Elizabeth Gilbert

Episode notes

(Photo: Daniel Speer / Maximum Fun)

If you know Elizabeth Gilbert’s name, it might be for her book Eat, Pray, Love. It’s a memoir about self discovery and love that was later made into a movie starring Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem. 

Earlier this month, Gilbert published a very different memoir: All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation.

It’s a book about a lot of things, but it centers around her relationship with her partner, the writer Rayya Elias. Gilbert and Elias started dating in 2016 and became partners the next year. During that time, Elias was diagnosed with cancer. Doctors gave her a grim prognosis: six months. 

Elias survived for a year and a half after her diagnosis. For Gilbert, those 18 months were some of the rockiest of her life. She and Elias fought frequently. She contemplated taking her own life and she contemplated taking the life of Elias. 

Elizabeth Gilbert joins us to talk about the intense, very harrowing book on the latest episode. 

Content Warning: This episode dives into some very intense topics including: addiction, cancer, sex, suicide, death and violence.