Why I decided to make a podcast about getting treated for prostate cancer

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This can’t be good.

That was my first thought when Brian McGrory, then the editor of The Boston Globe, summoned me to his office in 2019. I figured he had a story in mind and he wanted me to do it, maybe because everyone else said no.

Instead, McGrory told me the Globe was interested in creating another podcast to capitalize on the success of “Love Letters,” the award-winning relationship podcast hosted by my colleague Meredith Goldstein, and “Last Seen,” the stellar nine-episode pod about the Gardner Museum heist the Globe co-produced with WBUR.

He had an idea for the new podcast, which he shared with me. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t awesome, either. I thought about it for a few days and then returned to his office with an alternative. What if I told the story of being treated for prostate cancer — at 48 years old — and the toll it took not only on my family but also on my sexual function?

McGrory looked slightly gobsmacked.

“Would you talk about that?” he said.

“Sure,” I said. “Why not?”

I explained that prostate cancer is an absurdly common disease — about 200,000 men in the United States are diagnosed annually — but no one talks about it. Generations of women have taken to the streets — and to the halls of Congress — to raise awareness about breast cancer, but men are mum about a disease that claims 30,000 lives a year in the United States. (Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among American men.)

I could see McGrory was intrigued. It had been five years since I was treated. I survived — spoiler! — but it was a brutal ordeal. I endured not just surgery, but also radiation and hormone therapy. At the outset, doctors gave me a menu of treatment options and, out of necessity, I ended up ordering all of them.

Along the way, I learned so much about prostate cancer that I found fascinating: What does the prostate gland actually do? Why, until the early 1980s, did every man who had their prostate removed wind up impotent? Why are guys so unwilling to talk about prostate cancer? Who’s most at risk of getting it?

I told McGrory I’d been talking about all this stuff with friends and coworkers, mostly because it was interesting but also because men and their families should be aware. I thought a podcast, with contributions from my doctors, wife and kids, and assorted others, could be entertaining and maybe even helpful. (And why not get paid to tell my story, amirite?)

Without hesitation, he said yes and over the next eight months, I worked with two talented colleagues, Kelly Horan and Scott Helman, to put together the “Mr. 80 Percent” podcast (and accompanying Globe Magazine piece.) It was emotional revisiting the ups and downs of my cancer experience — I would have preferred fewer downs, honestly — but it was also gratifying. The response was overwhelming. I heard from men — and more than a few spouses — who appreciated the honesty and the information. In hundreds of emails and a few phone calls — a recently diagnosed federal judge from New York somehow got my cell number — they shared emotional stories and asked difficult questions. I tried to respond to everyone.

The news that Joe Biden has prostate cancer is sad but not surprising; he’s old. Yet it’s also focused public attention on a disease that is a mystery to most men, and that’s good. We made “Mr. 80 Percent” five years ago because there’s a lot you need to know. There still is. Last week, I sat down with Globe podcast host Jazmin Aguilera to talk about my story and why I wanted to tell it. Have a listen.

🧩 2 Down: Live | ☁️ Building clouds

Boston and Massachusetts

• Karen Read retrial: A crash specialist testified that the “totality of the evidence” — including injuries to John O’Keefe — was consistent with Read’s SUV backing into him.
• Perpetual motion machine: Years of deferred maintenance, declining service, and accidents have made the MBTA seem unfixable. Phil Eng is making headway.
• Untenured: Harvard revoked the tenure of a prominent business school ethics professor accused of fabricating data, the first time it has done so in decades.
• Medical mystery: Two investigations found normal radiation levels at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and concluded that the facility didn’t cause noncancerous brain tumors among seven nurses who worked there.
• Denied: The Supreme Court won’t hear the case of a Middleborough student whom school officials barred from wearing a T-shirt that said there are only two genders. (AP)
• School bus safety: Despite a recent fatal accident, Boston’s school buses remain among the safest ways for kids to get to and from school. They even beat walking.
• Revival: A new church, called Netcast, is taking over the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers. “A large part of our church has simply stumbled in,” its founder says.

Trump administration

• Market signals: Stocks rose and US consumer confidence rebounded after President Trump backtracked on his tariff threats against China and the European Union. (CNBC)
• Plot twist: Elon Musk said he was “disappointed” by Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which House Republicans passed last week, because it would increase the deficit. (CBS)
• Higher power: The administration asked the Supreme Court to let it deport migrants to third countries, including South Sudan, which is on the verge of civil war. (SCOTUSblog)
• Foreign visas: The administration paused scheduling interviews for student visa applicants while it considers whether to vet their social media accounts. (Politico)
• Pardon me? Trump pardoned Todd and Julie Chrisley, a reality show couple imprisoned for fraud and tax crimes whose daughter campaigned for him. (CNN) Trump also recently pardoned a tax cheat whose mother attended a $1-million-per-person fund-raiser at his Mar-a-Lago club. (NYT)
• Free speech case: NPR sued over a Trump executive order aimed at cutting federal funding to it and PBS. (AP)
• Legal campaign: A judge struck down Trump’s executive order targeting the law firm WilmerHale, the third such ruling against him. (The Hill)
• Multijob men: Several Trump officials simultaneously hold multiple jobs in the administration. The juggling has some experts concerned.
• Royal treatment: King Charles III of the UK subtly dinged Trump in a speech to Canada’s parliament that was co-written with the Canadian prime minister’s office. (Toronto Star)

The Nation and the World

• Crypto case: A second suspect surrendered to police in the case of a man who was allegedly kidnapped and tortured in a New York City apartment in an effort to get his Bitcoin password. (ABC)
• Diddy trial: The music mogul’s former assistant testified that he threatened to kill her and, gun in hand, pledged to kill the rapper Kid Cudi for dating Diddy’s on-and-off girlfriend. (NBC)
• UK crash: Police are holding the driver of a car that plowed into Liverpool FC fans, injuring 65, on suspicion of attempted murder. (BBC)
• Assisted dying: France’s National Assembly passed a bill that would let adults with incurable illnesses take lethal medication, sending it to the Senate. (Le Monde)

❤️ Love letters: How to support a close friend through a rough breakup? Let them him the lead, Meredith says.

🚀 Far, far away: This YouTuber built a homemade lightsaber replica that eerily mimics the “Star Wars” franchise’s signature elegant weapon for a more civilized age. (HeroTech)

🎨 Art sleuth: How an $18 pillow led to the recovery of a $2 million Dutch painting stolen nearly 50 years ago from a Worcester home.

📺 Infinite supply: As the universe of shows worth watching keeps expanding, our critic wonders how to decide which to commit to.

🌊 In the deep: Researchers surveyed a lost US Navy submarine, sunk during World War I, in digital detail. You can see it here. (Smithsonian)

⚾ What is The Password? Red Sox prospect Jhostynxon Garcia has been in Triple A for just over a week — and he’s already been featured in a question on “Jeopardy!”

👟 All tied up: Foot pain? It might be your shoelace knot. (HuffPost)

🍽️ Celiac friendly: Here are the best Boston-area restaurants for gluten-free diners.

Thanks for reading Starting Point.

This newsletter was edited by Andrew Caffrey and produced by Diamond Naga Siu.

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Mark Shanahan can be reached at mark.shanahan@globe.com. Follow him @MarkAShanahan.