Andrea Gibson

speaker

930 appearances 2 recordings 1 series first heard Jan 2025 last heard 3 Mar

Andrea Gibson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Mar 2026 with 1.

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We Can Do Hard Things · (BEST OF) The Andrea Gibson Talk that Sparked Our Oscar-Nominated Film · 3 Mar 2026 podcast

I can't thank you enough.

We Can Do Hard Things · The Bravest Conversation We’ve Had: Andrea Gibson (Best Of) · 26 Jan 2025 podcast

Yeah. Yeah. So the day... That Abby wrote me, I had just gotten the results of a scan back saying that two years ago I got diagnosed with ovarian cancer and I had been in treatment for it for the last two years. But I was doing a three-month follow-up scan because I was technically in remission.

And the day that Abby wrote me, I had got the results of the scan saying that the cancer had returned and it was in my liver. And so that all happened at once. But I didn't say that to Abby. And I think a few days later, y'all contacted me to be on the podcast. And so I had to tell you at that point that I had just gotten this news.

I was pretty certain that what the doctors would say, I still hadn't spoken to my doctor. I had read everything on my medical portal. And I was pretty certain that meant that I would go in in a couple of days and they would say that the cancer at this point is considered incurable. We don't have a treatment that will help you, that will make you live.

We have some options, some medical trials that could, in like 30 percent of individuals, prolong your life. Um, and so all of that, I wrote you and I said, I want to come on. And then I, I have to presence that that would be something that I'd be talking about. And it would just be, I couldn't even imagine trying to come on and pretending that that hadn't happened.

Yeah. Right before I got diagnosed, I had decided to write a newsletter called Things That Don't Suck. And then... And this was two years ago. And a couple weeks later, I got diagnosed. And I thought, shit, I'm supposed to write about things that don't suck with this happening. But it was perfect.

My therapist had always told me the only thing we have control over in this life is where we put our attention. So I thought, perfect time to put my attention on what I love about this world, what I am so grateful for. And it was already kind of naturally happening. As soon as I got diagnosed, I had this experience where... It's so much to get into.

I don't know if now is the right time, but I had, I guess I'd call, I'm going to try not to be shy about what I call it, but a direct experience of the divine. I grew up in the Baptist church. And then when I came out as queer, I got sort of angsty and left that all behind. But it always had a relationship, I thought, with God in the way of God being love and whatever connects us all.

But when I got diagnosed for the first time in my life, I genuinely surrendered to what was. And that wasn't about giving up for me. Like I went into high active mode in regards to taking care of my body at that time. But surrendering for me felt like trusting the universe.

And as soon as I did that, it was almost like I caught this wave that I recognized as a wave that we were all supposed to be catching throughout our lives of just surrender. trust in whatever comes our way and not thinking of the challenges as not God. And something in that moment just opened up. And I felt for the next 11 months was almost in a constant state of bliss.

So anyway, the journey I have been, since I wasn't able to perform, I'm usually on tour most of the year. I just decided to share it all online and share it in my newsletter. And I was mostly sharing what I was discovering about joy. I was living in the state of astonishment and awe. And I credit the fact that my mortality with being the seed of that bliss.

And so I was sharing all along and I knew it was hard for people. in some ways, but I also wanted them to see what was happening in a positive way, how much healing was coming into my life from this thing that was supposed to be the opposite of healing.

But each time at this point, this would be the second time that I would have to tell folks because I had to tell them one time I had a recurrence and that was very hard. I had to cancel a whole world tour. And this time felt almost like it was going to be almost impossible to do. And I was really scared. I am really scared for people. the youth that follow me, especially.

A lot of my career, I've written about mental illness and suicidality. And so I know a lot of folks navigating that stuff come to my work. And so I was concerned about just saying, okay, y'all, it's back in this time. They're saying, there's not much we can do. But I thought that if I spoke to y'all about it, I could give it a richness of...

Just more of the truth, just more of the truth about it all, about the loving relationship that I have been trying to form with. my mortality for the last two years and how my hope throughout these last two years wasn't about living, though I would love to live. My hope was about doing this time with a wide, open heart, which I have done.

And there's nothing in my life that I'm more grateful than the fact that whatever blessed me with the capacity to do this with an open heart, that feels like the greatest gift of my life.

Reading it in the medical portal has been an empowering thing for me the last months because when I got news of my last recurrence, at that time I was having my partner read the news for me or take the call for me. And I realized that that was excruciating for me because what I would do was I would see the news on her face and

And then I would see her take three or four seconds to try to process how she would tell me. And I realized I couldn't do that to her anymore. The pain of seeing it on her face first was too hard for me. And I also, there was something that has been disempowering about having a doctor tell me. So that has been the route I have taken. But when I read it in the medical portal,

I could feel my heart just pounding through my chest before I opened it. And when I opened it and I saw it, I never in my life felt my whole being quiet so quickly. It was like all the fear poured out of my body. And I immediately went to grief. And one of the things that I've learned these last two years is I've lived my life with so much anxiety and so much panic and so much fear.

And watching that go away in these last two years, which was wild because I was such a hypochondriac. I mean, a really intense hypochondriac. I wouldn't eat nuts on an airplane out of fear that I would suddenly develop a nut allergy at 32,000 feet. Like it was, it ruled my life.

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