Speaker 1: Hey, Hey, Hey, ba fam it is Mandy Woodruff Santos.
Speaker 1: I am here with a very special guest this week.
Speaker 1: Marina Franklin is a veteran comedian. She's an actor. I mean,
Speaker 1: you say multi hyphen it, but there's not enough hyphens
Speaker 1: I think in existence for what this amazing woman has
Speaker 1: done and pioneer in her space. Actor writer, she's a host.
Speaker 1: She has been a standout premier comedian for years now.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to reveal her age, but when you
Speaker 1: see her, I mean I swear you could not guess,
Speaker 1: and she says it in her stand up. She ages
Speaker 1: very well. But to be so experienced at her craft,
Speaker 1: She's got some amazing work coming out now that's actually
Speaker 1: available for y'all to check out. I encourage you to
Speaker 1: check out her comedies special single Black Female, It's Hilarious
Speaker 1: on Amazon Prime. She's also a part of this really
Speaker 1: amazing documentary series on FX called Hysterical, which is taking
Speaker 1: a real look behind the curtain at the comedy you know,
Speaker 1: the comedy club scene, and what it's like to be
Speaker 1: women in that scene, and especially for folks like Marina
Speaker 1: coming up and trying to break out in the very
Speaker 1: crowded space and a male dominated space, and it's a
Speaker 1: wonderful project that she's a part of, which we'll talk
Speaker 1: a bit about on today's show. But let me stop
Speaker 1: with my rambling and introduce y'all and say hello to Marina.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: It was a good ramble, Was it all right? Okay? Yeah,
Speaker 2: the intro was spectacular. I'm always cringing because I forget
Speaker 2: I need to change the bio on my website. So
Speaker 2: I appreciated what she did there.
Speaker 1: Does that mean really not a viciously likable person, Marina?
Speaker 1: I mean that was years ago, someone who gets asked
Speaker 1: for bios all the time, and I'm just like, ugh,
Speaker 1: someone else write this viciously likable?
Speaker 2: Someone else wrote that. Yeah. I was like, okay, I
Speaker 2: mean I think in that year, in that year.
Speaker 1: Okay, I don't even know what that means. Like that
Speaker 1: means like, you know, you can't throw it, but you're
Speaker 1: gonna smile afterward on stage?
Speaker 2: You know. The thing is is they always wonder are
Speaker 2: you a likable comic? Are you know? On stage? Like
Speaker 2: some comics have an edge where you wouldn't want to
Speaker 2: approach them afterwards, and some comics are likable. So that's me.
Speaker 1: Oh, okay, you're the kind of comic that you want
Speaker 1: to hang out with. I don't know. I kind of
Speaker 1: feel like, don't I mean, to be a comic, don't
Speaker 1: you need to have I mean, you need to have
Speaker 1: this like bit like this, this razor sharp wit and
Speaker 1: ability to give people shit and give them a hard
Speaker 1: time and call them out. But then yeah, be likable
Speaker 1: enough for folks to want to come back for more abuse.
Speaker 2: Well, no, I mean I don't know. Most of the
Speaker 2: comics I know, you wouldn't want to hang out afterwards.
Speaker 2: Oh no, okay, Oh no, they're they're smart, they're quick.
Speaker 2: I mean, the most of the ones that I know.
Speaker 2: I'm not speaking for. There's a lot of comics these days,
Speaker 2: so I'm not speaking for all of them. The comics
Speaker 2: I know they're pretty, you know, they have very strong personality,
Speaker 2: So hanging out with them after the show, you I
Speaker 2: wouldn't do that.
Speaker 1: Okay, it does feel like, I mean, what's it like
Speaker 1: from your perspective? Because you have been in this business
Speaker 1: for how many years? Now?
Speaker 2: Twenty two years now?
Speaker 1: I guess yeah, yeah, so over the I mean that's
Speaker 1: a generation, right, so over the past twenty years. I mean,
Speaker 1: how have you felt the scene has changed for black
Speaker 1: female comics. Do you think that it is better than ever?
Speaker 1: There's still so much we have so much room to
Speaker 1: grow and so so much further to go. What's it
Speaker 1: like from your perspective?
Speaker 2: Well, it's definitely on the right path. You know. You
Speaker 2: have a lot of black female comics working now at
Speaker 2: the same club, like the Comedy Seller where I work,
Speaker 2: you know, mostly that's where that's like my home club.
Speaker 2: You'll have three black female comics on one show and
Speaker 2: it's not even a thing anymore. And that's and they
Speaker 2: don't mix y'all's names up, and they don't mix our
Speaker 2: names up, all right, they better not, you know. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, but what's interesting is it's it's such a
Speaker 2: good path to be on because now we're getting the
Speaker 2: opportunity to see, oh, maybe I should change my joke.
Speaker 2: Maybe we're talking about the same things. You know, when
Speaker 2: I was the only black female comic in the room
Speaker 2: going on stage, I was the only one representing black women.
Speaker 2: Now there's three or four five black women there, and
Speaker 2: I've got to go, oh, well, she's talking about that too.
Speaker 2: Now I get to work on my craft the way
Speaker 2: white men have been working on their craft for years,
Speaker 2: you know, because they're always going up against someone who
Speaker 2: may be talking about the same thing. And that's that's
Speaker 2: part of the craft of stand up is having original
Speaker 2: material that's unique to you. So it's on this way,
Speaker 2: it's in a good direction. But I would say that,
Speaker 2: you know, continue to do the work. You know, we
Speaker 2: we can't all be Tiffany Hattish, you know, that's the
Speaker 2: name that is commonly. This is what you know they
Speaker 2: tend to do, is they'll they'll find one, you know token.
Speaker 2: I would say, she's you know, black woman, and go,
Speaker 2: that's the that's who we want you go into an
Speaker 2: audition to go can you be more like her? Can
Speaker 2: you be more like Tiffany? And we're not. You know,
Speaker 2: we're not a monolithic right isn't that the word I
Speaker 2: always get there? Word bro And we're yeah, we're not.
Speaker 2: We're yeah. I think that's how it goes. But you know,
Speaker 2: we're all we all have very unique different ways of
Speaker 2: approaching comedy, styles, acting, everything. We all look different. There's
Speaker 2: just Sheer' z Amata, There's Nicole Bayer, There's Yaminika Sanders,
Speaker 2: there's Marina Franklin. You know, there's Wanda Sykes. You have
Speaker 2: all these options now to choose from, so that shouldn't
Speaker 2: be the excuse, and yet it does still happen. So
Speaker 2: you you know, you go into these rooms, you have
Speaker 2: these conversations, and you see that even though I'm having
Speaker 2: the conversation with women and I see the change, I
Speaker 2: still see some people are stock.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I was gonna say, it's it's
Speaker 1: so ironic to me because I I don't know funnier
Speaker 1: people than the Black women in my life, like hands down,
Speaker 1: and that just may be, you know, indicative of just
Speaker 1: the collective trauma that you endure as like a black
Speaker 1: woman in this country. But we are the funniest people.
Speaker 1: I mean, I swear to god, I don't laugh harder
Speaker 1: than I do when I go to the black female
Speaker 1: Facebook groups for Peloton, black what is it? Black Girl Magic?
