Jeff Stewart: Author, Scientist, Jeopardy Champ, and Cancer Insider

In 2022, Jeff Stewart was preparing to donate a kidney when his life took a completely different turn. Unknown to him at the time, he was harboring two separate cancers—kidney and stomach. As a former Jeopardy champ, long-time molecular biologist, and inventor, it’s no surprise that Jeff instinctively framed his relationship with cancer as a complex puzzle that needed solving. In this heartfelt interview with Dr. Sherman, Jeff shares the insights he has gained over the years. He also discusses his published memoir, Living: Inspiration from a Father with Cancer. Written with his seven children in mind, Living offers advice and inspiration for everyone, regardless of age.  He also touches on his love of writing itself, having just completed his upcoming young adult fantasy book, Angel Chloe and the Wall of Stone and Bone. Jeff passed away in August 2025, yet his wisdom, humor, and legacy live on to inspire us, just as he intended.

Hope for Stomach Cancer support group mentioned by Jeff

Buy his book, Living: Inspiration from a Father with Cancer, from our bookshop.org collection

NPR piece by Jeff on experimental therapies 

Chapters

• 0:00 Auphonic ad. Our sound is good because of Auphonic.
• 0:06 Excerpt from interview
• 0:50 Intro to this episode
• 2:20 Interview begins
• 4:08 Inspirations from Jeff's memoir, Living.
• 9:26 The importance of humility
• 11:48 Why "fighting" cancer isn't relatable
• 14:06 How to deal with well meaning misinformed people
• 23:00 Regrets and Blessings
• 28:02 Advice for others?
• 30:00 AI in medicine
• 33:00 Newest book: Young Adult Fiction
• 36:34 Jeff reads an excerpt from his memoir, Living

Transcript

Leah: I have to say I have never met a Jeopardy champion before 

Jeff Stewart: They're everywhere. And you just dunno what we look like. Um, we look like everyone else. Yeah.

Introduction Song and disclaimer for The Cancer Pod

Leah: What does it look like to face cancer? With both humor and wisdom, how do you turn a devastating diagnosis into a story that inspires others? Jeff Stewart was a Jeopardy champion winning the college championship in 1994 and later placing as runner up in the Tournament of Champions. He was also a husband, father of seven, an author.

A molecular biologist whose work ranged from uncovering causes of systemic autoimmune disease to developing an equation widely used in biotech. He also co-authored a paper on adapting BiPAP machines as ventilators. During COVID in 2022, Jeff was diagnosed with synchronous kidney and stomach cancers. He then wrote his first book, which he dedicated to his children living inspiration from a father with cancer.

A memoir full of honesty, insight, and humor since we recorded this conversation back in June, 2025, Jeff has passed away, but his words in perspective remain with us. He reached out to me this past spring to be a guest on the Cancer Pod because he was really excited about the release of his second book, a Young Adult fantasy novel called Angel Chloe, and The Wall of Stone and Bone, which will be released next week on Halloween.

I'm honored to share my conversation with him here on the Cancer Pod, and if you'd like to honor Jeff's legacy, I encourage you to check out both of his books. And now my conversation with Jeff Stewart, I.

[00:02:22] Jeff Stewart: Thank you so much for having Leah. It's a pleasure.

It's, it is such a pleasure meeting you. I could have gone on with all of your accomplishments 'cause um, there were many more and I tried to, just kind of keep with the, the major points. I have to say I have never met a Jeopardy champion before They're everywhere. And you just dunno what we look like. Um, we look like everyone else. Yeah. Being on jeopardy was a real boon to me because I had two kids and uh, a car that was totaled and so. Getting on, just getting on was, uh, was something that really meant a lot to us just financially to be able to survive, uh, what became my first year in grad school.

But, um, you know, I won, I won the college tournaments now more than 30 years ago and got second in the Tournament of Champions. That was just such a blessing. 

It was exciting to see what it was like to be, um, famous in a weird little way, um, where you get recognized everywhere and it was fun when that stopped too. It was, uh, not, it, it does feel a little uncomfortable basically being. display everywhere in public, which probably wouldn't happen to most Jeopardy players today.

But back then before by use of the internet, um, as entertainment, uh, it was the show that Wheel of Fortune. And if you played there for a while and I was on nine times, you get noticed and you get

[00:03:39] Leah Sherman, ND: Yeah. And how long did that truck last?

