What I Learned When I Almost Died: How a Maniac TV Producer Put Down His BlackBerry and Started to Live His Life

Equal parts Mitch Albom and Jerry Maguire, Chris Licht tells the tale of a brilliant career nearly cut short by a brain aneurysm—and how that near-death experience changed everything.

Chris Licht was a “killer” at his day job as the executive producer in charge of running MSNBC’s must-watch politics and morning news show Morning Joe. A thirty-eight-year-old control freak who thrived in the high-octane world of media, he had spent years sacrificing relationships with family and friends in the fiercely driven pursuit of his career. But that was before a brain aneurysm nearly killed him. Suddenly humbled, Chris is forced to recognize the richness of the life he nearly lost and to reckon with his family and career. This is a story of a man who nearly died—and found a way to remove what doesn’t matter and wound up more in love with his work and his family than ever. What I Learned When I Almost Died brings to life the set of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, plunging into the competitive world of television and revealing all the egos and adrenaline it takes to create a popular cable TV political show. Licht also flings back the curtain to one of the nation’s most prestigious emergency rooms as his life hangs in the balance, detailing the extraordinary courage and professionalism it takes to bring him back from the edge.

© 2021 Simon & Schuster Audio (Audiobook): 9781797128917

Release date

Audiobook: 15 June 2021