Next Question with Katie Couric

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Katie Couric is back on the mic with a new season of intimate, urgent and unexpected conversations – this time with a new twist. Along with her signature in-depth one-on-one interviews, she’ll be joined by a number of special guest-hosts for a series of “Katie Plus One” episodes. Together they’ll get to know some of the world’s most interesting and influential people and explore the big ideas percolating in the zeitgeist--but with a focus on slowing down, diving deep, and connecting with each other, a reprieve from a culture obsessed with hot takes and surface-level small talk. Tune in every Thursday and join Katie Couric and her guests for a conversation that feels like a warm hug and a seat at the table.

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Our Editor's Take

Next Question with Katie Couric is not the kind of podcast that avoids the tough stuff. Katie Couric is a TV news icon, and her podcasting career is many seasons strong. But in the fall of 2016, she debuted Next Question with a sharpened focus. Each episode examines one big topic and explains it thoroughly. Though she has been called "America's Sweetheart," Couric is not here to ask about fluff.

Couric has always retained her famous girl-next-door personality. Even when delivering brutal news, she is warm and relatable. It's what made so many folks trust her so completely. It also accounts for her longevity in the industry. She's broadcast folksy-but-essential journalism across all three major American TV networks since 1989.

Of course, Couric can still land the biggest names in entertainment and pop culture for the show. But when her audience needs to learn more about a serious subject, the newswoman in her comes out. Next Question began airing just before the pandemic. No doubt the editorial calendar was already full. But the show's pivot was swift. Couric didn't hesitate to refocus most episodes on how to live with COVID-19. And when the news came down in June 2022 that Roe v. Wade's fall was imminent? She announced a special six-part miniseries called Abortion: The Body Politic.

At this point in her career, it's clear there's no holding back for Katie Couric. And as she tries to make the world make a little more sense, her status as America's Sweetheart remains well intact.

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Society & CultureSociety & Culture

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Katie's Back for Season 9 of Next Question!

Katie's Back for Season 9 of Next Question!

Next Question is back for season nine, and the times, they are a changin’! Katie has big personal news to share in the season kick off with Kris Jenner–plus advice, memories, and humor from the Momager in Chief herself. Then it’s full steam ahead with Jay Shetty on balancing being and doing, valuable insights from Liz Cheney and Hillary Clinton for this major election year, and internationally renowned soprano Renee Fleming takes us inside music and the mind with her new book. All that and more from Next Question Season 9!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episodes

Living in an Age of Grievance with Frank Bruni

Living in an Age of Grievance with Frank Bruni

Katie sat down with eminent journalist Frank Bruni in this spirited live conversation hosted by Temple Emanu-el’s Streicker Cultural Center earlier this month. While their jumping off point was Frank’s new book, The Age of Grievance, Katie and Frank covered a lot of ground: the current climate on college campuses, political violence, and the corrosive nature of cancel culture. Frank centers today’s events in a longer historical context that lends a surprising note of optimism. Calling our current moment an “Age of Grievance” may seem almost too polite, given the coarsening of public discourse and the curated, angry echo chambers many of us find ourselves in. But Bruni wants us to remember that grievance used to be a constructive American virtue. Grievance gave us the Revolutionary War (the word grievance appears in the first amendment after all!) and many civil rights movements. These high points in our history can still guide us today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

No BS: Advice for In and Out of the Office With Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen

No BS: Advice for In and Out of the Office With Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen

How do you bring your personal values to your public life? This question has animated Jim VandeHei’s and Mike Allen’s long career together; first at Politico and then as they went on to launch Axios. It’s not an easy feat to pull off. Jim’s new book, Just the Good Stuff: No-BS Secrets to Success (No Matter What Life Throws at You) explains how they did it–and all the mistakes, triumphs, and unexpected breakthroughs along the way. In this wide-ranging interview, Katie, Jim and Mike talk about media past, present, and future, Trump and the election, and the future of AI. You’ve heard interviews about all of these things before, of course. But in this extended episode these three keen observers get to dive deeper than usual. The rare space for this added depth brings us to very universal and human questions: amidst all the noise politically, culturally, and digitally, what can we control? Only ourselves. This conversation ponders how we can act individually in a way that leads to more freedom, more transparency, and more opportunity for more people.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How to Feel Better with Sophie Grégoire Trudeau

