Next Question with Katie Couric

Latest Episodes:

Billy Eichner: The new rom-com king Sep 29, 2022

Show notes

There is no better — or funnier — way to launch a new season of Next Question with Katie Couric than an interview with comedian and actor, Billy Eichner. Billy is best known for his 2010s cult-favorite pop culture quiz show, Billy on the Street. And after regular side-kick appearances on the small and big screens, he is now leaping confidently into starring-man status in the groundbreaking and hilarious boy-meets-boy comedy, Bros (opening in theaters September 30). Billy is the first openly gay man to both write and star in a gay romcom from a major movie studio and while there’s a lot riding on the success of this movie, Billy proves he’s enjoying the sometimes turbulent ride. Katie and Billy talk about the long journey to Bros, the importance of supportive parents, some of his all-time favorite Billy on the Street clips and so much more.

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Next Question with Katie Couric returns! Sep 22, 2022

Show notes

After deep-diving into the history and future of abortion access with her investigative series Abortion: The Body Politic, Katie Couric is eager to return to her favorite format, the intimate interview. In fact, she’s brimming with questions. Big questions about how to find happiness and purpose in life. Pressing questions about the future of the GOP and if there’s any common ground to be found in our polarizing politics. Intimate questions about health, dating, parenting and love. And a million more questions for a whole new slew of interesting creators, thinkers, scientists, authors, activists and plenty of high profile actors. On this season of Next Question: new guests, new topics, same curious Katie.

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Bonus: Michelle Pfeiffer on becoming Betty Ford and diving into entrepreneurship Sep 09, 2022

Show notes

Next Question with Katie Couric is launching an all new season on September 29th. In the meantime, Katie shares a delightful conversation she had with the ever charming and talented, Michelle Pfeiffer. They talk about the Showtime series, The First Lady, and what it was like to not only become Betty Ford, but also to really get to know her (and step into her pretty spectacular 70s wardrobe). Michelle also shares her decades-long journey to entrepreneurship and what it was like to create a “clean,” unisex fragrance line, Henry Rose.

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Bonus: Ken Auletta on his new book and portraying the 'talented monster,' Harvey Weinstein Aug 03, 2022

Show notes

In 2002, journalist Ken Auletta tried to expose Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse of women in a New Yorker profile he was writing about the powerful film mogul, but his sources were unwilling to go on the record. It would take another 15 years for the full story to come to light through Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s reporting for the New York Times and Ronan Farrow’s for the New Yorker. For his new book, “Hollywood Ending: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence,” Auletta revisits the story that got away and offers up a fascinating portrayal of Weinstein’s life and career. And for this bonus episode, he talks with Katie about what exactly motivated Weinstein to commit such horrific acts, the culture of complicity that enabled him, and the current state of the #MeToo movement that his toppling set in motion.

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Bonus: Dr. Fauci answers your questions about COVID, Monkeypox, and more Jul 29, 2022

Show notes

On this mid-season bonus of Next Question with Katie Couric, Katie shares an urgent conversation she had with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Chief Medical Advisor to the President. Katie has called on Dr. Fauci to help her and her listeners navigate all of the endless questions and concerns throughout the pandemic. For this latest episode, they dig into the recent covid surge, latest subvariant, and the emergence of yet another infectious disease outbreak – monkeypox.

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Abortion: The Body Politic - The Storytellers [Bonus] Jul 21, 2022

Show notes

Katie’s special series, Abortion: The Body Politic, has wrapped, but we wanted to give the very last word to a special group of people — people who have had abortions. These first-person stories reveal the lengths people have always had to go through to get an abortion — enduring unnecessary waiting periods, lengthy travel, parental consent needs, manipulative partners, unsupportive family members, shame, guilt, and more. These abortion stories span decades, cultures, race, faiths and gender. They reveal how common abortion is and yet how consistently stigmatized. This episode is dedicated to abortion storytellers everywhere whose voices and personal experience help normalize abortion for all. This episode includes stories from Busy Philipps, Gloria Steinem, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, and more.

More about the organizations mentioned in this podcast:

We Testify

Shout Your Abortion

Physicians for Reproductive Health

ReproAction

Action items:

How to find, contact, and donate to your local abortion fund

Learn about abortion laws in your state

How to get abortion pills in any state

How to share your abortion story [Also, We Testfy]

Support reproductive justice organizations, like Sister Song and Latina Institute for Reproductive Rights

Check out Vote Save America about how to take action at the ballot.

Follow all the organizations and people featured in this series!

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Next Question Bonus: Daisy Edgar-Jones Jul 15, 2022

Show notes

Two years ago, Daisy Edgar-Jones got everyone’s attention as Marianne in the hit BBC adaptation of the Sally Rooney novel, “Normal People.” The role earned her a Golden Globe nomination and, at 24, pegged her as one of the most exciting young actors working today. She now stars as Kya Clark, aka “the Marsh Girl” in another book to film adaptation, the much anticipated “Where the Crawdads Sing” based on the bestselling novel by Delia Owens. For this bonus episode of Next Question, she sits down with Katie to talk not only about how she transformed herself into Kya, but also about her early life growing up in London as an only child, her path to acting, and what she plans to do next.

