Speaker 1: Hi everyone, I'm Kitty Kuric, and this is next question.
Speaker 1: Brookshields is an American icon. I don't know about you,
Speaker 1: but I remember her face being on the box of
Speaker 1: Ivory Snow because she was such a pretty baby. She
Speaker 1: later starred, of course, in Pretty Baby, and then froliced
Speaker 1: in the Blue Lagoon. When I was in my twenties,
Speaker 1: I learned that nothing came between her and her Calvin's.
Speaker 1: I have been a fan of hers for a very
Speaker 1: long time. I think she's so smart and funny and
Speaker 1: miraculously survived enormous fame from a very early age. In fact,
Speaker 1: there's a whole documentary about her life called Pretty Baby
Speaker 1: Now on Hulu. When Brook invited me to be on
Speaker 1: her podcast, now What, I thought, why not? Although I'm
Speaker 1: a bit older than she is, we're both interested in
Speaker 1: making sure we're living and loving life as more and
Speaker 1: more candles appear on our birthday cakes. We ended up
Speaker 1: having a great conversation, so I thought this might be
Speaker 1: a really nice way to kick off twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: So I hope you all enjoy.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for doing this.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, of course, I'm thrilled to talk to
Speaker 1: you because you know, I'm such a big fan, and
Speaker 1: I think I'm glad that people are kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: getting to know you and your personality because you're so funny.
Speaker 1: And I don't think people I think, like when obviously
Speaker 1: suddenly Susan and you've had other roles, but I don't
Speaker 1: think everyone appreciates your sense of humor or the fact
Speaker 1: that you have such a good sense of humor.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you for that. I think, you know, I
Speaker 2: think it's anyway, it's odd. I think it's because if
Speaker 2: you've been sort of positioned a certain way for a
Speaker 2: good portion of your life, that is just what people
Speaker 2: imprint on and you know you can't I guess you
Speaker 2: can't be labeled pretty and funny, although I mean Lucio
Speaker 2: Ball was like a beauty queen when she started.
Speaker 1: I don't know why people have to put people in
Speaker 1: boxes and don't appreciate that, As Walt Whitman said, we
Speaker 1: contain multitudes, right, right.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's easier for people because also
Speaker 2: if you really, if you really take in all that
Speaker 2: we're all capable of.
Speaker 3: It's a lot of pressure for people.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I'm really kind of I have to say
Speaker 2: I was a bit intimidating, not a bit a lot
Speaker 2: intimidated when I really heard, only because not as a friend,
Speaker 2: because as a friend and like a girlfriend, I know
Speaker 2: I can call you and we can be girls, and
Speaker 2: we've talked about a multitude of private things together. But
Speaker 2: it just, you know, you set the tone, and you're
Speaker 2: the front runner for so many women. And the fact
Speaker 2: that I got intimidated by the fact that I thought
Speaker 2: you were going to be that I knew you were
Speaker 2: going to be on the show, it struck me. I thought,
Speaker 2: I wonder if she ever gets intimidated by interviews that
Speaker 2: she has to give. Has there been anybody that's been
Speaker 2: intimidating to you?
Speaker 1: I think when I have to tackle topics that I
Speaker 1: don't know a great deal about that I feel like
Speaker 1: the learning curve is really steep. You know, if it's
Speaker 1: somebody on a specific aspect of foreign policy that I
Speaker 1: might not be uber knowledgeable about, or a medical thing
Speaker 1: that I don't know a lot about. Sometimes I do
Speaker 1: get intimidated, but I think at this point you just
Speaker 1: let your natural curiosity take over. You have a conversation,
Speaker 1: and I think the goal is to really make things
Speaker 1: accessible and understandable to people. So I remember Tom Friedman
Speaker 1: said to explain things simply, you have to understand them deeply.
Speaker 1: So I try to strike that balance of understanding something
Speaker 1: and then synthesizing it and distill.
Speaker 2: That's a that's a tall order, but the research involved,
Speaker 2: I think is daunting, and I'm sure you know, to
Speaker 2: make it accessible for other people is really.
Speaker 3: Is really the gift of being a journalist.
Speaker 2: You wanted to be a journalist from the time you
Speaker 2: were a little kid. I mean, you're the You're the
Speaker 2: youngest of four, correct, you grew up in Virginia and
Speaker 2: you said you wanted to be a journalist from a
Speaker 2: young age. What how did you know that that's what
Speaker 2: you wanted. What was it about journalism that intrigued you.
Speaker 1: I think I wanted to do something that had to
Speaker 1: do with language and writing, and I think it was
Speaker 1: the process of elimination. Honestly, I wasn't very strong in
Speaker 1: math and science. I hate to say that because that's
Speaker 1: such a stereotypical thing, but I really gravitated towards words
Speaker 1: and language and writing and more creative pursuit. So I
Speaker 1: knew I wanted to do something that involved some form
Speaker 1: of communication, whether it was writing or radio or talking.
Speaker 1: And I think because my dad was a print journalist
Speaker 1: early in his career, and he saw that I wrote well,
Speaker 1: and I wrote quickly because I was such a procrastinator
Speaker 1: as a kid, I'd wait till the last minute to
Speaker 1: do my homework, but I was able to write things
Speaker 1: under pressure. And I think he thought, wow, journalism might
Speaker 1: be a really great career for you. I mean, he
Speaker 1: didn't say that, but we sort of went in that direction.
Speaker 1: And I got internships when I was in college, and
Speaker 1: I worked at three different radio stations, and I wrote
Speaker 1: for my school newspaper and at Uva, I wrote for
Speaker 1: the Cavalier Daily.
Speaker 4: So I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think when you are lucky enough
Speaker 1: to find a job you'd love, that is such a gift.
Speaker 2: Do you remember the first time that you fell in
Speaker 2: love with the idea of news, like the news moment
Speaker 2: that made you just fall in love with that medium.
Speaker 1: I don't remember if there was one particular moment. I
Speaker 1: just loved every aspect of jumping into a local news van,
Speaker 1: not knowing what you were going to find when you
Speaker 1: stopped to cover a story, having to jump out get
Speaker 1: your bearings, figure out what was going on, find people
Speaker 1: to talk to, start painting a picture of the story
Speaker 1: in your mind, listening to the sound bites on your
Speaker 1: little mini tape recorder on the way home, writing the script,
Speaker 1: figuring out what you're maybe if you're going live from
Speaker 1: the location, what your you know your live intro is
Speaker 1: going to be, what your outro is going to be,
Speaker 1: and doing it? Thank you much pressure. Oh yeah, it's
Speaker 1: so fun. It's such an adrenaline rush and it's just excite.
Speaker 1: And then you've got this thing that you've produced and
Speaker 1: it's done and it's over and you can go home
Speaker 1: and leave it behind.
Speaker 4: It's awesome.
Speaker 3: It's amazing.
Speaker 2: And also just the thinking on your feet and that
Speaker 2: being able to adapt. I mean, it's our version as
Speaker 2: an actor of improv. You know, you just it's yes,
Speaker 2: and you know, you never shut anything down. It's always
Speaker 2: what's the next thing. But it's interesting though I don't
Speaker 2: think you know, my daughter, I always things happen and
Speaker 2: things don't happen for them, and I try to tell
Speaker 2: them all the time that you know, rejection is just
Speaker 2: part of growth, and especially in this medium. What you're
Speaker 2: what you I mean there must have been so much rejection.
Speaker 2: And part of what I wanted to do with this
Speaker 2: show is to normalize rejection, you know, to show people
Speaker 2: that you can recover from it, that it happens to
Speaker 2: all of us, and it's how you're gone and how
Speaker 2: you continue that really reveals who you are.
Speaker 4: That's so true. That's so true.
Speaker 1: And I mean from the get go, I had people
Speaker 1: telling me, you know, oh, you're never going to make
Speaker 1: it in the business. The president of CNN when I
Speaker 1: did a really bad report, like I was too young
Speaker 1: and really bad, and he called the assignment desk at
Speaker 1: CNN in Washington said he never wanted to see me
Speaker 1: on the air again. Talk about like deflating. And you know,
Speaker 1: I had a really challenging time when I went to CBS,
Speaker 1: both internally with the politics there and externally with people
Speaker 1: I think wanting to tear me down and not picking
Speaker 1: up what I was putting down in terms of trying
Speaker 1: to retool an evening news broadcast. And it's hard, and
Speaker 1: you're right, everybody deals with rejection or disappointment or hopes
Speaker 1: at some point in their lives and it's no fun,
Speaker 1: but it's just part of life.
Speaker 3: How did you move on from it, though, what do
Speaker 3: you do?
Speaker 4: What was I mean?
Speaker 1: I think I had different reactions that differed two different disappointments,
Speaker 1: Like when the president of CNN said he never wanted
Speaker 1: to see me on the air again. I was just
Speaker 1: like devastated. But I also thought, maybe he's right. Maybe
Speaker 1: I need more experience. Maybe I'm not ready, and I
Speaker 1: just need to do it more. And that's when I
Speaker 1: moved to Atlanta and became a producer and started doing
Speaker 1: on air stuff little by little and found a mentor.
Speaker 1: That's when I went to Miami and became a local
Speaker 1: news and just churned out story after story. And you know,
Speaker 1: I agree with Malcolm Gladwell, it takes about ten thousand
Speaker 1: hours to get good at anything. And I just thought,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just I need more practice, I need
Speaker 1: more experience. So I took it personally, and yet I
Speaker 1: didn't take it personally, and I tried to figure out, well,
Speaker 1: how could I change the circumstances I found myself in.
Speaker 1: When we come back, Brooke and I debunked the morning
Speaker 1: show stigma and discuss one of the central tenets of
Speaker 1: journalism objectivity. That's right after this. If you want to
Speaker 1: get smarter every morning with a breakdown of the news
Speaker 1: and fascinating takes on health and wellness and pop culture.
Speaker 1: Sign up for our daily newsletter, Wake Upcall by going
Speaker 1: to Katiecouric dot com.
Speaker 2: You were interviewed by people after you left CBS and
Speaker 2: you said you didn't think that people really internally, ever
Speaker 2: really accepted you. And you said, I thought we were
Speaker 2: much further along when it came to sexism. What prompted
Speaker 2: that observation.
Speaker 1: Well, I think if you had sort of been in
Speaker 1: my shoes during those five years. And I think a
Speaker 1: lot has changed. I think that sexism is still one
Speaker 1: of the most acceptable isms, less so than it used
Speaker 1: to be. But I think that I got criticized for
Speaker 1: what I wore my first night on the evening news.
Speaker 1: I got criticized for the way I held my hands,
Speaker 1: these really dopey things that a mail anchor would just
Speaker 1: never be subjected to. I mean, let's face it, it's
Speaker 1: more interesting, I think, to look at women on television
Speaker 1: because there's more variety. You know, men just look generally
Speaker 1: a certain way, where a certain suit and a tie,
Speaker 1: and I think that not everyone. And by the way,
Speaker 1: I had a lot of friends within CBS, but a
Speaker 1: lot of people I think sort of didn't like outsiders.
Speaker 1: It's a pretty insular place. People go there and they
Speaker 1: kind of spend their entire careers there. So I had
Speaker 1: the out status, I had the first woman's status. I
Speaker 1: had the morning show albatross around my neck, that somehow
Speaker 1: I lacked rabatas, which I always say is Latin for testicles,
Speaker 1: and you know, and that and that somehow I wasn't
Speaker 1: enough of a you know, a serious journalist to handle
Speaker 1: the CBS evening news, which was just honestly boloney. So
Speaker 1: I think there were a lot of and not just
Speaker 1: I think there were a lot of biases that honestly
Speaker 1: infected or affected the way people saw me in that role.
Speaker 3: What just explained to me what the morning show stigma?
Speaker 1: Oh well, I think that people, you know, even though
Speaker 1: Tom Brokaw did the Today Show, for example, and even
Speaker 1: John Chancellor did the Today Show, I think there is
Speaker 1: a feeling that the morning shows are very fluffy and
Speaker 1: that they don't deal with serious news, and they're not.
Speaker 1: They're not done or anchored by serious people. I think
Speaker 1: that's an unfair characterization because I did so many serious
Speaker 1: interviews during my fifteen years at the Today Show, and
Speaker 1: I did many dateline specials. I interviewed Supreme Court justices
Speaker 1: and presidents and world leaders. But I think that it
Speaker 1: just has this kind of unfair sort of impromoder as
Speaker 1: kind of a you know, a light fluffy show.