[00:03:42] Jeff Stewart: The truck, the, the, the vehicle. So I, I, we got the truck 'cause it, 'cause it was more expensive. But then swapped down to a different vehicle that was more reasonable for us. And that lasted about, oh, I think it was about four or five months until it got totaled. I won't say who did it. Um, and then we had the

[00:03:58] Leah Sherman, ND: Oh,

[00:03:58] Jeff Stewart: um, insurance car after that.

[00:04:02] Leah Sherman, ND: okay. Then I was hoping to hear some story about like, oh, that just kind of took us through the years, but, okay. Um, that wasn't in your book.

[00:04:11] Jeff Stewart: That wasn't in my book. Um, I, I'm trying to protect the guilty on that one. Um, but it was the only new car I've ever owned. I, I'm cheap, so I preferred to buy, um, cars cheaply. Um, and that was the only new car we had. It was nice though. It was nice to have one. at a good time.

[00:04:28] Leah Sherman, ND: before we started recording, I was talking to you about my, my thoughts on the book and I really, really enjoyed reading it. Um. I was reading your inspirations because there are a hundred inspirations kind of throughout the book, and these are all, the book was written for your children,

[00:04:49] Jeff Stewart: It was.

[00:04:50] Leah Sherman, ND: but the inspirations apply to all of us.

I mean, they really do. And so I would come across one and I would just start reading it to my husband and all, and we would just look at each other like, uh, yeah, like There was so much in there that, I think that everyone could appreciate and find, useful in their life.

[00:05:11] Jeff Stewart: I did think that, um, if I were going to die, um, which is what it seemed like, at least a good possibility at the time, I knew I wouldn't be there in that case to give my kids the life advice I wanted them to know at times when they were ready to hear it. it wouldn't be useful to talk about things in marriage, to my, at the time, 12-year-old, our youngest, but it would be, um, helpful at a later date.

And so I tried to put those things down and that, for me was the most important, the core of what I wanted to do for my family. But you're right, Leah, it's, it's something that is obviously more universal. If I tell you something as if I can put something so clearly and have it stick in your mind. It does in mine, then it helps In those cases where you have it, it's just, it becomes the mental tool or the shortcut you use to solve what otherwise is a difficult problem. Something like there are no heroes without horrors. That's something that makes times, that are tough times that are quite scary or frightening. makes it, puts it in context or when there's no hope. You’re the hope that helps us, I think in ways. Um. Mr. Rogers did some of the same things, a hero of mine where he would say, look for the helpers in something when you're, when times are hard.

These are, uh, ways that. us, uh, kind of thoughts, sayings, proverbs, uh, or inspirations that will inspire us and keep us, on a road we'd like to keep on in hard times. So that is exactly what I wanted to have for my children. It was the core of what I wanted to write in the book. And, um, only later did I see that there was more potentially would put in there and not just be a, a set of 100, uh, sayings, aphorisms or proverbs, life lessons for them, but more. reason, Leah, that, that it became more is because I was describing on Facebook and other social media sites what was going on with me and cancer. I'm going to talk about the same way that I would as it, you know, it's molecular biology, it's my field, it's uh, pharmaceutical, um, the pharmaceutical business model, which is also my field.

It's my profession and understanding pharmaceutical design and transfer and, uh, tech transfer and understanding what is done in clinical trials. That's my job. That's been my job for quite a while, decades, and so. part isn't that difficult for me. not quite the same scary mass of uncertainty that it is for most of us.

When we hear the diagnosis of you have cancer, it's just another puzzle to solve and it's a little bit like the Jeopardy music playing. I mean, that can be really stressful for someone trying to answer final jeopardy or if you've been on a lot of times it's just telling you how long you have to figure it out. That's something that, that for me, kind of writing out these stories, telling what had happened to me in a pretty objective way, how I think through these things in my own cancer journey, people told me it helped them. It helped them understand their parents when they died and didn't know what to say, or their grandparents or even spouses so, or their own cancer.

It helped put the words in people's mouths. They told me that they didn't know. They didn't know how to put. I'm thankful I had that too. And that is the other, a large chunk of the book as to what happened to me.

[00:08:27] Leah Sherman, ND: I mean, even for myself, I was working in a cancer center when I was diagnosed and had been working with cancer patients. And so I knew the steps. I knew I. I had a certain confidence that I think most people don't have because I, I knew the medications, I knew the side effects, I knew a lot, but then there was a certain part, the surgery part where I didn't know, 'cause I wouldn't see patients until weeks after their surgery, when they would come back to see the med onc.

