Katharine Graham: The Woman Who Took Down a President [Outliers]

The Knowledge Project

Shane Parrish

Business, Society & Culture, Technology, Education, Self-improvement, Investing, Entrepreneurship

4.7 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 29 July 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Katharine Graham took over the Washington Post in 1963, she was a shy socialite who'd never run anything. By retirement, she'd taken down a president, ended the most violent strike in a generation, and built one of the best-performing companies in American history. Graham had no training, no experience, not even confidence. Just a newspaper bleeding money and a government that expected her to fall in line. When her editors brought her stolen classified documents, her lawyers begged her not to publish. They said it would destroy the company. She published them anyway. Nixon came after her, attacking her with the full force of the executive. Then Watergate. For nearly a year she was ridiculed and isolated while pursuing the story that would eventually bring down the president. Graham proved that you can grow into a job that initially seems impossible and no amount of training can substitute for having the right values and the courage to act on them. Approximate timestamps: Subject to variation due to dynamically inserted ads: (02:19) The Making of an Unlikely Heiress (10:15) The Education of a Publisher’s Wife (22:16) Learning to Lead (30:46) Becoming a Media Titan (44:12) Legacy (47:59) Reflections + Lessons This episode is for informational purposes only and is full of practical lessons I learned reading her memoir, Personal History and watching Becoming Katharine Graham. Check out highlights from this book in our repository, and find key lessons from Graham here: ⁠⁠https://fs.blog/knowledge-project-podcast/outliers-katharine-graham/ Thanks to ReMarkable for sponsoring this episode. Get your paper tablet at reMarkable.com today Upgrade—If you want to hear my thoughts and reflections at the end of all episodes, join our membership: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fs.blog/membership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and get your own private feed. Newsletter—The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fs.blog/newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow me on X at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠x.com/ShaneAParrish Check out our website for all stock video and photo credits. Episode photo sourced from: iwmf.org/community/katharine-graham/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Catherine Graham was hosting a farewell party in her Georgetown home when she got a phone call that would change history.
0:06.7	While the Capitol's elite filled her living room, her editors waited on the line with an impossible question.
0:12.3	Should they publish the Pentagon Papers and risk destroying the company?
0:16.6	Frightened and tense, she took a big gulp and said, go ahead, let's publish. And she hung up the phone.
0:22.8	In that moment, the self-described dormant wife became one of the most powerful woman in American
0:28.4	media and one of the most powerful woman ever. Welcome to the Knowledge Project. I'm your host,
0:36.8	Shane Parrish. In a world where knowledge is power, this podcast is your toolkit for mastering the best for what other people have already figured out.
0:46.8	Kathleen Graham documented her remarkable life and journey in a Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir called Personal History, which is the main source of the material today.
0:56.1	She wrote it with an unflinching honesty
0:58.5	because she wanted everyone to understand
1:00.6	that courage isn't the absence of fear.
1:03.2	It's doing what's right despite being terrified.
1:06.5	The image of me is this tough, sort of decisive,
1:16.3	combative person who's taken on all these fights. And I'd just like to say that I hate fights. And I am very courageous only when
1:24.7	forced into a corner. And all the battles we got in were ones in which you had very little choice or no choice.
1:36.2	There's no corporate spin.
1:38.0	It's just a raw blueprint for turning self-doubt into unshakable resolve.
1:43.1	Catherine Graham, or Kay, as her friends called her, is one of the
1:46.1	most powerful woman in history. She published the Pentagon Papers, exposed the Watergate scandal,
1:52.6	faced the full force of the U.S. government coming after her, brought down a president and
1:58.1	weathered a strike that would have crippled any other company.
2:01.9	Oh, and if that wasn't enough, thanks to an unlikely friendship with Warren Buffett, she ended up
	...

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