One gesture can keep a patient in care. That’s the charge running through our conversation with Jack Bones, a transgender cancer survivor whose digital story takes us from a tense biopsy room to a stage where an audience of clinicians wiped away tears and leaned into hard, necessary dialogue. We walk through how a politicized identity collided with late-stage Hodgkin’s lymphoma, how bias nearly closed a door, and how a single act of compassion reopened it.

Episode Key Messages

• the craft of digital storytelling as patient advocacy

• bias in clinical encounters and its real-world risks

• the technician’s gesture that restored safety and trust

• workshop process from script to screening

• reactions at the BC Cancer Summit and productive dialogue

• reaching missing audiences in shame and stigma work

• plans to use film and allegory for future stories

• the ocean moment as a metaphor for freedom

• how stories support training, orientation and culture change

Other Links Mentioned

• Read this episode's blog post
• Watch Jack's digital story
• Jack created their digital story in a BC Cancer workshop facilitated by Krystle Schofield
• Check out Jack's work, Brassthorn Art

About Our Guest

Jackdaw Bones describes them self as an "eremite" and occasionally ventures out of their home in the woods to show the shiny things they've made, in true covid style.

They've been a practising artist ever since their youth, using the lenses of cameras and inks to explore ideas of self, relationships to the natural world, and the terror/joy of living.

Jack is a dropout from an art school that has since disappeared to make way for training industrial workers, though they consider their experiences with disastrous experiments over the years their most valuable teacher. They revel in the beautiful chaos of learning from other artists, from books, other artists, and fucking up. The process is where the joy lay for them, and indeed that joy is built into the foundation of every piece they make.

They are disabled, and a cancer survivor. They have worked hard over the years to get to the level where they can produce art without sacrificing their health, so while their pieces may not be perfect, the imperfection belies the passion, determination, joy, and gratitude they feel when practising.

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