Speaker 3: It's entertainment, not news.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But I was really really proud of working on
Speaker 1: The Today Show and really proud of a lot of
Speaker 1: the work we did in the stories and the serious
Speaker 1: stories I covered, from Oklahoma City bombing to nine to eleven,
Speaker 1: to presidential elections to all kinds of really important stories.
Speaker 3: I mean, you've covered so much, and I'm curious about.
Speaker 2: How you cover some of the more divisive issues without
Speaker 2: inserting your personal opinion.
Speaker 1: I honestly try to understand what the person is saying,
Speaker 1: and I try to learn from that and ask questions
Speaker 1: that I think other people would ask. I do try to,
Speaker 1: you know, have a vulcan mind meld with people who
Speaker 1: might be watching, and I try to be objective, but
Speaker 1: you know, I have at this point in my life,
Speaker 1: I'm sixty six years old. There are certain things that
Speaker 1: I really believe in it, and it is hard to sometimes,
Speaker 1: like interview somebody who is against abortion. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: for reproductive rights. I am for stricter gun laws. Have
Speaker 1: I think, at this point in my career, been able
Speaker 1: to say there's some things that I really deeply believe in,
Speaker 1: and so I think I do have biases when it
Speaker 1: comes to those topics. But in other instances is I
Speaker 1: just try to listen and challenge when necessary and in
Speaker 1: a respectful way, you know, have a conversation with people.
Speaker 1: But you know, as I think, there's no such thing
Speaker 1: as true objectivity. You know, unless you're doing the very
Speaker 1: strict to what when we're why, if you're trying to
Speaker 1: put any context or any kind of explanation behind an event,
Speaker 1: it's inevitable that your perspective is going to be influenced
Speaker 1: by your point of view in some way.
Speaker 2: And do you feel like you are now there's areas
Speaker 2: of your personality that you can more freely and unapologetically
Speaker 2: share now that you might not have in your early days.
Speaker 1: And news, yeah, they were like, you know, there were
Speaker 1: third rails, like you couldn't talk about gun violence. And
Speaker 1: I did a whole documentary about why gun violence was
Speaker 1: out of control in this country. You know, I couldn't
Speaker 1: have done that anchoring the Today Show, I could not
Speaker 1: have had a strong opinion.
Speaker 3: With your media company.
Speaker 2: Now you can, yeah, put out the messaging that you
Speaker 2: believe in and you know, well, you know.
Speaker 1: Brooke, I was able to shape the broadcast slightly differently
Speaker 1: when I was at CBS. I could focus more on
Speaker 1: women's stories. You know, we did something on dating violence,
Speaker 1: we did something on you know, sexual assault in the military.
Speaker 1: I did, you know, stories that I think a male
Speaker 1: anchor would not have necessarily thought about. And so I
Speaker 1: was able to make my mark in some ways when
Speaker 1: it came to story selection. So I feel like I
Speaker 1: wasn't totally you know, hamstrung by being in a more
Speaker 1: traditional media environment.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm relieved and glad to hear that. I think
Speaker 2: you're a very strong business woman in so far as
Speaker 2: the way you handled this fascination with your personal life
Speaker 2: in a way that made it not get stolen from you.
Speaker 2: You know. I mean, I've felt that my whole life.
Speaker 2: But I'm right, I'm not in new I'm not in news,
Speaker 2: you know, but that that that piece is usually not
Speaker 2: something that gets it's usually that that personality and then
Speaker 2: the private life is the private life. But You've done
Speaker 2: such a sort of beautiful job of taking trials and tribulations,
Speaker 2: and you've been open about so much that you went
Speaker 2: through personally in your life, but also making them teaching
Speaker 2: moments and sharing them for other people's benefit. And I'm
Speaker 2: curious as to how you were able to reconcile that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know, I think that morning television is
Speaker 1: such a different animal. You develop, you know, these parasocial
Speaker 1: relationships with the anchors. You do get to know them.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: People would say to me, I feel like I know you,
Speaker 1: and I said, I'd always say, in many ways, I
Speaker 1: think you do. Because they'd see you in serious moments,
Speaker 1: they'd see you having fun, they'd see you having casual
Speaker 1: chit chat with your colleagues. And I think maybe there
Speaker 1: was a lot of interest in my personal life because
Speaker 1: I was very authentic to who I was on television
Speaker 1: that who I was off camera was really There was
Speaker 1: no difference really to how I mean.