Speaker 1: Peloton addition, and the I'm in a planting group black
Speaker 1: women who love gardens, Oh my.
Speaker 2: God, Oh I have to check that out because I
Speaker 2: do love to garden kill the plant I'm trying to
Speaker 2: bring back my baby tears.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of there's it's a safe space for
Speaker 1: any plant killers, plant homicide is a common topic. But
Speaker 1: when I tell you the comments and I live for them,
Speaker 1: so I am. I'm so excited because I agree with you.
Speaker 1: Why don't I know more? You know, Why can't I,
Speaker 1: at the top of my head come up with like
Speaker 1: black female comics off the top of my head. But
Speaker 1: you are sort of having this this big moment, you know,
Speaker 1: well into your career now you are You're touring with
Speaker 1: Jim Gaffigan, right.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm not touring with him, but I do shows
Speaker 2: for him when he's in the city or when he asks,
Speaker 2: you know, so like I did shows for him, you know,
Speaker 2: when the pandemic just started. We were doing like shows
Speaker 2: for cars basically, you know, he had all these dates
Speaker 2: like yeah, so, and it was just a way to
Speaker 2: still honor those tickets and give people a chance to
Speaker 2: get out the house, you know. And he asked me
Speaker 2: if I was if I would want to every now
Speaker 2: and then Jim would ask me to do a show.
Speaker 2: I'm not his regular tour person. And then before you know,
Speaker 2: I was booked actually to do Radio City Music Hall
Speaker 2: with him. And the pandemic happened so recently, you know,
Speaker 2: as things are in New York coming back to some
Speaker 2: sort of normalcy. He asked me to do Radio City.
Speaker 1: Music Hall and I said, yes, of course you did.
Speaker 2: I was like that, I said, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what was so? I think you're from Chicago.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I'm originally from Chicago. I you all over Chicago. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I moved around a lot, which is part of my
Speaker 2: routine or was. I don't talk about that as much.
Speaker 2: You know when I when you first start, you're kind
Speaker 2: of do and you're like, you know, this is my ancestry,
Speaker 2: this is what happened, this is who I am. So
Speaker 2: I grew up in Highland Park, Illinois, which is predominantly white.
Speaker 2: It's a Jewish neighborhood too, which by the way, i'm
Speaker 2: twelve percent of my twenty three and meters. That's what
Speaker 2: they told me. And actually it went up this summer.
Speaker 2: I don't know why, anyway. So I grew up in
Speaker 2: Highland Park and then moved to the South Side of Chicago,
Speaker 2: which was a black neighborhood on the South Side Chicago.
Speaker 2: Then moved to the suburbs of Chicago, which was a
Speaker 2: multi like diverse neighborhood. It was like the utopia of diverse,
Speaker 2: interracial you know, black and white people, schools, everything, So
Speaker 2: I had all of those experience, so I'm like a chameleon,
Speaker 2: you know. I had to adjust.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. I know you've talked about in previous interviews
Speaker 1: sort of feeling like, well, it was too late for me,
Speaker 1: or in your stand up like it was too late
Speaker 1: for me. By the time I moved to a black
Speaker 1: neighborhood like or a black school area, I was white.
Speaker 1: As far as they were concerned.
Speaker 2: I didn't have the skills. I didn't know how to
Speaker 2: I didn't know double Dutch. And I talk about that
Speaker 2: in my routine because that was a very traumatic moment
Speaker 2: because it was about playing, you know, kids play, and
Speaker 2: the way the girls were playing on the South Side
Speaker 2: of Chicago double Dutch, and I really wanted to play,
Speaker 2: but I know I didn't know what it was, and
Speaker 2: they didn't understand why I didn't know what it was.
Speaker 2: And so on my block, I trained, Oh.
Speaker 1: Really like Rocky, like black Girl Rocky double Dutch. Sure
Speaker 1: that's got to be like a cartoon or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, and I remember them like, you gotta jump,
Speaker 2: you got you gotta jump wild at first, you gotta
Speaker 2: make sure your legs are wide open. Sounds crazy, but
Speaker 2: that's exactly how you jumped in order to learn and
Speaker 2: then eventually your legs will close in and you'll be fine.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I did some double dutch back in back in
Speaker 1: the mean streets of Union City, Georgia.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and turning right turning was important, like and.
Speaker 1: Sing during it because there were songs. So you were
Speaker 1: like you had three, four or.
Speaker 2: Five turn around, pop up, twist it off.
Speaker 1: I don't know. We got to show you double dutch aerobics. Anyway,
Speaker 1: that's conversation for another time. There's actually aerobics now around
Speaker 1: double dutch. Talk to me about since Brown Ambition. First
Speaker 1: of all, our show we talk about everything under the
Speaker 1: sun when it comes to wealth building and career and
Speaker 1: as black women, especially just normalizing those types of conversations.
Speaker 1: And so I want to hear you know, just before
Speaker 1: we kind of get into a bit more personal story
Speaker 1: and what I'm excited to talk to you about your
Speaker 1: dirtey and your recovery from breast cancer. I would love
Speaker 1: to talk to you and just hear you know, what's
Speaker 1: it like making it as a comic financially you know,
Speaker 1: and how has the pandemic impacted your business? And how
Speaker 1: has that been for you and how have you been
Speaker 1: able to get through it?
Speaker 2: I mean it's not easy. I mean, but I I'm
Speaker 2: a older comics, so twenty two years. I have a
Speaker 2: sort of like the longer you do something, the more people,
Speaker 2: you know, the more opportunities you have, the more people
Speaker 2: take care of you, you know, the more you commit
Speaker 2: to a career. So I was I did okay, you know,
Speaker 2: I was fine. I wasn't working. I collected unemployment. I'm
Speaker 2: not like, you know, one of the ones who had
Speaker 2: so much money that I couldn't collect unemployment. I collected unemployment.
Speaker 2: You know. I learned to pivot. That was the word, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I did my podcast Friends Like Us, and I sold
Speaker 2: T shirts and face masks and coffee mugs, and I
Speaker 2: did my own virtual zoom shows instead of like doing
Speaker 2: other shows. People would ask you to do their virtual
Speaker 2: Zoom show. And I said, why, I know how to
Speaker 2: get on the internet. Why am I always giving my
Speaker 2: product away? So I did my own Zoom show and
Speaker 2: I had people come on and open for me, and
Speaker 2: I would make you know, like five hundred dollars just
Speaker 2: in my kitchen.
Speaker 1: So you were out there side hustling with the best
Speaker 1: of us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I was. I was sorde hustling, and then
Speaker 2: I had some money saved. So I was fortunate to
Speaker 2: have done that. But a lot of times I thought
Speaker 2: about what if I was just starting, Like I remember
Speaker 2: when I first started as a comic, you know, how
Speaker 2: I was really like struggling waiting tables or you know,
Speaker 2: I was working at a consulting firm answering the phones.
