PodcastFrom Establish The Run
Levitan's Solo Pod: Adam Has Cancer (But He's Going To Be Totally Fine) -- (Episode 997)
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25 min
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Jul 15, 2026
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Wed, July 15, 2026
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Full transcript
Episode Transcript
0:00Hello and welcome to the official EstablishTheRun.com podcast. My name is Adam Levitan.
0:05I am one of the co-founders here at ETR.
0:09We are coming off of a preventative health victory lap kind of spring.
0:14Yes, that's right. Regular listeners of this show know that my personal midlife crisis has not included fast cars or young women or hard drugs.
0:23Instead, my midlife crisis has included things such as voluntary colonoscopies and liquid biopsies and heart scans.
0:30Basically, since getting into my late 30s and I'm 43 years old now, last few years I've been on a quest to
0:39do everything I can from a health screening preventative medicine perspective.
0:43So, as part of my preventative health quest, I did something called a pre-novo scan back in early April.
0:50For anyone who doesn't know what that is, it's a full body MRI.
0:55Literally, you go into the MRI tube for 45 minutes or so.
1:00They scan everything from your brain down to your feet.
1:04The goal is to detect signs of cancer, vascular problems like aneurysms, abnormalities in your organs, a ton of other stuff.
1:12So I did this scan in early April. It came back pretty clean, but it did show a 2.6 centimeter nodule on my thyroid gland in my neck.
1:23Nodule is just another word for an abnormal growth or a lump of tissue.
1:28These nodules, thyroid nodules are really common. You know, a ton of people have them.
1:34Tons show up on scans like this. Didn't seem like much to worry about, but both the pre-novo radiologist and my doctor
1:43recommended that I should get it, ultrasound it. I did that in May.
1:48Ultrasound came back TR5, aka the most suspicious for thyroid cancer, which meant that I had to get a biopsy.
1:56So a couple weeks go by, I go to the hospital for biopsy.
2:01They're like stabbing at my neck with needles over and over to pull cells out of this nodule to test it.
2:09After a few days, I got the results. Biopsy came back positive for papillary thyroid cancer.
2:15I think at this point, this is where most people just, you know, lose their mind and go into depression or panic or whatever.
2:24I was honestly pretty emotionless, I think for a couple reasons.
2:29Well, I mean, first, I'm like always emotionless about everything.
2:33I'm like dead inside. I don't know what's wrong with me.
2:37But I was pretty emotionless on this, I think for a couple reasons.
2:42First, I am not exaggerating when I say that ChatGPT and Claude quite literally saved and are saving my mental health.
2:50I basically talk to ChatGPT about health stuff constantly.
2:54So of course, I uploaded my pre-nova results and I was talking to it about that.
3:00I uploaded my ultrasound images. By the time I even went to get the biopsy, I literally knew everything there was to know about thyroid cancer.
3:10I probably asked ChatGPT hundreds of questions. And like when you're talking to LLMs, no question is too dumb.
3:17No question the doctor doesn't have time for. There's no sugarcoating like some doctors tend to do.
3:24And so after talking to ChatGPT about this for so long, I knew that even if the biopsy did come back malignant,
3:33it's very, very uncommon to die from this. Like even when you catch papillary thyroid cancer through symptoms, even if you catch
3:41it in the later stages, the 10-year disease-specific survival rate is just incredibly high.
3:47And in my specific case, you know, nodule found incidentally, no symptoms, no sign of lymph node spread on the ultrasound.
3:5543 years old. You know, ChatGPT and the doctors think that my, you know, 10-year disease-specific survival rate is somewhere around 98 to 99%.
4:04So all of this is a long way of saying, even before I got the biopsy, even before I opened the results,
4:13I was really confident I was going to be fine.
4:17And then the other reason I haven't been a mess mentally, I think just understanding probability as I do, it can be
4:25a blessing and a curse in real life, you know.
4:29On one hand, a lot of people that I tell about this, they're freaked out, you know.
