Next Question with Katie Couric

Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Jodi Kantor knows a thing or two about getting to the heart of the matter and in her new book, How to Start: Discovering Your Life’s Work, she's giving advice on how to approach this daunting, AI-driven economy. But Jodi's a multi-hyphenate, so Katie also gets her thoughts on the “post-MeToo” era and her new beat at the New York Times covering the Supreme Court. Luckily she has wisdom (and hope!) for us, on all fronts.

Once a loyal Republican who celebrated Donald Trump’s 2016 victory, George Conway is now one of this administration’s most outspoken critics and a Democratic candidate for Congress in New York’s 12th District. In this candid, wide-ranging conversation, he sits down with Katie to discuss what motivated him to run for office and why this moment requires more than commentary and criticism. He traces the early days of the first Trump administration, when he began to see something he could no longer ignore, and how that realization reshaped not just his politics, but his personal life, including his high-profile marriage to political consultant Kellyanne Conway. Along the way, he examines why so many Americans remain loyal to Trump, drawing on psychology, identity, and what he calls a growing “permission structure” for division and resentment. Ultimately, he sees this as a moment that demands engagement, not passivity, and one that will help define the future of American democracy.

Some losses divide a life into before and after. In this conversation, writer and journalist Danielle Crittenden sits down with Katie to discuss her new memoir, Dispatches from Grief: A Mother’s Journey Through the Unthinkable, which chronicles the days and months following the sudden death of her 32-year-old daughter, Miranda, in February 2024. Crittenden reflects on the physical reality of grief, the maddening bureaucracy that follows death, and the difficulty  finding professional support, even with significant resources. She also opens up about navigating loss alongside her husband, journalist David Frum, the challenge of continuing to parent her two other children while managing her grief, and the unexpected community of bereaved parents she never wanted to join but has come to cherish.

Judy Faulkner runs a company whose software touches nearly every American's medical records. Katie traveled to Epic's sprawling, whimsical campus in Verona, Wisconsin to sit down with Judy Faulkner, the 82-year-old founder and CEO who's been at the helm for nearly 50 years. Judy talks about the living-room moment she cracked the code for electronic health records, why being one of three women in a room of 200 men turned out to be a competitive advantage, and how Epic's AI tools are quietly transforming what happens in the exam room. Katie also presses her on the hard stuff: the monopoly accusations, the non-compete clauses, the antitrust suits, and why Judy has pledged to give 99% of her wealth away while some of America's biggest tech billionaires have given far less.

Snyder has spent his career studying how democracies collapse — and how they fight back. He's the Chair in Modern European History at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto, the bestselling author of On Tyranny and On Freedom, and he's also the writer behind the popular Substack newsletter Thinking About. In this conversation, Snyder uses Hungary's stunning election upset, in which opposition leader Péter Magyar defeated Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power, as a roadmap for American democracy. He breaks down what made Magyar's campaign work, why protests matter even when they feel futile, and how the war with Iran could impact the upcoming elections.

Retired four-star Admiral and former commander of US Special Operations Command William McRaven oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Beyond his military career, McRaven became widely known for his “Make Your Bed” commencement speech  which has been viewed more than 150 million times. Now he's out with a new book, Duty, Honor, Country, and Life, a collection of speeches and essays rooted in the West Point motto he's spent a lifetime trying to embody. Admiral McRaven speaks, at times necessarily diplomatically (as we're at war), at times candidly, about the state of the US military under the Trump administration, the war with Iran, and his growing concern that the president may not fully understand the limits of military power. He reflects on what it means to maintain integrity in an institution under pressure, why he believes the next generation of Americans gives him reason for optimism, and what he wants readers to take away from a book he says is as much for civilians as it is for soldiers.

Jack Schlossberg is JFK's only grandson, and he's making his first bid for elected office in Manhattan's 12th Congressional District, the seat being vacated by Jerry Nadler. He has Nancy Pelosi's endorsement, two million social media followers, and a campaign built around kitchen-table issues like housing costs and tariffs on food and clothing. But he's also faced pointed questions about his qualifications and some notably harsh press coverage. In this conversation, he lays out his policy priorities, his decision to forgo Super PAC money, and what the Kennedy name really means for a first-time–ever–candidate running for Congress 2026.

In this special live episode recorded during Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, she sits down with Kevin Conroy, CEO of Exact Sciences and the force behind Cologuard; Judy Faulkner, founder and CEO of Epic Systems; and epidemiologist Dr. Caitlin Murphy to dig into why this disease keeps striking younger people. They cover the leading theories like ultra-processed foods, microplastics, the microbiome and debate whether the screening age should drop below 45, and get into the symptoms doctors too often brush off. If you know someone in their 30s or 40s, send them this one. It could save a life.