As a war correspondent, Rod Nordland faced death many times over. But in 2019, Nordland confronted a different type of danger when he was diagnosed with glioblastoma, the most lethal form of brain tumor. "I had to face the reality that my death was within a fairly short timespan, highly probable," he says. "I think it made me a better person." His new memoir is Waiting for the Monsoon. Also, Maureen Corrigan reviews Sloane Crosley's new memoir Grief Is For People. And David Bianculli reviews Jon Stewart's return to The Daily Show, and the new season of John Oliver's Last Week Tonight. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
On the Ted radio hour, linguist Ann Curzan says she gets a lot of complaints about people using the pronoun they to refer to one person.
I sometimes get into arguments with people where they will say to me, but it can't be singular.
And I will say, but it is.
The history behind words causing a lot of debate.
That's on the Ted radio hour from NPR.
This is FRESH aiR.
I'm Thierry Gross.
If there was ever a life designed to teach one how to face death, mine was it.
My guest Rod Nordland wrote that while facing death from a glioblastoma, the most lethal cancerous brain tumor, its incurable.
The median life expectancy is 15 months.
Only 6% of people survive five years.
Hes now at four and a half years plus, even if you go into remission, the cancer is likely to recur.
Nordland was used to facing mortality from his many years as a war correspondent for the New York Times, Newsweek and the Philadelphia Enquirer.
Wars and conflicts in Bosnia, Somalia, Kosovo, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Congo, Cambodia.
He was there.
In his new memoir, waiting for the Monsoon, he writes about his life as a war correspondent and as a cancer patient and how both extremes affected his relationships and family life.
The title is a reference to his first seizure when he was in India filling in for the New York Times New Delhi bureau chief.
That seizure led to his diagnosis in 2019.
He's already defied the odds of survival.
But he writes, I have no idea if when you are reading this, you will be able to google my obituary or sign up to see me at your local bookstore.