And so there was a little bit of a mystery. And what I found in your book is you detail your steps from diagnosis through your treatments and. You're taking some of that mystery out of it, and I think that takes some of the fear out of it as well by, by knowing what you're gonna be facing. And I really appreciated that part of your book where you, you just broke down the different parts of your treatment and even the diagnosis steps and talking about the different, you know, genetic tests and all of that.

It's really helpful.

[00:09:27] Jeff Stewart: it's such a, I mean, I'm sure you experienced this too, it's just such a whirlwind of not just terms that we're unfamiliar with, unless we work deeply in the field, and even then we may not know. But, it's hard to tell what really matters. Uh, very simple one. This is one I screwed up pretty badly. I was having some, uh, speech issues, so I got a cranial CAT scan and I was sitting at Applebee's or something like that with my wife. When I got the note that my, my chart was available, I opened it up and looked at the first line, which was indication. Indication line says brain cancer. Not good.

So I'm like, oh, Jen, I'm so sorry I'm, but I, we just wait 30 seconds. I scrolled down. indication line does not mean this is the indication of the drug you're looking for. Not in a CT scan, not in a PET scan. It tells you what they're worried about,

[00:10:22] Leah Sherman, ND: Right.

[00:10:22] Jeff Stewart: you have. I didn't know that it's a word in English.

I know very well what indication means, but I was wrong. But by the very end it says impression. An impression is the answer, indication of the question. Impression is the answer. didn't know those things and I got myself scared for about 30 seconds to before I found out, oh no, I have no brain metastases at all.

A didn't see anything,

[00:10:44] Leah Sherman, ND: Right. It was just the question that they were asking, like, so it could get covered by insurance basically. Probably,

[00:10:50] Jeff Stewart: I.

[00:10:50] Leah Sherman, ND: yeah. Yeah. so you found, what I'm gathering is you found your background as a molecular biologist to be helpful. Did you ever find it to be a disadvantage?

[00:11:02] Jeff Stewart: Uh, probably that one that I suggested there was a disadvantage

[00:11:05] Leah Sherman, ND: Okay.

[00:11:05] Jeff Stewart: I knew what, I knew what the words meant, and, and it's not a really hard word, but, you know, it's, it's there other times that I find it to be a disadvantage. I am having trouble thinking of places where I find it to be a disadvantage.

I've become more aware of my ignorance over the years, so I try to keep an open mind on certain things. Um, even though it seems very much one way to me, uh, looking at the data, know that I can get things wrong. It took a while Leah, to figure out that I could feel that I was completely right and I was in fact completely wrong.

I know that that sounds probably odd for someone to say, um, because we're wrong about so many things in life, but that is a trap when it gets into, when you're, when you're trained in something, you think you know it.

[00:11:47] Leah Sherman, ND: Right.

[00:11:48] Jeff Stewart: you don't.

[00:11:50] Leah Sherman, ND: there was a chapter where you talked about fighting cancer,

[00:11:55] Jeff Stewart: Mm-hmm.

[00:11:56] Leah Sherman, ND: um, and you don't like that term as many don't being a cancer fighter, but you saw yourself more as the battlefield.

[00:12:07] Jeff Stewart: Yeah. So, um, I did, I didn't like the fight, the cancer, um. Uh, wording, uh, or phraseology because, what's the implication there? If I'm strong, I'm gonna win, and if I'm weak, I'm gonna lose. Or if I didn't try hard enough, doesn't feel right to me. That doesn't feel right to me at all. I'm, I think that is another part of my training, Leah, that that does help, is to say like, this is outta my control.

I know which things are under my control, and it, it isn't or dying in this, it's like following directions. And that I can do. Um, but the cancer, I mean, it's me, it's part of me. It just wants to live. It's trying to win, you know? It's just trying to survive. Of course, it's hard to kill. It's just part of how it is.

[00:12:53] Leah Sherman, ND: But the, the term like, or the thought of being the battlefield, I think, applies in so many ways, including like the collateral damage that happens from all of the treatments that you receive. You know, it's like, it's not just the cancer you know, being targeted, it's other cells, um, but. That was the first time I'd ever heard somebody refer to that, and now it's kind of, I think, I think I'm gonna adopt that term for

[00:13:17] Jeff Stewart: It kind of sticks. It's like World War I, you know, I mean,

[00:13:19] Leah Sherman, ND: Yeah,

[00:13:20] Jeff Stewart: gas and those

[00:13:22] Leah Sherman, ND: exactly.