How to Feel Better with Sophie Grégoire Trudeau

You’ve probably heard the name Sophie Trudeau, best known as the glamorous wife of Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada. But Sophie is a whole lot more than that. In her new book, Closer Together: Knowing Ourselves, Loving Each Other, she candidly shares a lot about her life and struggles. But Sophie has also incorporated the best science and interviewed the leading researchers about how our brain handles life’s biggest challenges–her book tackles everything from mindfulness to the function of the vagus nerve. Her endless hope and practical approach to knowing ourselves is an invitation to curiosity, progress, and inner peace.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jonathan Haidt on the Great Rewiring of Childhood

Jonathan Haidt on the Great Rewiring of Childhood

Social Psychologist and NYU Professor Jonathan Haidt’s new book The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness lays it out emphatically: kids are being very negatively affected by ubiquitous phone use. The research on what phones and their attendant apps are doing to our kids is devastating, and these spikes in depression, anxiety, and even self-harm correlate pretty exactly with the rise of internet-connected smartphone use. The good news is that the answer to possibly reversing this trend is simple, if not easy. In this urgent conversation, Haidt lays out exactly what parents need to know to help protect and prepare their kids as they navigate this complex technological era.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A Balance of Being and Doing: Jay Shetty on Purpose in Work, Life, and Love

A Balance of Being and Doing: Jay Shetty on Purpose in Work, Life, and Love

Like many influencers these days, Jay Shetty is much discussed, but not necessarily much understood. He seems like he’s everywhere–officiating JLo and Ben Affleck’s wedding, dispensing wise sound bites on TV, and connecting daily to nearly 50 million people across a variety of social media and other platforms. Shetty rejects the title “guru,” which some have used to describe him, but it’s easy to see that he’s a guiding light for many. Shetty strives to create spaces where true vulnerability and openness is possible, and he brought a sense of peace and calm to this wide-ranging interview which traces his path from “failed” monk to household name. Together, Katie and Jay explore the power of unconditional love, and how to take self-care from buzzy jargon to practical tactics for bringing more peace into our lives. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie Is a Grandmother! With Special Guest and Grandmother of 13, Kris Jenner, on Family, Purpose, and Legacy.

Katie Is a Grandmother! With Special Guest and Grandmother of 13, Kris Jenner, on Family, Purpose, and Legacy.

Kris Jenner has vision. From an early age, she knew she wanted a family–she even predicted she’d have six kids! From her origins working in retail stores owned by her mother and grandmother, Kris has built something with true staying power along with her accomplished kids–and now their own kids, her grandchildren! One of the joys of matriarchy is being able to sit back a bit and survey what you’ve built. In this personal and heartfelt interview, Jenner dishes about her love of celebration (she’s already started Christmas shopping!), grandkid dates, and realizing that what you promise one grandkid… you promise to them all. More tips for grandparents–including a new one by the name of Katie Couric!--in this delightful conversation with Kris Jenner.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie's Back for Season 9 of Next Question!

Katie's Back for Season 9 of Next Question!

Next Question is back for season nine, and the times, they are a changin’! Katie has big personal news to share in the season kick off with Kris Jenner–plus advice, memories, and humor from the Momager in Chief herself. Then it’s full steam ahead with Jay Shetty on balancing being and doing, valuable insights from Liz Cheney and Hillary Clinton for this major election year, and internationally renowned soprano Renee Fleming takes us inside music and the mind with her new book. All that and more from Next Question Season 9!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie Plus One: Our Society’s Disordered Eating with Emmeline Clein, author of Dead Weight: Essays on Hunger and Harm and co-host, Carrie Monahan

Katie Plus One: Our Society’s Disordered Eating with Emmeline Clein, author of Dead Weight: Essays on Hunger and Harm and co-host, Carrie Monahan

