The School of Greatness - 65 Bryan Bishop: Lessons in Life from Surviving Cancer

Episode Date: May 5, 2014

How would you respond if you learned that you only had a few months to live? Bryan Bishop knew he was to fight it. His is an amazing story of triumph over disease while excelling at his own personal greatness. All the resources mentioned in this show can be found at www.lewishowes.com/65

This is episode number 65 with Brian Bishop. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Hey, what is up, greats?

Thanks so much for saying hi today and checking in with me. I've got a very special episode with a new friend of mine. His name is Mr. Brian Bishop. And I got introduced to Brian through another friend, a podcasting friend. His name is Mr. Brian Bishop. And I got introduced to Brian through another friend, a podcasting friend. His name is Caleb Bacon over at the man school. He shot me an email and said, Hey, you've got to check out this book. My friend Brian wrote, and I checked it out and it was extremely funny, witty, but also heartwarming as well. Pretty interesting about Brian. At 30 years old, his life was right on track.

He was the sidekick to the Adam Carolla show, and his career was taking off. He was newly engaged. His personal life was soaring. And then he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. And I have never met anyone with a brain tumor. So for me to connect with Brian and kind of learn about his story and hear about the obstacles he's have to face these basically life and death obstacle, um, where the doctor said he was given a certain amount of months

to live and what he was going to do with that information and how he was going to live from then on out. And this was five years ago, and a lot has happened since then. So I thought it was going to be really interesting to bring him on and let him share his story about this. And the book is incredible. It's called Shrinkage, Manhood, Marriage, and the Tumor That Tried to Kill Me by Brian Bishop. And the foreword is by Adam Carolla. Really interesting book and I'm excited to bring him on. If you guys checked out the last episode

with Ryan Holiday about The Obstacle is the Way, The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph, then this is going to be a perfect tie-in for you. So make sure to check out episode 64 as well with Ryan Holiday where we're talking about The Obstacle is the Way and it's definitely something that Brian took on in full effect with his life and death

obstacle. I wouldn't even say it's an obstacle. It was a very serious occurrence. So I'm excited to bring on Brian. He is a really funny guy, brings a lot of humor to the show, and has a really cool story. So we'll bring him on in a second. So without further ado, guys, let's jump right in and start this class off right with Brian Bishop. What is up, everyone?

I'm back with a new guest on today. His name is Mr. Brian Bishop. What's up, Brian? What's happening? Thanks for having me on. Yeah, I'm very excited. We have a mutual friend. His name is Caleb Bacon.

I wouldn't call him a friend, but okay. Well, you know. We know a guy. On the side. We both know a dude. Yeah, we both know a dude. And very funny guy like yourself. And he introduced me he said you gotta you gotta meet brian and uh you gotta connect on this book that he has cool and i'm

so glad you liked it yeah i'm i'm excited about this book it's called uh shrinkage manhood marriage and the tumor that tried to kill me and it's a it's a pretty powerful book in the terms of you really lay it all on the line. It's very vulnerable. It's very open. You talk about a scary subject for most. And I don't think I've ever met anyone who's had a tumor. Right. A brain tumor.

Sure. And it's not that common. It's not like you walk around the street. No. And people are just like, oh, yeah, I've got a tumor and I've got a tumor. So I think you're probably the first person I've had a conversation with that I know. Okay. Well, I'm honored. I'm honored and flattered.

Here's your certificate. That's right. And it's interesting. I mean, it's not fun to talk about probably for some people, and it's probably really scary when you're in it and involved in it. And I can only imagine the amount of concern, stress, anxiety that you felt and maybe still do feel today with your experience. So yeah, I'm excited to dive in on this.

Yeah, thanks, man. I wrote it, I mean, for a lot of reasons, but mostly for people like you who've never, maybe when I was going through my treatment or even when I was just diagnosed, my friends didn't know how to act around me because they'd never been around someone with a brain tumor before or cancer or any of that stuff. And, you know, cancer, we sort of associate with older people or people who smoke or whatever. And

I'm neither of those things. And so, you know, the book is to sort of, for a lot of reasons, but one reason it exists is to sort of, you know, put the pin in that, you know, big balloon that's full of tension, you know, that's fully, you know, nervousness or tension or embarrassment or whatever, when you're around someone who has cancer or a loved one, a friend, whatever. Now, to kind of go off a side point really quickly, just because I feel like we can connect on this. I, I was, I just shared in a podcast, my last podcast that I was raped up when I was five years old by another man. And for 25 years, I never told anyone.

Oh, wow. And so I, you know. Must have felt good to get off your chest, though. It felt amazing. It felt amazing. It felt freeing. It felt healing. Right.

And I started talking about it about a year ago and then sharing it with family, close friends. And then the more I realized that I opened up about it without allowing to control me and being scared to talk about it, the more I realized that it wasn't controlling me. Yeah, when you don't talk about it is when it has the most control over you because you're constantly living in fear of this information. It's not even, I mean, it's an event that happened, but it happened, I'm guessing, 25 years ago or so. I was five years old, yeah.

Yeah, so it has control over you to this day. Or it did, I should say, until you sort of take ownership of it. Exactly. It has control over you to this day. Or it did, I should say, until you sort of take ownership of it. Exactly. So in some sense, I can kind of relate to you wanting to talk about it and bring it to the forefront. Because that's what I've been wanting to do through publicly announcing it and sharing about it.

What you can do, what else you can do if you've experienced this, things like that. So I appreciate your humor in this book. Because I literally laughed out loud a bunch of times. I was going through it. I was just like, I wish I could write comedy like that. You know, it's like the stories, the way you write, it's hilarious. Yeah, I try. I know cancer is a serious subject and it's not a fun

subject and I try to make it as much as appealing to the general you know to a general audience possible who wants to read a book that's just sad the whole time? Yeah, of course. Of course. I wouldn't want to write a book to be sad the whole time. Exactly.

So let's cover some of this stuff. Tell me a little bit about your background just in general. Sure. I'm from the Bay Area, San Francisco Bay Area, and came to L.A. in, geez, it was 96 to go to college. I went to USC, and I never went back. And I sort of found my way into radio, uh, via, I was screening calls for Loveline, the radio show with Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew. Uh, she's around 2002, I guess it was, and did that for a few years and,

uh, ended up screening calls for the Adam Carolla show, which is, which at the time would take over for Howard Stern when he left for Satellite Radio. And after a few months of doing that, I was given a shot to be on the air, and I ran with it. I took it and ran with it, and I ended up, long story short, been a sidekick ever since, basically,

ever since 2006. With Adam Carolla, right? Correct. And the story about how you got the moment, the gig, was pretty interesting because you got a promotion, and then moment right the gig was pretty interesting because you think you got a promotion and then the show with adam carolla like canceled and so then you got another you got the gig with him on a new show which was like a demotion right bro totally yeah

it was like a call boy again or something i was i was i was a segment producer on his television program for comedy central in 2005 and that was a pretty pretty sweet job for someone who was i guess i was 26 or 27 at the time and uh was able to do that it was a pretty pretty sweet job for someone who was i guess i was 26 or 27 at the time and uh was able to do that it was a great it was great pay it was a great job and then the show was canceled and i had the opportunity to work on his radio show but i took the lowest job possible because that's all they had and i consciously took it thinking well this would be a fun thing to do for a little while and uh i'll do it as long as i can while you're looking for another yeah i'll, I'll get a real job.

