rant · moment 12 of 18
Cigarettes, Genetics, and Dying with Dignity
from Growing Up Gottschee with Dan St. Germain · #122
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
4 minA riff on RJ Reynolds providing meaning to smokers' lives, guessing how long everyone in the room will live, discussing genetics versus lifestyle in cancer, and the difficulty of end-of-life decisions and euthanasia.
- 44:58Tim dismisses Oprah's spiritual conversations as bullshit.
- 45:26Ray predicts he and Tim will live to 85, though some family members live longer for unclear genetic reasons.
- 45:45Cancer may be influenced more by genetics and local environmental clusters than smoking alone, despite what studies claim.
- 46:33Quality of life matters even if you live to 85—you don't want to feel like shit the whole time.
- 47:10Tim jokes about immediately wanting euthanasia upon diagnosis, even for minor ailments like a cold.
- 47:37The podcast began as mind-numbingly boring, with Tim reading statistics about Amazon and none of them taking any stance.
- 48:19Ray finally generates interest 45 minutes in by suggesting cigarettes are good for you, which is when the show actually gets going.
- 48:33Tim saw suicides in the morgue from people with terminal diagnoses who made their own choice to end it.