[00:13:23] Jeff Stewart: mean, you're getting key mode

[00:13:25] Leah Sherman, ND: Yeah.

[00:13:26] Jeff Stewart: some that are derived from the same sorts of things, you know, as, as, uh, as boys and gas. And you can just imagine the trenches that are everywhere and the mud and the craters.

And that's me. I mean, I have, I am missing the use of two of my organs. I'm running out of organs that, uh, I can do without.

[00:13:43] Leah Sherman, ND: well, you, as I mentioned, you talk about your experience from the diagnosis through the treatment. But you talk about the sort of experimental treatments and alternative treatments, and there was something that you had pointed out about how people were suggesting alternative treatments, and they probably still are.

Um, and that was something that I experienced as well and I was like, don't you know what I do like? But, um, what would you tell somebody who. Was told about an alternative treatment, and there's certain alternative treatments that are really popular at certain TA stages in, um, in history. And right now it's like Ivermectin, right?

Ivermectin is gonna cure everything. It's, it was supposed to cure COVID and it cures all cancers according to some people. Like what would you tell somebody who had no background at all in molecular biology or chemistry or medicine? Like how would you talk to someone about. Approaching something like that.

[00:14:42] Jeff Stewart: So the first thing that I would say is that it's something just to be aware of. You as a cancer patient, you experienced it and I certainly still experience it will be inundated. By people who are well-meaning and wrong, but well-meaning sometimes their friends and family. worst, they're gonna send you something that is like some new breakthrough in Australia where they've treated five mice, something like that.

You're gonna get that and they're gonna say, isn't this exciting? is not exciting, not for us because it's far too far in the future if anything did come of it. So that's the kind of the first thing is just expect people to be there. And on the other extreme. Will be people who are just trying to take money from cancer patients in a way that, um, ruins them financially um, and leaves them more likely to die.

And that's the second thing I would want to just express is that they've, this has been tested. It took cancer patients and. Some said I will not take chemotherapy or do what my oncologist said. I'm only going to do alternative therapy, and the other one said, no, I will go on and and do whatever my doctor says.

Those two groups and some cancers, those two groups do about the same and like prostate cancer about the same. But that's not most cancers. Most cancers, if you just take a random person that has cancer and they just go the alternative therapy route. One quarter of them will live within about four to five years.

One quarter of them will still be alive, so most of them will die. But there will always be people that essentially do something like that, that's not, just doesn't have any data behind it, and they will still live. you do what your oncologist says, average, your chance of dying, uh, is not 75%, but only 50%.

Your chance of living goes from 25% to 50%. Half of people. In four to five years after doing what the doctor says, end up surviving at least that long and that difference. One out of four people surviving to one out of two people surviving is huge. That's a bigger effect than basically any single cancer drug against other cancer drugs you would ever see is the single best thing you can do. When given this information on Ivermectin, as you me mentioned, or hydro, you know, hydro quinolone, or you know, uh, Simpson Oil, Rick Simpson Oil, or whatever. that there's just no data there. And by the way, your chance of living doubles if you just ignore those go with what your oncologist said. It's not a guarantee. There will be people who do exactly what their oncologist said and die. At least half of them will. probably will, to be honest. Uh, but that's, but that's a better chance than doing the opposite. So those are the major things I say to them. hard because a lot of times there will be someone that they trust or love that. Did have an experience of being one of, one of the one in four who did survive, and so they attribute it then to whatever they took, and it's, you just can't tell from one person. You can't tell, you have to look at a large number of people. We're not smart enough to tell things from one person at a time any more than we'd be smart enough to tell the best batter in the world from the worst batter in the world, from one pitch.

We just don't know.

[00:18:07] Leah Sherman, ND: when patients would talk to me about these alternative treatments that their friend, family member, somebody talked to them about, it's not always the same cancer either. And so having to explain that cancer isn't just one thing, and so one thing isn't going to cure all cancers because those alternative treatments tend to be.

For, you know, it covers everything across the, across the, the spectrum. the other thing is, it, it's kind of similar with the experimental treatments where somebody said, oh, I have a relative who received this experimental treatment and it worked for them. It's like, well, you had a completely different cancer.

[00:18:45] Jeff Stewart: Yeah.

[00:18:47] Leah Sherman, ND: And so, you know, not quite getting that cancer is many, many different things.

