My poor parents sent me to a school outside the system, where people like me are put by worried parents to get any sort of degree. And there I had one teacher, an older lady, probably in her 60s, and my God I was afraid of her. I was 17 and ready to be a disturbance to everybody, and her method of teaching was basically to scream at you. She was teaching history, but she made stuff so interesting! And I distinctly remember sitting in her class being screamed at by her, and it hitting me: “Wow, this is so cool!”

It was like: “Hey, if you present stuff differently, it becomes fascinating!” And I hope with Kurzgesagt that I can create these moments for as many people as possible, this spark moment.

[...]

You had cancer at 32. How did that inform your interest in immunology?

It definitely strengthened it, because cancer is an immune-system failure, in a sense. It’s weird to say, but it was genuinely one of the most interesting experiences of my life. So, for example, the chemotherapy was working too well at some point and I basically didn’t have an immune system at all. Then I got some special drugs and my immune system bounced back so hard that I could have got cancer again. It was genuinely super-interesting.

A weird way of thinking about cancer, but love the curiosity. ;)

Do read the entire interview by The Guardian, and be sure to buy the book (getting it as a Christmas gift for myself).