Suleika Jaouad + Tara Westover: Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted

Join Suleika Jaouad as she presents her first book Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted. Joining Suleika in conversation is New York Times bestseller Tara Westover. Purchase a copy here: www.strandbooks.com/search-re...
A searing, deeply moving memoir of illness and recovery that traces one young woman's journey from diagnosis to remission and, ultimately, a road trip of healing and self-discovery.
When Jaouad finally walked out of the cancer ward--after three and a half years of chemo, a clinical trial, and a bone marrow transplant--she was, according to the doctors, cured. But as she would soon learn, a cure is not where the work of healing ends; it's where it begins. Sp Jaouad embarked--with her new best friend, Oscar, a scruffy terrier mutt--on a 100-day, 15,000-mile road trip across the country. She set out to meet some of the strangers who had written to her during her years in the hospital: a teenage girl in Florida also recovering from cancer; a teacher in California grieving the death of her son; a death-row inmate in Texas who'd spent his own years confined to a room. What she learned on this trip is that the divide between sick and well is porous, that the vast majority of us will travel back and forth between these realms throughout our lives. Between Two Kingdoms is a profound chronicle of survivorship and a fierce, tender, and inspiring exploration of what it means to begin again.
Suleika Jaouad is an Emmy Award-winning writer, speaker, cancer survivor, and activist. She served on Barack Obama's President's Cancer Panel, and her advocacy work, reporting, and speaking has been featured at the United Nations, on Capitol Hill, and on the TED Talk main stage. When she's not on the road with her 1972 Volkswagen camper van and her rescue dog Oscar, she lives in Brooklyn.
Tara Westover was born in Idaho in 1986. She received her BA from Brigham Young University in 2008 and was subsequently awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. She earned an MPhil from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 2009, and in 2010 was a visiting fellow at Harvard University. She returned to Cambridge, where she was awarded a PhD in history in 2014. Her first book, Educated, was a #1 New York Times bestseller and has remained on the list for more than a year. It was a finalist for a number of national awards, including two from the National Book Critics Circle Awards, as well as the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award. President Barack Obama and Bill Gates both recommended Educated on their annual reading lists, and the American Booksellers Association named Educated the Adult Nonfiction Book of the Year.
Recorded February 11, 2021

[@bettymaugeri7316]

A heartwarming interview - thank you for sharing Suleika - wishing you peace and good health🙏

[@mmsshh777]

Was very moved by some of the things Suleika said, her perspective on things and the way she thought about things and articulated them. I'll be sure to read her book. Thank you so much for this!

[@stknmggs1788]

What a profound conversation. Beautiful and immensely talented women.

[@stephanierose88]

Two of my favorite authors! Can you both write more books, please! :p

[@stregalilith]

Tara wasn't that bad. It seemed like a conversation between two friends and I'm going to read both their books.

[@faylestock4086]

WoW! Thé interviewer lacks tact: how sharp Suleika is to picked up the comment of one of the viewer’s name Alice « that it is no one fault when you have such a disease « This girl needs. More empathy: I don’t feel it here! Suleika is such a mature, talented, spiritual woman, she is amazing!

[@rosyc9250]

Not to excuse her behavior but she grew up in a different culture than most in the USA. She is probably a work in action in unlearning some traits she picked in childhood. They are friends.

[@franistone8252]

I would liked to have heard more from eloquent Suleika and less from the interviewer.

[@rasta487]

Exactly. I have binged watched alot of videos Suleika is featured in and I've never seen someone be so reckless & seemingly thoughtless with her. I'm sure she can take it. I just hadn't seen it. Suleikas approach I think makes some want to be more thoughtful in this society. Edit: in conclusion she probably wouldn't like how I've spoken on the interviewers approach. We all need grace.

[@rasta487]

Wow....quite a few said what i was thinking. This was so far my least favorite interviewer with Suleika. Suleika presents as very thoughtful, and thats how I've seen each interviewer approach her. It has helped me to want to be more that way. A better listener and communicator. The interviewer reminded me of how so much of our society operates and why i feel like i have to be on guard and defensive.

[@tammyslaughter9587]

Tara had zero insight and had no business interviewing someone who went through the extreme health experiences that Suleika went through. It was very offensive and appalling that Tara asked if Suleika was glad she was diagnosed with leukemia instead of HIV because she then knew it was not her fault. That’s about as bad as if Suleika told Tara that it was Tara’s fault that her brother abused her. A 12 year old could have been more tactful and considerate in interviewing this gracious articulate woman. For someone as educated as Tara she sure has not been educated on tact and graciousness. I also think it was crude that she said she laughed out loud about the fact that a young 22 yr old was so psychologically desperate because of being so isolated that she took a chance of risking her life by leaving her hospital floor and then comparing it with the general public breathing the air during Covid. I’m sorry but having your immune system totally wiped out by chemical cytotoxins is not exactly the same thing as people being afraid of exposure to Covid in the general public.

[@valve6642]

Tara comes off as so insensitive. Yes, Tara, "burnout syndrome" is real. It's called Epstein-Barr Syndrome or Chronic Fatigue. Sheeeesh