Former NBC producer on silence, shame and finding words after #MeToo

Fresh Air

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4.3 • 36.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2026

⏱️ 47 minutes

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Summary

Brooke Nevils was a young NBC producer working the 2014 Sochi Olympics when, she says, ‘Today Show’ host Matt Lauer sexually assaulted her. Lauer has denied her account, calling their relationship consensual. Now, in her new memoir, ‘Unspeakable Things,’ Nevils doesn't just revisit what happened – she interrogates why it took years to understand it. She spoke with co-host Tonya Mosley.

Also, book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews George Saunders’ new novel, ‘Vigil,’ and Ken Tucker reviews music from country artist Stephen Wilson Jr.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation,
0:07.4	working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theshmit.org.
0:14.7	This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley. Before we get started, a heads up that today's interview includes a discussion of sexual assault.
0:23.7	It's been eight years since Matt Lauer was fired from NBC at the height of the B-2 movement.
0:30.4	In the years since, public attention has shifted, and some of the men who were forced out during the reckoning
0:36.0	are beginning to test whether
0:38.0	there's a way back. According to reports, Matt Lauer is one of them. Today, we're hearing from one
0:45.5	of the women whose allegations helped bring his career to an end. For 20 years, Lauer was the most
0:51.8	trusted man in morning television. Hundreds gathered outside of
0:55.4	Rockefeller Center in New York each morning for a glimpse of him and his co-hosts, while millions
1:00.5	more watched at home as he sat on the Today Show couch, interviewing presidents, celebrities, and
1:06.4	everyday Americans. At the height of his power, NBC paid him $25 million a year, more than any other news
1:14.3	anchor in the country. But behind the scenes, there were complaints, rumors, and an atmosphere of fear.
1:22.4	In his 2019 book Catch and Kill, journalist Ronan Farrow documented a pattern in which Lauer pursued women
1:29.9	on staff at NBC over the course of decades. One of those women was Brooke Nevels, who was in her
1:37.4	late 20s and working with former Today Show co-anchor Meredith Fiera on NBC's coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
1:47.1	According to her account, first reported by Farrow, one night after drinks with colleagues
1:52.5	at a hotel bar, she went to Lauer's room. There she says, he sexually assaulted her. At allegation,
2:00.5	Lauer denies. Nevels did not report what she
2:03.8	says happened at the time. She has said that she was terrified of Lauer's power and of what
2:10.1	coming forward could mean for her career. But as the Me Too movement gained momentum following
2:16.1	the public downfall of Harvey Weinstein, Nevels went to human resources and Lauer was fired.
	...

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