Rod Nordland was diagnosed with glioblastoma, the most lethal form of brain cancer, in 2019. He writes about facing mortality from war and cancer in his new memoir,Rod Nordland looks at the Istanbul old city from Galata Tower on Nov. 20, 2016. Nordland was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a terminal brain cancer, in 2019.Rod Nordland looks at the Istanbul old city from Galata Tower on Nov. 20, 2016. Nordland was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a terminal brain cancer, in 2019.
"I had to face the reality that my death was within a fairly short timespan, highly probable," he says."That had never been the case before. And I think it made me a better person for that."I'm doing a low-dose of chemo, and I'm also wearing a device on my head called an Optune. It's a series of ceramic arrays that are kind of glued to my head after I shave it. And then they they emit electronic beams that are thought to fight tumors. ...
... After that, I started doing it really differently. That taught me that I was, in fact, mortal, which is an important lesson that all young men should learn as soon as possible. And after that, I never went to the front lines anymore.I asked everybody I met what the meaning of life was. I even asked Alexa. The answer was, to quote Eleanor Roosevelt, that"the purpose of life is to live life to the fullest and to enjoy everything about it." That's somewhat of a lame answer.
Sam Briger and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Seth Kelley and Carmel Wroth adapted it for the web.