And ended up working out, obviously, in my benefit, just because I was able to work hard. But how did you get the opportunity of being on the show as opposed to being like this? Didn't someone leave for vacation? Yeah, what happened was it was five months into the show, and our sound effects guy on the air, his name is Mike, he had, obviously, a prearranged wedding in Ireland.

So he was going for that and his honeymoon for two weeks. And they're like, well, we need someone to take over this job on the air. And Adam's like, well, I don't know if Adam was the one who decided, but it was decided, let's let Brian do it for two weeks.

I did it for two weeks. I guess I was pretty good at it because they gave me the job after the end of those two weeks. It worked out for everyone because Mike mike the guy whose job it was was sort of doing two jobs at once he was the he was the writer which is a full-time job but he was also doing the on-air uh sound effects so it was the decision was made to make him the full-time writer and to make me the sound effects sidekick guy and so now you're on full-time with adam on his show right and you're like the sidekick

yeah i'm i'm doing the same job essentially it's sort of you know evolved a little bit but for all intents and purposes the same same job and are you on every show do you speak a lot as well and you have like little comedy segments as well right yeah we do features i'm on i'm on every show i'm in the studio the whole time so i'm just i'm like you know the fred norris to his howard stern um i talk a little more than fred than Fred probably and do movie reviews and things like that and games and such. But yeah, just a sidekick and supporting the comedy machine

that is Adam Carolla. That's awesome. I mean, just reading his foreword alone, I was like dying. I was like laughing. Yeah, yeah. It starts the book off right. I got a phone call

and it was it's just like hilarious you got to read the book uh but that's interesting so what's it been like working with him ever since then it's great i mean it's it number one it's like working without him every day is like going to comedy college you know he's he's the most gifted improviser i've ever been around or ever seen and to to be exposed to that and be thrown in and have to participate, you know, with, with not a lot of training on my part. Um, you know, he really took a chance on me in 2006, you know, I was kind of green and hopefully I've evolved into a very capable sidekick if not, if not above average, but at least capable. Um, but he's a, you know,

he's an incredible mentor without, without taking the role of the teacher. You know what I mean? He doesn't instruct you on a lot of what to do. But if you're smart and if you're perceptive, you'll pick it up for sure. Interesting. Wow. Okay, cool. At least by example is what I'm trying to say.

Yeah, yeah. But he's not like teaching you a lesson every day. No. He's just doing. And you're like, whoa, that's pretty cool. Yeah, exactly. He's very skillful in terms of what he can do on the mic. He's incredible.

What's the biggest thing you learned about yourself with working with Adam? Oh, boy. Well, early on when he was just sort of telling me how it works in radio, at least for him, he's like, just keep the ball in the air. Meaning when the conversation is going, just keep the conversation going as opposed to throwing up roadblocks. In improv,

he likes to say it's yes and and not no, you know, it's yes. And, and not only that, but it's keeping the conversation going. So obviously I was, I was aware of that, but to hear it put in such succinct terms, I was like, all right, so that's, that's the mission statement. Like trying to get another punchline after the punchline and just continually going with it. Well, actually that's the opposite.

Cause, cause what I've've learned i've sort of picked this up just from just from listening to other you know other comedy podcasts or other comedy bits or whatever and also participating in the daily show is if you're if you're funny like that like let's say an adam carolla then just let the conversation happen and the jokes will will come as opposed to always be on the lookout for the joke you know like where's where's the punchline where's the next punchline coming like no just keep the conversation going especially in podcasting it's so conversational you know it doesn't have to be set up set a punchline it can just be conversation conversation

conversation you'll end up on something funny you'll you'll land you're hopping from lily pad to lily pad you'll land on a funny one. And you have your own show as well, right? Yeah, I do. I do a show called The Film Vault. And there's a weekly movie show. And just irreverent movie talk. So don't take it too seriously. Nice.

Okay, so you realize there's a part of your life in 2009, right? Where you start kind of having your mumbling. nine right where you start kind of having uh you're you're mumbling you're having uh some some tightness or some uh numbness in your your your face your leg your your body starts to kind of feel numb and at one point it's really bad you just start falling over and your legs start buckling right well what happened was what really precipitated it or exacerbated it was when i would drink you know i'd have one beer and it felt like for, you know, like it was I got drunk really easily and all used to that. I wasn't used to that and not since I started drinking at age twelve. No, I started drinking and so I was like what the heck is

going on and I decided at that point, you know, all those symptoms you mentioned the numbness or the tingling my lips or whatever sort of easily explained because I was working for a morning show at the time i was getting up at five in the morning i was like oh my you know it's it's too much caffeine or i'm not getting enough sleep or blah blah blah i was all easily desk all day or whatever yeah or i'm i'm at the time i was standing you know because i stood for the radio show uh so it was like i'm spending too much time my feet four straight hours you know it's it was easily explained. But then the cumulative effect ended up being, I should probably see a doctor.

Interesting. Okay. Because it started to get pretty bad, right? It started to get more pronounced and it just was everything. It was a totality of everything. And it was especially with the drinking where it was like, all right, this is not easily explained. This is the weekend and I'm just having a beer.

And now I feel wasted. Right. And is that when you met? So you said, okay, I should probably go see a now I feel wasted. Right, and is that when you met, so you said, okay, I should probably go see a doctor and is that Dr. Doom? Is that who you met at the first meeting? I ended up with Dr. Doom. I met with a kindly old doctor who was an expert in MS,

was sort of his field. But at that point, that's what I thought I had and that's what most people thought I had because the symptoms all lined up. I went on WebMD and did the whole thing. And you were like, okay. Yeah, I was like, oh, well, that'll make sense. I don't like about a stroke. So it's probably probably

MS multiple sclerosis and I went to him and he which is does with the muscles. Yeah, it's it's the demyelination of the of the brain basically the she thing that controls it's complicated. It's boring, but point is, yes, it affects your muscles and

coordination and all that things all that stuff right so um went and got a scan mri scan and uh came back and obviously didn't have ms had a you know glioma brain stem glioma which is a brain tumor wow yeah okay and then uh the doctor basically said you've got six months. What happened was this doctor, this kindly old doctor, was like, there's something in your brain called the glioma. I'm not an expert in these, so I'm going to refer you to this other guy. A specialist, quote-unquote. Yeah, a specialist in the book referred to as Dr. Harold Kumar,

not his real name. And so I went to him, and he was the one who was giving me all sorts of medical mumbo jumbo about, not mumbo jumbo, but just explaining in very clinical terms what was going on and showing me diagrams and everything. And I'm just getting fed up because I've been to so many appointments now without knowing exactly what the big picture is. And I'm like, Doc, what are we looking at?

