Bonus: The Path with Becky Quick: The Value of a Life 6/5/26

0:00Your data lives everywhere. On-prem, in the cloud, across apps. Bring it all together with EverPure, the platform that acts like a living system, delivering the latest in data performance, security, and innovation without ever slowing you down. Sophisticated enough to anticipate your ever-changing data needs, yet simple enough to feel like second nature. Tame your data chaos with EverPure and make storage and data management the simplest part of your business. Visit everpuredata.com to learn more. Trading at Schwab is now powered by Ameritrade, bringing you an expanding library of education with even more ways to sharpen your trading skills.

0:35Access new online courses, insightful webcasts, articles, engaging videos, and more. All curated just for traders. Plus, guided learning paths with content designed to fit your unique interests. And no sifting to find exactly what you need, so you can spend your time learning to trade brilliantly. Learn more at schwab.com slash trading. I discover that I've got a brain tumor. And my life changed completely. On that date, I'm grieving that I won't maybe see my grandchildren ever. Who cares about money at that point? Fuck it. The median survival rate is like 14 or 15 months for this. And somehow I'm going strong.

1:22I'm Becky Quick. This is The Path from CNBC Cures. My day job as a journalist has taken me to some pretty crazy places. We are live from the Nasdaq market site in Times Square. Live on Capitol Hill for special coverage of the inauguration. Something you could probably only see right here in China. I'm Becky Quick in Davos, Switzerland. But there's another part of my life. I like to say it's the best part. I'm a mom to a nine-year-old daughter with a rare genetic disease.

1:58She is one of the millions of Americans with a diagnosis that comes with more questions than answers. Cayley's disease is SYNGAP1. There is no cure. It's a neurodevelopmental disorder that causes conditions like autism, seizures, and intellectual disability. People with SYNGAP often have difficulty communicating in traditional ways.

2:28My daughter is the inspiration for CNBC Cures. Talking about my family's experience isn't easy, but your messages, your emails, the social media and comments right here on the podcast, they all mean so much. And I thank you. Sometimes Kaylee, CNBC Cures and my day job all come together. That's what happened when I was on assignment at the most unusual corporate annual meeting that you can actually imagine wanting to attend. Here we have everything from cherry dilly bars to the traditional classic chocolate dilly bar. We are here live in Omaha, Nebraska. Hey, man, gecko. One time I met SpongeBob SquarePants, but this is way more exciting.

3:10I've been covering Warren Buffett's famous Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting for more than 20 years. So you start to get to know people. No. Hello. I spoke to a man who is facing the end of his life. We talked about love, truth, grief, hope. It's pretty familiar territory for anyone in the rare disease community. I read about your daughter last night. We talked a lot about Kaylee and what really matters. We talked about value. It was an intense conversation. There were tears, but there was also laughter and hope. And I want to share this conversation with you.

3:55Guy Spear has been among the 40 ,000 shareholders traveling to Omaha, Nebraska for decades now. He is one of the many who are eager to soak up the wisdom of legendary investor Warren Buffett, the CEO of the conglomerate from 1965 through 2025. I've compared the markets to a church with a casino attached. Our chairman, Warren Buffett.

4:25My name's Guy Spear. I met Becky Quick maybe 15 years ago because I had lunch with Warren Buffett. Until this year, he was a noted investor in his own right, overseeing the hedge fund Aquamarine. He and a friend spent$650 ,000 in a charity auction for a lunch date that changed his life at that point. I discovered a year and a half ago that I have GBM or glioblastoma, grade four, and I've just sent all my money back, outside money back to my investors. In a remarkable letter in early 2026, Speer announced his diagnosis of a rare brain cancer and his intention to close his investment fund, which at the time was worth nearly half a billion dollars.

5:10The person I saw before, that was pre-children, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We've had lots of things in my family over the years that have happened, but there's nothing like when it's your child. We sat down on the sidelines of the Berkshire annual meeting. He brought a few friends. I brought a camera crew. All I wanted to do now was talk to Becky, you know. And we started with when he first knew something was wrong, after a day out skiing with his family. We had a beautiful day. It was a super cold day in November. And on the car journey back from Clostres to Zurich, I had a grand mal seizure.

5:47And I was sitting next to my wife in the car. She didn't know what was going on. But the next thing I know, I'm in a helicopter on my way to Hirst London Hospital, an MRI. And I wake up the next day and I discover that I've got a brain tumor. And my life changed completely. On that date, I didn't know what a brain tumor was, and I didn't know it existed. And it certainly didn't happen to me. That happened to other people. I struggled on, or I continued to think that I could live a normal life. But then in the middle of 2025, I had a new series of focal seizures, and I had to have a second surgery.

