NewsNation's Dan Abrams Is Not Slowing Down, 20 Years After Cancer Diagnosis (Exclusive) (2024)

Few would see the analogy between reporting the news and fermenting grapes, but Dan Abrams — host of NewsNation's DanAbramsLive — sees symbiosis in just about everything.

"For me, the most rewarding professional experiences are when I create something from scratch and then see it grow," he tells PEOPLE.

Abrams, 57, wears many hats: journalist, legal analyst, host of The Dan Abrams Show on Sirius XM, founder of the website Mediaite, and — more recently — vintner. He's seen many of his ventures develop over time, recently selling another of his companies, news network Law&Crime, to a video content startup.

"I've sold other companies over the years, but this is certainly the biggest sale because it's a cable network, and it's a production company, and it's a website," he says. "It's a life-changing event in that sense."

Abrams' career has come a long way since a harrowing series of events 20 years ago, when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer and — after facing the disease in silence for some time — decided to come forward publicly with his experience.

The veteran journalist is the first to admit, however, that his diagnosis didn't define his life, so much as add context. "There are a lot of people who go through this, and it becomes a defining part of who they are, almost like religion to some degree. That didn't happen with me," he says.

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Instead, Abrams admits, he maintained a strategy of "deal with it and forget about it," only going public when he learned that journalist Sean Kimerling had died suddenly from the disease.

"At that time, I hadn't planned on doing anything public on it. There were only a couple people at my office who knew," Abrams tells PEOPLE. But Kimerling hit close to home, a man who "was also a newscaster, was almost exactly my age, almost looked like me a little bit, who died from the exact same testicular cancer."

He continues: "Suddenly, it hit me like a brick wall, and I just felt like I needed to reach out to his parents and express some level of sympathy. The feeling was, That could have been me."

In 2004, Abrams went on the Today show to break his silence and reveal the diagnosis. He says he's now counseled a number of men with testicular cancer, adding, "I will always be proud of myself for overcoming my reluctance to want to talk about it."

In the decades since Abrams became cancer-free, he's founded numerous media entities, launched new shows and invested in new business opportunities — a testament to how committed he is to making full use of the time he has.

One of his many examples of creating something new with the reward of watching it grow comes in the form of his Long Island vineyard, Ev&Em. Named for his two children, Everett and Emilia, the vineyard came about in 2021 as the result of his passion for wine — and a little bit of regret.

"Maybe 18 years ago, I was with a friend of mine who's a lawyer who was telling me he was investing in a winery in the Central Coast of California. I thought, 'That is so cool.' He said, 'Actually, there's an opportunity if you want to join.'"

Ultimately, Abrams passed on investing in a winery in California's Central Coast, but he decided to look into properties on the North Fork of Long Island, which had a burgeoning reputation in the wine industry.

"A handful of wineries there have started making some world-class wines, and I'm seeing that opportunity," Abrams says. "I said, 'You know what? This is near where I live. I can't give that up again.'"

After connecting with friends in Long Island, he found a winery that wasn't yet on the market but had great potential. The rest, as Abrams says, "is history."

While he doesn't do the actual wine-making himself, it was important to Abrams that the business be one that, like so many of his other endeavors, has the potential to flourish.

"I have this vision of at some point one of my kids deciding that they don't want to be in the rat race. This would be a nice thing for someone to do — to really spend full-time running a vineyard because it's a nice size, 44 acres. I mean, it's not just a little hobby project," he says.

Though running a winery is far different from his other passions — namely, of course, journalism — Abrams still sees a similarity.

"The people who come to really appreciate a wine, appreciate the story behind it — they want transparency. They want to understand what's going into this, what's making this," he says.

He continues: "Transparency is what I have always believed is the single most important thing if you're hosting a news show ... Maybe there's an analogy there — that taking people behind the curtain a little bit in both media and the winemaking — is really important."

Dan Abrams Live airs weeknights at 9/8 p.m. CT on NewsNation, featuring Abrams' analysis of the day's biggest news stories.