[00:18:54] Jeff Stewart: It is many, many different things, but it's also extremely hard to kill. Just, it just is. Uh, as I said, I could work in the, in, in the pharmaceutical industry. I, I have advised companies buying and selling cancer, uh, companies to each other. I. the work that goes into them is incredible. Just think of the thing that is so amazing that they've tried it in every mouse.

They've tried it in dogs, it all seems to be working perfectly well. It works great in the lab, and then somebody's willing to put up tens of millions to hundreds of millions, or even a billion dollars to try it in people. And of all those incredible a plus, plus plus drugs, only 7% of them. Ever make it the market? Cancer is hard to treat. It's just very, very, very difficult. Most things that look great work. Almost all of them don't. More than nine out of 10 just don't work when you actually test them and actual people with actual cancers. And so. Yeah. I mean it's, it's just those are the best of the best.

Those are the smartest people in the world trying to solve the biggest trouble in the world. I mean, how likely is it that Soursop tea that they missed that one? And the answer is not at all likely. It just isn't.

[00:20:17] Leah Sherman, ND: And that, that was something that you explained in the book as well, how you talk about, you know, how difficult it is to go from, you know, from, um, in vitro to mouse to, you know, to human. Like that whole process was. Really well explained in the book. And I think that is something that people just don't think about because you see a study and it says that a certain substance has been shown to kill cancer cells.

And it's like a lot of things kill cancer cells. In a,

[00:20:44] Jeff Stewart: cancer cells. Try it.

[00:20:45] Leah Sherman, ND: one of my favorite comics, or little like cartoon memes things is somebody like a stick figure standing with a gun over a Petri dish. Like, like a lot of things can kill, uh, you know, cells. there is an NPR, article that you wrote that also talked about what we just discussed. Um.

[00:21:06] Jeff Stewart: You have if you have cancer and you take nothing away from this, if you don't get living inspiration from a Father of Cancer by Jeff Stewart, fine. But there is one thing, if you looked it up today, right now, you will get the chapter of the book for free from uh, if you type in my name, Jeff Stewart, JEFF, Stewart, S-T-E-W-A-R-T, and the word cancer and NPR, you will find one of the chapters and it is that chapter that will materially help you. It will materially help you know what to do when you are hit on all sides by people that sound very nice, that promise cures and are really just not right. will help. So just do that. It's, it is one chapter out of the book and it explains exactly this thing. It's actually the most technical chapter out of the book.

Most of the book is not that technical, but this is because it's important to do so and it's important to get these things right and it's important to know that these things have been tested. It's not just a guess, it's not just hope. It's it's data. People figured it out. They did the hard work so that we didn't have to do the hard work, so we didn't have to guess as though we were walking into some old timey dentist, you know, in the, in the wild West who's got like a barbershop, dental and wall.

So, um, cut off your leg. I mean, those, we don't have to do that. We don't have to do snake oil. We know the answer and this helps.

[00:22:27] Leah Sherman, ND: And I'll put a link to that article as well in our show notes. the other chapter that I wanted to talk about is all possible worlds. And you start off by talking about, I don't remember how you said it, about the other dimensions or something about that, you know, there's multiple dimensions happening.

Is that how you said? But I completely resonated with that. When I read that, I was like, oh, somebody else believes that too,

[00:22:55] Jeff Stewart: Yeah.

[00:22:55] Leah Sherman, ND: so, you know, so that part I thought was, um, that, that, like, that was very personal to me. And then you get very personal. Where you talk about your regrets and it's so vulnerable because you have a certain tone throughout the whole book and then all of a sudden you talk about things that, that you do regret.

[00:23:17] Jeff Stewart: Yeah.

[00:23:18] Leah Sherman, ND: I, I found it very powerful. I found it very, um, I mean it's, it's beyond honest. Because there are so many things that, like I was reading and I was like, there, you know, I start springing things up in my life where I'm like, I don't know if I could ever admit that in a book. Uh, what propelled you to to be to expose yourself like that and be so vulnerable?

[00:23:43] Jeff Stewart: Hmm. I haven't really thought through that. Uh, to be honest, just thinking through all the things that I did regret, I do want, you know, I do hope I have learned from this life and, uh, do better, um, in whatever future I have if there is a future. Um, so that, that's part of it is part of the growing up is to see those things I did wrong, but also I think puts in perspective some of the things that I did.

