Introduction
In this opening conversation for Season 2, Paul Cobbin sits with writer and Substack author Jenny Peterson, whose newsletter Dying to Live explores what it means to stay fully present when certainty has collapsed.
Diagnosed first with breast cancer in 2012 and later with stage-4 metastatic cancer to the spine, Jenny doesn’t write from denial or despair. She writes from the narrow middle ground most people are afraid to inhabit where life is different, fragile, unfinished… and still deeply alive.
This episode isn’t about beating illness.
It’s about how identity shifts, how meaning changes, and how life continues when timelines dissolve.
Jenny speaks candidly about:
Refusing to live through a diagnosis
Why she accepts diagnosis but rejects prognosis
Curiosity as a daily survival skill
Drawing hard emotional boundaries around pity and complaint
Redefining purpose beyond productivity
What it really means to “die well” and therefore live well
This is a conversation for anyone standing at the edge of uncertainty, trying to figure out how to live honestly without surrendering joy.
Key Themes Explored
Identity vs diagnosis
Accepting reality without building a life around it
The danger of toxic positivity and doom narratives
Curiosity as a grounding practice
Pleasure, beauty, and humour as acts of resistance
Boundaries, agency, and self-responsibility
Legacy, presence, and a “good death”
Notable Quotes
“I accept the diagnosis. I do not accept the prognosis.”
“What am I making this mean?”
“I don’t want pity. I don’t think ‘poor me’.”
“My life is different. That doesn’t mean it’s bad.”
“We’re all dying. I’m just a little more aware of it.”
Who This Episode Is For
People living with chronic or incurable diagnoses
Carers navigating emotional fatigue
Professionals rebuilding identity after health disruption
Anyone tired of false inspiration or medicalised despair
Sessions From The Edge is a space for conversations where life isn’t fixed, it’s renegotiated.
