One in eight US women will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her life, and while we’ve seen a decrease in deaths thanks to advances in screening, treatment and awareness, that’s still too high. On today’s show, we ask the crucial question: what can we do to combat this disease, and how can our self-awareness of our risk, our genetic predisposition and our options aid in this effort? We have gathered an amazing group of women, with varied experiences and viewpoints to examine this: Actor, musician, activist and breast cancer survivor Rita Wilson; renowned researcher Dr. Laura Esserman, a professor of surgery and radiology at the University of California, San Francisco and the Director of the UCSF breast care clinic; Bright Pink CEO Katie Thiede; and breast cancer previvor (we’ll explain that term) and author of the “Braving BRCA” blog Sara Altschule. Host Baratunde Thurston leads an amazing conversation spanning Rita’s and Sara’s personal journeys, Katie’s ongoing advocacy, and Dr. Esserman’s industry-leading research and insight. Check out “Bigger Picture,” Rita Wilson’s amazing album inspired by her recent experiences, and catch her at Stagecoach in April 2019 (@RitaWilson on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook). Find out more about Dr. Laura Esserman on Twitter @DrLauraEsserman to keep up with her latest research and the WISDOM study. Follow Katie Thiede on Twitter @KatieThiede, and you can find out more about Bright Pink at brightpink.org. Be sure to check out assessyourrisk.org, their amazing self-assessment tool. Check out Sara Altschule on Twitter @sara_altschule and follow her amazing “Braving BRCA” writing at https://www.bustle.com/braving-brca. Spit is an iHeartRadio podcast with 23andMe. Enjoy this episode and subscribe, rate and review Spit on Apple Podcasts. And be sure to tell your friends all about it. Find out more about our host Baratunde Thurston at Baratunde.com or sign up for his text messages at 202-902-7949.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers