Ep 80: 2025 Holiday Special

[Music] Melanoma Matsas is an educational resource and the opinions we express are our own, do not reflect medical advice. If you have questions specific to your own situation, please contact your own clinician. This podcast may be available in both audio and visual, so please check your platform. Hi everybody, welcome to Melanoma Matters. I'm Sapna Patel. I'm James Larkin. Hi. Today we're going to do a year end special. It's obviously festive season and we want to think about our reflections on 2025 and maybe our wishes for 2026. I've got a couple of questions to start with. First of all, how tall is your Christmas tree? Which one? I have multiple. Oh right answer. The one that's right behind you. And this is a like a little office version. Well let's see because I am five foot one and a quarter. Three quarters I mean. So it's probably it's coming to like shoulder level for me. A little less than shoulder level four feet. Okay and then your other Christmas trees. How tall are they? I have one outside on my front porch that's probably a foot. I have a seven foot in my living room. But you have a really nice chubby tree. How tall is your tree taller than it is? Why do you think or is it wider than it is tall? It's a good question. Yeah it is very wide. But it's probably only about six and a half feet to all I reckon. But I'm not going to measure it now but I could check. And then my second question is that what you call this? Is it got a name? Because you always have to know this bit here. Because yours is a lot longer than mine. Yeah and is there a preferred way of doing it? That was my other question. Well you're sort of like wearing it like an elf when it curves to the front. I feel like that's how the elves wear it. Santa and Mrs. Claus wear theirs off to the side right? I didn't even know that was a thing. I feel like we should have that in the opposite. Do you think? We're going to put that back. Yeah right come on then let's do some work. Okay so what movies did you see in 25? Oh I've got no idea. I don't even actually think I went to the movie theater at all. I think I've only been to watch children's things honestly. Like is he tropless to the other week? But that's mainly an opportunity for an app if I'm lucky. I'm just trying to think if there's anything else that I would even know. I can't really think of anything exciting. Yeah. Did you watch the Superman film? That was a big one that came out over the summer. Me neither. It's on my list. Wish I'd seen it in theaters but Avatar just came out the way of water and then like that. Yeah that didn't do much for me. Yeah Charlie my youngest is obsessed by Titanic at the moment. So we spend a bit of time watching Titanic again. James Cameron reference. Yes that's obviously sorry. I did a Titanic move with it was with Mark Monkrieve and Vinaan Van Hoot shout out to them. We were on like a lobster crabbing fishing boat. What do you call this thing? Do you grew up doing that? It's a good enough description. And so we were at the you know I guess the front end. And I think that's called the power. Thank you. Captain. Captain my captain. So then I did the Titanic thing on the off the bow. That was in October. Nice. It's a nice memory for the year. So we didn't go to the theater. Have you been to the theater theater? Yeah so the other day we went to watch Matilda. Of course not the first time I've been. And it's always good actually. Well I think everyone likes it actually and it's not just for kids. So I'd recommend that you watch it if you get a chance. The play not the music thing. Yes the play in the theater. But there is now so there was a film of the book originally we down in the Vito et al and then recently in the last year or two they've made a film of the play basically of the musical. So it's the musical that you should watch though in my opinion. Oh okay and you're not much of a musicals person so that's really a ringing endorsement I would say. Yeah definitely. Right you know. Yeah. It's good for adults and children. Say that again good. I said good for adults and children. So did you see any other plays or that was it? Not that I can know. Oh no I know. I actually don't know if it's a play. I've been. Yeah Ben's yeah no that's true. I went to watch Ben's Christmas play and that was only two weeks ago and I'm struggling. Oh Alice in Wonderland. It was Alice in Wonderland. Which is a holiday play or. Yeah so I wasn't sure about that either. And Ben did quite a lot of dancing and stuff but he didn't get a speaking part which is a bit disappointing as well. Did he do one on holiday like last year he did a Barbie thing or something? No I don't know. Not what I can remember anyway. No I think he would have done some other plays but that's I think that's the anyone we went to because it was the Christmas one holiday one. But now I don't know what the Alice in Wonderland Christmas link is. I don't think there is one actually. It's like you know his die. It's diehard a Christmas film discuss. I mean I'm not suggesting that you and I discuss that now but some people think it isn't a Christmas film for example controversial. I don't know if you remember what we've talked about diehard this year on the podcast because you were talking about some move that one of the villains or somebody does and you're like that is absolutely not possible to do that unless you've got massive everybody's straight. Yeah I know exactly what it was because it was it was an ellipse show and they did a muslim it's a really really difficult thing to do. Absolutely right