I'm revisiting a conversation from earlier this year with someone I've known for more than a decade, Dr. Leon Platanias, director of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.

And there's a reason I'm bringing this episode back now.

Season 4 of the Team Powdered Donut™ podcast is focused on the leaders of our nation's 74 NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers, as we prepare to take our Mobile Love Letter across America.

Our original episode was titled Truly Exceptional. Cancer Center Director as Conductor.

I love that metaphor even more today than I did when we first recorded it.

Think about an orchestra. Every musician brings something different. Different instruments, different talents, different parts of the composition. But the conductor helps bring those individual contributions together into something extraordinary.

That's what Leon has done at Lurie, which received the National Cancer Institute (NCI)'s highest rating of "exceptional" in both 2018 and 2025.

But this conversation is personal for me, too.

Northwestern University is my alma mater, and I first met Leon in 2014, when Maureen's metastatic breast cancer was progressing. Leon helped me arrange a second opinion with Dr. William Gradishar at Lurie. It was an act of kindness at a time when those acts meant more than I can possibly express.

So whether you heard this conversation earlier this year or you're discovering Leon for the first time, I hope you'll listen with a fresh perspective.

Because sometimes revisiting a story helps us see connections we couldn't see the first time.

"One Story. One Moment. One Donut at a time." 🍩🩷