In this interview, Prof. Emilia Nielsen discusses the problem of the usual breast cancer narrative. She says that the happy stories of breast cancer survivors are so common that any other types of narrative almost require an apology.Emilia Nielsen is an assistant professor of arts, medicine and healing at York University’s Health & Society Program, Department of Social Science. She is the author of the scholarly text Disrupting Breast Cancer Narratives: Stories of Rage and Repair as well as two collections of poetry, Body Work and Surge Narrows.Her CMAJ Medicine and Society article is titled “The problem of standardized breast cancer narratives.” The article is published in CMAJ: www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.190549Podcast transcript: https://www.cmaj.ca/transcript-190549-----------------------------------This episode is brought to you by Replens. Replens helps replenish internal vaginal moisture and relieves external vaginal dryness. Visit http://bit.ly/Replens-Products for more information.-----------------------------------Subscribe to CMAJ Podcasts on Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast app. You can also follow us directly on our SoundCloud page or you can visit www.cmaj.ca/page/multimedia/podcasts.