Speaker 2: What would have happened if I had nowhere to go
Speaker 2: to and it would have been very tough. I really
Speaker 2: don't know, you know. I think about the younger comics
Speaker 2: and how difficult this must have been for them. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So I try to keep that in mind whenever I'm
Speaker 2: like kind of relaxed and oh I did this so well,
Speaker 2: I go, you know, but it could have been different,
Speaker 2: So I keep it in mind.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, it's like it's time to count your blessings. But
Speaker 1: also it's a bit of survivor's guild. I think a
Speaker 1: lot of folks are like a teeny tiny bit well,
Speaker 1: healthcare is also a big one, and that is, you know,
Speaker 1: especially if you're an artist and you're or you're a
Speaker 1: creative person and you're in the city, and I recently
Speaker 1: became independent and launched my own business as well, and
Speaker 1: I couldn't have done that as easily as I did.
Speaker 1: And I'm I'm pretty transparent about that if I didn't
Speaker 1: have my husband's you know, health care. And I think
Speaker 1: what I wanted to ask you about is how do
Speaker 1: do you have health care as a comic, Like, how
Speaker 1: does that work? And is it expensive? Because in the
Speaker 1: middle of a pandemic, you know, at a time when
Speaker 1: our health is really in jeopardy, it's insane to me
Speaker 1: that we have so many Americans still, you know without
Speaker 1: that access.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I have health insurance. I had to
Speaker 2: when I was getting breast cancer, you know, dealing with that,
Speaker 2: I was forced to really pay attention to what health
Speaker 2: insurance I have.
Speaker 1: When did you find out when were you diagnosed with
Speaker 1: breast cancer? And at that time, what was your status
Speaker 1: with your health care?
Speaker 2: Well, so that was two years ago, and I was
Speaker 2: paying for health insurance through SAG and it was very expensive.
Speaker 2: And then when you have breast cancer and you have
Speaker 2: these bills coming in and you find out, oh, they're
Speaker 2: not going to pay for everything, and learning how to
Speaker 2: navigate that that was all new to me. You know,
Speaker 2: I never had breast cancer before. I never had like
Speaker 2: emergency situation where I had to figure out how to
Speaker 2: pay for stuff. So it was hard because you're you're
Speaker 2: new in your diagnosis, you're afraid, you're not sure if
Speaker 2: you're going to live, and then you're on the phone
Speaker 2: with people begging them to pay for your bills. And
Speaker 2: a part of that is humiliating because then you go, well, why,
Speaker 2: you start going into like why didn't I do this
Speaker 2: with my career? Why am I? Why am I in
Speaker 2: this position? Why am I not married and using my
Speaker 2: husband's insurance? You know all those things, and when you
Speaker 2: have an emergency like breast cancer, you do need to,
Speaker 2: you know, do what you need to do to take
Speaker 2: care of those bills. And I had other friends who
Speaker 2: told me this is what you need to do, this
Speaker 2: is how you need to set yourself up, this is
Speaker 2: you know, look ato all the programs and so that
Speaker 2: was very helpful. Your friends really are your best advocate.
Speaker 2: I had a young they write me this morning about
Speaker 2: my set, and she was like, I really appreciated it
Speaker 2: because I was just diagnosed and I'm thirty eight. And
Speaker 2: I said to her, let your friends be your best advocate.
Speaker 2: So keep them around, keep them, keep them, keep them around.
Speaker 2: And you know whoever that is. You know, it could
Speaker 2: be a stranger that all of a sudden becomes your
Speaker 2: friend because they are better at being an advocate for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well take me back to that.
Speaker 2: So I'm going to flash as I'm talking about this.
Speaker 1: No, I mean, well, it's fresh, right, I mean, so,
Speaker 1: what's your So a couple of years ago you were diagnosed.
Speaker 1: How did you find out that you had breast cancer?
Speaker 1: And then what stage was it?
Speaker 2: You want the real story or well see the joke.
Speaker 2: And it is true. I say this on stage. I
Speaker 2: was when I was having sex. I don't have it anymore,
Speaker 2: but when I was, I don't I had. You know
Speaker 2: you it is fine.
Speaker 1: Married and it's not that great on the other side,
Speaker 1: so keep going. It's just woo.
Speaker 2: Well, but you're right, but they usually the truth of
Speaker 2: the matter is you women usually do find it during sex. Huh.
Speaker 2: You know a lot of women, well, their partner will
Speaker 2: find it, you know, to fill something That wasn't my case.
Speaker 2: My partner was asleep, so I had time to fill
Speaker 2: around and found it on my own.
Speaker 1: Oh man, So you were you. I mean you weren't.
Speaker 1: Were you weren't intending. It wasn't like I'm going to
Speaker 1: do a breast exam for my own health and benefit,
Speaker 1: but you were. You found it yourself by feeling.
Speaker 2: Badly basically, and I had time. I mean, that's really
Speaker 2: what it was. I was like, oh, I know how
Speaker 2: to take care of me. So and I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: what's that. So that's how I found it seriously, and
Speaker 2: then I was like and then I woke them up.
Speaker 2: I said, hey, you feel this. Uh he was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I do feel that. Then I I would take showers
Speaker 2: and I would do the thing like I felt like,
Speaker 2: I was kind of ridiculous, but I would. I was like,
Speaker 2: I do feel something. And so I went in and
Speaker 2: I had it checked. And the first time I went in,
Speaker 2: they said, we don't really think you have anything. That
Speaker 2: was the first time.
Speaker 1: This was a gynecologist.
Speaker 2: That was the the the not the guynecologists. But they
Speaker 2: send you to the person who does the mammograms. You know,
Speaker 2: they could send you to different locations in New York.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's not all in the ones. That's that's another
Speaker 2: whole thing. But sometimes you have to travel to like
Speaker 2: eighty six Street, go to the place where they do that,
Speaker 2: and that first time they said, well, we see something,
Speaker 2: but it's not big enough. And that was the year
Speaker 2: before I was actually diagnosed. And then that year, literally
Speaker 2: a year afterwards, I went told my doctor again, I said,
Speaker 2: I do still feel something, and I noticed when she
Speaker 2: was doing feeling around doing the ultra sound. Which is
Speaker 2: important to mention because a lot of women have dense
Speaker 2: breast tissue. You can't find everything with the mammograms. Sometimes
Speaker 2: you will find it with the ultrasounds. So it's important
Speaker 2: to mention that if you have dense bress tissue, you
Speaker 2: have to always ask for an ultrasound, and you have
Speaker 2: to ask because a lot of times they don't offer it.
Speaker 1: Okay, and they did not.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they did not find mine. With a mammogram. They
Speaker 2: found you know, calcium shows them a sign of something.
Speaker 2: The ultrasound gives them a little bit more information. And
Speaker 2: then that same doctor a year ago said, oh, it's
Speaker 2: probably nothing. This time said, you know what, it's gotten
Speaker 2: a little bigger, so we'll just do a biopsy just
Speaker 2: to make sure. And I didn't understand what a biopsy meant.
Speaker 2: So I was going to the commedy Stone. I was like,
Speaker 2: I got to get a biopsy tomorrow and they were
Speaker 2: like Marina. I was like what, completely close? And then
Speaker 2: I realized everyone was like, Brina, that's serious. And then
Speaker 2: I went back in for the biops, the biopsy I
Speaker 2: had like to and that's when, Yeah, that's when he
Speaker 2: was like, my doctor, my guynecologist actually called me, which
Speaker 2: apparently they're not supposed to do. But she wanted to
Speaker 2: get in touch with me right away. And it was
Speaker 2: a Friday night, and she said, we're shocked, but yes,
Speaker 2: you do. You have breast cancer. And then that moment
Speaker 2: I was really I was in a state of shock
Speaker 2: pretty much.