Speaker 4: There were some limitations of.
Speaker 1: Things I would do on television that I wouldn't do
Speaker 1: off camera, but I was very much the same person
Speaker 1: with the same persona. And I think when people saw
Speaker 1: me pregnant, they were with me when I had both
Speaker 1: of my girls. They were with me when my husband
Speaker 1: Jay got sick.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: There I was a forty one year old widow with
Speaker 1: two children, six and two, and I think people felt
Speaker 1: terrible for me in the most loving way. I mean, obviously,
Speaker 1: how can you say that about millions of people, But
Speaker 1: I did feel this support coming to me from from
Speaker 1: the Today Show viewers and the audience that you know
Speaker 1: does welcome you and your home and their home like
Speaker 1: your kind of family. And having seen that terrible thing
Speaker 1: happen to Jay, and then to see me try to
Speaker 1: be resilient and move forward, then I think people became
Speaker 1: interested in my love life. Like you know, it made
Speaker 1: for good tabloid fodder, and you know, it was just
Speaker 1: part of being I think at the time where morning
Speaker 1: shows had a real place in the culture, more so
Speaker 1: than I think they do today because of the friendgmentation
Speaker 1: of media, and I think people just were interested in
Speaker 1: that how I was going to move forward.
Speaker 4: I mean, I mean sometimes it felt sometimes.
Speaker 1: It felt invasive, but during the trauma of losing Jay,
Speaker 1: it was so helpful. It was so comforting. I felt
Speaker 1: so cared about by complete strangers who sent me mass
Speaker 1: cards and sympathy notes and stories about loss that they
Speaker 1: had experienced. It was actually really beautiful and I still
Speaker 1: have many of those letters in big tupperware bins in
Speaker 1: my basement. And you know, I at Jay's funeral, I
Speaker 1: asked everyone who came to write letters to ellieen Carey
Speaker 1: because I knew that they were not going to have
Speaker 1: the privilege of really getting to know their father, and
Speaker 1: so to be able to have those that people wrote
Speaker 1: such beautiful, thoughtful notes and letters and multi page letters
Speaker 1: to the girls. That is really love. That's compassion, that's empathy.
Speaker 1: And I felt it so strongly, and you know, a loss,
Speaker 1: it was a terrible loss, but it did help and
Speaker 1: it was comforting to know that people were out there
Speaker 1: holding me in their hearts. After this quick break, Brooke
Speaker 1: and I reflect on the burden and privilege of having
Speaker 1: a platform and how we both try to use ours
Speaker 1: in a positive way.
Speaker 2: You know, when I had very severe postpartum and wrote
Speaker 2: and I wrote about it, I.
Speaker 4: Stay right, you came on the Today Show.
Speaker 2: I did. But to this day, people come with women
Speaker 2: come up to me and tears in their eyes and
Speaker 2: they and they cry and they say thank you, and
Speaker 2: you know, and it's that there's something to be.
Speaker 3: Said for shared loss or shared.
Speaker 2: Experience, or that you know you're not alone, and that
Speaker 2: you know to be willing to be open to that
Speaker 2: I think is obviously a sign of who you are
Speaker 2: as a person.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 1: I think especially you know, when it comes to taboo
Speaker 1: topics like postpartum depression that people are so terrified of
Speaker 1: and so frightened by, and to break the stigma and
Speaker 1: to let people share and know it's okay and that
Speaker 1: there's help. I mean, you did a tremendous public service,
Speaker 1: and I hope that I did the same with colon cancer.
Speaker 1: You know, nobody talked about colon cancer when CHA got
Speaker 1: sick and died, and nobody really talked about the fact
Speaker 1: that it's highly preventable if you get screened. And you know,
Speaker 1: I think when you're a public figure, you have a platform,
Speaker 1: and with that platform comes to responsibility and if you
Speaker 1: can educate people and arm them with information that will
Speaker 1: help them, that could even save their lives. I hate
Speaker 1: to say it, but I think it's really selfish not share,
Speaker 1: not to share your experience.
