"This Is How People Die": Will Cathcart's Novel About CF, Mortality & Stealing Chopin's Heart

What if the future you spent your entire life preparing not to have suddenly became possible?

In this episode, Ahmet Uluer, DO, MPH, Lauren Harvey, and Andrea Gavin Becker welcome journalist, war correspondent, and author Will Cathcart, who lives with cystic fibrosis, to discuss his debut novel, This Is How People Die—a literary thriller that blends espionage, romance, and cystic fibrosis into an unforgettable exploration of survival.

Together, we explore how Will transformed the realities of growing up with CF into fiction, why survivor's guilt and the CFTR modulator era became central themes in the novel, and how those experiences continue to shape his work around the world and his ongoing fight for equitable access to CF modulators.

Also: Anthony Bourdain, Bob Flanagan, and the Gullah legend of the Haint.