Dan Shapiro recently spoke to the Herald from his home in Arizona.

Badger Herald: Have you ever been to Madison?

Dan Shapiro: No, I have never been there but I have some friends who live there. I hear there is a great place to get Indian food on State Street.

BH: There are some great places to eat on State Street. But dress warm. I know it is warm in Arizona but it is snowing here.

DS: Thanks for the packing tip.

BH: Tell me about your new book, “Mom’s Marijuana.”

DS: For me, of course, it is a book about living and surviving in the face of crisis. To think that my mom grew a weed she despised in our backyard is amazing. When faced with a crisis, we have to decide what is really important. And it is remarkable what we will do.

BH: When and how did you decide to write a book?

DS: I came home one day and Terry suggested that I mail some of my short stories in to NPR’s “All Things Considered.” So I thought about it and mailed some of my stories in. Seasons passed and I heard nothing and then one day I got a call that they wanted to read my essays.

BH: So the book began as essays written for NPR?

DS: Yeah. And one day I got a call from someone saying they wanted to publish a book. Well, it turned out to be the best man from my wedding torturing me. A couple days later I got a call from Vintage Books. And I thought it was a prank. But she turned out to be real.

BH: How did you decide to make it is humor piece?

DS: Humor is the grease of life, without which the wheels of life would not start turning. When your luggage is lost you can either start screaming at the people who work at the counter or you can wonder if your luggage went somewhere really cool.

BH: What caused you to see humor in a tragic situation like cancer?

DS: I have always had a sense of humor but it was definitely honed during that time. It was a really good way to cope.

BH: Who is the book written for?

DS: I think that different parts were written for different people. I wanted someone who has relapsed to be able to read it and know that just because you are sick doesn’t mean that you should lose hope or that your life is going to end. But I also wanted health-care professionals to know that they play a powerful role and to understand how training can get in the way of seeing the human side to health care. But I also wanted the book to be funny and potentially inspiring. I wanted to show that you can live through something really crappy. And I wanted to show what a gift family is.

BH: Did you write this book for yourself?

DS: Oh yeah. Totally. When I was diagnosed I bought a journal and wrote all about being sick. I wrote all the details so I could remember the little things. But I definitely wrote to cope; for me, it is life’s radar that helps to show what I am, what I want and what I feel.

BH: This book is really about the importance of family. How much time do you spend with your family?

DS: They are my life’s anchor; without them I would be adrift. Aside from all of the day-to-day stuff, I have date night on Monday with Alex. My wife is on call at the hospital one weekend a month so I spend the entire weekend with them then. My other daughter, Abbey, just turned two, but when she is old enough, we’ll have date night too.

BH: Tell me why your book would appeal to college students.

DS: Crisis visits all of our lives at some point. And in our lives in college and graduate training, there is going to be a crisis. Life is not easy and I think it gives a good perspective on crisis and how we can get through. I also think it is a fun thing to read. But also in college your perspective can be warped. It is easy to take things for granted because it is a time to really develop yourself. When I was sick, that was real. Worrying about something trivial wasn’t very important anymore.

BH: Your parents, friends and your wife Terry all took care of you and supported you while you were sick. How do you thank them?

DS: It is hard to be able to thank them enough — Terry in particular. I still have trouble understanding how she was able to do it. It took so much courage. It is even hard for me to fathom how she did it. As for the others, our relationships have some semblance of normalcy. But I don’t think I’ll ever be able to thank them enough.