now the questions which episode that we talked about that which podcast episode we only published 19 so I don't think I've seen a proper play in Denver but in August this year one of my friends here who were at Snarlab Jessica we went and saw one of these chamber music like so one of these four sims play bold play by Candolite inside a church. I'm only hesitating because I think I forgot to put the garbage out and I think they're coming so I might need to pause here in a second but I was going to play you some because it was so lovely let's see if it'll play. It's pretty enjoyable obviously you're referring. Yeah have you ever seen I think it's two blokes with cellos or and that's all it is or it could be double basis but that you know that kind of thing you know you get you get the and and it's all it's all very kind of um glitzy and rocked up but I think they do ACDC covers so the one that the one that springs to mind was back in black which you know which is which is very very heavily covered um song anyway but but it's kind of weird on two cellos but we should look that up I'll look it up. It's easy to look. Do you see them or you just know about them? No no no no I just just it just reminded me this whole thing of playing kind of quote well not the cold plays rock music anyway. You're end is clean. I think it lasts so much hours. Okay did you read any books this year that were memorable? No in a word I don't think so um just trying to think obviously I've read lots of chat reach of books but was there anything else? No not really. I already book about ADHD that's quite memorable but I'm not gonna get into that but yeah. Oh did you see that book the amazing generation? I sent you the link to it. Yeah no the the latest one's called something like how to be a man I think yeah okay just I know that because I bought it as a Christmas present for yourself. No oh for somebody else. I bought two. Okay say more. Well not much more to say. I won was a secret Santa and I violated the rules because it had a 10 pound limit and it's only in hard back and it was 22 pounds but I thought been interesting thing to read. And then I bought the other one for Emma, my wife, as a Christmas present, because we've got boys and I think this, well, this stuff isn't just important actually, for boys and men, it's important for women, I think as well, but we could practically do a whole podcast on that. But you have no intention of reading it? I'm hoping to read it, yes, absolutely. Okay, so you did violate through your slash. Who's getting you? Like, I want it for someone else and for my wife. Get out of me to know how to be a man. I want to read it. I'm not sure I'm going to agree with him from the reviews of red, but I'd like to see what he thinks. Well, you know, he lives in London, so you can go hunt him down there and have a coffee and hang out. Well, I don't know about that. But so he also references Jonathan Height from time to time because they have this same philosophy, you know, how we raise our children will impact the next generation, the next generation, which could impact, you know, bigger, much bigger things. Like, you know, how we consume entertainment or politics, how we develop policy and things like that. So Jonathan Height, who's one of those guys who has some of this like really fun, cringy dinner party conversation topics, would you rather this or that or, you know, I've talked about some of that. He calls it moral dumbfounding when he does some of these like dilemma questions, right? So he wrote a book. Oh, it was called the anxious generation and it's the idea of if we give, you know, cell phones to our children too early in life. So the anxious generation was kind of a bit of like, you know, smartphone hygiene and this and that. But it could be seen as like, it's too late, right? For many people who've already given their kids a self, it's too late. So then what good is a book like that. So he wrote another one that just came out called the amazing generation and it's geared towards the kind of 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 year old kid. And it's kind of telling them like, look, obviously technology exists and you've got your video games and your smartphone and your iPads. But you can be amazing by living in this world, not just sort of experiencing it through a device. So it's called the amazing generation. I'll send you that link again. Okay, so that's a big digression because that's obviously something neither one of us a friend, but you have this got gallery. Anything else? I did read for blood or money this year, which was the story of a Brutonib, idealisib and the company pharmaceuticals and assertive. And what was really cool was very early on, it's like page 12 or 20 or something like that. The paragraph starts, it says, you know, Dan Pollyay was in his lab at Stanford and blah, blah, blah. And Dan Pollyay is one of my colleagues here in Colorado. He's the chair of the division of hematology and an overall amazingly good guy. So it was really cool to read that. And there's just figures in that book. It's a true story, obviously. And it's just figures in that book names of people both you and I know people from MD Anderson, from Ohio State, from, you know, pharma companies. Anyway, that's very interesting. I'm trying to think what else I read. I'm going to reread peak mind this next year, I think. Oh, I read milk and honey again, which is a book of poetry. I'm not sure what prompted that. Anything we're going to read next year? After I've read the Scott Ganoi, but yeah, I don't know, that blood and money thing sounds quite good. So I guess you should read that. What and money's good? Yeah, I can give it to you. I read a book called The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin. It's an interesting read. I wouldn't, I would kind of recommend that. I reread a book called the memory keeper's daughter about a doctor who gives birth to his daughter in the 1950s or 60s or so in the middle of a snow storm. He ends up unable to take his wife to the hospital proper, so he takes her to his clinic, calls his nurse over and delivers the baby, but immediately notice that she has Down syndrome. And rather than tell his wife, wait, maybe it twins. So he delivers the boy and then the second baby, he delivers has Down syndrome and at this point his wife may be unconscious. So he hands the baby to his nurse and says, take it to that home, you know, the next city over blah blah blah. And the nurse can't traverse the roads. So she ends up just going back to her apartment with this baby. And the next day goes to that home and sort of sees the conditions and things like, I can't take this baby there. So she instead keeps the baby and moves to another city. And anyway, it's a story of like these two kind of families developing over the course of, you know, years and anyway, it's a lovely, it's fiction, right? It's not true story. It's fiction. Yeah, I mean, that's I can tell it's fiction, but it's really a lovely story. Anyway, it ends it. It's a real like, whatever we would call coming of age story. I'm sure I'd like it. I'm surprised we haven't talked about it before. No, any movies or plays or shows or anything. Not like you think of. That could be a transition into TV. You watched it. You guys are good TV watchers. So like anything top maybe. I need to think about that. I'm not sure. Just sort of think of that thing with what's his name Jason Clark, that was actually surprisingly good. Well, I think that's called the last frontier. I've put that on my list because you recommended it. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, I don't know what I mean, if you're not from the US and watching Alaska and how beautiful it is, that's a big thing. But maybe you're used to that already because you're from the US, but it felt a little bit like it was a sort of, and I think I said this before, a kind of scanned new art type thing. But setting Alaska and the music's good and the acting's good as well and maybe the plots a little bit implausible, but it's actually really beautifully shot and it's easy to watch. And he's actually, he's very good. That reminds me, I never finished True Detective, the one with Jody Foster in Alaska. Yeah, but that's because you didn't like it that much and you stopped watching it or annoyed you or something. It wasn't anywhere near as good as, wasn't it? It wasn't anywhere near as good as the first one or two with Matthew McConaughey though. Who is that right? Woody Harrelson, the first one? Yeah, but you're probably just remembering that there's some female nudity. And that's when you remember right, there's no female. There's, there's a little bit of nudity in Jody Foster's True Detective. No, I know. I'm not. I'm just remembering how good Matthew McConaughey was because I had this massive thing. I didn't really like his, you know, all those films he made early on where they just involved in taking a shirt off basically and showing off his six pack. And I completely wrote him off, honestly. And then that is the part calling the kettle lag. You basically walk into a gym and take your shirt. Well, whatever. I mean, you know, there's certain, there's certain sort of etiquette points that need observing. There's this very funny Netflix series called Between Two Furns. And it's this guy, Zach Galifianakis. He's a comedy actor, but he plays everything straight. So he is the host of this show called Between Two Furns and it's just, you know, kind of the satire on talk shows. So we'll have the guest sit between these like two, you know, Christmas tree fern type things. And on the Matthew McConaughey episode, he asks them, what was the marijuana budget on True Detective? Anyway, so that Jason Clark one is on my list. You brought up Scandinoire and that reminds me, you had made a recommendation for me to watch the bridge, the Swedish series, so I watched that with what's her name in that episode? Not Saga Norgren. Yeah, Saga Norgren. And the actor from Killing Eve, the actor who plays Constantine in Killing Eve is in season one and season two. So I watched season one into Fantastic. That was such a good recommendation. And then I watched season two of the Diplomat, Carrie Russell and Matthew Reese, which I, not Matthew Reese, Carrie Russell and Rufus Suol that I really enjoyed. And I just started watching the beast in me over this recent holiday. I watched episode one or two. It's so, the acting is so cringy and good. And that's very rough. The beast in me. What's it about? It's a writer and she lives in kind of Northeast someplace outside of kind of New York City, Connecticut or Rhode Island or something. And then real estate mogul moves in next door. And he moves in next door and this author who's kind of struggling to figure out her next book and who's had a personal tragedy in her own life starts to get kind of consumed by him and thinks about investigating what happened to his first wife. Anyway, moving on. Any trips that you took this year that were good? Personal or work? Sorry. Can I think of anything? I don't know. I'm not sure there's anything particularly, particularly stands out really. Who's