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Abortion: The Body Politic, Part 6 Jul 14, 2022

Show notes

Abortion: The Body Politic started on the ground, visiting two abortion clinics 15 minutes away from each other in two very different states: Missouri and Illinois. On this last episode, we check back in with someone who works in those two clinics to understand the immediate impact the Supreme Court decision had on their patients. Then we consider, what now? Katie interviews Rep. Jayapal (D-WA) who has been a legislative leader in the fight for reproductive rights to understand what lawmakers can do to protect abortion now and in the future. Finally, we hear from a new generation of activists, actors (like Busy Phlipps), musicians (like MILCK and Amanda Shires), and TikTokers about how they are using their platforms, social media and art to not only normalize abortion but also share information (when that information could be criminalized), and, perhaps, change hearts and mind one person at a time.

More information on this episode’s guests and resources:

Action items:

How to find, contact, and donate to your local abortion fund
Learn about abortion laws in your state
How to get abortion pills in any state
How to share your abortion story [Also, We Testfy]
Support reproductive justice organizations, like Sister Song and Latina Institute for Reproductive Rights
Follow all the organizations and people featured in this podcast!

Books and more:

Pay Up: The Future of Women and Work (and Why It’s Different Than You Think), by Reshma Saujani
It’s time for Republican women to speak up for reproductive rights, by Kathryn Kaufman, The Washington Post
This Will Only Hurt A Little, by Busy Philipps
Amanda Shires demands more artists stand up for abortion rights, Rolling Stone
Take It Like A Man, by Amanda Shires
We Won’t Go Back, by MILCK, BIIANCO, & Autumn Roe (feat. Ani DiFranco)

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Abortion: The Body Politic, Part 5 Jul 07, 2022

Show notes

In Part 5 of Abortion: The Body Politic, Katie looks abroad for models of progress — and regress — when it comes to reproductive rights and abortion access. What are the trends and how does the U.S. now compare? We check in with the Center for Reproductive Rights to find out. Perhaps no region has seen more progress than Latin America. Human Rights lawyer and one of the founders of the Green Wave movement, Paula Ávila-Guillén, shares her experiences on the front lines of the decades-long fight for reproductive justice and what Americans can learn from our sisters to the South. We also hear from an activist in Mexico who is helping people across the border access abortion care they can no longer get in the United States. And academic, Lina-Maria Murillo gives us context for the unique relationship the United States and Mexico share when it comes to abortion access. There’s no denying the fact that many of the countries we are highlighting are largely conservative and Catholic. What does the progress these Catholic countries have made say about our own complicated assumptions about religion and abortion. We hear from several leaders of faith from a Jewish Rabbi to a Baptist Reverend and leaders from organizations like, Catholics for Choice and SACRED, about how they have worked reproductive rights and abortion access into their faith practice.

More information on this episode’s guests and resources

Center for Reproductive Rights

Women’s Equality Center

Paula Ávila-Guillén

Las Libres

Lina-Maria Murillo

Physicians for Reproductive Health

Catholics for Choice

Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice

SACRED: A Spiritual Alliance of Communities for Reproductive Dignity

Sister Song

Books and more:

When Abortion Was a Crime, by Leslie J. Reagan
A Complicated Choice: Making Space for Grief and Healing in the Pro-Choice Movement, by Reverend Katey Zeh

Guests include:

Paula Ávila-Guillén, human rights lawyer, Green Wave activist

Veronica Cruz, founder of Las Libres

Leah Hoctor, senior regional director for Europe at the Center for Reproductive Rights

Lina-Maria Murillo, professor at Iowa focusing on reproductive rights along the borderlands

Jamie Manson, Catholics for Choice

Katey Zeh, ReligiousCoalition for Reproductive Choice
Rabbi Kelly Levy, Congregation Beth Israel, Austin, Texas
Kenyetta Chinwe, Sister Song, SACRED

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Abortion: The Body Politic, Part 4 Jun 30, 2022

Show notes

In Part 4 of Abortion: The Body Politic, Katie examines how abortion is explored and reflected in popular culture and Hollywood. Because whether we realize it or not, the movies we have loved and the TV shows we watch represent the collective imagination of our culture at particular moments in time. And for much of the past 50 years, that collective imagination was riddled with problematic abortion tropes that perpetuates stereotypes about the procedure and the people who seek it out. But the good news is that in the past decade, more showrunners and filmmakers — and even studios — telling more abortion stories and even taking some risks. Katie takes listeners to the front row of a new comedy show about abortion, aptly named, “Oh God A Show About Abortion,” from comedian Alison Leiby. Filmmakers Gillian Robespierre (“Obvious Child,” 2014), Rachel Lee Goldenberg (“Unpregnant,” 2020), and Dawn Porter (“Trapped,” 2016) share the origin stories of their narrative-busting movies and what more Hollywood and creatives need to do in the long fight toward reproductive rights.

More information on this episode’s guests and resources: