Ep. 464—Anderson Cooper

The Axe Files with David Axelrod

CNN

News

4.6 • 7.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2021

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Anderson Cooper is now a well-known CNN anchor, but he got his start in journalism armed with just a camcorder and a fake press pass. Cooper is also part of the storied Vanderbilt family, which he writes about in his latest book Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty. He joined David to talk about the corrosive power of money and how its effects can ripple through generations, his mother’s life and her capacity for overcoming trauma, losing his father at 10 years old, and how he hopes his book teaches his son Wyatt to feel connected to something beyond himself.

To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Axe Files,
0:12.5	with your host, David Axelrod.
0:15.9	I've known Anderson Cooper for years.
0:21.0	I've worked with him and greatly admired him as a colleague.
0:24.1	I've shared stories with him as a friend.
0:26.5	I knew, of course, that his mother was Gloria Vanderbilt, but never heard him talk much
0:30.7	about the Vanderbilt family which, for a century in America, came to describe wealth, power,
0:35.7	and celebrity, as well as excess selfishness and greed.
0:39.7	Now Anderson has written a revealing new book with co-author Catherine Howe called Vanderbilt,
0:45.0	the rise and fall of an American dynasty.
0:47.6	I sat down with him this week to talk about that story and why, after a lifetime of distancing
0:52.2	himself from that legacy, he decided to take it on.
0:56.0	Here's that conversation.
0:58.2	Anderson Cooper, good to see you, my friend.
1:06.9	You know, I worry about you all the time that you're not busy enough, and so I was really
1:11.1	gratified to hear that you have another book out.
1:14.0	Yeah, I know.
1:15.0	It's been, it seemed like a wise idea.
1:17.9	Especially when I was having a baby, I thought, why not?
1:21.1	Yeah, exactly, exactly.
1:23.0	And doing your show in 60 minutes and your online show and, you know, other stuff.
1:30.2	I'm working on an ice-capped version of my life.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from CNN, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of CNN and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.