoundly changing our definition of disease and the way we treat disease, but is also raising new ethical questions. A talk with oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee about his new book The Gene.

The energetic lead singer for The Dap-Kings spoke to Fresh Air in '07 and again in '16, after she'd been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. "I want to perform," she said in July. Jones died on Nov. 18.

After a cancer diagnosis, and treatment soul singer Sharon Jones has returned to performing. She's the subject of a new documentary Miss Sharon Jones! by academy award winning film maker Barbara Kopple.

The 24-year-old Polley has acted professionally since the age of 6. She starred in the Atom Egoyan films Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter. She's currently starring in the film My Life Without Me, based on a story by Nanci Kincaid called Pretending the Bed is a Raft. It's about a young, working single mother who learns she's going to die but keeps it a secret. The changes she makes to her life give her a new sense of liberation. Polley also will appear in the upcoming film The I Inside and a remake of the cult horror film Dawn of the Dead.

As someone who lives with obsessive-compulsive disorder, novelist John Green sometimes feels like his mind is spiraling uncontrollably.

Religion scholar Kate Bowler used to believe God had a plan for her life. Then she was diagnosed with incurable colon cancer. "I really had to rethink what trust and hope looks like," she says.

Immunologist Daniel Davis says scientists are harnessing the power of the immune system to create new medications to fight cancer, auto-immune conditions and other diseases.

Applegate stars in the new Netflix series as a woman grieving the sudden death of her husband. She talks about her double mastectomy and her teenage fame on Married with Children.

When Wang's grandmother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, the family flew to China to see her, but decided not to tell her the prognosis. "I turned out to be a surprisingly good liar," Wang says.