And he said, typically in these cases, I say six months to a year. And I was like, holy shit. But then my next thought was well that's not going to be me yeah i don't know if that was foolish or naive or whatever of denial but uh i i i right away i was like well we're gonna fight this wow yeah and you're you're engaged at the time i was engaged at the time my fiance was there christy was there i was engaged we were to be married in two months i mean it wasn't like oh we just got engaged and someday we'll get married it's like no no we those planned yeah the deposit's were to be married in two months. I mean, it wasn't like, oh, we just got engaged and someday we'll get married. It's like, no, no.

It was planned. Yeah, the deposit's paid. The wedding's in two months. Wow. It just sounds like she's the most incredible human being reading the stories through this book about what she was able to, how she was supportive and how she was on your side and just what she was able to experience with

your parents and just the whole situation. She's the star of the book. That's incredible. For good reason. Yeah, I'm just blown away by her character and her love. She's a tremendous person. I could not have gotten through it without her, and I wouldn't have wanted to.

She was the light at the end of the tunnel. And it's funny. You guys have a little kind of joke or inside joke about saying I love you. Well, uh saying i love you and well she said i love you first yeah she said yeah when we were dating and now i i stand by no no stand by it it was a mistake on my part uh we were dating and she was the first one to say i love you and i i panicked and i was like i i l you which is not what you want look if you actually do love someone there's no real harm in saying it.

Yeah. But I panic. What were you so afraid of? I don't know. I was 27 or whatever I was. I was stupid. I was 28 or 29. And I was just dumb.

And so I said, I L you. And luckily, testament to Christie's character, that became sort of a running gag in our relationship. We still sign all of our cards with I L you. Because that's such a funny uh funny acknowledgement that's right so there's a picture in there of we were dating at the time i think we were in no we weren't were we engaged 2007 december 2007 so now we just met right yeah we had we had we had we just been dating for a few months you must have just said i in fact it was only just before that she said that i wrote

ilu in the snow in this cabin we were staying at. How cute. Big bear, right? It's adorable. That's right. That's so cool. So you guys learn about this.

The doctor's like, you're basically done in six months. Pretty much. And I mean, what did you guys come up with? What did you feel? What were you thinking? You were like, I'm gonna kick this, obviously. I wasn't even that I was going to kick it.

It was just that we'll figure something out there. There's got to be another answer. You know, I'm not prepared to be gone in six months. Yeah, again, I'm not. I'm acknowledging the fact that may have been naive,

but that was what I thought. And I get, I think our first thought was, let's get a second opinion. Let's get someone else to, you know, because this doctor, as I explained,

didn't have really what you would call a can-do attitude. You know, it was more like. Straight to the point. Yeah, what are you going to do? And so we were like, let's, we got to see the best person we can. And not too far from here, actually, is a hospital. About a mile away. Yeah, that is, I still go there.

I'm going there on Monday, a week from Monday. And it's Cedars-Sinai Hospital, and it's one of the best institutes in the world for treating brain tumors or cancer in any you know respect for brain tumors especially they're known for because they have a doctor there named dr keith black and dr black is world renowned he's one of the all-time you know leading brain surgeons uh especially you know, leading brain surgeons, uh, especially, you know, for brain cancer. And, uh, our mission became, let's, let's see this guy. Let's, let's go to, let's go to Mecca and talk to, you know, talk to the guy. And, and, um, long story short, all the signs were pointing to him. And we eventually, not even eventually, we pretty quickly got into see him

because we had a family friend who was in a medical sales and he knew his nurse really well. And she was able to put me on the books for Monday. And this was a Thursday that we started making these calls. So it was amazing. I'm very aware of how lucky I was. And we saw him and it was very funny because he's very zen.

He's very quiet, very measured, but he's very confident. And he's a rockstar doctor because he's so super famous in that community. But on top of that, he's the authority. He because he's the more he's so super famous in the, in that community. But on top of that, he just, he's the authority, you know,

he walks in to our little meeting area, it was his waiting room basically. And he's like, he explains that, you know, he's, he's seen these before these types of tumors. You don't,

no one wants to have cancer, but there are much, much, much worse types. And he said like, if this is, you know, if you have to have an operable brain tumor, this is the kind you want to have because, but there are much, much, much worse types. And he said like, if this is, you know, if you have to have an operable brain tumor,

this is the kind you want to have because we can, we can, we can treat this. You know, all is not lost. And as soon as we heard that, it was like, well,

thank God we found the best guy in the business because he's giving us options. He's at least giving us hope. He's at least giving us, which is the most important thing probably. Right. It absolutely was. Cause if all,

if it was just despair and all was lost, I don't know what I would have done. Yeah. But he was like, no, we can... This is not untreatable. And so we ended up on his team. It's like sold, you know? And he's a surgeon.

So obviously that was sort of the end of the road because he cuts and there was no cutting. As he explained it to me, the part of my brain where the tumor is is sort of the Beverly Hills real estate of the brain because it's just too too valuable you can't go in there every there's cranial nerves that control everything from you know you're blinking to your breathing and so he's like oh pigeon and so he's like you can't we can't we can't go in there you know it's just not uh not possible so i'm gonna refer you to my guy when i say refer i mean

it's the guy on his team who's like, you know, he treats inoperable tumors. And he says, I'm going to refer you to this guy. And he's the guy. And we'll take it from here. And I was like, great. At least we have a plan. At least we have something to hold on to. For sure.

And so I ended up with him, this other doctor named Dr. Rudnick. And he is as much a credit as anybody for saving my life. Now, you started doing treatments, chemo, right? And they had to do it specifically on the tumor. Well, that's the radiation. The radiation. They zapped it remarkably precisely on the tumor, yeah. So you have this like Freddy Cougar mask or something that you had to wear every time.

Yeah, it's crazy, right? It's like the coolest. So describe it to people because the way I describe it is imagine a tennis racket that's plastic and they heat it up so where it's super pliable and they stretch it over your face and they bolt it to the slab you're lying on. It's crazy.

Yeah, so you're wearing essentially a plastic net. It looks like you're being mummified. Right, it does. In a sense. For sure. You can imagine how tight that is because once I'm done, once they've done the radiation

for whatever eight or 10 minutes or wherever it takes, I have a crisscross pattern on my face that makes me like a big pink lizard. Nice. Yeah. So basically imagine Brian laying on his back on a, on a table and then having his face planted, bolted down with this tennis racket meshing. That's pretty much what it looks like.

Yeah. And you got to keep it, right? Yeah. They gave it to me. What was I going to do with it? Yeah. Like, Oh, here you go. I'm like much what it looks like. Yeah, and you got to keep it right. Yeah, they gave it to me. I wasn't going to do it a present. Yeah, like oh here you go like fuck. No, I think I'm almost positive threw it away. You don't want that who wants that memento in their house for fun memory. You don't just put it on for fun. I tell my friends bring their kids over and I'll terrify them for Halloween. That's right. We're not even Halloween just a regular

day because being bad bring them over and I'll explain explain to him this is what happens. I like it, man. So you went through this treatment. And the thing that's interesting is it didn't get better. It started getting really bad. It started getting really bad to the point where you couldn't really stand that often. There was moments where you have pictures of you at a wedding. I think it was your brother's wedding where you have a chair behind you. You can't even stand up when everyone's dancing.