Speaker 1: Did she leave it at that? I mean, I feel
Speaker 1: like no.
Speaker 2: She told me. She was like, I'm gonna have my
Speaker 2: husband do this. He's gonna be the surgeon. You're gonna
Speaker 2: go in on Monday. We're going to take care of this.
Speaker 1: They wanted to do a lump, so it's called a lumpectomy.
Speaker 1: Did you have the lump removed right away?
Speaker 2: You don't really know exactly right away. That's the thing
Speaker 2: that's sort of like a lot of women don't understand
Speaker 2: is they have to make that decision. It takes time
Speaker 2: for them to make that decision, and then you also
Speaker 2: have to make that decision for yourself. So it's all
Speaker 2: based on what your diagnosis is in the stage of
Speaker 2: your cancer. So they can't really tell you that until
Speaker 2: they know the stage. They kind of have an idea.
Speaker 2: And that's what was confusing to me, because I was like,
Speaker 2: I thought you said I was stage one. What happened?
Speaker 2: What's going on? You're still doing more? Because what happens
Speaker 2: is they'll tell you the initial stage and then they
Speaker 2: still do more tests after. And I had several biopsies
Speaker 2: after that, so I didn't just have the two in
Speaker 2: the beginning. I had several. I had, like you know,
Speaker 2: like I had to go in like two more times
Speaker 2: or three more times. And then also they had to
Speaker 2: do the left breast as well, just to make sure.
Speaker 2: And then sometimes they see something and they're not sure,
Speaker 2: so yeah, it's a lot. And then then they take
Speaker 2: it and they go, well, we're seeing stage one, but
Speaker 2: we have to really still figure it out. Now they
Speaker 2: do a genetics test. Two.
Speaker 1: If you do you have a history in your family.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my aunt had breast cancer, but she was always like, oh,
Speaker 2: you know, people don't really talk about it in your family.
Speaker 1: It's really interesting in your family, they didn't talk about it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my neighbor and Lynn, I'll give her a shout out.
Speaker 1: She was the inspiration for me to even do a
Speaker 1: show like this because I had her over and she's
Speaker 1: kind of like my auntie here in the neighborhood and
Speaker 1: she had a double mass sectomy and told me that
Speaker 1: about her breast cancer story. And she said that she
Speaker 1: found out when she was at her grandmother's doctor's visit.
Speaker 1: Her grandmother couldn't drive herself, so she Lynn was just
Speaker 1: there in the background, like I'm taking your doctor, and
Speaker 1: just casually her grandmother mentioned that she had had breast
Speaker 1: cancer and so did her mother and everything, and Lynn said,
Speaker 1: it just wasn't talked about.
Speaker 2: You.
Speaker 1: They would make up other ways people died, like they
Speaker 1: would tell you that they, oh, they were just sick
Speaker 1: or they had a you know, a heart condition or something.
Speaker 1: But there was some kind of stigma to that breast cancer.
Speaker 1: And that was how Lynn found out that she had
Speaker 1: this family history of breast cancer and started to get
Speaker 1: screened and then you know, they found it and it
Speaker 1: was super aggressive, even though she had detected it early.
Speaker 1: So I don't know why, why why do you why?
Speaker 1: In your family? I know you can only kind of
Speaker 1: speak about your experience, but why don't you think it
Speaker 1: was something that was talked about.
Speaker 2: I think it's just it's it is like specific to
Speaker 2: black culture, black families, the mistrust in medicine. It plays
Speaker 2: into all of that, you know, and the way we
Speaker 2: talk about health in black circles. You know, that's my
Speaker 2: assumption is that's where it's coming from. But I also
Speaker 2: because I do remember my grandmother and the way she
Speaker 2: would talk about the mistrust of doctors. You know, my
Speaker 2: grandmother never had breast cancer, but I remember the way
Speaker 2: she would talk about things. It was like, you know,
Speaker 2: everything except for what the doctor said, you know. And
Speaker 2: I would think, on my this is my aunt on
Speaker 2: my mother's side. I think that, you know, that side
Speaker 2: of my family's just not that close. And so you
Speaker 2: you grow apart. You kind of hear about someone in
Speaker 2: your family like having something, but no one's really invested
Speaker 2: because we're all living our daily lives. But it's important,
Speaker 2: I think you because you start to realize when you
Speaker 2: have your own emergency how important it is to stay
Speaker 2: connected with your family. And then you go, oh, well,
Speaker 2: this is a learning lesson about family. You know, don't
Speaker 2: don't do that. You know, if anything, the pandemic probably
Speaker 2: taught us that too. It's like stay in touch with
Speaker 2: your family because you just never know, you know, what's
Speaker 2: going on with them. And I would say, like my
Speaker 2: family on my mother's side definitely is very It's not
Speaker 2: as connected, it's not as close the conversations were had.
Speaker 2: You know, even with my father. My father will put
Speaker 2: these drops in his eye. I was like, I just
Speaker 2: knew him as putting those drops in his I guess
Speaker 2: he just needed drops in his eyes. And plus I
Speaker 2: was young. You know, when you're young, you go, you know,
Speaker 2: the old people, they do things you don't really care.
Speaker 2: You know, you're like, ah, how long are the old
Speaker 2: man doing stuff? You know, But after a while, when
Speaker 2: it starts to affect your life, you realize, oh, those
Speaker 2: drops meant some day I may have glaucoma. Conversations should
Speaker 2: have been had, you know. But you learn, and then
Speaker 2: you try to tell people that are younger than you
Speaker 2: how it's important. Hopefully they listen, Hopefully they retain it.
Speaker 1: I mean, and just as you were speaking, I'm sitting
Speaker 1: here like of course. I mean, you think about that.
Speaker 1: They used to call this guy the father of gynecology,
Speaker 1: and he pioneered so much research and advances and female
Speaker 1: gynecology by practicing on black women, like practicing on our
Speaker 1: bodies and using us like you know, using us like
Speaker 1: mice in an experiment, and you think of that being
Speaker 1: just like so horrific, but it's having real So bringing
Speaker 1: it back to modern day, I mean, this is the
Speaker 1: fact that we're not maybe talking about it or or
Speaker 1: hearing about it so often. You know, you found yours luckily,
Speaker 1: you know, because you're you know, doing your thing badly. Listen,
Speaker 1: listen so bad? Did that? So do you do you
Speaker 1: keep in touch with that guy to let him know
Speaker 1: thank you so much for that night.
Speaker 2: You think you save my life.
Speaker 1: So after the testing, after the testing, when was it
Speaker 1: that the you're dealing with so much? I mean, you're
Speaker 1: you're probably emotional in stress and all of that. When
Speaker 1: did the bills start coming? Was that immediately? Was it
Speaker 1: later on?
Speaker 2: Did you feel like a they started talking you about
Speaker 2: the bills right away? Well? Really, oh god, there's no like.