6:31and obviously the treatment hadn't worked. And then in the end of December of last year, I had a third surgery and I could see that I couldn't continue to run the fund. And so I took the decision to send the money back. So it was a very, very difficult year. I feel a lot better now because I sent this letter in January and that was the first time I could come completely clean and open about what I had. And so although I don't like where I am, at least I'm not living a double life. And for a while there, I was living a double life because the lawyers get in the way and they say, you can't say this to the investors.

7:09You have to send the money back in this way. Only say this, don't say that. Really? They told you you couldn't tell them what was happening with your health? I was honest about that I'd had a brain tumor and it was taken out, but they didn't want to have anything that said that maybe my performance had suffered because that would give them potentially, the outside investors, the potential to say, we didn't know and you didn't tell us at the right time. Oh, wow. And so I was completely free to be completely honest once we'd sent all the money back. Your letter was so moving. It's the reason I wanted to reach out to you and be able to talk to you here.

7:48I didn't know what was going on, but you were so eloquent in how you laid this out. not only what you're dealing with, but how you're dealing with it. How did you decide what to say? How did you kind of figure out where you are right now? Everybody's had nightmares. And, but I've never experienced that you go to sleep and life is wonderful. And then I wake up to the nightmare and you want to pinch yourself. Who has not gone to, woken up and said, oh my God, it was just a nightmare. It's not the real life. Tell me what glioblastoma is and what the doctor have told you what you're dealing with right now?

8:25I don't know much. So glioblastoma is a tumor of the glial cells. Glial cells are not neurons, but they're all over the brain and they do a lot of cleaning up and they do a lot of support work for the neurons. They start developing networks of their own and they start firing like neurons. They're not supposed to fire like neurons. And And depending where it happens in the brain, it can happen in all sorts of places in the brain, and the brain is the control center. But unlike other kinds of cancer where you can completely remove the tumor, especially if you catch it early, in glioblastoma, the tumor is within.

9:10It's like seeds in the ground, if you like, or fungus. It just grows everywhere. After my first seizure, I lost my ability to pronounce words in foreign languages. So I used to be good at, I can still read in foreign languages, but I lost my ability to pronounce. I thought that was bad enough. And I complained bitterly to the doctors. I said, this sucks. And they're sort of saying, you've got nothing to worry about. Like, call me up when you can't walk, you know. And that was like beyond anything that I could think about. But second time, my second surgery, I lost feeling the right side of my, I lost taste as well.

9:52So wine, even good wine, tasted funny to me. And that I didn't like very much. The third surgery, that was the worst because I lost, I cannot type anymore. So I do a lot of amateur videos. So I've lost fine motor control in these fingers. But you tell the surgeon, he says, oh, I'm not worried about that. I'm like, wait a second. Yeah, it sucks. But that also worries you about what he thinks is potentially coming. That's what's so hard. I mean, I, you know, I don't know what I am sure it's the same with you. The doctors are the most kind, gentle. They care so much, you know, and the doctor is in this case, the surgeon who's basically become a friend.

10:34I mean, I've got him on speed dial. And it's funny because I said, so I said, how can I survive the best? And he says, you need to keep a positive mental attitude. And so I say, but you're a doctor. So how does that work scientifically? And he says, I don't know, but it works. I say, are you a scientist or are you some kind of like quack? And he never really explained it, but I went through a depression. It was terrible. It was very, very difficult. And I tried everything. And at some point, I realized that getting upset about it was not going to help. So I stopped getting upset about it. And I really did discover that movement, any kind of movement helps.

11:12So if I'm on the rowing machine, whatever I do that engages in movement helps me feel better. So I do as much as I can, which is a lot less than I would like to do. And the positive mental attitude, you think it works?

11:28You know, there's that moment when you can fall into depression or to feel unhappy and to feel, why did this happen to me? And it sucks and I don't want it. And every time I've allowed myself to go in that direction, I haven't found anything good there. So it's like, why go there again?

11:56We're at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Nebraska. When I heard you were coming, I thought, oh my gosh, I have to talk to Guy. Yeah, I'm so pleased. I want to see what he's doing. What's the experience been like for you here? So I love being here. It's my happy place. I've been coming for the last 20 years or more, and I have so many friends here from all over the world, and there's nonstop fun, nonstop meeting people and hanging out. out. But I did too much yesterday. So I was all day on the floor. I was in the meeting, listening to your interview, doing three things at once, saying hello to people.