4:36I get it, they hear the word cancer, they're freaked out, they start telling me about staying positive and you got this and you can beat this.
4:46I'm like, yeah, you know, cool, bro, I appreciate it.
4:50But you do understand what 98, 99% means, right?
4:54Like I'm not trying to be a hard-o, but it has nothing to do with hashtag positivity or some divine intervention.
5:02It's just data and probability. So the other side of the whole probability thing is like doctors say stuff to me, you
5:10know, 90%, this is 90% or this is 80% or in 98% of cases, this, this, this.
5:17And I mean, when you've played as much poker and DFS as I have, you can remember losing the 80-20s.
5:25You know, you vividly remember losing the 90-10s. And yeah, you know, I've lost some 98-2s also for sure.
5:322% does not mean it never happens. 2% means it happens 2% of the time.
5:38So, you know, it can be a blessing and a curse.
5:42Anyway, let me get back on track here with my story.
5:47So now it's confirmed through the biopsy that I have thyroid cancer.
5:51This is a somewhat common disease and getting more commonly diagnosed as more people like me do more scans.
5:59There is a hospital here in Colorado called University of Colorado Anschutz.
6:03They literally have a full-blown thyroid cancer team, surgeons, endocrinologists, PAs, students.
6:08So I get into this clinic. They were incredible.
6:12I mean, so organized and like knowledgeable. They recommended removing the right side of my thyroid gland only.
6:19That's where the tumor is. They're going to leave the left side of the thyroid in.
6:25And by the way, you can live with no thyroid gland at all.
6:30You just have to be on medication for the rest of your life to replace the hormone.
6:36But in my case, I think it's a positive thing that I'm only getting the right side removed.
6:43And like the treatment for this is very, very straightforward.
6:47You have to get surgery. There's no chemo. There's no radiation.
6:52You get it removed. So I am getting it removed surgically on July 14th.
6:57Assuming everything goes smoothly with the surgery, it's outpatient procedure with one to two weeks of recovery.
7:04Note that I'm recording this right now. It is July 10th.
7:08We are releasing it after the surgery, after July 14th, just to make sure that everything went fine.
7:15So if you're hearing this, I'm still alive. I'm good.
7:19You know, no need to worry. After the surgery, the next big unknown for me will be how the pathology report will look.
7:28There are more aggressive variants of thyroid cancer. There are chances of microscopic spread that the ultrasounds didn't show.
7:35But my surgeon, you know, and my personal doctor, Dr.
7:39Quad, they think it's really unlikely the pathology will show anything unexpected.
7:44Obviously not 100%, but unlikely. And again, even if the pathology isn't great, yeah, it's not ideal and it would change some things in my treatment slash plan.
7:55That doesn't mean it's going to kill me. So, you know, obviously this isn't good.
8:01Having cancer is bad. Having major surgery is bad.
8:04Even though I know what 98% means, you know, I'd be lying if I said I haven't been scared at times over the last few months.
8:14But based on everything we know, and this has been studied a ton, like, I'm going to be fine.
8:22Have a few more things I want to hit on around all of this.
8:27First, I want to be clear that I've been doing all this stuff over the last few years, the preventative health stuff.
8:36I've been doing it not because I'm afraid of dying.
8:40Like, I'm actually not. I've just always had this really strong fear of dying from something preventable, you know, something I can control.
8:48Like, the concept of sitting on my deathbed at too young of an age thinking, if I only had done X test,
8:57you know, I wouldn't be in this spot. I just don't think I could handle that.
9:03And, like, thinking more about why I've been so obsessed with this health and the preventative screening stuff, I mean, I definitely have an issue with control.
9:14Like, anytime I hear about someone dying or someone getting some disease, my first thought is always, oh, yeah, he got that
9:22because he did X, Y, Z wrong. In other words, like, in my head, I'm thinking, like, that won't happen to me.