Speaker 2: Look I just gotta just I said. Look, So they
Speaker 2: start they ask you for your insurance. The whole step
Speaker 2: of the way. There's no like, oh, you know, you
Speaker 2: don't come in and they're like, oh my god, you
Speaker 2: have breast cancer. There's none of that, you know there
Speaker 2: there it's a job for them. You know, they're dealing
Speaker 2: with a lot of women who have breast cancer. You're
Speaker 2: one of many. And I went to you know, I
Speaker 2: went through it rough because I went to a city hospital.
Speaker 2: And I went to that city hospital, which I don't recommend.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, if you if if you can
Speaker 2: avoid going to a city hospital, if you can't, it's okay.
Speaker 2: They do a great job there too. But I what
Speaker 2: I would say is your wait time is going to
Speaker 2: be longer. I used to sit and wait like sometimes
Speaker 2: six seven hours just to be seen. Yeah, because it's
Speaker 2: a city hospital, they're dealing with, like, you know, other
Speaker 2: emergencies that come before you. Sometimes there's there's no like
Speaker 2: there's no one holding your hand and being like oh
Speaker 2: miss Franklin. You know, not not overwhelmingly no, you know,
Speaker 2: it's like what insurance do you have? You know, that
Speaker 2: question comes at you hard. It's almost like they take
Speaker 2: you to the back, they counsel you about you know,
Speaker 2: we need that money. Yeah, you know, I mean they
Speaker 2: that it's a business. So when you walk in, you know,
Speaker 2: that was the thing I didn't realize. I was like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, Like this is what people were talking
Speaker 2: about when they say they have a pre existing condition
Speaker 2: and they get treated like this. It's it's horrible, you know.
Speaker 2: And then you get that one person that works there
Speaker 2: that's an angel and that is really taking care of
Speaker 2: you and that's really listening to you, and that does
Speaker 2: happen as well, So you just got to find them
Speaker 2: in those spaces.
Speaker 1: Did you feel prepared to advocate advocate for yourself? I
Speaker 1: know you said that your friends were really important, but
Speaker 1: when you were in that position and not feeling like
Speaker 1: you had someone in charge of making sure that Marina
Speaker 1: was okay and that you sort of had to be
Speaker 1: that person, did you feel prepared to, you know, be
Speaker 1: outspoken to to get the care that you needed. Did
Speaker 1: you feel like you had to do that a lot?
Speaker 2: I never had to do that before. This was the
Speaker 2: first time that I actually had to like even think
Speaker 2: about my body in the way. And I've learned a
Speaker 2: lot about myself, like I don't listen well. And because
Speaker 2: I had a friend and I knew right away because
Speaker 2: I had a friend who had breast cancer and I
Speaker 2: called her immediately. She was right after the doctors, the
Speaker 2: doctor when she gave me the diagnosis. I called my
Speaker 2: friend Jenny, my friend, and I cried, you know, and
Speaker 2: I was like just bawling. And then she was just like, Marina,
Speaker 2: it's okay. I know I'm gonna get you through this
Speaker 2: because you just don't think it'll ever happen to you,
Speaker 2: and then you just don't know how to process it.
Speaker 2: And she was just listening, and then she says, I'm
Speaker 2: going to go with you. I'll be an advocate for
Speaker 2: advocate for you. I'll be your friend. You know, I've
Speaker 2: been through this, I know how to take you through.
Speaker 2: And you're going through all that, so you don't even
Speaker 2: know what to think. You know, you have someone there
Speaker 2: that's really helping you. So, you know, my instinct to
Speaker 2: reach out. Thank god that was there so that I
Speaker 2: didn't do it by myself because my family not here,
Speaker 2: you know, my family's like all in Chicago and San Francisco.
Speaker 2: So I really had to rely on friends. And then
Speaker 2: eventually I I you know, I say this on stage,
Speaker 2: I have thirteen friends with breast cancer. So you know,
Speaker 2: you say, you say it's one, and it is one
Speaker 2: and eight by the way, so it's a it's an epidemic,
Speaker 2: you know. But when you say to that to people,
Speaker 2: when you say one in eight to people, they don't
Speaker 2: really respond, you know, because they don't they see those
Speaker 2: little stick figures and they go, eh. But you say
Speaker 2: you have thirteen friends with breast cancer, and all of
Speaker 2: a sudden you go, I go, exactly, yes, it's real,
Speaker 2: it's serious. And so I have thirteen friends with breast cancer.
Speaker 2: I took three of them will go with you know,
Speaker 2: I would swap out friends, you know, and they would
Speaker 2: go in and listen for me. Sometimes I wasn't listening,
Speaker 2: and then my one friend Jenny told me to record
Speaker 2: big I do that biggest advice, Yeah, I do. Ask
Speaker 2: the doctor's one. No, No, it's important because I yeah,
Speaker 2: I would listen to it and I would hear myself
Speaker 2: ask the doctor a question they had already answered. So
Speaker 2: I knew I wasn't listening, and that's how I knew.
Speaker 2: I was like, I got to continue to record every
Speaker 2: time I go in because that's how I get the information.
Speaker 2: Because I would hear and I go, oh my god,
Speaker 2: they just answered this question. And also I didn't even
Speaker 2: hear this while I was sitting there.
Speaker 1: Was it just because you were overwhelmed? You think, or
Speaker 1: kind of my mind wanders a million different directions during
Speaker 1: a converse. It's a real bad happen.
Speaker 2: No, I have a d D too. I used to Yeah,
Speaker 2: podcasting taught me how to listen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my god, turn your tabs off, and yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2: I'm so much better. People used to say that they
Speaker 2: could see me fade while I was listening to them,
Speaker 2: and I was like, oh no, you could see that.
Speaker 2: I thought I was playing it off, and they're like, no, no,
Speaker 2: it's obvious you're not listening. But this, this taught me
Speaker 2: a lot. And yeah, listening to those audios back and
Speaker 2: I can still listen to them to this day. If
Speaker 2: I wanted to just get more information and it saved
Speaker 2: my life. It actually taught me, Like, as I listened
Speaker 2: to it, it taught me about my staging of cancer.
Speaker 2: It taught me, you know that I have to get
Speaker 2: like an uncle type test that tells me what type
Speaker 2: of treatment I'm gonna get. And that's what I mean
Speaker 2: by there's a certain point in this where your staging
Speaker 2: goes up after they do the lump actomy. Now, when
Speaker 2: you decide to get the lump act to me or
Speaker 2: you decide to get a missect me, those decisions are
Speaker 2: based upon your genetic you know, history, and your stage.
Speaker 2: Well I was stage one, but after the lump actomy,
Speaker 2: I was stage one, hey, which I was like, what's
Speaker 2: that about? You know? And then my doctor told me
Speaker 2: what that was about was that the cancer they found
Speaker 2: it had traveled intro many marine nod which is in
Speaker 2: the actual breast tissue. There's nodes within the you know,
Speaker 2: you have your lymph nodes, there's nodes within the breast.
Speaker 2: Rarely happens now very important. I listened to that tape
Speaker 2: when she talked about that. So when I went for
Speaker 2: my I forget, I'm forgetting the name of it. When
Speaker 2: they do the HISS they do the information about your
Speaker 2: actual cancer, I forget, oh genetic, I forget what it's call.
