Back in 2009, when she was 18, Milwaukee woman Jennell Jenney came across a bone marrow donor tent while at a Warped Tour. She decided to sign up. Her cheek was swabbed, she signed some papers, and she was on her way. Six months later, she got a call: she was the perfect match for a patient. She was thrilled. Doctors harvested stem cells from Jenney’s body and eventually transplanted them into the body of Jim Munroe, a 29-year-old Texas man with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Munroe’s life was saved.
A year later, Jenney and Munroe met. What follows is the subject of “Match Made In Marrow,” the latest episode of the award-winning Radiolab podcast. To say more would be to spoil the story, but know that it involves faith and science, belief and disbelief, destiny and chance, Christian magicians and atheists, and finding out how to tell one’s story while respecting another’s seemingly contradictory story. It’s expertly told, thoughtful, sometimes knotty, and ultimately hopeful. Take an hour out of your day and listen to it now: