Craig Melvin Chokes Up Over Cancer Conversation During ‘Today’ Interview

Craig Melvin‘s latest Today interview took an emotional turn.

During the third hour of Today‘s Wednesday, October 7, episode, Melvin and his co-hosts, Al Roker and Dylan Dreyer, chatted with radio personality and comedian Ron Bennington about his new podcast, the Portcast Podcast, which he launched after being diagnosed with stage four colorectal cancer earlier this year.

“Good morning to you, and thank you for everything that you do. It’s really, really impressive,” Bennington told Melvin at the top of the interview, referring to the anchor’s work raising awareness for colorectal cancer. Melvin got choked up while replying, “Thank you, and thanks for what you’re doing as well. It brings a lot of hope to a lot of people.”

Melvin’s older brother, Lawrence Meadows, died at the age of 43 in December 2020 from stage four colon cancer. Since then, Melvin has become a major advocate for colorectal cancer awareness and research, including raising money for the Colorectal Cancer Alliance through his annual Bottoms Up Invitational golf tournament.

On the Portcast Podcast, Bennington interviews friends and fellow comedians while undergoing chemotherapy. Bennington stayed on theme by receiving treatment while talking about the show live on Today.

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“We get a chance to talk to each other like we would never,” Bennington said of his podcast conversations. “Sometimes I feel like I’m at my own funeral because the nice things people say, I’ve never heard before. And this time, they’re saying it directly to me.”

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When asked by Melvin how his cancer diagnosis changed his perspective on life, Bennington stated, “Immediately, I understood this is something that happens. For the first time in your life, when people go, ‘Live every day, and every day’s precious,’ and you go, ‘Oh, yeah. It is. We’re figuring it out.’ But also, the fact that it happens to your entire family and your friends, and that’s what these comics coming in, are people I’ve known for years, and we’re all dealing with this one thing.”

Melvin began to tear up as Bennington continued to share kind words about his colorectal cancer advocacy. “You were there for your brother, and that’s a thing neither one of you asked for. And now that he’s gone, you’re out there working for his name, and it’s just a beautiful thing. It really is.”

Bennington was joined on the Today couch by Dr. Mark Pochapin, the director of gastroenterology at NYU Langone Health. “The American psyche is you go to a doctor when you’re sick, and we need to change that. You go to a doctor when you’re well to stay well,” he told viewers about the importance of colorectal cancer screenings. “We could do so much about health and wellness and not focus only on illness. There’s so much going on in terms of the chemotherapy, the innovation, so much hope. But prevention is the best treatment of the disease in the first place.”

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