From cooking to finding courage, it was all on the table.
After a whirlwind weekend in Chicago with Chance the Rapper, it was off to Atlanta, Georgia for Katie and crew!
If you’ve finished her memoir Going There, you know Katie lived in Atlanta in the 80s when she worked for CNN. But her southern roots run deep. “I used to come visit my grandmother who had an apartment on Peachtree, my great Uncle had a store here,” Katie shared with the audience at the top of the show. “My parents lived here early in their marriage. My Uncle Buddy raised his family here.” There were loads of VIPs in the audience, including Katie’s Aunt Patty and some of her cousins.
If you weren’t there for the show or simply want to relive it, you’re in luck! We have behind-the-scenes scoop, photos, and videos from Katie’s Going There tour stop in Atlanta.
Before she show, she stepped onstage to prep and get a feel for the space. Early in the show, Katie takes her audience through her childhood and shares photos of her family and herself as a kid. Also, how cute is that jumpsuit?!
She also took a few minutes to play a little ditty on the piano at the venue.
Then she get all done up and ready to greet her guests. She signed books backstage and hosted a meet and greet with friends and fans.
Then it was time for the show! Katie welcomed her friends, fans, and family, and launched into her story. She took the audience from her childhood through her early days in the industry and through some of the highs and lows of her personal and professional life.
As with every tour stop, Katie had some very special guests join her on stage. This time, she was joined by Aimee Copeland, who Katie interviewed on her talk show in September 2012.
Four months before, Aimee suffered a zip-lining accident that resulted in a gash in her leg that required 22 staples. As if that weren’t enough trauma for a 24-year-old woman to experience, the wound got infected by a rare flesh-eating bacteria. It cut off Aimee’s blood flow and five of her organs started shutting down. She was on life support for several days. To save her, doctors had to amputate both her hands, her left leg, and part of her right leg.
“I’ll never forget when she walked into the studio, it still gives me chills,” Katie shared before showing a clip of their interview.
Now, nine years later, Katie and Aimee got to reunite on stage. Aimee caught Katie up on everything she’s been doing since the tragic accident — and…she’s been busy! Some highlights: she got two Master’s Degrees and started the Aimee Copeland Foundation. The foundation raises funds to create opportunities for “connecting with the self, the community, and the earth” in Atlanta by providing a fleet of all-terrain wheelchairs for free use by people with disabilities within select Georgia state parks. ACF also awards scholarships to Workshop Retreats, educational programs in restorative destinations, “where participants learn to harness the healing power of modern health technologies such as biofeedback, mindfulness, and compassion-based strategies in an innovative approach to hack resilience in our own lives.”
After catching up with Aimee, Katie finished sharing her story with the audience, and welcomed her second guest, none other than renowned cookbook author and TV host Ina Garten! “Ina Garten seems to signify everything good in the world,” Katie said before introducing Ina. “Her very name just makes you feel better…her cookbooks are my go-to for everything from panzanella to pasta pesto with peas and pine nuts — very alliterative — from her famous coconut cupcakes to her delicious roast chicken. She’s got her show on the Food Network, is developing another with guests — maybe she’ll invite me and Molner! — and is currently writing her 13th cookbook!”
Katie and Ina talked about everything from Ina’s infamous quarantine cocktails (giant cosmo, anyone?), her career start as a nuclear policy analyst, her husband Jeffrey Garten, and her Thanksgiving plans. Plus, Katie dished about her own career path and how she knew she was meant to be a journalist, and how she’s proved naysayers wrong. Check out her Atlanta dispatch below for more behind-the-scenes juiciness!
If you haven’t yet picked up a copy for Going There for yourself, what are you waiting for?! It’s chock full of hilarious, revealing, moving stories from Katie’s life and career, and it’s now at the top of the New York Times Best Seller List. Get the book here, then listen to the latest episode of Next Question, where Katie and her collaborators talk about some of the tough stuff she got into in this memoir.
Want to see what Katie packed for her tour? Wonder no more: Check out all the wearable must-haves and accessories she brought along on her journey. Her next show will be in Los Angeles on Nov. 12, with special guest Jennifer Garner — pick up your tickets now!