You have to sit down. And the embarrassment you felt that everyone was staring at you and that you were taking the attention away from the moment, from the wedding. Yeah. I was really regretful about that too. And of course, my brother was like, don't be ridiculous. You were sick.

But I was like, well, this is your perfect happy day. And I felt like I was taken away from it. But you're right. It was after the radiation, I got significantly worse. It was a few months of declining health, like seriously bad news because my, you know, the, where my tumor is, Dr. Rudnick was explaining to me, it's like a funnel for the rest of your, for your brain basically. And the information goes down your spinal cord to your fingertips and your toes and everywhere in your body. And if the swelling got so bad of my tumor and of my brain

that it was blocking the communication down that funnel. So I ended up, I was in a walker for several months. I used a walker full time. I mean, to get around my apartment, to get around, I say my apartment, our apartment, to get around Christy and I's apartment. And I rarely went out into the world i mean i was i was pretty fucked up and you had a i think it was your it wasn't your wedding but it was your

honeymoon i think yeah well you went to hawaii right yeah you have a picture you always wanted to go to the uh the little small bar the swim up yeah i wanted to go to the pool with the bar in it of course and you never but you didn't want to go outside because you didn't want to feel embarrassed no i what do you want it was at that point it hadn't gotten so bad i wasn't on the walker yet but i but i was self-conscious about i'm increasingly to help me around a lot of places especially when it was wet on the ground right but there's a funny story about that in fact um you may want to link to it on your site because there's a we just did a um this guy just did an animation for me of that scene from the audio book of that scene from the audiobook of that

scene in the pool really bar and everything he animated where's that at will you send it it's on youtube and i yeah you can either search for it or i can send it to you but it's um it's on there it's pretty funny it brings the whole thing to life and it's pretty pretty funny story sure yeah that's a tease for you folks listening that's going to the website and go back to the the show notes yes here's the picture of it that's so funny if you talk about like in the book you talk about how you're like hitting kids in the face or something because there's a pool nearby and you're like because you got drugged by your wife yes the chapter is titled our honeymoon or the time my wife drugged me in a kid's pool in maui yes and

it went badly but all's well that ends well And now we have a hilarious animation of it. You can check it out. Yeah, you've got some hilarious stories. I mean, just like the Velcro shoe story. Oh, yeah. The old man shoes. Oh, my God. I tried to, you know, so you're absolutely right.

It's like, it's a heavy subject. Yeah. Cancer and cancer when you're 30 years old and engaged and all that stuff. But let's be honest. If you can't laugh at yourself, you know, then what's the point of even going through these experiences? So a lot of these are just sort of embarrassing stories about what happened to me and embarrassing stories about me and isn't this kind of odd, isn't this kind of funny?

So yeah, it's alternatingly lighthearted, but also serious at times. I mean, it's both, hopefully. Now, what everything changed around is when things got really bad. Yeah, the walker gave way to a wheelchair. I was in a wheelchair for a short period of time and couldn't walk any distance to speak of. And yeah, I was falling all over the place.

I fell in my own apartment. I fell all over the place. And it was getting bad. And what happened was after your treatment was done, how long was the chemo for, the treatment? Well, the radiation went for six weeks, and the chemo was sort of ongoing. But it's not that it wasn't working. It's just the swelling was just getting so bad, and everything else was just getting so bad.

It got worse and worse. Oh, yeah. Like your speech got worse. You couldn't walk as well. I was totally unintelligible. You were like, yeah. Couldn't walk, couldn't talk. I mean, I could talk, but I was pretty,

I was mumbling pretty badly, slurring my words. And keep in mind, I have the radio show, the radio station had flipped formats like right before I got diagnosed. So I didn't have a job. And then- Because they basically didn't do radio anymore. They were like, we're going to go on a podcast.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it's not working. No, what happened was- The ratings were going down. The radio station was like, the ratings weren't justifying the huge salaries there because it was an all talk station. Yeah.

So everyone around the clock was being paid morning show salaries, which usually at a normal radio station, you pay those morning show guys. You pay Kevin and Bean or Howard Stern or whoever a shitload of money, and then you just have music the rest of the day. Yeah. They had talk 24-7. So it was expensive. Do the math. So they were like, we're going to an all music station, which now is a hugely copied format because it's so cheap.

The amp, 97.1. I think they have amp everywhere in the country now. But you know what I'm talking about. The DJ list, sort of Jack FM type stuff. But anyway, so they laid me off because they basically flipped formats and they canceled all the shows. And then Christy is an advertising executive

and her client was a um was a private jet company and they weren't doing so well either because this is 2009 and the economy is real bad and so she lost her job yeah and so we're jobless uh we're diagnosed with cancer and uh i'm newly married i'm newly married we're falling all over the place wow yeah it's bad times and luckily she had uh insurance well no it was my insurance it was my insurance because i signed up for cobra when i got laid off and luckily the economy was doing so badly that obama was signing a bunch of extensions into effect and so what would normally be i think six months of cobra ended up being like 18 months which was you needed it i couldn't i i mean i'd be bankrupt

today if you know if i didn't i didn't have it it was like a miracle yeah it was it was the one good timing of the whole thing was there was that and even though the cobra is like so expensive and it's ridiculously expensive it was between like a thousand fifteen hundred dollars a month but for what you had that was like a steal oh i'm getting i'm getting ten thousand dollar radiation sessions every day oh my gosh yeah so do math. So you're like so grateful. I'd be broke, bankrupt within a week. Yeah. It's crazy.

Within a day, actually. So basically, the radiation is over, and you're hoping that it would start getting better, but actually it continues to get worse and worse. Right. You basically can't speak, can't talk, can't do anything, can't walk. And then you get some good news that there's a potential, another opportunity for Avastin, right? It's called Avastin, yeah.

Avastin, sorry, Avastin. So what happened was I'm doing real bad. I get wheeled in a wheelchair to my doctor's office. Christy's in the hospital herself because she develops acute colitis because of the stress. The stress, wow. So she's admitted to the hospital. She's there for a day or two in a different hospital. So she's conference called in to my doctor's office. I'm in a wheelchair.

Her parents bring me to the hospital. Because you can't really comprehend that much what's going on. It's not even comprehend. It's just I'm not driving at this point. I certainly can get myself there. So the doctor's like, how's it going? I'm like, oh, you know, I'm doing driving at this point. I certainly couldn't get myself there. So the doctor's like, how's it going? I'm like, oh, you know, I'm doing all right. Just trying to get better.

And he says to Christy on the phone, he's like, Christy, how do you think Brian's doing? And she's like, he is not doing okay. He's not getting better. Something's got to be done. And he's like, yeah, I know. So he's like, we basically have one more trick up our sleeve, which is this newish drug called called avastin and we've had some success with it people sort of fall into three categories he told me after the fact they either don't respond they sort of respond or they they really respond to the treatment and the treatment really works and very very very fortunately i found i fell into

the group that really responded wow and within a weeks, there's images that you were just getting a lot better. Yeah. So what happened was at that time, I started getting a vast infusions. It's technically sort of a super steroid. It's not really a chemotherapy. I thought it was going to be like a steroid. Yeah.

