‘Inside UVA’ Presidential Podcast Kicks Off Season Two With Alumna Katie Couric

September 21, 2022 By Jane Kelly, jak4g@virginia.edu Jane Kelly, jak4g@virginia.edu

Audio: “Inside UVA” With Award Winning Journalist Katie Couric(28:24)

The Emmy Award-winning journalist dishes on her life at UVA, the highs and lows of her far-reaching career and her newest venture, Katie Couric Media.

Transcript

You know her from her 15-year stint on NBC’s “Today” show, from anchoring the “CBS Evening News” and helming her eponymous talk show, “Katie.” But did you know that before she was an Emmy Award-winning news professional, Katie Couric was an R.A. at the University of Virginia? Or that in her fourth year, she was the senior resident of the Lawn?

Her journey on Grounds started after a failed application to Smith College. “My sisters both went to Smith and I think everyone kind of expected me to go to Smith,” she told UVA President Jim Ryan on the latest installment of his podcast, “Inside UVA,” which dropped this week. “But I was sort of a little bit, I wouldn’t say a goof-off, but let’s just say I got by on my charisma and charm.”

Once she got to UVA, Couric never looked back. “I’m so glad I went to UVA,” she said. “It was a really good place for me, I think. I got a really well-rounded education. I loved it.”

Ryan and Couric’s conversation ranges widely. The journalist shares some of the highs and lows in her profession and her deep passion for cancer research and discovery – sparked by the death of her first husband, Jay, who died of colon cancer when he was just 42, and later, the death of her sister Emily, who died of pancreatic cancer when she was 54. Couric came to UVA in 2011 to help dedicate the Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center.

Couric helped found Stand Up To Cancer, an organization that has raised more than $746 million for cancer research programs. “I think our research has contributed to something like nine new FDA-approved drugs,” she said.

Couric’s latest venture is Katie Couric Media, which focuses on things like health and wellness, environmental sustainability and cancer prevention. Tune in to the season premiere of “Inside UVA” to learn more about her new adventure and listen as she flips the script on Ryan by closing out the conversation with a question of her own.

Listen to the entirety of Ryan’s interview with Couric on most podcast apps, including Apple PodcastsSpotify and Google Podcasts.

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Jane Kelly

University News Senior Associate Office of University Communications