Right. It makes it kind of easy in a way, Leah to, um. To think, you know, why is this happening to me? I have seven kids. I only found out because I was trying to donate my kidney that I had cancer in the first place. Why is this happening to me? I, I very likely would be dead already if it had not been for, um, for getting that CT scan about whatever it is, three years ago now, Um, why me? But the answer isn't. That is more why not me? Uh, other people have much, much, much harder lives. My life has been blessed. Yeah, to put in some of the things that, um, that are deep regrets. I think also, at least for my kids, will help them see me not as a complete, um. Marvel statue on a pedestal or something like that. Hopefully then they can put their own, um, short shortcomings and um, and errors in a way that doesn't make them feel bad. Part of what I, and this is only tangentially related, but part of what I really hope for my kids is that none of them think if I had just prayed more. Dad would be alive that I do not want them to have.

So I do try to kind of put, you know, here are the good and here are the bad things. And if you really think of me as a saint and not a human, it's probably harder. And so those are all kind of wrapped up in it. Um, a little bit, Leah, I.

[00:25:25] Leah Sherman, ND: you mentioned blessing and that in the book you say that you see cancer as a blessing.

[00:25:34] Jeff Stewart: Yeah,

[00:25:35] Leah Sherman, ND: And I have heard that from patients and I think from reading the book I can understand you saying that, but can you explain more about, about that? Because for some of us, we see it as it's, I mean, there are people who truly believe that.

And I I, I would love to talk to you about

[00:25:58] Jeff Stewart: sure. And I can't

[00:25:59] Leah Sherman, ND: your thoughts on it.

[00:25:59] Jeff Stewart: that, but let me just gimme a second. I'll see if I can find the right where it is.

 Oh yeah. Here. It's okay. This cancer diagnosis has been a blessing. I'm so glad I got the diagnosis. The diagnosis may have saved my life. The greater blessing is if I die. If I die. The diagnosis gave me time. The diagnosis gave me the will to act. I've been blessed with time to prepare my family, to prepare myself. I've blessed with the time and will to write this. That's not where the blessings end. The greatest blessing is not just my early diagnosis. The greatest blessing has been the cancer itself. glad I got cancer. All things considered, I have been gifted the opportunity to share my cancer experience with others. They're reaching out, but a blessing, it is to hold another's horrors for them. Quote, I have told this to nobody but my priest and my wife. What a blessing it is to hear. This helped me understand what my mother went through, what a blessing it is to calm the fear of the unknown.

What a blessing it is to sit with someone going through the worst thing in their life. Cancer is frightening, overwhelming, explaining my cancer gives new purpose for this time in this life of mine. my cancer breathes fresh meaning into the learnings and failures of my life. I couldn't have written this without cancer, so you, cancer for being there. hope I live to do more, but if the price I pay to do some good is you, price is cheap.

[00:27:30] Leah Sherman, ND: I don't even know what to say after that. just really, really power, like this is, the writing throughout the book is all of it. Is this powerful? and like I said, it's very moving and it's very, I. You're so open, and I know that you are that way, I'm assuming because it's, this is to your children,

[00:27:48] Jeff Stewart: It is.

[00:27:49] Leah Sherman, ND: but the, the universal appeal of it, I think is, um, it's there.

And,

[00:27:55] Jeff Stewart: I tried so hard to write the best thing I possibly could in case it was the last thing I ever wrote, so that's what I did. 

[00:28:03] Leah Sherman, ND: through social media, you have been helping other people understand their cancer or process, what they're going through. What would the most important advice be that you would give somebody who was newly diagnosed with cancer?

[00:28:20] Jeff Stewart: If you can find a group that is a good group, that's the best, uh, usually, uh, for, for my own stomach cancer. Um, the Hope for Stomach Cancer Group is excellent. Fantastic. There are also groups that will be completely predatory. Essentially started by people that will have spam bots that will constantly try to send you to someone who doesn't have any idea but will take your money. So finding the right group is crucial. I would honestly ask your oncologist what that just to recommend a group or two. You find the right ones and you'll get the support that you could need, you might need. And honestly, AI might end up being a real support for a lot of these things too. At this point, you can take whatever result you have, cut and paste into AI and. So have it, summarize it in English for you. And so those kind of tools will also be helpful, finding the right people. You'll be in good, good hands, find the wrong people, and they will take your money.

[00:29:13] Leah Sherman, ND: So you're saying just find the right support group and they're typically cancer specific? Yeah.

