Speaker
Katie Couric
Appearances over time
1 episodes
Episodes
1
Podcasts
Quotes & moments
Katie Couric became the first woman ever to solo anchor a major US evening newscast, a milestone she describes as feeling like her heart would 'come out of her chest.'
Katie Couric was live on the Today Show when the first plane struck the World Trade Center at 8:46 AM, processing the event in real time with Matt Lauer and Al Roker.
September 2026 marks 25 years since the 9/11 attacks, which both Katie Couric and Alex Cooper reflect on as collective national trauma.
Katie Couric's first husband Jay was diagnosed with stage-4 colon cancer that had spread throughout his liver; he lived only 9 months after diagnosis.
When Jay was diagnosed, the Courics' daughters were just 1 and 5 years old, leaving Katie to navigate single parenthood through devastating grief.
Just a couple of years after Jay died, Katie's sister Emily was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and also died, making Katie's 40s extraordinarily painful.
Erectile dysfunction, affecting 19% of men, has received 5 times as much research funding as PMS, which affects 90% of all women.
Women were not legally required to be included in clinical trials in the United States until 1993, decades after modern medical research began.
It was only about 10 years ago that scientists began routinely differentiating between men and women in their research studies.
On average, women take 4 extra years longer than men to receive a diagnosis, a direct consequence of under-researched women's health.
The average time for a woman to be diagnosed with endometriosis is 10 years, and 50% of women who have it remain undiagnosed.
Eighty percent of all autoimmune disease cases occur in women, yet the role of female hormones in driving this disparity remains understudied.
Two-thirds of Alzheimer's patients are female, yet only 12% of Alzheimer's research dollars are specifically directed at female Alzheimer's.
Only 1% of global research dollars and innovation investment is directed toward women's health outside of cancer.
Only half of all medical schools in the US even offer courses specifically dedicated to women's health.
Becoming the first woman to solo anchor the CBS Evening News made Katie Couric a historic figure — and an immediate target. Network insiders sabotaged her ideas, the audience resisted change, and media critics picked apart her makeup and hand placement. She describes it as one of the most challenging periods of her life.
Katie Couric was live on national television when the first plane struck the World Trade Center on 9/11, trying to make sense of unfolding terror with Matt Lauer and Al Roker. Her hand was shaking on camera. She stayed on air all day and didn't begin to process what happened for days.
At 22, Katie Couric's debut White House report was so rough that CNN president Reed Schoenfeld called in and said he never wanted to see her on air again. Instead of quitting, she went to local news, covered murders in Miami, interviewed Ray Charles, and put in her 10,000 hours.
Katie Couric pitched a Lady Gaga profile to 60 Minutes, was turned down, then watched Anderson Cooper get the assignment a year later. The same thing happened with her Hillary Clinton profile, quietly reassigned to Scott Pelley with no explanation. She only found out because the State Department called her producer.
Jay Monahan was diagnosed with stage-4 colon cancer at 41, and Katie Couric called pharmaceutical companies, had NBC friends pretend to be doing cancer specials to access clinical trial information, and searched the internet obsessively. There was nothing to find. He was dead in 9 months, leaving daughters aged 2 and 6.
Erectile dysfunction affects 19% of men and has received 5 times more research funding than PMS, which affects 90% of all women. Katie Couric says this single statistic says everything about how the medical establishment has valued women's suffering.
While her husband Jay was dying of stage-4 colon cancer, Katie Couric kept anchoring the Today Show — and says it was her only respite. The moment she went to commercial break, she would fall apart again. Her daughters were 1 and 5. The National Enquirer covered it on its front page while he was still in hospital.
Katie Couric is producing a documentary called Hormonal that connects the underfunding of women's health research to real-world consequences: 2 in 3 Alzheimer's patients are women but only 12% of Alzheimer's funding is sex-specific; 80% of autoimmune diseases hit women; crash test dummies were male until recently. She wants it to make people angry enough to demand change.
After a CNN executive made a crude comment about her breast size in a room full of male executives, anchor Don Farmer sat Katie down and typed a formal memo demanding an apology on his Smith-Corona. The experience taught her the importance of standing up for herself — a lesson she credits as transformative.
For decades, medical research excluded women because scientists thought hormonal fluctuations would 'screw up the data.' Women weren't required in US clinical trials until 1993, scientists didn't distinguish between sexes until roughly 10 years ago, and today women still take 4 extra years longer than men to be diagnosed with a condition.
After Michelle Obama told Alex Cooper she doesn't think America is ready for a female president, Katie Couric said it's probably true right now — citing ongoing backlash and regression in progress on women's rights. She adds that she genuinely believed Hillary Clinton would win and would have been 'a magnificent president.'
Katie Couric pushed back on being called 'perky' and 'America's Sweetheart,' explaining that labels framing women as warm and likeable simultaneously strip them of perceived intelligence. She cited Walt Whitman's 'we contain multitudes' as her counterargument to society's habit of compartmentalizing women.
Analysis
What they talk about
- Society & Culture 46%
- Health & Fitness 31%
- Business 15%
- History 8%
