At SXSW, Joe Biden asks the tech community for help fighting cancer


A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
Speaking to a packed house Sunday at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, former Vice President Joe Biden called the fight against cancer "the only bipartisan thing left in America," and outlined how his nonprofit Biden Foundation will lead the way to stop the disease.
The audience included several people working in the tech field, and Biden implored them to use their "ingenuity" to come up with innovative programs related to cancer, like an app that makes it easier for patients to send test results from hospital to hospital. "Many of you are developing technologies and innovations for purposes large and small, fun and serious, entertaining and lifesaving, that have nothing to do with cancer — but you could make a gigantic impact," he said. "We need you to help us reach people who need to change their behavior and avoid cancer."
Biden was tasked with heading a program to speed up cancer research in the United States by former President Barack Obama; Biden said Obama put him in charge of the initiative after the former vice president mentioned he would have "loved to have been the president who presides over the end of cancer as we know it." Biden's son, Beau, died of brain cancer in 2015, and Biden said he wants to "spare other families what our family, and so many other families, have gone through."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
10 things you need to know today: October 1, 2023
Daily Briefing Government shutdown avoided as Congress passes temporary funding bill, Supreme Court to begin new term as major cases await, and more
By Justin Klawans Published
-
6 thrilling reads chosen by Ken Follett
Feature The historical novelist suggests works by Frank Herbert, Charles Dickens and more
By The Week Staff Published
-
Dress-down democracy
Feature What we lose when we shun suits and ties
By Theunis Bates Published
-
NYPD to monitor Labor Day parties using surveillance drones
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Elon Musk announces change to Twitter logo
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Twitter has reportedly threatened to sue Meta over Threads
Speed Read
By Brigid Kennedy Published
-
Judge limits how Biden officials can communicate with social media companies
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Meta to block news access for Facebook and Instagram users in Canada
Speed Read
By Theara Coleman Published
-
Russian hackers allegedly breach US government agencies in cyberattack
Speed Read
By Theara Coleman Published
-
Popular Reddit forums go dark in protest of new developer fees
Speed Read
By Theara Coleman Published
-
Apple fixes its 'ducking' autocorrect problem
Speed Read
By Brigid Kennedy Published