One of Next Question’s more personal episodes, this conversation features a very special plus one: Katie’s daughter, Carrie Monahan! Katie and Carrie, along with their guest, author Emmeline Clein, have all grappled with disordered eating at certain points in their lives. The research bears out that this is a nearly universal experience for American women, and that was a central inspiration for Clein’s new book, Dead Weight: Essays on Hunger and Harm. So many of us know on a deep level how easy it is to be beguiled by the pressure to be thinner, that thin means “perfect”--and how hard it is to get out of that mindset because, as Clein explains, "society as a whole is 'colluding with anorectic reasoning.'" But something powerful happens when lived experience is borne out in research, data, and other types of “proof”: it becomes impossible to continue to blame the victims for what is a much more complex and insidious societal sin. That is a driving message of Clein’s book, and this episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Cost of Caregiving with Capital One’s Celia Edwards Karam, Chris Punsalan, and Adrienne Glusman

The Cost of Caregiving with Capital One’s Celia Edwards Karam, Chris Punsalan, and Adrienne Glusman

This episode of Next Question was produced in partnership with Capital One, and recorded live at the Capital One Cafe in Herald Square in New York City. In it, Katie and a panel of caregivers explore the vast spectrum of challenges facing caregivers — those of us who find ourselves taking care of a loved one when they can no longer take care of themselves.As our panelists Chris Punsalan, Adrienne Glusman, and Capital One’s own Celia Edwards Karam share from personal experience, it can be a terrifying, overwhelming task — from the sudden windfall of money decisions and the struggle to sort out a workable financial plan at a time of immense uncertainty, to the psychological burden of simultaneously caring for a loved one while mentally preparing to lose them. But there are also moments of grace, connection, and priceless time together that will stay with our panelists for a lifetime.This conversation is both a practical guide and, we hope, a source of real inspiration and comfort for navigating an enormously challenging phase — one that most of us will face at some point in our lives.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kara Swisher, the “Internet age's cranky Cassandra,” on her memoir, Burn Book” A Tech Love Story

Kara Swisher, the “Internet age's cranky Cassandra,” on her memoir, Burn Book” A Tech Love Story

Kara Swisher, Official Next Question plus one and dogged chronicler of the good, bad, and the ugly of the tech world (and the “adult toddlers” that so often populate it), has really seen it all. She made tech her beat at the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal before most journalists took any notice of the fledgling “nerdy” industry. From there, Kara fearlessly reported on a new generation of tech entrepreneurs who would change the world as we know it. Her journalism breaks news and starts conversations, and her bubble-bursting, down-to-earth approach to those who often get handled with kid gloves is perhaps one of her most enduring traits. Some call her approach “mean,” and the title of her much-anticipated memoir, Burn Book: A Tech Love Story, plays on this reputation as a reporter who minces no words and is not afraid to ask the hard questions. Kara chronicles the history of how tech came to dominate our lives, and with more potentially life changing tech on the horizon with things like AI, she certainly has some dire warnings. But Kara also has plenty of optimism to share, along with hot takes on everything from Gavin Newsom’s suits to where she derives her confidence (and the bone she has to pick with the question “How are you so confident?”). Nothing is off limits in this funny, insightful, profound conversation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Allie Phillips Fled TN to Have An Abortion; Now She’s Running for Office

Allie Phillips Fled TN to Have An Abortion; Now She’s Running for Office

Allie Phillips, a young Tennessee woman who runs a daycare from home and has a young daughter, Adalie, was delighted to learn she was pregnant with a second daughter, Miley, in 2022. The same year, Tennessee enacted an abortion ban after the fall of Roe v Wade. Allie had no reason to believe this would affect her–but unfortunately it did. Miley was deemed “incompatible with life” at around 19 weeks, and Allie was faced with the decision many women must grapple with now that Roe has fallen: to leave the state to receive abortion care, or to continue her pregnancy as her daughter deteriorated, threatening Allie’s life and fertility. She chose the former, and documented the difficult, time-sensitive process to her nearly 300,000 TikTok followers. She shared her story to put a face to the consequences of the overturn of Roe, and a little while after she returned to Tennessee, she decided to get involved politically. Her state representative was no help– Allie learned he hadn’t considered cases like hers in banning abortion because he thought, shockingly, that only first pregnancies could have complications. She’s now running for that very seat in the statehouse, and joins Next Question today to make her inspiring case for change.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie Couric One-On-One With Vice President Kamala Harris