[00:29:18] Jeff Stewart: specific. Yeah,

[00:29:19] Leah Sherman, ND: Okay.

[00:29:20] Jeff Stewart: And, um, you know, not associated with a company, but associated with, a nonprofit organization.

[00:29:25] Leah Sherman, ND: Sure.

[00:29:26] Jeff Stewart: the, the, there's a a pretty easy test right at the beginning. If the Facebook group will let anyone in without even passing simple, like, I promise to follow the rules, sorts of things, uh, then you're gonna be in one That's a scam place because scammers can get it in them.

[00:29:40] Leah Sherman, ND: Yeah. And I, from what I've heard, there are people who start discussing things like alternative treatments and don't get, you know, don't listen to your oncologist and, yeah.

[00:29:49] Jeff Stewart: Yep.

[00:29:50] Leah Sherman, ND: So that's kinda what you're talking about.

[00:29:51] Jeff Stewart: you, Dr. Herbalist, to you, just blah, blah, blah. It's, it's, it's the same thing written by people whose names don't match your pictures and they say the same or one of a script. It's just spam bots everywhere.

[00:30:01] Leah Sherman, ND: What are your thoughts on, um, on AI and medicine?

[00:30:05] Jeff Stewart: So the, when I was in, when I was in my molecular biology grad school, like one of the holy grails was something you could do would be to understand a protein by crystallizing it. Then sending X-rays through it so you could suss out exactly how the thing looked. Once you knew how the thing looked, then you'd know something about the structure and maybe how it works.

You could figure out those things. But that was a, that was a dark art, getting a protein to crystallize, not easy. Um, and so it's like, wow, you know, do this, you know, take you six or seven years to get it done. Get it done. Recently AI has solved basically every structure problem. When they, when people knew what the crystals were and they knew what the structure is, AI figured 'em out fast. So many of 'em, I think it won the Nobel Prize in the last year or two, uh, for that exact thing. And it's just replaced the lives of grad students and allowed us to go onto things that are more interesting or more, or different problems at least. So that's just a headline of how strong is AI in. pharmaceutical industry, extremely strong, very, very, very strong, very powerful. If it, it will be pretty clear, pretty quickly that there will be those who crush with the ais, like they use them and they're able to use them to do, to do good, or those that are crushed by them, by somebody else who does it. And there's gonna be no middle ground. You still have to be smart. You still have to figure out how to use them and they do some things that are unusual.

You wouldn't get hallucinations from a, say an associate consultant, just making stuff up completely. That would be pretty rare. But you know, on on the whole, it's a huge boon and it's just a question of how people can make the use cases, right. The world will change. And pharmaceuticals, I'm not sure the extent to it, but it will change.

[00:31:53] Leah Sherman, ND: So are there people going back and looking at what the AI is outputting to check for things like hallucinations? I mean, I'm assuming that there are sort of grad students acting as proofreaders to make sure that the information that came out isn't, you know.

[00:32:09] Jeff Stewart: I mean, you would do that. I, I'm not saying from any particular personal knowledge, I haven't worked at the bench for 30 years. Um, but, uh, the, the work that I do, I, I use ai, sometimes I use it for programming as much as anything else. Things that I would've hired an associate consultant to do from, uh, you know, from like over an our European consultant team.

Um, I could just. Tell the AI what I want and it makes perfect code and I can cut and paste it and it works great. So like, that's just a little thing. But uh, you know, and that's not restricted to pharmaceuticals, but the rest of it, yeah, you have to find out the right case and the, the right use case and figure it out.

Solving protein structures was absolutely the right use case and really daring and challenging and triumph of a case to, for them to have done it. They took on a very hard problem. knocked it outta the park. Amazing work.

[00:33:01] Leah Sherman, ND: You are working on, or you completed another book.

[00:33:04] Jeff Stewart: yeah, it's done. It's in

[00:33:07] Leah Sherman, ND: Okay.

[00:33:08] Jeff Stewart: stage right now.

[00:33:09] Leah Sherman, ND: Okay. And it's written by you, not by ai.

[00:33:11] Jeff Stewart: by ai.

[00:33:12] Leah Sherman, ND: Okay.

