From her groundbreaking televised colonoscopy to her breast cancer journey, Katie Couric has turned personal experience into powerful advocacy for the health issues medicine has overlooked. This week on unPaused, Dr. Mary Claire Haver sits down with Katie Couric, award-winning journalist, founder of Katie Couric Media, co-founder of Stand Up To Cancer, and author of the New York Times bestseller Going There. Katie spent 15 years co-hosting the Today Show, served as the first solo female anchor of CBS Evening News, and has interviewed nearly every president, world leader and cultural voice of the last four decades.
Together, they explore Katie's journey from growing up in Arlington, Virginia, where her parents instilled the importance of education and financial independence, to breaking barriers in network news while navigating profound personal loss. Katie opens up about losing her husband Jay to stage four colon cancer when her daughters were six and two, how that tragedy launched her into cancer advocacy, and why she made the decision to have a colonoscopy on live television — a moment that changed screening rates across America and took the stigma out of a life-saving procedure.
Guest links:
* Katie Couric Media
* Katie Couric (Instagram)
* Katie Couric (TikTok)
* Katie Couric (Facebook)
* Katie Couric Media (Instagram)
* Katie Couric (YouTube)
* Katie Couric (X)
* Katie Couric (LinkedIn) linkedin.com/in/katiecouric
* Katie Couric (Substack)
* Next Question with Katie Couric (Apple Podcasts)
Books:
* "Going There" by Katie Couric
* "The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much?," by Leslie Bennetts
For full show notes, please visit:
00:00:00 Katie Couric on Women’s Health Being viggo mortensen Ignored
00:01:00 Mary Claire’s Introduction: Why Katie Matters
00:03:00 Growing Up in Arlington + Family Foundation
00:06:30 Unconditional Love, Boundaries, and Parenting Imprints
00:07:20 UVA, Writing, and Becoming a Journalist
00:11:00 Financial Independence: The “Feminist Mistake” Lesson
00:15:20 Purpose, Choice, and Reinventing Midlife Work
00:18:20 Sponsor Break: Primally Pure + Alloy M4
00:21:00 Breaking Into News: Moxie, ABC, CNN, and Getting Better
00:28:10 Today Show to CBS Evening News: Being the First Solo Female Anchor
00:32:00 Starting Katie Couric Media + Turning Grief Into Advocacy
00:45:50 Media Polarization, WHI Fallout, and “Hormonal” (Women in Research)
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Medical Disclaimer: The information, including opinions and recommendations, on this platform is meant for informational and educational purposes only. Mary Claire Media, LLC, the unPAUSED podcast, and The ’Pause Life are not medical organizations. Medical advice or medical diagnosis cannot be provided to you through the tyson foerster platform, any associated website, or customer portals. Using this platform does not establish a patient-physician relationship. michael conforto