Speaker 2: It's the uh, it's something. It's where they actually finally
Speaker 2: analyze it and tell you what type of treatment you're
Speaker 2: gonna get. Okay, and there's a different person for that
Speaker 2: while they had read it wrong.
Speaker 1: Oh lord, Yes, from the beginning or.
Speaker 2: This was after everything, after my lumpectomy, after my surgeon.
Speaker 2: It told me I was staged one job, one job,
Speaker 2: and I went in. But the thing is in memory, no,
Speaker 2: which is what I have, is very rare to see.
Speaker 2: So what the person saw, or what they thought they saw,
Speaker 2: was cancer that had spread to my chest. So they
Speaker 2: had staged me wrong. They staged me at two like
Speaker 2: B which told said that the treatment would be chemo
Speaker 2: for a year and then radiation. It was wrong.
Speaker 1: I thought you were going to be heading toward chemo.
Speaker 1: You thought you were at stage two.
Speaker 2: I knew I wasn't. And when I went back to
Speaker 2: which was my Then you get an oncologist, right, which
Speaker 2: is different from your surgeon. All these doctors. I thought
Speaker 2: it was just one person you go to. No, so
Speaker 2: I go to the oncologist, and then oncologist says is
Speaker 2: And I remember my uncle saying to me, he's a doctor.
Speaker 2: He said, make sure you don't get a doctor straight
Speaker 2: out in June or July. I said, he goes, you
Speaker 2: know why, and I go, no, he goes, they just
Speaker 2: graduate from school. I go, oh, so city h hospital.
Speaker 2: They give me it on colleges. She looks young I
Speaker 2: bring my Irish friend in to advocate. She goes, Oh, Marina,
Speaker 2: she goes, I'm going to tell you something. This young
Speaker 2: lady should be good someday, should be good someday, but
Speaker 2: not today. Run And sure enough she had told me
Speaker 2: that I was staged two with you know, confidently, without
Speaker 2: really looking at that chart. I said, can you get
Speaker 2: can you get your father in here?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 2: I said, can you get the head surgeon who's in
Speaker 2: charge of all of you, can you bring him in?
Speaker 2: And he looked at it and he said, yeah, this
Speaker 2: is done wrong, this has been analyzed wrong, and it's
Speaker 2: important for her treatment.
Speaker 1: I mean, good for you and your friend to even
Speaker 1: because I in that situation, I mean, you feel like
Speaker 1: the doctors have all the power and everything they say
Speaker 1: is you know, Bible, but that's so not true. And yes,
Speaker 1: for you to advocate for yourself in that way. So
Speaker 1: what was the treatment plan then when you were stage
Speaker 1: one stage one A?
Speaker 2: So after we figured out that they were wrong, and
Speaker 2: we figured out the real treatment and with the real
Speaker 2: number was one A. It's just radiation, so no chemo. Also,
Speaker 2: the unco type test gives you a score. So the
Speaker 2: doctor will say to you, you have an option to
Speaker 2: do chemo. But the unco type test, which is not
Speaker 2: available to everybody. It just depends on your exact cancer.
Speaker 2: You know, mine is progested. I can't say it estrogen positive.
Speaker 2: You know her too negative. So because of that, I
Speaker 2: get that test. Not everyone gets that test, and that'll
Speaker 2: tell you a score, and that score tells you whether
Speaker 2: or not you do chemo or not. And I was like,
Speaker 2: and my.
Speaker 1: Score one that really puts you on your butt? Is
Speaker 1: that right?
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah it does. And so what happened was all
Speaker 2: so the the rules had changed for radiation and chemo.
Speaker 2: Women with one a just six years before I was
Speaker 2: getting diagnosed, would go through chemo. So I had met
Speaker 2: a woman. Actually I've done stand up to cancer comedy
Speaker 2: show and after the show, I met a woman who said, oh,
Speaker 2: you didn't do chemo and you were wanted I go it.
Speaker 2: And I felt horrible because she was the same stage
Speaker 2: that I was, but just six years ago. It just
Speaker 2: you know, medicine is always learning. Yeah, So I did radiation,
Speaker 2: and I did radiation for the month of October. Actually
Speaker 2: we're going into the month the anniversary three years during
Speaker 2: Breast cancer Awareness Month, I was getting radiation?
Speaker 1: Was that last year or the year before?
Speaker 2: Two years?
Speaker 1: Two years? Okay? Yeah, so you when were you kind
Speaker 1: of giving.
Speaker 2: In twenty nineteen?
Speaker 1: By nineteen? Yeah? Are you answer free? Now? Do you have?
Speaker 2: I don't call it cancer free because you get cleared
Speaker 2: within like five years. They say, really, But I you know,
Speaker 2: I never really look at it as that. I look
Speaker 2: at it as I'm good for now and uh, and
Speaker 2: That's probably not the best way to look at it.
Speaker 2: But I'm always being healthy. I'm always you know, since
Speaker 2: that time I'm vegan, you know, I I've changed my
Speaker 2: whole life around. I've made some strong choices. Try to
Speaker 2: cut out sugar, you know, as much as I can.
Speaker 2: I try not to have sugar, Okay, things like that.
Speaker 2: Because also they wanted to put you on. They wanted
Speaker 2: to put me on a hormonal drug called tamoxifin that
Speaker 2: I opted out of. So that was like what that
Speaker 2: was done. So tamoxifen is is commonly used for women
Speaker 2: with hormonal cancer, you know, with estrogen, a strong level
Speaker 2: of estrogen feeding the cancer, and that would have caused
Speaker 2: hip it could it could, it could be. It's different
Speaker 2: for everyone. Some women have no reaction to it. My
Speaker 2: friends all said hell no. So three I did my
Speaker 2: own research, right, since I have thirteen friends, I could
Speaker 2: do my own studies. So I was like, how many
Speaker 2: of my friends were okay with it? And like three
Speaker 2: of them were like, hell no. And they told me
Speaker 2: how long it took to get out of their system
Speaker 2: a year even in trying it. And then I had
Speaker 2: one of the nurses told me she had to get
Speaker 2: a hip replacement because of it. So it's intense. It
Speaker 2: can be intense. And then one another friend of mine,
Speaker 2: out of you know, three of them said no. One
Speaker 2: of them said she had no problems, she had nothing.
Speaker 2: She had one night of sweats and then she was fine.
Speaker 1: I have so many questions now because my neighbor Lynn
Speaker 1: had a hip replacement not long ago. Ooh, I'm wondering.
Speaker 1: And she was also a answer survivor. Lyn's going to
Speaker 1: be like, stop talking to me about this, man.
Speaker 2: Oh. I mean there's books about it. There's called Estrogen Matters.
Speaker 2: I haven't read that book. There's so many cancer books
Speaker 2: I have, but I need to still read.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's the well, it's the diagnosis and the treatment,
Speaker 1: but it's also I mean the I know in your case.
Speaker 1: I mean, actually I didn't ask this, but you didn't
Speaker 1: have to have any reconstructive breast surgery or anything like that, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, lumpectomy is just an entury taking it out. Then
Speaker 2: they they do the testing, and that's what you know.
