recorded on June 4 and released on June 6, podcaster Ali Feller announced that she has breast cancer.
Feller has become one of running’s highest-profile figures through her show, in which she interviews top runners and coaches and brings her characteristic humor and meticulous preparation to each conversation. On this episode, Feller was alone and spoke directly to her listeners. At times, her voice wavered as she went through the story of how she discovered two lumps in her left breast. At other moments, she was in full-on raconteur mode.
She was putting on a bathing suit to take her four-year-old daughter to a hotel swimming pool in Eugene, Oregon, days before the“I have never been someone who uses the word ‘breast,’” she said. “I’ve always been someone who says ‘boob.’ That’s just always been my word of choice. And the word ‘breast’ always made me uncomfortable. Like, uh, breast? So formal. Now I say that word like 100 times a day.