Speaker 2: And I you know, I call this show now What
Speaker 2: because it's really about those pivotal times in our lives
Speaker 2: when something very massive happens and we we really are
Speaker 2: are the rug is pulled out from underneath us, and
Speaker 2: we are thinking, oh shit.
Speaker 3: What do I you know?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 3: What do I do?
Speaker 2: And I imagine you've had many now what moments? Was
Speaker 2: that one of your biggest? Now what moments? How did
Speaker 2: you move forward from that?
Speaker 1: I think when you have children, you really have no
Speaker 1: option but to put one foot ahead of the other.
Speaker 1: You know, when something like that happens, you don't have
Speaker 1: the luxury of staying in bed and pulling the covers
Speaker 1: over your head. You have to be there for your kids.
Speaker 1: You have a responsibility. You have to parent. And so
Speaker 1: that's what I did. And I also, you know, I
Speaker 1: was a single parent. I had to keep working. I
Speaker 1: wanted to keep working. I loved my job. And I
Speaker 1: think early on realize that we're all terminal and we
Speaker 1: have a finite amount of time on this planet, and
Speaker 1: that I don't think Jay would want to destroy two
Speaker 1: lives because he got cancer. I think he would want
Speaker 1: me to bring as much joy into our daughter's lives
Speaker 1: as possible. Thomas Jefferson wrote that the earth belongs to
Speaker 1: the li and that sounds selfish and cold in a way,
Speaker 1: I guess, but I think it means, you know, we're
Speaker 1: here and we have to make the most of our
Speaker 1: time while we have it, because you never know, and
Speaker 1: life is fragile and you have to go on. And
Speaker 1: I wanted to go on. I didn't want two or
Speaker 1: four lives to be to be destroyed because Jay got cancer,
Speaker 1: and god, it sucks. You know, it's so maddening when
Speaker 1: someone young, especially gets cancer. They're so cheated out of
Speaker 1: so much. And I'm still really angry about it, honestly,
Speaker 1: it's just so unfair and infuriating.
Speaker 2: And you started a very important organization, Stand Up to Cancer. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you co founded fifteen years ago, right.
Speaker 1: Right, and you raise with a bunch of women who
Speaker 1: were just really angry, like I was, about the pace
Speaker 1: of cancer research. When Jay got diagnosed with colorectal cancer
Speaker 1: and it was metastatic, it was all over his liver.
Speaker 1: The first line chemotherapy was something that had been around
Speaker 1: since the nineteen fifties and this was nineteen ninety seven,
Speaker 1: and it just infuriated me that they didn't have more options.
Speaker 1: And it was very motivating not only for me to
Speaker 1: get involved with callon Cancer Research, but I realized so
Speaker 1: many cancers needed more, more support, more funding. You know,
Speaker 1: one out of ten promising research proposals is approved or
Speaker 1: funded by the NCI, and that means so many, so
Speaker 1: many exciting possibilities are left on the cutting room floor.
Speaker 1: And I just said, we have to support cancer research.
Speaker 1: You know, it's still so much progress has been made,
Speaker 1: but it's still a devastating disease. So many people die
Speaker 1: of cancer still.
Speaker 3: I mean that you lost your sister yes years.
Speaker 1: Later, she was fifty four and running for lieutenant governor
Speaker 1: of Virginia, and that infuriates me too. I mean, anyone
Speaker 1: listening to this who knows somebody who was taken way
Speaker 1: too soon from this disease. It's just it's awful, and
Speaker 1: it's uh, you know, one in one in two men
Speaker 1: and one in three women will be diagnosed with this
Speaker 1: in their lifetime. So that's why I'm so passionate about
Speaker 1: funding research and science. You know, it's really become my
Speaker 1: life's work. And I think when you're touched by something
Speaker 1: personally brooke as you know, you become really invested in
Speaker 1: doing something about it.