And right away, I felt a huge increase in energy. And I was so grateful because at that point, I was sleeping like 18 hours a day. I'm a cancer patient at this point. I'm'm sleeping i'm not doing anything i'm losing weight you see me right there i'm drinking a huge fucking frappuccino or something like that because i'm losing weight so fast i gotta get the calories in me i'm actually getting a vast and at that point

in that picture i'm lying in bed you know getting an infusion is it coming through a vein or yeah no they it's an ivy so they get around your vein. And right away, I noticed a big increase in just energy, appetite, ability to sort of stay awake a normal period of time. You wanted to walk around probably a lot more. I wanted to. I couldn't. But I wanted to. That's a big – but having the desire and wanting to is a big thing. Yes.

And so within a month or so, I started to notice some real differences. And that's right about the time they scheduled my MRI to really sort of determine if if everything was working if if the tumor was growing and it was only a matter of time or if the tumor stopped growing or god forbid even uh you know shrunk and um they did the they did the the scan and very very luckily the tumor shrunk by about half wow and that was a i mean happiest day of my life you know was was getting that news and how long were you on the i'm still on a vaston i'm actually getting a vaston on a week from monday but i used to get

it every two weeks and now i they've weaned me off to where i'm getting it every two months and the tumor is it shrunk is it continuing to shrink is it kind of the stable shrunk marginally since then but uh the fact that it's as dr black explained to me in my very first meeting with him he said um you know in this in this game you know a tie is a win all we want is a win or a tie because if your tumor just stays the same for the rest of your life you're in great shape you can manage it and have a healthy yeah happy life so if my tumor doesn't ever move again for the rest of my life i'll be thrilled wow and so the goal is to just keep it where it's at yeah i mean it's it's shrunk which is is a definite win

in our book you know and the fact if it either continues to shrink or doesn't if it just stays the same i'm happy to live out the rest of my life you know with uh if as we called my wife's blog at the time an inconvenient tumor right right. And she was blogging about it during the whole process, right? The whole time, the whole time. And she had like other women who their husbands were, or their boyfriends were having tumors and they were kind of connecting. Yeah, well, what initially happened was,

in order to keep, because I'm from the Bay Area, the San Francisco Bay Area, and to keep my family and friends and everyone sort of informed, just up to date on what's going on, she started this blog. And because by nature of the fact that I was on the podcast and the radio show there's fans all over the world who ended up all those fans yeah i wanted to know what was going on and how i was doing and so they followed it too and it sort of took on a life of its own to where

it became this uh thing that hopefully inspired people or kept them informed at least and she ended up connecting because there's other people who do the same thing. They have blogs about their condition and they have blogs about loved ones and whatever. And she ended up connecting with a few people. One of which was a woman named Tyra, whose husband Steve had a brain tumor in Texas. Um,

unfortunately he wasn't doing so well at the time. Um, but you know, it, it mirrored a lot of my symptoms and a lot of my progress or regression, if you want to call it that. Sure. And, um, so they connected over that. And, it, it mirrored a lot of my symptoms and a lot of my progress or regression, if you want to call it that. And, um, so they connected over that and, uh, Steve was a little farther advanced than I was. He'd been having the same thing, but for a little longer and they were a married couple in the thirties, they happened to have two young kids and we didn't have any

kids at the time. Um, but yeah, I remember she was, uh, she got pretty close with Tyra, uh, and vis-a-vis her husband Steve. And then Steve died. Steve passed away. And it was devastating to her, especially because this was a comrade. This is someone who she'd become friends with, bonded over this horrible coincidence.

And the one thing Tyra wrote about in her blog, I think right before he died, like the one regret, she's like, I don't regret anything. I don't regret my life. I don't regret our kids or marrying a man with a brain tumor or anything. The one thing she regretted was not traveling more.

And it was such an oddly specific thing that it really touched me and it really affected me. And I was like, whatever I can do, I'm not gonna let my wife, fiance at the time, my young wife have the same regret. If you're held back by your condition. Yeah, I'm like, if the opportunity ever presents itself,

then we're going. Because I understand how fragile life is and how close I am to not being here, you know? And so if the opportunity ever presented itself, I committed myself to making sure that Christine never had that same regret. Wow, yeah. And you had a fundraiser, right?

Yeah. Where you raised over six figures and you had like a band. Yeah, Carolla threw me a fundraiser. Wow. It was at the Ebell Theater on Wilshire, which is a historic theater. It was awesome.

It was 1,200 people. We sold it out. Pricey tickets too. And people really, really showed up to help. What band was that? Bad Religion played. Oh, wow. Pricey tickets, too. And people really, really showed up to help. What band was that? Bad Religion played. Oh, wow. And the Dan Band, too, who was in The Hangover.

And the Funny Wedding Band. The Wedding Singer Band. That's right. The Funny Wedding Band. They're awesome, by the way. They're funny. And they perform really well. And comedians, Joel McHale was there.

And great comics, Greg Fitzsimmons, Dana Gould, Larry Miller. Just some of my favorite, favorite comedians. And Carole hosted the whole thing. And Kimmel showed up of my favorite, favorite comedians. And Carole hosted the whole thing. And Kimmel showed up. And Dr. Drew was there. And it was a huge, huge thing. And we raised a ton of money. And it was so incredibly heartwarming, but also helpful. Because keep in mind, I'm starting to recover, but I'm still years away from working again. Christy can't work because she's my 24-hour-a-day caregiver. So we lived off that money for a year, a year and a half.

I mean, that was our everything, our rent and our car payments. And that was everything. And you traveled as well to Italy. Yeah. And you talked about feeling maybe guilty. Absolutely. Should I? Shouldn't I?

Absolutely. So what happened was that was in November. And in February, we went to San Diego. That was the first time we spent really any of the money. We went to San Diego for a week-long therapy session with this sort of world-renowned therapist. Is this the inpatient therapy?

No, no, that's later. It's later in the book. I saw the picture of you like backbending. Yes, exactly, being hauled over this guy's back. His name is Waleed and he's kind of a character, but he's a world-renowned therapist and wasn't cheap, but had to do it. He got me back on my feet. No pun intended. I mean, he literally got me back on

my feet. And as soon as that week was over, and as soon as I started walking again on my own, I felt as soon as I felt even just the slightest bit better, I said to Christy, I'm like, pack your bags. We're going, we're going to Italy. And we, we had to talk about it. Like, you know, like how, how's this going to look? We just, you know, we just had this fundraiser. We're going to Italy. Wow. And we, we had to talk about it. Like, you know, like how, how's this going to look? We just, you know, we just had this fundraiser. We essentially just cried poor and now we're going, you know, we're taking a European vacation. But I'm, I, I really thought, I really thought that number one, I, I was, I honestly didn't care. I was like, people are upset. What are you going to do? But I honestly thought that people would understand, they would understand that, you know, having looked death in the face like that that you know to live life

not even live life but just you're you're right yes and um it would it was a it was a signpost for me that i was getting better and it was it was you know cancer took away a year of our lives and threatened to take away the rest of my life. And now that this opportunity presented itself, I was going to grab it. And there's a great story you talk about when you're in Italy because that's – I remember this time is when the whole – the volcano thing happened. I was there. Iceland or whatever. It was an Icelandic volcano.

