Imagine performing in front of your hometown, selling out the venue you dreamed about as a kid—and suspecting it's goodbye. Shawn Hook lived that moment in Nelson, BC, one week before a biopsy confirmed tonsil cancer. For a professional singer, the stakes weren't just survival; they were existential.

What happens when your voice IS your identity and suddenly both are at risk? Shawn walks through the terrifying diagnosis process, the "surrender" moment before robotic surgery (yes, an actual robot performed the procedure), and the silent weeks afterward when he communicated only through pen and paper. Learn why doctors warned him that simply bending to tie his shoes could cause fatal bleeding, how his girlfriend-turned-wife's presence dropped his panic from 120 bpm, and why months later his voice was still unrecognizable—raspy, high-pitched, broken.

The deeper story? Cancer forced a reckoning with work-life balance, identity beyond career, and what "grateful" really means when you're rebuilding from scratch. You'll hear why he calls this the gift he never wanted and what changed when "next song, next hit" stopped being the only thing that mattered.

GUEST: Shawn Hook
http://shawnhook.com

Originally aired on 2025-12-23