12:35And I finally got to bed at 12 o 'clock last night. That was a little bit late for me. And then this morning, I'm frustrated because I want to go running and I want to go for the run. I had the precursor to a focal seizure called an aura. So my upper lip started shaking a little bit, and I started to feel numbness, more numbness than usual in my thumb. And it can be a precursor to a seizure. It can also be a panic attack. And it's a reminder to me, I want to feel that everything is okay and I can go running with the rest of them and sport and workout. And it's a reminder to me that I'm not okay.

13:19How are you feeling right now? Did the rest help? Yeah, yeah. And talking to you feels great. I feel your energy of empathy. And that comes across very, very clearly. And if I may be so bold, the woman that I met 15 years ago, that was a different woman. You don't know what's going on in other people's lives. But when you talk about it or I talk about it, it gives you a connection. And then you instantly have a deeper relationship and a deeper revelation of what's happening with someone. The funny thing is, is that I know that I'd rather be innocent. And I'd rather not have that deeper connection, if you like.

14:02Me too. Yeah, exactly. Me too, but if we're here, I think we're better off for it. Yeah, we'd rather be innocent.

14:15You're right. There's knowledge and information that I really wish I didn't have. The year that you and Munesh decided to go after that charity auction, the Glide charity auction. What's your plan for this lunch? We'll be talking about anything they're interested in. We'll talk as long as they want to talk, and we'll talk about the subjects they want to talk. And if you want to pay$660 ,000, we'll talk about anything you want to talk about, Becky. The winner dines with seven friends and Buffett himself at the Smith & Walensky restaurant here in New York City. And the winners for this year's lunch join Miss Becky Quick.

14:46Hi, Dylan. Hello, everybody. The winners this year are Manish Pabrai and Guy Spear. $650 ,100 is what you two paid to have a two-and-a-half-hour lunch with Mr. Buffett. Was it worth it? The lunch is free. All the money went to Glide. and how many times do you give to charity and you don't get a lunch with Warren Buffett. So this had double bonus. You guys sound like you're still kind of walking on clouds here. Absolutely. First of all, why did you do that? And second of all, let's talk about the experience. You know about the experience very well. But I thought it was the dumbest idea in the world.

15:22I really did. So why'd you do it? Yeah, because I was like, I'm going to pay all of this money to just have lunch with somebody and Manish convinced me to do it. He said, look, it's not just lunch. It's not paying a charity. You actually sit and talk to him for three or four hours and we know so much about him, but we'll learn more and all of those things. He convinced me very quickly that it was the right thing to do. So I was nervous as hell. Did you pick up on that? No, nervous when you were sitting down to lunch with him? The worst, yeah, all through. The worst thing was that I was afraid that he wouldn't like me.

16:01but it was a it was a magical experience and I did learn an enormous amount and I mean you know I mean you know Warren far better than I do but um just being in the room with him once and that's the only time I really talked to him fully I mean a couple of times maybe in his office for five minutes. I learned so much about how it is to be somebody in his shoes. First of all, I learned that I would never be Warren Buffett. And there wasn't any point trying. I didn't realize you were so nervous beforehand. Afterwards, how did you feel? I was dazed. I was like, I didn't, I mean, first of all, I wanted to continue forever and ever and ever.

16:43And he was there for like three and four hours, you know, but at some point, we had to shut it down. I mean, it's now 15, 20 years later, so maybe I'm not dazed now. But it was, you know, you have these moments which fundamentally change you. And that fundamentally changed me. We'll be right back with more of The Path. Never bet against American grit or American energy. Through innovation, Venture Global is not only building some of the largest energy facilities in the world right here in the United States, but delivering American energy at a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the time. So while others are busy talking, we're busy building.

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18:35Let's talk about investing and value investing, which you've long employed. When you look at your diagnosis and you look back at value investing, you've written a couple of things that I thought were pretty interesting. The time you spent on mining stocks. You kind of wonder why you spent so much time on mining stocks. I always ask the question, should I have been an investor, actually? because I think I may have been a good academic. And I really do think today there are too many people, and I'm quite likely one of them, whose mind would have been better used. I mean, we have too many people trying to chase money in the stock market, and that's not good for society.