Katie Couric One-On-One With Vice President Kamala Harris

In this special episode of Next Question, Katie sat down for a rare one-on-one interview in DC with Vice President Kamala Harris in her ceremonial office at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. And there was a lot to talk about. 2024 is here at last, and it’s a monumentally important election year–one that looks more likely every day to be another Biden-Trump re-match. The political news has been heavily skewed toward the Republican side of the race, given the drama of selecting their nominee. Less has been heard from the incumbent administration. But the campaign is heating up for the Democrats too. From abortion rights to the crisis in Israel and Gaza, shifting voter coalitions and where Biden-Harris need to really make their message sing, such as with Gen Z, this wide ranging conversation gets to the heart of what’s at stake this election year, and what the Biden-Harris administration is doing to make their case to voters.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How Roe v Wade Fell and What Comes Next with Jodi Kantor

How Roe v Wade Fell and What Comes Next with Jodi Kantor

Since long before Roe v Wade enshrined a federal right to choose in 1973, abortion has been one of the most contentious issues in American life. On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe with their decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, marking a new peak in the political energy and emotion surrounding abortion. Katie’s guest today, New York Times journalist Jodi Kantor (who won a Pulitzer for her Me Too reporting), has been behind some of the most exhaustively sourced and in-depth reporting on just how Dobbs unfolded. As Jodi tells us, in many ways, SCOTUS’ Dobb’s decision was shocking. The case started as a long-shot ban on abortions after 15-weeks in Mississippi. But a series of events made it one of the most monumental in American history: an even more controversial case from Texas coming along at the same time, Justice Ginsberg’s death, and an unprecedented leak of the decision in Dobbs that some feel affected Justices’ ability to deliberate fully. It’s easy to imagine this going differently if even one of those things changed. Roe’s reversal could be interpreted as the triumphant fruition of 50 years of conservative efforts or as an issue that could swing voters to liberal candidates; there’s evidence for both. Entering an election year, the transparency Jodi brings to one of our most hallowed institutions–one that may face serious tests this year–is unmissable.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A Conversation With Brooke Shields About Living a Public Life

A Conversation With Brooke Shields About Living a Public Life

On a recent episode of Brooke Shields’ podcast Now What?, Katie and Brooke took a walk down memory lane and came back with some thoughtful insights to kick off 2024. Brooke and Katie share a long history with the limelight, and they reflect in this intimate conversation on the trials and tribulations of going through life’s ups and downs in the public eye. That’s come with its challenges, but also the privilege of a long relationship with their audiences. Both blazed trails and opened doors in their respective industries. But some of the most enduring work has been with causes close to their hearts. We all have so much to give to the world; allow this conversation to inspire you this January to find your passion, and share it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ava Duvernay’s New Film Origin Reaches Beyond the Theater

Ava Duvernay’s New Film Origin Reaches Beyond the Theater

Ava DuVernay’s newest film, Origin, breaks a lot of molds. The book on which it’s based, Caste, grapples with some of the deepest inequalities in our world today, and was famously deemed unadaptable into a film. Not to mention DuVernay came to the adaptation as the industry entered one of its biggest slumps in recent memory. Not one to be dissuaded, DuVernay found a way to adapt this seminal book and to fund it outside of the typical studio-or-streamer model for making a movie. The result is a sweeping mosaic of personal stories, including Isabelle Wilkerson’s own, that chronicle how lives today are defined by a hierarchy of human divisions. The adaptation speaks for itself: there were many tears in the audience of this Q&A, taped live at Art Basel in Miami, one of the partners in a revolutionary new funding model that made the project possible. This incredible movie and the innovation that underpins its production have a lot to teach about new ways to approach some of the most intractable problems of our time.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Melissa Etheridge Has Been on a Hero’s Journey All Her Own

Melissa Etheridge Has Been on a Hero’s Journey All Her Own

Melissa Etheridge has written two memoirs now–her new one is Talking to My Angels. For many people, writing more than one memoir might seem excessive, but Etheridge has lived a lot. She’s reflective on just how much she’s learned between 40, when she wrote her first memoir, and about 60 where she’s writing from now, especially how a definitive spiritual experience (thanks to what she calls a hero dose of cannabis) really separated her life into “before” and “after.” On the other side, Melissa finds herself happier and more centered than ever. She’s articulate and sure about how she found that peace, and seems to have an amazing capacity to learn from and process the not-so-peaceful events in her life. And of course music is the thrumming throughline underpinning everything from her career to her memories of childhood, to what drives her now after so many challenges that could have broken many. But Melissa seems to ground herself even deeper in times of trial, and has a lot to teach anyone about resilience, grit, and grace.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Cast of May December on Making This Riveting Physiological Thriller