Speaker 2: When they actually take the cancer out, they look at
Speaker 2: it and that causes the difference of staging. Oh gotcha, okay,
Speaker 2: and that. Yeah, and then it's just they just sew
Speaker 2: everything back up. They take the lymph nodes out. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they take your lymph nodes. They take a they'll tell
Speaker 2: you how many they take out. And for about a
Speaker 2: salad month, I couldn't lift above my I couldn't do this,
Speaker 2: even that wall behind me. I used to do finger
Speaker 2: crawls just to get my arms. I couldn't do this.
Speaker 2: I couldn't lift a suitcase. I had to travel as
Speaker 2: a stand up. I couldn't carry things. I had to
Speaker 2: like decide which stuff I was going to take to
Speaker 2: the gig.
Speaker 1: And you've incorporated your your story into your stand up
Speaker 1: what is funny about breast cancer? And also a lot
Speaker 1: that you have turned well, actually I've laughed a lot
Speaker 1: just from the story that you told. No I imagine that,
Speaker 1: but I guess I'm just asking Irish accent. I wasn't
Speaker 1: sure if you had said Irish. I was like, maybe
Speaker 1: she didn't say that. I was waiting.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it could sound Jamaica. Do you have a Macon
Speaker 2: and Irish? But yeah, that was my Irish friend.
Speaker 1: Well I love that. You know you going back to
Speaker 1: what you said earlier about being a black comic, there's
Speaker 1: more of you now out there, black female comics, and
Speaker 1: you do have you know, you storytelling in general. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm a writer. I always just try to if it's
Speaker 1: my story, I know it's unique. But incorporating into your
Speaker 1: stand up, what was that like for you? When were
Speaker 1: you ready to to tell that story and to laugh
Speaker 1: about you know, this really serious issue that was terrifying.
Speaker 2: I told it right well, not right away, but I
Speaker 2: did have a mentor who told me who had also
Speaker 2: gone through his own struggles. He had a stroke, so
Speaker 2: he was like, you know, if you don't talk about
Speaker 2: it now, you're going to forget it. So you need
Speaker 2: to do it right away while it's still fresh. And
Speaker 2: he was right, because it's an It's an amazing thing.
Speaker 2: How even as I'm talking to you, some of the
Speaker 2: things I've I've forgotten because I don't I don't I'm
Speaker 2: not still dealing with it. Well, I don't talk about those,
Speaker 2: you know, those specific moments, you know, and some of
Speaker 2: the pain starts to fade a little bit, you know.
Speaker 2: But I think in talking about it while I was
Speaker 2: raw was very therapeutic for me. You know, I didn't
Speaker 2: know what I was doing. You know, I've been a
Speaker 2: comic for a long time, so I kind of had
Speaker 2: the tools to know how to explore that material on
Speaker 2: stage without feeling like horrible. But a lot of times
Speaker 2: I would, you know, I was scared, you know, I
Speaker 2: was vulnerable up there and not sure if people were
Speaker 2: going to laugh, and sometimes they didn't sometimes because you know,
Speaker 2: no matter what, the audience can read you. So if
Speaker 2: you're not sure, they're not sure. And I could tell
Speaker 2: they were like, oh my god, she's really going through
Speaker 2: this right now, so you could they felt everything I
Speaker 2: was feeling. And now when I talk about it, it's
Speaker 2: just nothing but laughter, you know. Because that material, over time,
Speaker 2: it got better. I started to chisel away at it,
Speaker 2: you know, and I also made it, you know, more
Speaker 2: of a show, and it was prepared material but also
Speaker 2: it's not as raw, so I would say, you know
Speaker 2: now that I do it. The one thing I do
Speaker 2: try to remember is that this is not These aren't
Speaker 2: just jokes. These are jokes that are possibly saving someone's
Speaker 2: life in the audience. And that's why I always say,
Speaker 2: you know, early detection is your best protection. It really is.
Speaker 2: You know a lot of women, you know, I did
Speaker 2: Radio City Music Hall and a doctor actually said to
Speaker 2: Jim Gaffigan's wife, you know what, Marina mentioned something about
Speaker 2: when was the last time you've been in for your checkup?
Speaker 2: So you know, those conversations hopefully it sparked something in
Speaker 2: that room. And Radio City Music Hall.
Speaker 1: Well, the pandemic. I'm not even gonna lie. I did
Speaker 1: manage to go to the gynecologist this year, but I
Speaker 1: had I had a human child, maybe not or a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago, and it had been I mean,
Speaker 1: I hadn't been seen by a doctor since I had
Speaker 1: I gave birth. I was like, that's it, I'm good.
Speaker 1: Just no one touched me ever again for a very
Speaker 1: long time. And you know, I got my check up.
Speaker 1: But you mentioned earlier, and it's so true. It was
Speaker 1: one of those appointments that was very easy to cancel
Speaker 1: when the pandemic was raging, pre vaccine. In all of that,
Speaker 1: that worries me. How do you what would you stay
Speaker 1: to women at home who are I don't know, I mean,
Speaker 1: and I for you, it wasn't even about going to
Speaker 1: the doctor. It was just doing a self examination.
Speaker 2: But it can be the difference of one year. I
Speaker 2: had a friend who one year was had no stage
Speaker 2: of cancer to the next year being staged four. So
Speaker 2: you don't want to put it off, you can, you know.
Speaker 2: It really is the difference of early detection, you know,
Speaker 2: And that means you know, it's every six months. I
Speaker 2: believe maybe that's just for me because I just came
Speaker 2: out of radiation, But so after radiation you go in
Speaker 2: every six months for a mammogram, just you know, after
Speaker 2: you do the surgery. But I think you're supposed to
Speaker 2: go in for you know, mammograms like once a year.
Speaker 2: I believe I got it.
Speaker 1: So we're going to put that. Don't worry, no pressure,
Speaker 1: I know you are you were Marina Franklin. You are
Speaker 1: not here to represent all medical professionals, but I have
Speaker 1: no but for listeners, we're going to put in the
Speaker 1: show notes I've got it the guidelines for your age.
Speaker 1: I'm thirty four. My co host Tiffany is in her
Speaker 1: early forties, and I know I'm just now. I'm like, Tiffany,
Speaker 1: you get your mamogram. I don't know if she's done
Speaker 1: it yet, but she's like, yeah, I need to do that,
Speaker 1: because once you turn forty, it's it's it's definitely encouraged.
Speaker 2: It's getting younger and younger. That's the thing. The woman
Speaker 2: had just wrote me was thirty eight, I have young woman.
Speaker 2: It's getting younger and younger, you know. And so you know,
Speaker 2: I tell women you got to advocate for yourself. At
Speaker 2: any point you feel something, go in and don't let
Speaker 2: them tell you otherwise you are your best advocate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's also free and your Irish friend it's
Speaker 1: also I mean on this it's and I was, you know,
Speaker 1: you wonder you mentioned younger women especially are getting it
Speaker 1: at a higher rate Black women. Among younger Black women
Speaker 1: getting breast cancer have double double the mortality rate of
Speaker 1: white women. Like that is astounding to me. And part
Speaker 1: of the reason is, like you said, access to quality healthcare.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're going to the clinic in your area, but
Speaker 1: is it you know, are they so overwhelmed with other
Speaker 1: patients with seemingly more important or bigger and more emergent conditions,
Speaker 1: And will you advocate for yourself or will you you know,
Speaker 1: will you trust that that hairy doctor who's working on you?