meant to say a press? Yeah, well, you know, that was that was pretty nice, I suppose. I mean, yeah, but I mean, site, site, site process fine, but I mean, there's a holiday destination. I mean, I think there's places that, you know, we already go to that I go want to go back to more than site, but that's probably the most diplomatic thing. I can easily say. But no, I don't, yeah, there's nothing that's nothing that's really jumping out as much as fun, maybe. But, you know, a lot of people seem to be moaning about the convention center. But, yeah, that was good that you did a presentation in the presidential symposium. Am I not saying that? Well, that's highlight, obviously. How could it not be? It would be ridiculous if it wasn't a highlight. Second, congratulations again. And no, go on. No, I was just thinking about my trips. I had gone to Sweden to Gothenburg and then to an even more remote part of Sweden. That was incredible. That was with an amazing group of people, very, very memorable. And then I had a trip with my friend Ann Marie to Hawaii recently and I mean, both seeing her after a few years, hadn't seen her since Madrid, Esmo 2023. I feel like that was last time I saw her in person and just being in Hawaii again is nice. So those were two really, and then I had to really fun trips to London this year. Anything good that you ate this year, anything memorable you ate? You put in your mouth. And we would have phrased it. I think that you put in your mouth this year. Not that I can, I don't think so. I can't think of anything. Maybe I should be more excited about this, but I'm not. Didn't you eat at that auto-lengue restaurant, but you've eaten at that before I guess? No, it was the first time. It was great. This was the auto-lengue enrichment, which is impossible to get into. And it's kind of cafeteria style, but the food was fantastic. Especially the vegetables, actually in the salads. So I would recommend that. That's cool. Cool. Okay, so how about podcast wise? Shall I tell you what we did this year podcast wise? And then you can just tell me if you had any. I mean, I loved our episode with Claire Turmbol just because she's so smart and her delivery is so related. It's like she's so smart and she talks about things that are really a little bit beyond our comprehension in a very relatable, comprehensive way or comprehensible way. That's definitely been one of my favorite ones. And also I mean the fact that we were you split it into two, I think, these volumes. Yeah, because there was just, while never mind the stuff that didn't even see the light of day. Yeah, the stuff that's on the cutting room floor is you two making just all sorts of gag that I can barely hang on to. Because they're like it's British humor and then it's like inside stuff, but it's very funny. Mike Atkins was another guest we had we had Ingham Marie on. We talked about post PD one studies, which was I think a nature or a cell paper. We talked about sub queue. Formulation of up D.Vo so that checkmate whatever study. Yeah, that sounds plausible, but I've forgotten. But I mean, that quick update on that because I'm asking. 17. Go on. What is it? 670. Yeah, I don't know how they dreamt that one up, but I've been asking all the patients who've transferred from intravenous to subcutaneous. I make a point of asking them what they think of the subcutaneous and I haven't hasn't been one patient yet who hasn't preferred the subcutaneous having previously. I mean, the convenience is obvious and the time saving, but the thing I was wondering about not worrying about wondering about was the volume of the subcutaneous injection and how well tolerated it would be and stuff like that. And the patients have all been really happy with it. So I mean, that, well, I guess that's what we were expecting. But, but you know, on the ground, if you like, patients are pretty happy about it actually. And there's a sun is pen row coming up, I think in the interests of fairness and balance. You true to QX. Yeah, you vote QVantig. Key true to QX. Yeah. And Ponsagromab. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I was going to say there. Okay. That's cool. I mean, I'm really genuinely curious to see why that's going to go and how quickly it's going to move, but it looks amazing actually. I mean, related to that, we talked about that Godfather trial because it's essentially the same target, right? GDF 15. Yeah. Isn't it the same GDF 15? Yeah, GDF 15. We talked about the definition of immune checkpoint inhibitor resistance, the CITZ white paper. We had Monty on. We had Monty on on like January 2nd. We recorded that. We didn't publish it until the summer because that's how long we take. We did best of Asco, which was a good one. We did that pretty timely. We did our women in melanoma publication. I quizzed you on all the drugs that were approved in 2024. I suppose I have to prepare myself. I won't prepare. I will come into it. But maybe you have to quiz me on the 2025 drug approvals. Wow. Yes. Okay. We can have to make this flashcards. Remember. Wow. That's the okay. Wow. Do you think I mean, I reckon that you were just telling me earlier that's one of our most popular episodes. I'm on the YouTube channel. That one. Cause I think it's recent. And so got a lot of clicks. Yeah. We did a live stream from Esmo like our, hey, hang on. We're going to do it. You know, that that was fun. We figured out how to live stream for a second. We did it. That was that was only two minutes. Wasn't it maybe three? Four. Yeah. And we had to hide because I just ripped the carpet. Remember. He