9:31You know, I don't smoke cigs. Or that won't happen to me.
9:36I'm not a fat slob. So, doing the screening, I think, helps me feel like I'm in more control.
9:43Even if I'm not. You know, it just makes me feel like I'm in more control.
9:49Anyway, I really thought about not doing this solo pod because truly, truly the last thing that I want is pity or sympathy or a GoFundMe, you know?
10:00So, I really thought about not doing this show.
10:04In the end, though, I decided it was important for me to do this show for two big reasons.
10:11First, I've talked about preventative health so many times on these solo pods, and I've always gotten an insane amount of positive feedback from you guys.
10:21Just didn't really feel right to not talk about this.
10:25And second, I've just always been a thousand percent convinced that what I'm doing on health is right slash optimal and everyone should be doing it.
10:35And maybe by talking about this, it helps someone else.
10:39And like along those lines, if I'm being honest, I think part of me just feels like I've been in the poker and DFS space for 22 years.
10:50What have I really contributed to society with my life?
10:54Well, using my platform to advocate for what I believe about longevity, you know, selfishly, it makes me feel good.
11:02And so, all of that brings me to what I'm sure a lot of you are thinking, which is, damn, I better
11:10get a pre-novo scan and start doing all the crazy stuff that Adam does ASAP.
11:16I want to be clear. I don't think this stuff is for everyone.
11:21Being in the MRI tube for 45 minutes sucks.
11:25Chasing everything around with ultrasounds and biopsies. There's a mental and physical and financial tax here.
11:31I get that. And also, you know, in my specific case, if we're trying to argue the other side of preventative screening,
11:39argue against it, it's possible that you can have thyroid cancer for 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 80 years.
11:47It's possible you can have it that whole time and never have an issue, never know.
11:53So, some people in the medical field will say, see, Adam, this is the problem with the preventative health stuff.
12:01This thyroid thing probably never would have given you an issue, but now you're getting your damn thyroid removed.
12:08And my counter is just, okay, yeah, you know, maybe you're right.
12:13Maybe I would have died at age 90 with this, not of this.
12:18Or maybe in 10 years, I'll show up at my GP and there'll be some lump on my neck and we'll find
12:27it then and I'll deal with it then and it'll still be fine.
12:32But my counter is just, there's also outcomes where even if I don't catch this in stage 1 or stage 2, it
12:40spreads to my lymph nodes, spreads to my lungs, and then I'm toast.
12:45You know, so even if that is 10%, 5%, or even a 1% chance, you know, even if the doctor said it's
12:54just a 1% chance, I still don't see how you could brush that off.
12:59You know, it's just insane to me. You'll never convince me that finding something as early as possible, especially cancer, isn't GTO.
13:08You know, and it's really crazy. I can't tell you how many doctors tell me all the stuff that I'm doing is
13:16just a waste of time, waste of money, overloading the medical system.
13:21I'm screwing my mental health. Yeah, okay, you know, maybe, probably, you're right.
13:26But if it gives me a chance to find cancer early and have a more favorable outcome because of that, I just
13:35don't see it as a choice for me personally.
13:38But certainly, just because I know it's right for me, of course, everyone does have a choice.
13:45I think the biggest downside of the intense preventative screening stuff is the mental tax.
13:51I mean, there is a real mental tax in doing this stuff.
13:55Over the last few months, there's been plenty of times I've been, you know, lying in bed, struggling mentally, even though it's irrational based on facts.
14:05I'll be thinking, like, you know, how many more times am I going to get to do the things that I love to do?
14:15How many more times will I get to play basketball with my kids or hug them or hold my wife?
14:23You know, it's really tough mentally. I think I'm generally pretty good there with mental strength.
14:29But, yeah, you know, it's gotten me at times and I'm not trying to discount the mental tax or the financial tax
14:37on any of this, you know, for anyone. But if you're asking why I think it's worth it to do all the
14:46scans, you know, my take on it has been, first of all, you know, and most directly for me, I just have the most truly, truly incredible life.
