Legendary journalist and anchor Tom Brokaw talks about his family, his new book and his decade-long battle with an incurable blood cancer in an emotional interview with his longtime friend, “CBS News Sunday Morning” anchor Jane Pauley, to be broadcast Sunday, June 25 on CBS and streamed on Paramount+.
NBC’s top anchor for two decades, Brokaw was diagnosed with multiple myeloma 10 years ago. He said doctors didn’t think he would make it to 83.
“I’ve had a bad experience,” Brokaw told Pauley of his illness. “I kept thinking bad things wouldn’t happen to me. But as I grew older, I began to develop this condition. And what you try to do is control it as much as you can.”
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Brokaw, once dubbed “Duncan the Wonder Horse” for being able to work continuously, said he had to walk away from the work he knew so well.
“I’ve had to change my life in some way,” he said. “I really had to give up my daily activity with NBC. You know, I had to walk away from them, as they were walking away from me. I just wasn’t the same person. … And so, for the first time in my life, I was kind of out there, you know, in a place I had never been in my life.”
Brokaw also talks with Pauley about his new book, “Never Give Up: A Prairie Family’s Story,” a love letter to his hardworking parents.
To watch a preview clip, click on the video player below:
Brokaw and his wife, Meredith, also talk about playing matchmaker by introducing cartoonist Garry Trudeau to his future wife – Jane Pauley.
Brokaw recalled, “I said… ‘Boy, Garry is really a good friend, he’s at the office a lot.’ And Meredith said, ‘It’s not about you; he wants to meet Jane.’ I said, ‘Oh, I hadn’t thought about that!'”
READ AN EXCERPT: “Never Give Up” by Tom Brokaw
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