doesn't mean with a fart. He means he was moving a piece of furniture in the Berlin hole of Esmo. And in moving this massive stone heavy heavy bench, he started ripping a carpet. And that, do you remember the cleaner? The cleaner noticed that some guy. Yeah. He was very happy about it. But now I'm thinking maybe we're going to get an email from Tony Shverry and Mary Michelle, I'll be, you know, with a bill or something like that. That's the best. In the city cube. That's exactly where it was. It's in city. And we did end up doing best of Esmo one and two, which was good. And then what I just published in the last kind of week or so. As I had finally had some free time. I did our immune mediated myocarditis. Longest episode we've ever done. It's over an hour. It's about 48 minutes and then it's about 15 minutes of fact check. The intention was always to split that. But you know, best laid plans, man, who can get around to that and finding the right place to split it. So I just did it as one. But it's, you know, but it's a pretty good one and pretty relevant because, you know, you were just getting a text from your friend who. It helps you out on these myocarditis cases from time to time. And we did keynote. O five four, the seven year follow up and in that fact check, we dive deep into the lead authors, middle names. Which I can't remember. Maximilian is one of them. And then you did the other one in a front. Sorry. You did the other one in a French accent. I did. I've got no idea. Episode 76 folks. Our last guest was Merrick Ross. And we chatted with him, I published that one. We talked about Mech inhibitor trials. I mean, I will just say for the listeners, that one's a bit cringey, 'cause this is one where we start off talking about, Will James take his shirt off on a future podcast. And, you know, and then you called it the Willy Wonka. You said, 'cause I said, at some point, you'll just whip it off for a few seconds and then put it back on. And you said, oh, like the Willy Wonka effect, and I said, I don't understand. And you said, oh, you're just gonna have to go through every episode until you find the goal. - I already said it. - I have no idea what I said about it. - Yeah, I think you were just embarrassed that we were focusing so much on you taking your shirt off. And that's the episode where we shouted out the most amount of your friends, too. So it's painful because like, that's the episode where four people are shouted out. We'd love for them to go listen to it. Then again, if they listen to that episode, it's a lot of, you know, cringy banter, but. (laughs) And that was the last one I think that came out. Yeah, mech and hibitor. So, so what do you, do you even remember any of these? 'Cause we kind of lost our steam a little bit, but we're gonna get back on. That's our 2026 resolution. More committed, more diligent, more episodes, more guests. Right? - Mm, yeah, we're still knocking around the right guests to have a guest. How many episodes do we do in 2026? Sorry. - You sound a little lukewarm about this. And like, you know, there are other larkins chomping at the bit to. (laughs) That would have died, I don't know where. - To replace me. - Yeah. - I probably need to up my game a little bit more than I. - Yeah, can you get it up a little bit more? Yeah. Please. - I've got no choice. - Okay. Yeah, how many episodes? I mean, I think that for sure we did amazing 'cause we were only really recording for six months and we published 60, 59. So let's see what we can do about an episode a week, but let's keep at it. - Okay, good plan. - What else, any other thoughts for 2026? Do you have a mantra to go like a, "Oh, you live by?" - Not really, like surviving the next day. (laughs) (laughs) - I'm a very, very optimistic person and so I'm an each day better than the last or, you know, each day has the potential to be the best day. So I'm gonna carry that forward. - That's a good one. - Mm-hmm. Jim Goals, let's get there 'cause you gave me, you helped me accomplish it for you. Did you hit PBs this year? - It would be nice. - You know the answers to that already? Yeah, I've had, I mean, I've had a few PBs. I had one couple of weeks ago and actually one just before that, which has a bit of support. Yeah, so I would, I'd like to be proficient at doing my slups, but I would have said that for the last few years and it requires putting in the time, actually, and also probably being on the lower end of my weight range. So it's not, no, it's true, it's true, 'cause guess what? You know, being a little bit lighter makes it, makes a big difference. So yeah, but I'm sort of relaxed about that, you know, I don't think that would happen at all. What about you? PB, back to your PB, good to talk. - Yeah, I would, Coach Owen are most named friend, right? - I do. - Well, you made like a prostate here, okay. Yeah, it's pretty close. You see what you did, you made like a prostate. There we go, there we go. Sorry. - So cute. - It gave me 12 weeks for everything. - So no, I was just gonna say, was that a heart for Owen? Was it a heart for the prostate? - Who's prostate? - I'd love to finish. - I'd love to finish the 12 weeks watt program. I keep getting hung up at like week three or four and then, you know, being somewhere where I can't train properly. Yeah, just, you know, getting stronger, staying strong, staying lean, I like it all. But thanks for, you know, thanks for your friendship, thanks for this podcast for the time I've enjoyed it. - Look forward to 2026. - Yeah, cheers. - Okay, bye. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)