19:16And I'm one of those people. And in a way, I'm glad that I'm not in that race anymore. And, you know, maybe I should have become an engineer with Elon Musk, tried to do something there. I mean, he really is making a difference in a way that all these financial people are not. And there's room for a few of them. But should I not have gone and done something else? I mean, I've opened up a whole new world of biochemistry and medicine. And you see these great people working for their whole lives to make some discovery that may make our lives better. and if just a little bit of that brain power that you know i have some brain power went in that direction or in going to mars or whatever else it is rather than just trying to make money in the stock market so i do have i do have some regrets in that regard i forgive myself if you like but um but you know i um i once you've once you've hit a certain target about what net worth you want to have and how much is enough.

20:22Maybe it's time to start doing something else. Where are you right now just in terms of, you said you're trying to take on as many potential cures and therapies as you can. What does that look like? What does that mean? I didn't want to know, and it's in the letter, about my disease. I wanted to live my life. And I think that after my third surgery, I realized I have to engage with it. And especially because we're out of all the standard of care. So I am not really very knowledgeable about the biochemistry behind what I've got and what cures there are. So I've done my first experimental treatment, which involves re-radiation of the tumor with a photosensitizer, which makes it more likely that it will kill tumor cells.

21:12So I spent a month in a hospital in Münster in Germany, which is a wonderful place with wonderful doctors. And I was doing a, you know, you have the CNBC Squawk Box. I have the Education of a Value Investor podcast. And I was interviewing various people. It's fun to do and you learn about all sorts of things. Now I've done my first podcast interviewing the doctors who treated me in Münster. In a way, it's the same idea that you're doing with this, which is shine a spotlight on the people who are doing basic research to further medical knowledge. And so that's my first treatment. The second treatment, I hope I qualify for it, will be a personalized vaccine that will happen in the University of Tübingen with a company called Sigat.

22:01And it's not proven. It may work. It may not work. It may extend life. It may not. And by the way, here's, and you know, somehow in the last two months, I don't know, I have, this year I started taking antidepressant medication. I mean, we have plenty of therapists in our lives. So I have a psychotherapist who's an oncologist, psycho-oncology and um i go to her and she says look you can try trade it doing a drop by drop so so so i started with one drop of acetylopram and then two drops and then three drops now i'm on 10 milligrams which is the equivalent of 10 drops and i want to taper it off and the various people have said no i can't taper it off uh why was i saying that i was saying that for a good reason yes because i don't know if it's the acetylipram uh or something else but recently i've just come to this place where i just said fuck it you know i don't fucking care i am beyond the date so the median survival rate is like 14 or 15 months for this and somehow i'm going strong so every day it's basically a gift so i might as well celebrate and i and i don't know if that i hope it stays that way.

23:19I don't know when at some point something will happen, like I'll have a seizure or I'll lose something that is valuable to me that I'll go into a depression again. But I know that I have to celebrate today. I don't know where that came from or what we were saying before or afterwards, but it was important to say, I think. No, it is. I mean, it's just in terms of what you're dealing with, what the diagnosis is, how you fight that, and what the next steps are. So, you know, I've said this many times, and at some point I'll be repeating myself, but I don't know how many people have heard it. But so Warren, in his letter, his final letter, he says that the batting average of the Grim Reaper is 100%.

24:02You know, he gets us all in the end. But I don't like this idea of a battle of cancer or a battle with any disease, because at the end of the day, we all die. And I like this idea of you're playing a game against the Groom Reaper. And for every day that you're around, our job is to win as many points against the Groom Reaper as we possibly can. And that we do that by not hurting ourselves or others and doing the things that we love, doing this interview, being with your daughter, having a family meal. And somehow, right now, I hope it stays that way. Monish used to say, he's not afraid of death, I'm afraid of death.

24:47That's completely flipped. It seems to me right now. I don't know how long it stays that way. And there's something else that I don't know. I mean, I sense from you that you have strong love and support around you. Oh, absolutely. I'm very fortunate to have my husband, to have my children, my parents, my brothers, and my sisters-in-laws. There's a very strong support system. So I feel like the only reason why I can be the way I am is because I feel deeply loved. And there's something like courage or cur heart. But it doesn't come from me. It comes from the love that comes in from me. and I think that I'd be a wreck if I didn't have that unconditional love coming in.

25:34And I have a huge amount of it, more than most people. And so that's where I can be brave. And it's actually not brave. It's because I have so much love coming in, if you like. And I haven't completely figured out in my head, but the two somehow go together. What is it about sharing your story? What really motivated you to do that? I remember the first time I was at the Berkshire Hathaway meeting and I realized that this guy was just telling the truth. He was just saying how it is. And that's not who I was at that moment. First of all, I mean, the Charlie Munger famous expression, you know, if you tell the truth, you don't need to worry about what you've said to whom and when.