The Cast of May December on Making This Riveting Physiological Thriller

The new film May December stars Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman, and Charles Melton, was directed by Todd Haynes, and written for the screen by Samy Burch’s–her first screenplay! Julianne Moore’s Gracie began her relationship with the much-younger Joe (Charles Melton) when he was a young teen, and paid the price for this hard-to-understand liaison. Elizabeth, played by Portman, is an actress who arrives at their home to do research for her role portraying Gracie in an upcoming biopic. Critics are calling it a “booby trap” of a movie, because it’s so hard to decide just who to root for. In this wide-ranging interview, Katie Couric sits down with the cast to delve into how the actors approached these complicated characters, where Haynes drew inspiration from as he directed (there’s a very interesting story to the music in this film), and what excited them about the fresh take Burch brought to her screenplay. This isn’t a movie that invites easy answers, but it’s clear the team had great fun bringing us this story, and we hope you enjoy the peek behind the curtain!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Could Israel Have Prevented Hamas's October 7th Attack?

Could Israel Have Prevented Hamas's October 7th Attack?

A recent bombshell report in the New York Times reveals that Israel knew about Hamas’s attack plan for October 7th, 2023, codenamed “Jericho Wall,” more than a year before it happened. On this episode of Next Question, the journalists who broke the story, Ronen Bergman and Adam Goldman, detail how this intelligence failure came about, including the dismissal of a female Israeli intelligence analyst’s urgent warnings that Hamas had devised a “plan to start a war” as “imaginary.” We now know that Hamas’s intentions as laid out in the Jericho Wall document were deadly serious, and Bergman and Goldman note that the attack followed the plan with “shocking precision.” They give insightful analysis of how a threat like Jericho Wall could be dismissed and what this grave misstep means for not only this conflict, but also for Israel's broader idea of itself in the world and for the trust in its powerful intelligence service at home and abroad.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie Plus One Presents AI For Dummies with Vivian Schiller, Vilas Dhar, and Chris Wiggins

Katie Plus One Presents AI For Dummies with Vivian Schiller, Vilas Dhar, and Chris Wiggins

Today is the anniversary of Open AI’s launch of Chat GPT, a tool which brought AI out of the realm of sci-fi and right to our fingertips. AI seems to have crept into every facet of our lives in that one year, and it’s hard to know if that’s a good or bad thing–especially in light of the chaos wrought by Open AI’s recent firing and rehiring of their co-founder Sam Altman. Sometimes it feels like the battle lines are drawn–you can be for or against AI–and the stakes are high. So in this episode of Next Question, Katie is joined by her plus one, Vivian Schiller, in conversation with data scientists and AI ambassadors Chris Wiggins and Vilas Dhar, to sort through some of the noise. The panel covers a lot of ground, but remains grounded in real-world examples (and there are several acronyms defined!), to rationally consider what AI can and should do for us now, what risks we should keep an eye on, and who needs to be involved in the conversation shaping AI’s next chapter.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David Leonhardt’s Surprisingly Optimistic Analysis of Our Political Moment

David Leonhardt’s Surprisingly Optimistic Analysis of Our Political Moment

Have you achieved the American Dream? Actually–how do you even define the American Dream? Sometimes it can feel like that phrase is meaningless and politicized but that idea is such a cornerstone of what makes us the United States. It’s foundational, but it can sometimes feel like it’s falling apart. Enter David Leonhardt’s new book–he’s a columnist at the New York Times and heads their The Morning newsletter. In the book, Ours Was the Shining Future, he sets out to quantify the American Dream and tell a story of how it’s changed over the last few decades. And for those who might feel intimidated by economics, Leonhardt’s book might just be the perfect entry point: the personal narratives of the people who shaped our history bring this book from the theoretical to the concrete. This insightful, comprehensive, human book provides a perfect jumping off point to examine the long, imperfect story of our ongoing project as Americans, striving to realize the promises of democracy and capitalism–and all the successes and failures along the way so far. We can learn from the past, and David, armed with data but also with compassion and optimism, is an excellent guide.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.