Speaker 2: Well, it's it's you've made a huge amount of a difference,
Speaker 2: and I have hundreds of millions of dollars to research
Speaker 2: and care. Has happened because of stand up to cancer.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think there's so much around it. My
Speaker 2: dad died of pros day cancer, which you don't have
Speaker 2: to die from.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: So we have not mentioned your sweet husband, but you
Speaker 2: have been with your husband John for You've been with
Speaker 2: Mulner for a decade, right, more than a yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. We're having our ten year anniversary this June. And
Speaker 1: he really likes your husband Chris too. I'm lucky. I
Speaker 1: think we have funny husbands, yes, and kind of in
Speaker 1: that dry, sarcastic, funny way. And I have to say Mulner,
Speaker 1: who I call by his last name, I don't know
Speaker 1: how I started that.
Speaker 3: I call Henchy henchy, so you do.
Speaker 1: He just is a very funny person, and he gets
Speaker 1: frustrated with me because I'm a bit of a mess.
Speaker 4: I'm kind of like pig pen.
Speaker 1: I leave a little trail of junk wherever I go,
Speaker 1: and he is a neat freak, so that sometimes creates
Speaker 1: problems for us. But most of the time we get
Speaker 1: along really really well, and he does make me laugh.
Speaker 2: Is there something that you're I mean, I just love
Speaker 2: you keep going forward and the energy you have too.
Speaker 2: It's not even reinventing, it's just repurposing and re exploring
Speaker 2: or I don't even know if re is the right word.
Speaker 2: It's just you know you and you're such an inspiration
Speaker 2: to I started a company for and we've talked about
Speaker 2: it for women. Yeah, in this era of our lives,
Speaker 2: you know, that is full of possibility, and there is
Speaker 2: so much more and we have so much to offer,
Speaker 2: and we're so versatile and we're beautifully complex and we
Speaker 2: we've done so many things, and we've yes wise and
Speaker 2: raised children. And is there something you're especially excited about
Speaker 2: in this next chapter?
Speaker 1: I mean, I honestly, you know, I just enjoy trying
Speaker 1: my hardest and sometimes succeeding and putting good things out
Speaker 1: in the world. Good things don't have to be happy things.
Speaker 1: They can be you know, conversations about important topics, journalism
Speaker 1: or whatever it is I do. Storytelling is a can
Speaker 1: be and often I hope is a public service.
Speaker 4: You know that.
Speaker 1: It's even if I don't have a huge audience or
Speaker 1: an interview, I do gets five thousand people. You know,
Speaker 1: when I used to have five million people watching the
Speaker 1: Today Show, I feel like if that's helped somebody understand something,
Speaker 1: if it's helped them kind of take care of their health,
Speaker 1: if it's made them aware of something they didn't know, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, that's just I guess my love language
Speaker 1: is telling stories and sharing information.
Speaker 4: And I'm excited, you know.
Speaker 1: I'm excited that I'm starting a production company and I'm
Speaker 1: going to get more involved in scripted and nonscripted projects,
Speaker 1: which is great. You and I should talk and maybe
Speaker 1: collaborate on something.
Speaker 2: I would love that there's I'm starting to find fine
Speaker 2: books and fine stories that I really do resonate and
Speaker 2: that I want to see cinematically.
Speaker 1: And I feel like I think female voices are getting
Speaker 1: out there in a way that they haven't before. I
Speaker 1: think over the last several years, women and their stories
Speaker 1: and their voices and the people behind the scenes are
Speaker 1: really making their mark. And I'm excited to have that
Speaker 1: kind of storytelling be part of my portfolio as well.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening everyone. If you have a question for me,
Speaker 1: a subject you want us to cover, or you want
Speaker 1: to share your thoughts about how you navigate this crazy world,
Speaker 1: reach out You can leave a short message at six
Speaker 1: oh nine five point two five five five, or you
Speaker 1: can send me a DM on Instagram. I would love
Speaker 1: to hear from you. Next Question is a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartMedia and Katie Couric Media. The executive producers are Me,
Speaker 1: Katie Kuric, and Courtney Ltz. Our supervising producer is Ryan Martz,
Speaker 1: and our producers are Adriana Fazzio and Meredith Barnes. Julian
Speaker 1: Weller composed our theme music. For more information about today's episode,
Speaker 1: or to sign up for my newsletter, wake Up Call,
Speaker 1: go to the description in the podcast app, or visit
Speaker 1: us at Katiecuric dot com. You can also find me
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