I think I was in London at the time. Okay. And I got out right before. Oh, okay. The day before it happened. Oh, you're on my flight, you son of a bitch. You got my seat. Yeah, exactly.

And it's interesting because your wedding wasn't that, you know, wasn't the way you wanted it to be, right? Right. Well, I was, I was going, I just finished radiation and came home. So you were out of it. You were, you know. I wasn't at my best. It wasn't your best.

And you have a list of, I think, 10 regrets, right? And one of them was you didn't write your wedding vows. Right. Right? And then you went to Portofino in Italy. Positano. Sorry, Positano. Positano.

I mean, same letter. Sounds familiar. Yeah, yeah. And you went to this church I think your parents were at or something. My parents had renewed their wedding vows there just a few years earlier. And so. And we weren't supposed to be there. The only reason we ended up there was because of the volcano.

We were grounded for a week. They're like, can't leave the country. And I mean, it sounds awesome having to be forced to spend a week in Italy. But at that point, we had reached our budget. We didn't know when we were flying home. I had to get back for a chemotherapy infusion. So we're like, I guess we'll drive to Positano because Rome is expensive. And we don't want to spend a week in Rome.

So we drove to Positano because Rome is expensive and we don't want to spend a week in Rome. Yeah. Yeah. So we drove to Positano. So did you ever rewrite your vows or redo your vows to? No, we should probably have five year wedding anniversary coming up. No, but, but we had this great moment in the church, which you're alluding to, which was, it happened to be, it's just the way these things work. It happened to be on the five year anniversary of my, oh no, on the one-year anniversary of my diagnosis. And it was one year to the day that we were there that we got in the worst news of our lives and that I was going to be possibly dead within a year, you know, six to 12 months. And here it was a year later.

Starting to feel better. A year later and I'm feeling great. I'm feeling much better than I had been. And we're traveling and we're doing what we should be doing with our lives and uh you know it was uh it was a very emotional moment and a very um triumphant moment you know it's it was a great it was a great ending for the book that we were able to end on that moment and you've got these 10 regrets right right things you never uh did right well they're a combination of things i did things i never did i mean they're mostly the thing about regrets as i observed them is they're

things you should have done or you wish you'd done um a few peppered in there are things i did do but uh yeah so i you know mixed in with some cancer stuff is just some random you know humorous one of them that connects with me is the not being able to go to the USC Ohio state game in 2009. I'm a huge Ohio state fan. From your Ohio. That's right. Huge Ohio state fan.

And I remember this is the game Ohio state lost because. They lost both games. Yeah. I'll remind you about that. The tight end who I actually did a workout with. I'm forgetting his name right now. Dropped the ball in the end zone. Oh yeah.

And they would have won. It was a close game. It was like 15, 13 or something like that. Yeah. And the minute, last minute or something, and he drops the ball. And I was like, man, that's a bummer. Yeah, but I was supposed to go out there because I not only had a good friend who lived in Columbus,

but I'm a huge USC fan, and I had a friend who was flying people out in his private jet. And I'm like, God damn it. Of all the games to have to miss because I'm God damn cancer-ridden. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was horrible. And did you actually play with Tom Brady in high school? Well, he played with me yeah i played with tom brady how were you the same year uh he's a year older than i was wow and what position were you i was left out um i was i was uh offensive i was i was i was white and slow so i was offensive lineman gotcha yeah did you

actually block for him he was varsity and i was junior varsity, but we practiced together a lot because it's a small school. So I guess I did. I guess I did block for him occasionally. Right, right. And practices and scrimmages and stuff. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, I knew him better as we were both on the newspaper staff together. I was the we're both on the sports section.

I ended up being the editor in chief the next year, but when he was there, we were both on the sports team. You still still stay in touch? No, I don't even know if you'd know who I was. I mean, I'm sure if you reminded him, but if you were like, hey, Brian Bishop said, hi, like who the fuck you talking about? Goddamn multimillion. Yeah,

with the hottest wife in the world. I can't pretty much one of it's a tough life for time. Yeah, one of the things you talked about is being not being properly diagnosed with ADHD as a child. You cover you talk about all these different symptoms. You're hilarious in the things you talked about is not being properly diagnosed with ADHD as a child. You talk about all these different symptoms. You're hilarious in the way you write about all these things as well. Oh, thanks.

I can't find the page, but I feel like I was- Oh, it's early in the book. It's like chapter two or three or something. I feel like, oh, here we go. All the different symptoms of ADHD, I guess. But the way you respond to each one is really funny. Yeah, I was a classic case but I feel like

you know I look at all these and I'm like I kind of feel like the same way about myself as a child I was very it was very hard

to pay attention and remember things when people talking to me I didn't feel like I was you know could remember everything well the proof in the pudding

is when we were talking just now you and me in a fucking pigeon oh look a pigeon I didn't have to say that i could have let it go but something in me compelled me to say to the audience who cannot see it oh look a pigeon and they're like what the hell is he talking i took a picture of it i'll put it at the show notes for people to see just the cancer isn't back yeah exactly um but why do you why do you regret not being properly diagnosed with ADHD or the symptoms

of that as a child and I think it was your mom said no you don't have this and why does that I regret my parents were

a little dismissive but I think that it was it would have made my life a little easier in terms of I detailed in there how in my childhood I had such a hard time

in school not doing assignments and not remembering things and constantly yelling out in class and everything and it was always you know my teachers and my parents put the great lengths to sort of try to mitigate that by having me you know do extra you know steps to get my homework done or to you know the bad you know detention or bad reports from school and if the explanation had been as simple as, oh, he has severe ADHD, there would have been like, okay, that makes a lot of sense. Maybe we can get him on some medication or something.

That way his behavior is explained as opposed to he doesn't like doing homework or he's insolent or he, you know, he likes to be disruptive in class. Like I don't like to be disruptive in class. It's kind of what I do. Yeah. So I think it would have made my life a lot easier. I think it would have made my life a lot easier. I think it would have

made my life a lot easier just in the sense that there would have been a reason or explanation for why these things were happening. Now, do you feel like you'd be where you are today

if you would have been diagnosed with that or had, you know, support in that area when you were a kid? Or would you be in a completely different career place?

I don't think it would have made a difference. I think I ended up with the job that was right for me, because as I pointed out, the job is kind of what I do on the, on the Corolla show. I'm a sidekick.