Speaker 1: And black women are just not as likely to have
Speaker 1: that proper healthcare or to have the actual insurance to
Speaker 1: pay for things like preventative care. And I a piece
Speaker 1: of research that I was reading that really just blew
Speaker 1: my mind because we talked about the self examination, right.
Speaker 1: I went to the gynecologists earlier this year and she
Speaker 1: felt me up and I always hate that part. I
Speaker 1: feel like she's judging my my boob shape and things
Speaker 1: like that. But like actual there, whether it's a clinical
Speaker 1: physical exam or your own you know, clinical physic, your
Speaker 1: own exam physically, you know that they you learn like
Speaker 1: what to feel for and how to do a self examination.
Speaker 1: But it's actually not that good at detecting breast cancer.
Speaker 1: And the best way is to get that imaging, to
Speaker 1: get that MRI. And now we know ultrasound based on
Speaker 1: your experience, so I don't I just wanted to say
Speaker 1: that in case people are like, Okay, I'm gonna feel
Speaker 1: a little bit here and there. But it's like, go
Speaker 1: to the doctor, especially if you're over forty and ask
Speaker 1: for that, Mammograham, because especially in your case, like you've
Speaker 1: shown that even if you and you felt something and
Speaker 1: they still were like, nah.
Speaker 2: Not really a deal.
Speaker 1: You know, that's wild.
Speaker 2: Imagine if I had said, no, I actually want a
Speaker 2: biopsy on this, which you can do so in that year,
Speaker 2: when they said, oh, let's you know, we'll just it's
Speaker 2: not I could have said I still would like a
Speaker 2: biopsy and they would say they would have had to
Speaker 2: have done it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great. Is that malpractice? I don't know, how
Speaker 1: could you do?
Speaker 2: No, it's not. That's the thing. As you go through this,
Speaker 2: you're thinking about mail practice the whole time. If you
Speaker 2: see all the stuff I've seen, I mean, the stuff
Speaker 2: that I went through was like insane, you know, from
Speaker 2: them reading my my chart wrong, you know, from one
Speaker 2: A to two, you know, possibly a full year of
Speaker 2: chemo had I Let's let's say I didn't speak English
Speaker 2: very well. Let's say I didn't understand English very well,
Speaker 2: and I'm just going in there and I'm here by myself,
Speaker 2: and I don't have a family member in the room,
Speaker 2: and they told me that I was I had cancer
Speaker 2: and I was staged.
Speaker 1: To be or whatever.
Speaker 2: I would have gone through the chemo and I didn't
Speaker 2: have to. So that is why it's it's super important
Speaker 2: to pay attention. You know. It's like, there's no such
Speaker 2: thing as paranoia when it comes to cancer. All of
Speaker 2: it is is valid and legitimate. And when you go
Speaker 2: in there and you have these concerns, you know, what's
Speaker 2: what's going to help you from the fears. Bring a
Speaker 2: friend in to calm you down, you know, but you
Speaker 2: need to go in there and be like, this is
Speaker 2: a life and death matter. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I love that you said friend too, because sometimes
Speaker 1: moms are not the best option if you have a mom,
Speaker 1: like they don't exactly de escalate.
Speaker 2: Mace. That was her gift to me, Okay, which we
Speaker 2: had more time to talk about that whole other story.
Speaker 1: It's been a couple of years. You mentioned the medical bills.
Speaker 1: How are things now, I mean, how are they covered?
Speaker 1: Were you able to fight for you know, the coverage
Speaker 1: that you needed to get those bills taken care of?
Speaker 1: What's the financial impact?
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean now it's fine because I you
Speaker 2: know I was able to get the insurance I needed
Speaker 2: for it, and yeah, fine, you know I'm still paying
Speaker 2: for some of it. You know, some of it you
Speaker 2: pay off monthly. You can always talk to them about
Speaker 2: lowering your bill. That's another thing. You know, a lot
Speaker 2: of times you don't realize the conversations you have with
Speaker 2: the in financial departments with all of this. It's just
Speaker 2: it's just a conversation, you know. And they will knock
Speaker 2: some off of your bill.
Speaker 1: They'll do that for you, absolutely, and negotiations so hard. Yes,
Speaker 1: be nice. My sister is an insurance claims adjuster and
Speaker 1: she's she's the person I'm like, you're too nice for that.
Speaker 1: She's probably not. She's probably like, yeah, you got it,
Speaker 1: you're free, We got you. But well, Marina, it has been,
Speaker 1: you know, such a pleasure to have you on the show,
Speaker 1: and oh awesome and honor, thank you for thank you
Speaker 1: for coming, and thank you for sharing and opening up.
Speaker 1: I want everyone to check out Marina's work. We're gonna
Speaker 1: link to your social handles. Go check out the documentary
Speaker 1: on FX Hysterical, which has Marina and a bunch of
Speaker 1: other amazing no it's literally called Hysterical that's a documentary
Speaker 1: and oh what else You're special on Amazon? Single Black Female,
Speaker 1: which I love? What what else is there?
Speaker 2: Oldre?
Speaker 1: I don't want to miss anything? What else you want?
Speaker 2: Have podcast that?
Speaker 1: I say, Yes, it's your podcast, Friends Like Us, Friends
Speaker 1: Like Us. I love the tank.
Speaker 2: This is my tanks chop. Friends Like This is my logo.
Speaker 2: Friends Like Us is a podcast that features women of
Speaker 2: color talking about hot topics and it's it's mostly comedians,
Speaker 2: but we do have guests on that know more so,
Speaker 2: we often have doctors on, and hopefully this month we'll
Speaker 2: have my surgeon. I would love to have my surgeon on.
Speaker 2: My surgeon. By the way, just a tag that story
Speaker 2: about going to the City Hospital. The reason I went
Speaker 2: to the City Hospital is because she was a black
Speaker 2: surgeon and I wanted her, so I suffered.
Speaker 1: There that I could have her.
Speaker 2: And she's amazing. She's like one of the few in
Speaker 2: New York City.
Speaker 1: I finally did my research to find a black guynecologist
Speaker 1: and it was I cried in her office and I
Speaker 1: did not know that I was going. I did not
Speaker 1: know that it meant something to me until I felt
Speaker 1: the difference. I felt it in I get the.
Speaker 2: Right black guy in a collegist. Not all black guy
Speaker 2: know collegists as are the same. Because I had one
Speaker 2: that I was like, I will not be going back to.
Speaker 1: I've only the one.
Speaker 2: Oh no, sounds like, but no, so get the right one.
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely do your and it's such a pain in
Speaker 1: the ass to shop doctors, but it is important, especially
Speaker 1: when it's your health.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you so much again, Marina, y'all, thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: Back to our regular Brown Ambition next week. Marina, I
Speaker 1: can't wait to see more of what you accomplished and
Speaker 1: I'm definitely going to be following you and thank you
Speaker 1: again for joining Brown Ambition.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me