New episodes of Hoda’s podcast are available every Wednesday — just search “Making Space” wherever you get your podcasts, or click here.
Every morning, Hoda Kotb makes space for many people — her family, her co-workers, the many celebrities who stop by TODAY — but one day a week, she dedicates nearly an hour to a guest on her podcast, "Making Space with Hoda Kotb."
On July 10, "Making Space" celebrates its 50th guest, country superstar Lainey Wilson. To mark the occasion, Hoda took a seat in the interviewee chair this time and caught up with TODAY.com about the milestone — and answered some of the questions she always asks her guests.
Hoda says she values the "freedom" the longer interviews she does for her podcast provide, compared to the shorter ones she does for TODAY, and that they can "unfold as they wish."
"We're limited with four minutes of airtime, which is great for a TODAY show interview — four or five minutes — but on the podcast, we get to really know somebody," she explains. "Not just know what they are about, but know their heart, know their soul."
"Imagine that privilege," she adds, noting the gift of asking someone about their life story and "what makes them tick."
"I feel like it's packed with life lessons, because I only get one life: mine," Hoda says, before naming a few of her guests she's learned these lessons from, like Viola Davis and Mel Robbins.
"It nourishes your life," she says.
Hoda's 'incredible' 50th guest on 'Making Space'
The aforementioned country music phenom, Wilson, is Hoda's 50th guest on her podcast. The singer, who's also known for her role on "Yellowstone," is currently on her "Country’s Cool Again Tour," and she recently rocked the TODAY plaza and took home her first Grammy Award earlier this year.
Hoda has two words to describe Wilson: "unbelievable" and "incredible."
"She's one of these people who a lot of us felt like just popped up on the scene," Hoda says. "I'm such a fan (of) people who had to kind of claw and scrape their way to their position where they are, and almost everyone I've interviewed is that."
Hoda also worked her way up to where she is now and advocated for herself to get her job as a co-host on the fourth hour, saying her prior breast cancer diagnosis provided her the courage to do so.
Hoda says she also admires Wilson for staying true to herself, despite her current success.
"She's a delight. She is honest. She is the next generation of fantastic and unbelievable country music stars," she explains. "She's someone who you want to be friends with. I loved everything about her."
Closing out this chapter of her 50s — and looking ahead to 60
Fifty has been a significant number for Hoda, who has been open about how her life's "blessings" began later in life.
In February 2017, when Hoda was 52, she adopted her first child: daughter Haley Joy.
She announced over two years later that she had adopted a second daughter, whom she named Hope Catherine.
"My 50s were my best," Hoda says, "and I imagine, because my 50s were my best, that my 60s will be even better than that."
She explains she always "dreamt" about what her life would look like but that you "never really know."
"Blessings come when they come. You don't get the choice," Hoda says.
"In my 50s, I got my children, I got the job I dreamt of, I found out who I was myself," she adds. "Finally, I feel like I'm 100% me."
Hoda says she's "so excited and fired up" to turn 60 in August.
"I feel like I'm a better version, or more myself, each year I grow older," she says. "I think a lot of times we spend our time pretending — being someone we're not. ... After a while you're like, 'Oh, I'm me. God made me this way.'"
Hoda relates this time to a journey to "learn about other people's lives" as she's figuring out her own along the way.
"I just want to be of service," Hoda says. "The first part of your life is about learning, the second part of your life's about earning and the third part is about service and giving back."
"I feel like this is an important time that's coming for me," she adds.
Blessings come when they come. You don't get the choice.
hoda kotb
Hoda says she’s in “great company” turning 60 along with “awesome” women like Mariska Hargitay, Brooke Shields and Sandra Bullock, all of whom recently celebrated the milestone or will in the next year.
"This is a great graduating class, and I'm happy to be part of it," she says, even looking ahead further to women like Oprah Winfrey, who is 70, and Gayle King, who will turn 70 later this year. She says both are "slamming 70 out of the park."
"I'm like, 'That's what 70 is? Cool! 60's amazing.'"
'Making Space' for Hoda
On her podcast, Hoda has a favorite question she loves to ask all of her guests. She asks them to close their eyes and walk her through what their childhood bedrooms looked like.
It's only right we ask Hoda this question in honor of her milestone episode of "Making Space."
"OK, good one," she begins, explaining that she and her sister, Hala, shared a room and had bunk beds in their family home in Morgantown, West Virginia.
"I was the bottom-bunk kid," Hoda says. "She was always the top bunk because she ruled the roost."
"We shared a bedroom and secrets and our lives, and I loved it," she recalls, adding she always wanted to do whatever her sister did.
She says she had posters of Erik Estrada and Barry Manilow hanging on the walls, "tons of books" and Fred Flintstone sheets on her bed. The sisters also shared a love of Snoopy and Charlie Brown.
Looking ahead to her next 50 dream guests
As for whom Hoda would like to sit down with next on "Making Space," she names Bullock, who also inspired Hoda to adopt and has two adoptive children of her own, Louis and Laila.
"I've admired her, and she so shaped the pathway of my life," Hoda says. "I feel like I adopted my kids because I saw that it was possible through her at our same age, and I realized, 'Wow, it can be done.'"
"I feel like we would have an instant, beautiful conversation," she adds.
Another guest Hoda says she's always "dreamt" about is Kate Middleton.
"I think she's amazing," Hoda explains.
"I've always thought about her because I feel like she's full of goodness and grace," she says. "You watch how she's even handling this chapter of her life and how she's doing it her way."
The Princess of Wales has been undergoing chemotherapy after revealing her cancer diagnosis in March.
Hoda says she believes Kate would be "a remarkable guest."
She explains she really just enjoys "people who are full of wisdom."
"It's funny because all my guests have been through hardship of some sort," Hoda says. "They have kind of done things against the odds."
"I seem to be drawn to people like that," she adds.
Taking her own advice
Hoda concludes all of her "Making Space" interviews by asking her guests how they are "making space" for themselves and what that looks like.
"I've got to take my own advice," Hoda says.
"I wrote this morning in my journal that every day I want to get myself an hour and a half for me, because I think it's impossible to maintain, sustain a level of caring for and doing things unless your tank's full," she continues.
That "me time," she explains, includes writing in her journal, praying and meditating in the morning, and watching a sunrise.
"Those three are really important," she adds, as is staying hydrated.
"The other thing I like to make space for, because it makes me feel really good, is an exercise where I'm dripping with sweat," Hoda says.
She also balances that with "quiet time" to read, even if it's just for half an hour.
"If I can have those things, somehow, in each day, and I think my challenge is I have to learn how to schedule that time like I would schedule a doctor's appointment," Hoda explains.
"I would try to carve out not just one day, but each day, that time so when I get home, I'm an excited mom who's ready — not someone who's tired and beaten down from the day, (but) someone who's vibrant and alive."
Hoda's episode of "Making Space" with her 50th guest, Lainey Wilson, will be released Wednesday, July 10.
