Swoveralls Comfort Club · September 2026 · Volume 4, Issue 9

The Science of Laughing Through Hard Things

By Kyle Bergman, Founder of Swoveralls · September 2026

December 2025 - Cancer is a Joke Benefit in LA

September 2026
Volume 4, Issue 9

Comfy Fam,

Spoiler alert: This newsletter is about cancer. Yes, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but every month is cancer awareness month for the people going through it right now.

This issue features two humans in the middle of it. One is fighting Burkitt lymphoma while his best friend rallies the world around him. The other turned her breast cancer diagnosis into a one-woman comedy show, designed a pair of Swoveralls covered in boobs, and is living proof that laughter and cancer can coexist.

We're also spotlighting two organizations doing extraordinary work for the cancer community, and sharing some science on why humor isn't just a coping mechanism. It's medicine.

Here's what we're covering:

• 🧠 Comfort Thoughts: The science of laughing through hard things
• 💜 Andy: the Swovie fam member fighting Burkitt lymphoma (and his best friend Maegan who emailed us)
• 😂 Julia Johns: comedian, breast cancer survivor, and designer of our Boobies collection
• ❤️ Organizations We Love: The Survivorship Collective

Let's go!

🧠 Comfort Thoughts: the science of laughing through hard things

I want to start by telling you about two emails. One I received recently, the other I sent late last year. The former was from a woman named Maegan, writing to tell me her best friend Andy has cancer. The latter was me writing to comedian and cancer survivor Julia Johns, begging her to draw boobs on Swoveralls.

Both emails made me laugh. Not because cancer is funny. But because the humans navigating it sometimes are.

As some of you may know, we have the below line on our site's contact page,

"We love dad jokes so feel free to include one"

Maegan understood the assignment, and ended her email with jokes. Including:

"Why do Swoveralls make good comedians? They have a lot of material to work with."

I loved it!

Julia's one-woman show is called "A Tale of Two Titties." She opens by introducing her "fabulous new implants" and saying she misses her old saggy gals. I'm not really doing it justice by typing that here, but trust me, her delivery is world-class.

And that brings us to this month's comfort thoughts, which is all about the magic and science of laughing through hard things.

Researchers at Loma Linda University's Center for Neuroimmunology, led by Lee Berk and Stanley Tan, have been studying the physiology of laughter since the late 1980s. Their landmark research, published in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences (1989) and Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine (2001), found that mirthful (aka being really f-ing happy) laughter decreases serum cortisol levels, reduces epinephrine, increases natural killer cell activity, and boosts T lymphocyte counts. In plain language: laughing literally strengthens your immune system while reducing your stress hormones.

A 2020 survey of nearly 200 cancer patients found that more than 61% used humor as a coping strategy, and nearly 80% said it decreased their anxiety.

This isn't about pretending everything is fine. It's about what happens in your body when you find something to laugh about during the worst chapter of your life. Your nervous system calms down. Your immune function improves. Your pain tolerance increases. And for a few minutes, you're not a patient. You're just a person laughing.

Andy and Julia both know this instinctively. The science just confirms what they're already doing.

⭐ Customer Spotlight #1: Andy

Olivia and Andy in their Purr Parade Swoves

As you now know from the above section, I got an email from a woman named Maegan recently with the subject line "A comfy favor for a wonderful guy."

Her best friend Andy, 33, owns at least 6 pairs of Swoveralls, brags constantly about the pockets, and recently got their whole friend group (Andy, his girlfriend Olivia, Maegan, and her boyfriend Justin) into matching Purr Parade Swoveralls.

For Andy, Swoveralls aren't a fashion piece. They're a lifestyle. SAME.

A few months ago, Andy was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma. He's on an incredibly intensive treatment schedule: five straight days of 24-hour chemo, a week off, repeated for five rounds, then directly into an even more aggressive treatment. His doctors are optimistic about his chances.

Maegan didn't ask for anything specific. She just wanted to rally the people and brands Andy loves around him while he fights. That kind of friendship is rare, and it's exactly the kind of community we talk about in these newsletters. We connected Maegan with We Got This, the first nonprofit cancer gift registry, so people can give Andy things he actually needs.

If you want to support Andy:

• We Got This registry: registry.wegotthis.org/registries/andys-wish-list
• GoFundMe: gofundme.com/f/support-andy (they've raised over $45,000 but expenses keep rising)

Andy, keep kicking cancer's ass. This comfy fam is with you. 💜

⭐ Customer Spotlight #2: Julia Johns

Julia joking!

Last year, I was watching the We Got This "Cancer Is a Joke" comedy benefit livestream when a comedian walked on stage wearing coveralls covered in boobs. I immediately reached out to WGT Founder Elissa and said: "What Julia is wearing is incredible. I NEED TO MEET HER."

Who is Julia Johns? A stand-up comedian and breast cancer survivor (diagnosed 2022, Stage 2, hormone positive, HER2 negative invasive ductal carcinoma) who dealt with it the only way she knows how: by writing jokes about it. Her one-woman show "A Tale of Two Titties" takes audiences through her entire cancer journey with her own illustrations and just enough medical information to be educational.

I asked Julia if she'd design a print we could put on Swoveralls and our legendary (and now returning!) Comfyalls.

She said yes, and now Boobies Swoveralls and Comfyalls exist on both swoveralls.com and wegotthis.org, and Swoveralls is a proud partner and sponsor for a BIG event We Got This is launching in a couple weeks 👀.

Julia, you turned cancer into comedy, comedy into art, and art into overalls covered in boobs that raise money for other patients. That is the most Swoveralls thing that has ever happened.

Learn more about how awesome Julia is at juliajohns.com/about, follow her at @heyjuliajohns, and if you want some of her epic boob merch check out her Etsy store at etsy.com/shop/HeyJuliaJohns.

❤️ Partners We Love: The Survivorship Collective

It's about so much more than psychedelics. ✨ Pictured: Elissa Kalver, Julia Johns, Annie Bond, & Anne Hamilton (seated)

The Survivorship Collective is the first nonprofit connecting cancer patients, survivors, and their loved ones to safe, legal, psychedelic-assisted therapies. Founded by Anne Hamilton, an advanced-stage breast cancer survivor, former Yale Law litigator, and USC professor, the Collective offers psilocybin-assisted therapy retreats in Oregon (where psilocybin is legal).

Why this matters: landmark studies at Johns Hopkins and NYU found that a single supported psilocybin session produced large and sustained reductions in depression and anxiety in cancer patients, along with increased quality of life and a sense of meaning. Participants described facing mortality with less fear and more peace.

Anne founded the Survivorship Collective because she experienced this firsthand after her own cancer treatment. "After, the world felt connected again," she's said. "I was still me. Not just a patient or a survivor, but a whole human being."

Learn more at survivorshipcollective.com.

Until next time...

If you know someone going through cancer, let this be your sign to show up for them. Create a registry for them on We Got This. Take them to a comedy show. Introduce them to We Got This community or the Survivorship Collective.

Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do for someone fighting cancer is remind them they're still a person, not just a patient.

Stay cozy, stay brave, and take care of each other.

Founder | Chief Swoveralls Officer

P.S. - Cancer Is a Joke 2026 is happening November 15 at Dynasty Typewriter in LA. We'll have full details next month. If last year's event is any indication, you don't want to miss this.

P.P.S - If you made it this far, you might as well join our facebook group here (the Comfort Club), and special shoutout to comfort coach Mary Elise for helping run the group!