14:57Like, I've run, like, the sun in life for 43 years in so many different ways.
15:03I just don't want it to end early, you know.
15:07And also, like, I feel this overwhelming sense of responsibility to a lot of people that I care about.
15:14Like, even if I wanted to say, well, I'm not going to do all this screening, you know, whatever happens to me happens.
15:23To me, at least, you know, that feels selfish.
15:27Like, I have two boys, 11 and 8, you know, they need me desperately.
15:32You know, I've been with my wife for 21 years, you know.
15:37She needs me. I'm an only child. My parents are in their mid-70s, you know.
15:43I have to be here for them as they age.
15:47And so, yeah, everyone ETR, you know, I just, I know they need me.
15:52And so, anyway, I know I'm going long here.
15:56As I've kind of been on this health journey, one thing I do want to point out is that, like, the average
16:04lifespan, the average lifespan of humans is going to massively skyrocket, you know, over the next few generations thanks to technology.
16:12You know, it's absolutely wild what's coming down the pike.
16:16And, like, as I've been doing this testing and, like, researching what I can do, it's absolutely incredible what is coming in
16:25the very near future and what is actually already out there.
16:29So, on the technology side, like, as much as I think social media is probably the worst thing to happen to humanity
16:38in my lifetime, by a decent margin. That doesn't mean that all technology is bad.
16:44You know, tech and AI in the health space will be the greatest thing to happen to humanity.
16:51I think I'm just a generation or two too late to truly benefit it from a big way.
16:58But I'm already benefiting from it in a lot of ways and tons more is coming.
17:04And, you know, we just should, obviously, I hope that we embrace it and, like, yeah.
17:10Anyways, for anyone more interested in this stuff, obviously I'm not a doctor.
17:15But if you're interested, like, my take is that if you want to, like, wade your way into this stuff slower, catching
17:24thyroid cancer in no way should be your number one goal at all.
17:29In my opinion, if you're 35 or over, the number one thing you can do is get a colonoscopy.
17:36And I know that the criminal insurance companies won't pay for it until you're 45.
17:42I'm telling you that is wrong. You know, pay for it.
17:46Do it. If you catch colon cancer too late and the incident rate among young people is rising, it will kill you.
17:55You know, and you don't have to do all the crazy stuff that I do.
18:01But I really do believe you should do the colonoscopy.
18:05You can go back and find the vlog that I did about mine on Twitter, just trying to, like, bring awareness to it and be funny about it.
18:15It was actually a pleasant experience overall. So that's, like, the number one thing when people ask me what they should do.
18:24That's, like, the number one thing. The other, you know, non-invasive stuff that I do is the liquid biopsy, the grail test.
18:33You know, take your blood, check for signs of cancer.
18:37The carotid artery ultrasound, trying to ensure you're not in danger of having a stroke.
18:42You know, calcium score on your heart. Dermatologist visit to screen for skin cancer.
18:48You know, like, that stuff moves the needle. A lot of the stuff I do is on the margins.
18:55You know, trying to not eat that much sugar, trying to avoid inflammation, trying to avoid plastics, exercising tons.
19:03Like, yeah, that stuff matters. But catching cancer early or finding a clogged artery near your heart early, that's the stuff that
19:11actually moves the needle the most, you know, I would call it the lowest hanging fruit.
19:17And so, like, all this has really hammered home what I feel like I've known for a while.
19:24You know, our medical system is absolutely incredible. I mean, truly amazing at treating known issues.
19:31You show up with thyroid cancer. You show up with some other disease.
19:36Our doctors and our nurses and researchers are mind-blowingly good at treating you.
19:41Like, incredible. But where our medical system is lacking is simply in helping people prevent disease.
19:47Like, doctors go to medical school. As far as I know, there's nothing about helping people prevent disease.
19:54It's all about treating disease. And so, like, I really think our medical system is lacking there massively.
