James Van Der Beek
speaker
65 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Feb 2026
last heard 14 Feb
James Van Der Beek’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Feb 2026 with 2.
Appearances
Today's my birthday and it has been the hardest year of my life.
And I wanted to share something that I learned with y'all.
When I was younger, I used to define myself as an actor.
which was never really all that fulfilling.
And then I became a husband, and that was much better.
And then I became a father, and that was the ultimate.
I could define myself then as a loving, capable, strong, supportive husband, father, provider, steward of the land that we're so lucky to live on.
And for a long time, that felt like a really good definition to the question, who am I?
What am I?
And then this year I had to look my own mortality in the eye.
I had to come nose to nose with death.
And all of those definitions that I cared so deeply about were stripped from me.
I was away for treatment.
So I could no longer be a husband that was helpful to my wife.
I could no longer be a father who could pick up his kids and put them to bed and be there for them.
I could not be a provider because I wasn't working.
I,
I couldn't even be a steward of the land because at times I was too weak to prune all the trees during the window that you're supposed to prune them.
And so I was faced with the question, if I am just a too skinny, weak guy alone in an apartment with cancer, what am I?
And I meditated and the answer came through.
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