Interview With An Icon: Katie Couric On The State of Media, Institutional Distrust, Cancer Advocacy & What Actually Creates Happiness

I think people need to gather together and actually have conversations that enable dialectical thinking, like two things could be true at once or has some nuance to a conversation, like getting out of your bubble. And I think everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but they're not entitled to their own set of facts. I mean, there are some things that just are empirically true and some things that are false. Katie Couric people, this is what's happening. And I gotta say I could not be happier about it. If you're tuning into this on the day that I put it up, I happen to be in Florida speaking at a wellness themed event called Eudaimonia, which means that I recorded this introduction almost two weeks in advance. So I can't actually give you an honest life update from last week other than to maybe fill in a few gaps. As some of you guys know, I've been working on this book, which I really wanna keep under wraps until it's done. In fact, I made a promise to myself to not talk about it until then. And I made that promise to myself for a couple of reasons. First, because I think talking about the thing that you're working on has a way of releasing just enough dopamine to give you this sense of satisfaction that makes you feel like you're doing the thing or that you have done something that you actually haven't. And also because creativity is, is a fragile thing and, and I think it needs to be protected. So that's what I'm trying to do. So things like laundering it in conversation or in public, in my experience at least, has this tendency to put off the muse and also invite all kinds of opinions into into the equation that if you're not careful end up causing you to question yourself or to intrude upon that precious creative process. So suffice it to say that I'm gonna keep this subject matter of all of this under lock and key until the appropriate time, but I can share that this book has absolutely been kicking my ass, by far the hardest and most ambitious project that I've ever signed up for. And something that I've been working on for over two years at this point. And it's really brought me to my knees more times than I can count. I think that's due in part because I'm kind of taking a big swing with this thing, which has left me with moments thinking that I must be insane. Like, why did I make this commitment to this thing? I don't know if I can possibly live up to the promises that I've made around this creation. And maybe I should just return the book advance and, give up on it altogether. But per Steve Pressfield's advice, I've been taking a little contrary action to do my best to approach it like a pro to show …