Anderson Cooper Explores Grief and Loss in Deeply Personal Podcast

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Over the eight episodes of “All There Is,” the CNN anchor digs into his own family traumas as well as those of others.

Undertaking the podcast about grief and loss helped Anderson Cooper connect with the anguish of others. | Sinna Nasseri for The New York Times
Anderson Cooper has never been a big crier.

In fact, he has been a model of cool when covering world conflicts and natural disasters as a CNN anchor and “60 Minutes” correspondent. In person, he can come across as removed, dispassionate, unflappable.

But undertaking a podcast about grief and loss opened up something in him, providing access to a deep and formative pain that also enabled him to connect with the anguish of others.

“What has struck me is the degree to which I had not dealt with this stuff at all,” said Cooper, 55, at a recent interview in his West Village townhouse. “I mean, the fact that my voice wavers even now …”

That “stuff” includes losing his father, Wyatt Cooper, to illness when he was 10; losing his older brother, Carter Cooper, to suicide when he was 21; and losing his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, when he was 52. » | Robin Pogrebin | Monday, November 28, 2022