[00:33:12] Jeff Stewart: Yeah. Yeah. And, um, it has nothing to do about Cancer, molecular biology, or Jeopardy. None of those things. It's the book. It's a book I would've loved reading when I grew up. And yes, I write it for, you know, my, my kids, they have it, but it is, uh, it's called, uh, the Angel, Chloe, and The Wall of Stone and Bone. It's just a ya novel with angels and demons and it's fun and people solving hard problems. I just, I love it. I hope I live long enough to write two different, uh, two sequels to it. Make it a trilogy. That seems about right, but I, I do, I love the characters. It's been something I've always wanted to do, but never really had the time or the purpose to do it. And, um, when my health started going south, well, I, I had the time and I definitely had the, uh, God to do more.

[00:34:01] Leah Sherman, ND: So are there other lessons and inspirations woven into this book as well?

[00:34:05] Jeff Stewart: Not as, not as such. I mean, there are in there like, um, the, the lead character Chloe is, um, a foster child and is pretty traumatized. Um, and, uh, not always a good person, but she learns to be a good person over, uh, you know, through her trials. And then see some of the things that have been really hard things for her.

You see how they've ended up being some of her strengths. But I mean, that's just comes out of the writing. It's not something I'm really imposing on it. You see, it, it, it's a little, it's funny writing. Like when you write like a character and you've got it to be more or less, you've got the picture of what the character is in mind. Start a chapter, you have no idea how they're gonna get outta the problem. They get out the problem and it reveals more about their character. It's, it's, um, it's like acting, I guess. It's just, it's a different experience. And I do love writing. I love writing so much. So I'm glad I got to be able to do this one.

Hopefully can write a couple more.

[00:34:55] Leah Sherman, ND: Well, thank you very much, for all of your wisdom. 

I just, I, I really have enjoyed talking with you, both off and on camera and, um, I wish you the best,

[00:35:07] Jeff Stewart: Thank you so much,

[00:35:07] Leah Sherman, ND: with, with the release of your new book, which is gonna be, um, Halloween of,

[00:35:12] Jeff Stewart: and it'll be half price for one day on Halloween, half price Halloween. So if you are going to get the book, the Angel, Chloe, and the Wall of Stone and Bone Do it on Halloween,

[00:35:22] Leah Sherman, ND: and it's young adult.

[00:35:25] Jeff Stewart: young Adult, young, it's, it fits into the category of adult, uh, fantasy or

[00:35:31] Leah Sherman, ND: Okay.

[00:35:32] Jeff Stewart: paranormal and demons sort of thing. So if you have somebody who likes They kind of interested in kind of angel demon sort of thing, um, or they just like to see a lot of, um, cool fights with demons. is the book for you. It is a Paige Turner. They'll love it.

[00:35:49] Leah Sherman, ND: Okay, great. Is will there be a link that I can put up as well for that in the show notes or?

[00:35:55] Jeff Stewart: I can put a link up to the Kickstarter, but that's only for a month for, um, to, to hire the, uh, audiobook, um, talent. It's not a good one for me to do as an audiobook. Um, but it is for actually a, a, uh, a lady who, whose husband just died of stomach cancer, about, I. Six weeks ago, I believe. Um, so she's the narrator of the book.

It's Deb be her. Um, that's all I have right now. I can't, I we don't have a pre-order link set up. We don't, certainly don't have the book online yet. Um, so I can't yet, but I can do it in a future date. But if you just look up the Angel, Chloe, and the Wall of Stone and Bone, anywhere close to Halloween of 2025, you will find it.

[00:36:30] Leah Sherman, ND: Okay, great. Well, thanks again for coming on.

[00:36:33] Jeff Stewart: Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure.

[00:36:37] Jeff Stewart: December 6th, 2022, you're gonna fight that cancer. No, I'm really not. I get unreasonably irritated when I hear that I'm going to fight that cancer. What's my weapon? Harsh language, good would fighting whatever that means, do. I'm not gonna fight cancer. I'm not going to beat cancer. I'm not going to lose my battle with cancer either. I don't even think my good attitude or bad attitude is. Gonna do much of, much, at least so far as fighting cancer goes. The actual cancer fight looks like this. Oxaliplatin a chemotherapy is spot welding. My DNA, so the replicating DNA strands snarl in a tangled mess and. Poison whatever DNA manages to copy itself. Despite the oxaliplatin welding, my immune system is hunting down stray cancer cells survived the war chemos waging on my DNA in three months.

Chest radiation will blow double stranded brakes in my DNA mortal molecular wounds. If the actual fighters kill every last cancer cell I live, if even one cancer cell lives, I die. I'm not the fighter, I'm the battlefield. 

[00:37:49] Leah Sherman, ND: