Laverne Cox
Work in Progress with Sophia Bush
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 8 July 2026
⏱️ 31 minutes
🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS
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Summary
Before she became a groundbreaking actress, activist, and cultural trailblazer, Laverne Cox was a kid in Mobile, Alabama, searching for a place to belong. Today, she opens up about family, the role that changed her life, and what it means to carry the weight—and opportunity—of being "the first." Plus, Laverne and Sophia go off on the hypocrisy of government officials when it comes to trans rights and discuss what other agenda may be at play.
Laverne's memoir "Transcendence" is in bookstores now.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:04.2 | Hi, everyone. It's Sophia. |
| 0:06.8 | Welcome to Work in Progress. |
| 0:19.3 | Welcome back to this week's Work in Progress. We are joined by a personal hero of mine, |
| 0:24.9 | both as an artist and as an incredible advocate who fearlessly stands up and out and loud and |
| 0:34.0 | proud for her community and for the rest of us too. Today we are joined by none other |
| 0:39.5 | than Laverne Cox. She is here to talk about her new book, Transcendant, which is one of the more |
| 0:47.0 | beautiful things I've read in a long time. And you know Laverne from history making milestones. |
| 0:51.5 | The Emmy nominations, the magazine covers. Her breakout role in |
| 0:55.5 | Orange is the New Black that transformed transgender representation in pop culture and all of the |
| 1:02.5 | incredible things that she's done since. I mean, my God, if I read her whole bio, we're going to be |
| 1:06.6 | here for an hour before I even get her on the show. She has been such a, I mean, my God, like a beacon |
| 1:15.3 | of light in a world that has not often understood her. She has broken barriers. She has led both as a |
| 1:24.6 | leader and a culture maker, and she has helped to shift the world around her for the better. |
| 1:30.3 | And through her acting, her producing her activism, |
| 1:33.3 | and now transcendent, she is going even farther, |
| 1:37.3 | reflecting on family, identity, faith, trauma, healing, and ambition, |
| 1:41.3 | the pressure that comes with being the first. |
| 1:44.8 | And she's sharing so many parts of her remarkable journey with us in a way that I am just |
| 1:49.1 | absolutely in awe of. So let's type in and hear about how Laverne is going about sharing her story, |
| 1:59.7 | continuing to be an activist in 2026 when it's more dangerous |
... |
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