20:01I know Peter Atiyah turned out to be, you know, a bad dude in his personal life.
20:08I still recommend his book, Outlive. You know, best general book that I've read on this.
20:14You know, one thing that my wife has said through this since the biopsy came back is just, you know, she feels like it's not fair.
20:24She's angry because, you know, Adam barely puts anything bad in his body.
20:29And Adam is in, you know, incredible shape for a 43-year-old witherist.
20:34You know, shout out to me. You know, how can he have cancer when some slob who's been drinking 15 natty ices
20:42every day, you know, and can't run 50 yards, how is he fine?
20:47You know, and this has just been a reminder that it doesn't matter.
20:52Like, I still think it helps to be, helps massively to be in shape and eating right.
20:59But it doesn't prevent you from getting cancer. It's just some cells were dividing.
21:04There was an error. No one knows exactly why.
21:08It doesn't matter what kind of shape you're in, you know, how good you feel.
21:14And I feel great, by the way, like truly feel great.
21:18The other reason, you know, to do this show and to talk about this stuff is just the whole deathbed theorem.
21:26A lot of my friends, I tell about this, you know, we're all in our 40s.
21:33And a lot of them say to me, damn, man, like, there's a wake-up call.
21:38I need to stop wasting time. I need to stop wasting days.
21:43And honestly, nothing makes me happier than when people tell me that, you know.
21:48I wrote a lot about the deathbed theorem in the seminal novel of our generation, Skin to Fur.
21:56But all it means, all the deathbed theorem means is that when I'm faced with a decision, and there are dozens of
22:04decisions that I make every day, big or small, all I'm trying to do is think when I'm on my deathbed, in hindsight, what's the call?
22:14What's the right call? Am I going to be happy that I sat on the couch and scrolled social media all day?
22:23Or should I get off my ass and go on a hike in the mountains with my dog?
22:30Or should I go to Vegas for 24 hours to see fish at Sphere?
22:35It's a huge pain, but should I have that experience?
22:39Or should I be lazy and sit home? Should I go biking with my son even if I'm exhausted?
22:47Should I coach my son's basketball team even if it's stressful and I barely have time?
22:53If you operate by the deathbed theorem, you know, I think these are all no-brainer decisions.
22:59And, you know, if anything positive comes out of this, I hope that that helps, you know, people that I know.
23:07All right. I think that's all I have to say about this.
23:12I'm not sure how long I'm going to be out for.
23:16The surgery does take place very close to my vocal cords.
23:20There is a small risk of temporary damage to my voice and tiny risk of permanent damage.
23:27But I think, you know, if you're listening to this, I should be back soon.
23:33You know, hopefully the week of the 20th. But we'll see.
23:37I also just want to reiterate. There are thousands and hundreds of thousands and probably millions of people with a much worse health situation than me.
23:47I know a lot of you out there genuinely care about me, even though we've never actually met.
23:54And I really do appreciate that. It's insane and incredible.
23:58But please, you know, try not to worry. I'm going to be okay.
24:03Lastly, again, I'm not a doctor, but if anyone has questions about health stuff, I'm happy to do my best to help.
24:12You can shoot me a DM on Twitter. Probably easiest way to get me.
24:17Or you can send an email to ETR support and they will forward it to me.
24:23Honestly, though, like I can share what I found in my research, but you can get the same stuff by reading Peter
24:32Artia's book or talking to an LLM. So yeah, if you're into it, I highly encourage you to do that.
24:40All right. I think that's enough. That's more than enough.
24:44Appreciate y'all more than you know. It's crazy. You know, it's easier for me to talk about this on the show where
24:52I'm comfortable than in real life, which, you know, there's really something wrong with me, but it just is.
25:00So I appreciate y'all for that. Anyway, for producer Luke, producer Ryan, Jerry, the most beautiful beast in the world.
25:07I am Adam. Take care, everybody. Good luck. Everybody.