I do the sound effects. It's kind of, it utilizes, it, it makes lemon lemonade out of lemons. You know what I mean? Like I have these ADHD qualities where I blurt things out or I can't always always control my out and if i'm doing sound effects i'm literally trying to sneak in a sound effect in between people's you know sentences so it's kind of it's perfect for you

it's kind of perfect for me you know so i'm i think i ended up with um with the job that utilized my uh my skills quote unquote the best mean, everyone should be so lucky to have a career that turns a negative into a positive. You know what I mean? Like if, I mean, you know, like a Mike Tyson is an example who was probably a kid who was full of rage and angry, but he ended up being the best boxer,

you know, of his generation. Yeah, interesting. That's the extreme example. We can all be Mike Tyson. Yeah. So what's your biggest fear moving forward, Brian? My biggest fear moving forward? Well, geez, of course, you know, I'd be terrified if the cancer, you know, came back, if the tumor started growing again.

But I'm just, my biggest fear to the book is not a success, that people don't buy it. No, I mean, I try and live without, you know, too much. I don't worry about, as I mentioned in the book, I don't worry about what happens. I worry about my reaction to it because what happens is largely uncontrollable and you can control your reaction. So, of course, I'm afraid of, you know,

I don't want my tumor to start growing again, but if it does, we'll have to take some steps to arrest it. But there's nothing you can do about it until something happens. Yeah, there's nothing. And that's the thing. Why worry? Yeah, exactly. Why live your life every day worried that something's going to go wrong? Because the next thing you know, a year or two or five or ten have passed,

and you're like, oh, I've lived every day of my life afraid. Yeah. What kind of life is that? Yeah. Not a life worth living. It's easier said than done. I'm not trying to be instructive to people. Especially when you have a tumor. Yeah. there's things to be afraid of rightfully so

but do your best to live your life and how important is music to you really important i i there were a whole chapter in there about my feel good playlist and i woke up one morning thinking i'm about to go through chemo about to go go through radiation. I need to have my, my, my songs in order, a playlist so that I can, uh, listen to them and, uh, feel good.

You know, I can inspire myself and I put them all together. That's another thing you can link to, by the way, cause I made the playlist on songs and actually exists. So people can listen to it if they want. I'll do that. But,

uh, yeah, I had to put together some songs. It's like a Brian Bishop playlist. That's what it's called. Brian, Brian Bishop's feel good playlist. I'll send you a link to that too.

But, uh, yeah, it's, um, just a whole collection of songs that meant a lot to me or that were inspiring or that made you feel good so during these treatments when you had this uh tennis racket mask that's right you would you live to listen to it during those or would you just have to be like in meditation those i could not but it was only 10 minutes long so that i i couldn't bring obviously my whatever into their little you know radiation yeah but there were plenty of times where i had the opportunity you know driving to and from the hospital um when i was meditating or even just getting ready in the morning you know just uh start the day off right what would you think about during those radiation treatments

what was like going through your mind were Were you trying to think positive thoughts? Were you really analyzing your life? Were you just trying to get through the moment? All of the above. I think mostly when it started off, I was so overwhelmed with trying to get things in order in my life, trying to make some sense and some order of, you know, the things I had to do not only that day, but that week, that month, whatever. And so keep in mind the wedding's two months away.

So I'm like, oh shit, I have a bachelor party coming up. I got news, I got to email this person, follow up on this. So I'm going through lists of things in my mind. But then after a few weeks of that, I'm on the slab at the radiation room and I'd been doing positive visualization and guided meditation and things like that. Did you have someone in particular that you were working with i did i had a woman named barbara who

was a mother of a friend of mine and she sort of did that professionally she did a lot of that healing stuff and very uh new age metaphysical stuff which i'm not it's not really my bag but i'm also i'm a i'm a what would you call it i'm a um a hopeful skeptic i'm like i don't think so but man if that worked i not only i'll try it out but i'm opening i'm a um a hopeful skeptic i'm like i don't think so but man if that worked i not only i'll try it out but i'm opening i'm open to the possibility that it works i i'm not going to say no because in my mind the people who say no that's bullshit i absolutely know for a fact that's bullshit whether they're talking about god or they're talking about meditation or they're talking about ghosts or whatever how do you know how do you know that's bullshit you may suspect you may

believe it but you can't know that's arrogant that's so incredible that's how do you know that's bullshit you may suspect you may believe it but you can't know that's arrogant that's so incredible that's that's that's that's the same as people who say i 100 believe it i know for a fact it's true yeah yeah that's to me that's exactly the same thing in my mind i like to exist somewhere in the middle of like okay it does it's probably not true but who knows if tomorrow a ghost came to me like hey i'm here i'll be like okay well there you go I guess it's true. So I'm doing the positive visualization. I'm doing the meditation and everything.

And did it work for you? I mean, it definitely worked to sort of put my mind at ease, to center myself, to organize my thoughts, to quiet my mind, all that stuff. And in order to fight something like cancer or any illness or anything big in your life, I really do believe you need to have your life firing on all cylinders. And emotionally, you need to be good. Physically, you need to be strong. You need to be strong to fight off the effects of radiation and chemotherapy.

But I also think spiritually, you have to be centered. You have to be cool with yourself or whatever you want to call it. You put it in layman's terms. Yeah, grounded, have a clear mind, be in a positive space, whatever you want to call it.

I'm open to calling it whatever, but you need to have your mind right and you put your mind straight. And so I did a lot of that and I heard a cool thing, which a lot of it, I will say, footnote, has to make sense to you.

Like if you're doing something that doesn't make sense to you, you don't believe in, it's not worth it. But one thing that made sense to me was when you're getting radiation, visualize your tumor and visualize what it's doing and make your mind work that way.

And I was like, that's interesting. So I visualize, you know, we all have our touchstones and our references. My touchstone was the arcade game Centipede, you know, where you're the little spaceship shooting the centipede. Pew, pew, pew, pew, pew. And I was like, I imagined it was shooting those little mushrooms. It was shooting away, just, you know, pew, pew, pew, pew. And I was like, I imagined it was shooting those little mushrooms. It was shooting away. Just, you know, pew, pew, pew.

Just shooting away at the tumor until it was no more. And that's what I visualized. That's what happened. Whether or not it worked or not, it helped me to ease my mind and put myself in a good head space. And I encourage anyone to think

the way that works for them. It's interesting. I have just a brief story about when I was in college. I was playing college football. about when I was in college, I was playing college football. In my freshman year in college, I started getting these like plantar warts or something,

some type of little like painful. On your feet. On my feet. Yeah, yeah. Like a lot of them. And to the point where I couldn't run anymore. It was just so painful

just stepping. Every time with these cleats like jamming up into my bottom of my feet. And I remember my sister put me through some guided meditation like that where she said to visualize these like plantar wards or whatever

and visualize being in a river, your body in a river, and the water is flowing through your head and down and out your feet, down and out your toes, and those plantar wards are like flushing out. Wow. And just visualize it over and over. And I did that and literally within like – it was happening for like months. And then after I started doing that, they all went away. That went away that's amazing i was like i don't know if it's just timing did you take any medicine or anything for it or wow that's amazing no medicine so no

you know it worked for me yeah whether but you but you believed it you you bought in it made sense to you yeah so that's the thing is i can see skeptics being like this is bullshit find some version of it that isn't bullshit it makes sense to to you, you know? And what's the harm? What's the harm? Exactly. Yeah. If it works, who knows? And what I really like about this book

is you've got these cool little tumor tips. Yeah. How to get a tumor. And you should create like a, Sarah, my assistant was telling me, you should create a pamphlet just with the tumor tips. Oh, really? Like give that to tumor patients or people with tumors. Fuck them. They tumors damn they gotta buy the book well that could be the free sample okay you sell them for

more yeah exactly um but there was one that i really liked i can't find it right now i peppered the book throughout with tumor tips yeah they're practical tips not just for people with cancer but also people with any major illness or any major condition or or people who want to to be a help to people who have a major condition or some sort of situation. One, I think it was towards the end of the book where you really talk about gratitude, I believe. I don't know if that's a tumor tip, but I definitely talked about it. Maybe it wasn't a tumor tip, but it was a part towards the end of the book where you really talked about being grateful and and how important is being gratitude grateful

for you and what are you grateful for well i i'm i'm very i'm very cognizant of how lucky i am of how lucky i am number one that i responded to the treatment number two that my tumor is shrunk and that i ended up with great doctors and you might not call that lucky you might call it uh it worked out or unfortunate or or you know these things happen for a reason but i'm i'm constantly aware of how lucky i am that i live uh with at the time i lived a stone throw from cedars and that i had access to these great doctors and that i had a family and friends and a fiance most of all who who cared so deeply for me and were able to help. And I'm, I'm aware constantly of how lucky I am that I have a great job and I'm on the, you know,

best podcast in the world, or at least the most popular and most downloaded or whatever. And so always in the top 10 or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the Guinness records thing and all that. I'm very aware of how fortunate I am. So I think just being aware for me, just being aware of, of, of what I've been given and what I've been allowed to do and uh you know I'm aware of how lucky I am that Adam decided to take a chance on me about all those years ago you know if he hadn't I probably wouldn't be talking to you today like I am now right but I am and I'm constantly aware of that and it's always in the back of my mind right next to my tumor it's always in the back of my mind that this is what is propelling me forward is all this this you know accumulation of of of lucky lucky breaks

right right it's awesome man well what's the one thing that you want people who maybe you know like me who aren't really exposed to others with tumors or with cancer brain tumors what's something that you want uh someone like me to get away from this book? Or why should someone check this out? Or what's the conversation we should have? Or what should we be aware of? I think the overall thing, maybe you're a good example of someone who's not really exposed to this kind of world. And I think eventually, I know eventually, everyone's going to be in this world, either

themselves or a loved one or a friend or a parent or whatever it is. You're someday going to be adjacent to the cancer world. And I hate to say that, but the chances are extremely good that you will be affected by this in some way. Um, and I hope that overall more than anything, uh, people realize from, from the book that it's, it's a scary thing and it's a serious thing, but it isn't all scary and it isn't all serious. There, there, there are times when you're allowed to smile and it's a serious thing, but it isn't all scary and it isn't all serious. There, there, there are times when you're allowed to smile and there's times that you're allowed to joke. And there are times when you're, uh, need to step back and take a breath and say, all is not lost.

And it's probably helpful to joke and smile and, and, you know, absolutely. I hope so. I mean, it helped me. And, uh, I hope that, uh, those, those times when, when you can laugh at yourself are helpful. Right. And so I want to do the final question, which is what I ask all my guests. I'm going to videotape it for you here. Sure. So you know. And that's what's your definition of greatness?

Oh, boy. Well, I think, you know who put it best or at least put it in a that I really like, is John Wooden, legendary basketball coach John Wooden for UCLA. He would often tell his players, don't worry about beating the other team or playing better or even what the final score is. You just worry about doing your best, the best that you're capable of, and you'll be happy with the result. Now, whether you win or lose, that's one thing, but if you play your best, and you'll be happy with the result. Now, whether you win or lose, that's one thing. But if you play your best, then you're going to appreciate the result. And for all of us, just do your best.

I love it. Thank you so much, my man. And where can we get the book at? Where can we connect with you online? Well, you can get it right here in front of you. The rest of us... I've got the advanced copy. You do have an advanced copy.

I'm so glad they got you a copy. Yeah, it nice book good thanks man i appreciate that uh i'm so glad you read it too i i know how it is in our in our business it's hard to read everything that comes across so many books i've got like just books galore man it's crazy uh but i'm very flattered thank you if you want to get it um it's it's available everywhere the publisher prefer you get through barnes and noble or walcom. It's even at Walmart. But it's... Amazon, Barnes & Noble. Amazon, Barnes & Noble.

They're within 10 cents of each other. So just go wherever you like. And it's a really fast read. I mean, it's a story. It's got a lot of ups and downs, but it's a lot of fun. Thanks, man. Your humor is what makes...

You know, Sarah was laughing out loud through the whole thing. Nice. I was laughing out loud. I was reading parts of it. And I don't read that much in general. Sure. None of us do.

So when something is funny and I can keep me hooked, I really appreciate the cleverness. Thanks, man. Oh, there's an audio book too. If you're not a reader reader, there's an audio book. There you go. Put it in your ears. So everyone go check out Shrinkage, Manhood, Marriage,

and the Tumor That T tried to kill me by Brian Bishop forward by Adam Carolla and nice little quote by Jimmy Kimmel on the front. That's right. It's always good to be the third most famous person on your own cover. Exactly. But I appreciate you so much for, for coming on, for sharing and for opening up.

Thanks for having me on man. I had a lot of fun. I appreciate it. There you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this episode with Brian. If you did, make sure to head back over to lewishouse.com slash 65. The number is 65. And you can check out all the show notes there. Some of the videos and images that we talked about will be up on the site at lewishouse.com slash 65. And again, if you enjoyed it, please share this with your friends over on Facebook, on Twitter, post a picture on Instagram, and tag myself at Lewis House. And let me know where you're listening to the School of Greatness all over the world. It's on Instagram and tag myself at Lewis Howes.

And let me know where you're listening to the School of Greatness all over the world. It's been fun every single day to get images with you guys posting from your workouts, hikes in the mountains, tropical paradises. So continue to post that online so I can connect with you and let me know which episode you liked the most. Also, we were featured on the homepage of

iTunes this last week. I don't know if anyone saw that, but a big thank you to iTunes for featuring the School of Greatness with Alexis Cara on there. And if you guys are enjoying the show still, if you have not yet left a review, I would love it if you left a review. It really helps the rankings on iTunes and gets the show out there to more people when it's higher in the rankings. So again, subscribe to the School of Greatness, leave a review, go ahead and subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud, and Stitcher, whichever you prefer, and continue to check it out and share it. It means a lot to me. I appreciate you guys so much for listening and for commenting on the site, which you constantly do, for sharing it. I love you guys so much for this.

And I'm going to continue to bump up the shows and do probably two shows, maybe three shows a week because of the positive feedback I'm getting all the time. So thanks so much for tuning in today and listening to this episode with Brian Bishop. You guys know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.