Drama Queens - Dr. Jill Biden - part 2

Episode Date: June 23, 2026

Beyond the headlines and behind the doors of the White House, part two of this gripping conversation with Dr. Jill Biden explores the deeply personal moments at the heart of Biden's memoir, "View from the East Wing."Plus, the former First Lady shares an update on her husband's health, her unique acts of international diplomacy, and recounts a memorable encounter with her celebrity crush.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hi, everyone. It's Sophia. Welcome to Work and Progress. We're back for Part 2 with Dr. B. Let's get back on stage. This is a big life calling. You launched the White House initiative on women's health research.

Why was that the next right thing for you as the first lady? Well, you know, I was in the White House. I was grading papers. It was a Saturday. I think it was near Easter. And Maria Shriver came in, First Lady of California, I'm sure you know her, and former First Lady.

And so we started talking about women's health. And she said to me, Jill, do you realize that all the research until the mid-1990s has been done on men? No women in those studies, no research, men. So all the documents, diagnoses we would get, all the prescription medicines were based on men, their, you know, physiques, their weights, etc. Oh, and even the mice were male mice. How can you, I mean,

how can you study menopause in a male mouse? I mean, right? It's crazy. So, anyway, so I went to Joe, after Maria and I spoke, I went up to him and, you know, I said, Joe, there's a big problem and we have to solve it. And he said, you're right. So, I mean, this is what I love about Joe. He took a problem and he tackled it and he, you know, found an answer. So we started the White House Women's Initiative on Health.

And in one year, we put a billion dollars into funding and research for women's health. And, you know, we've got to keep going. Women have to keep fighting for ourselves. We do. I mean, in all areas, which I'm sure you agree, in all the social areas, we have to keep fighting. The things that have been taken away from us, we can't give up.

I'm a 60s girl. A lot of you girls or women here who were in the 60s, look what we had to fight for. Equal rights, equal pay, women's sports. How about money for women's sports? So much that we fought for, and we got to an extent, but now it seems like it's rolling back. So we have to say to the younger women, come on, take up the mantle and move forward.

I mean, I'm just, you can tell them passionate about it. Oh, I'm with you. You know, and I think it's so important that we all know the stats. I mean, ladies, we need to know, but also, like, shout out to all the guys here. You're here to listen to two ladies talk. Like, you're on the right side of history, and you should know these facts. Yeah. You know, you saw us through some of those fights.

I am part of the first American generation of truly free women. The first. 1994, you couldn't, until 1974, well, in 1973, obviously, Roe, which they took. 1974 was when you could finally lease an apartment on your own, I believe. 1988 was the first time a woman could get a bank loan by herself. 1993 was the first time we were included in a clinical trial, and guess what? It's also the same year. We could finally wear pants on the...

floor of Congress. 1993. Like when we think about how it's been a hot second. And by the way, we couldn't even get the ERA ratified because by the time we got the 48 state to sign it, all the bros in the halls of government, we're like, it took too long, we're not going to let you have. So the idea that we've even been totally free is a ruse, but we've made like just close enough to equal progress that they're panicking.

And now the tradwives are on Instagram, and now they're like, women shouldn't vote. And I'm like, excuse you, we had a revolution about this. Like, what? So that feels like everybody gets a little bit of info to take home. You're welcome. For your initiative, when I saw you doing this investing work, I was so excited about it because it's been an area of importance for me. I am so lucky to be in a community of incredible women.

I'm so lucky to have intergenerational friendships with incredible women who've shared their stories. And the disparities in healthcare, not just for women, but for women of color are insane. And it only can happen because there's so little money for us in general. So just a few more things for you to take home. You're welcome. Well, wait a minute.

It was in 1974. That was about when I got my first teaching job. Anyway, I got my first teaching job, and I was telling you this. Anyway, I forget who I was telling you. But anyway. It's been a long book tour. You're doing great. Okay.

So the same week that I was hired, I was hired in an English department, I got $7,500. Oh, no. My first job. A man in the same English department, same job, you know what? He got, 10,000. Yes, yes. It's crazy. And I went to buy a car.

Guess what? They made my father co-signed. Yes. Yeah. They made my father cosigned for me. I mean, you know, here I had my own teaching job. I was so proud. And then they're saying, uh-uh, get your father.

Yeah. And that's the thing. The independence didn't matter because the policy hadn't caught up. And the women's health investing in particular. is honestly a crisis we have to solve, only 1 to 3% of all private healthcare research and development dollars go to conditions that affect women. So we're 51% of the population.

There's literally more of us. Everyone came from us. And we get 1% of the money? The math is not mapping. Less than 2% of private healthcare investments in capital target women-specific conditions. conditions and only 5% of all overall global R&D is dedicated to women's health. So when you're hopefully signed up on the five calls app to bug your elected officials,

bug them about this also and encourage them to continue the work of the Biden's healthcare initiative on women. Because we should. We should. We should. We should. Now, I have so many more questions. I'm looking at the timer.

I'm starting to panic. Okay, we're going to be fine. I'm curious because I know out of that, I got to see you guys talk about it at CGI a couple years ago. I know the Cancer Moonshot Initiative is so deeply personal for your family. And I'm curious in the years since you announced the research funding and the Moonshot, Are there any really exciting developments you want to share with people? Because health hardship is terrifying,

and sometimes when we have good news, I feel like we should shout it from the roof. I mean, there are a lot of advancements in cancer. Cancer has been rampant, really, in my family. Both my parents died from it. My sister had a stem cell transplant because of lymphoma. and lived she's great and then you know our son beau died of glioblastoma and which was really tough I mean we we did everything we could I mean everything the diet the I mean going to different trials

getting him on different medicines and you know it was just one of those things that I just as a mother, I mean, I just never, ever, ever believe that, you know, God would take him. And now, I mean, there's this cruel irony with the cancer moonshot and all that we've done for cancer, and we'll continue to do, that my husband, you know, ended up with stage four prostate cancer, which is bad enough. But I want to tell the men here in the audience that prostrate, cancer they do have a cure for it I mean you you can be cured from that unfortunately for Joe it metastasized to his bones and that just changed the whole ballgame and so now Joe will live I mean his whole life will he will live with cancer which means that he's

on really strong medicines that make him really tired and you know, have such strong side effects. And so we keep fighting. And, you know, and there's so much that really that we're going to continue to do. And, you know, people cannot forget to go get their screenings. I mean, I think in COVID, everybody was scared to death to go into a hospital or doctor's office. And so the screenings went way down. But I want you all to think about this if you can.

think about all of you who are should be getting like a mammogram or a dexa you know the bone skin you just stick your hand in an x-ray machine it doesn't hurt or anything prostate cancer breast cancer you know I you may not know this but

in the early 1990s four of my friends were diagnosed with breast cancer and I thought, oh my God, what can I do? I have to do something. And I thought, I'm not a doctor, but, well, I am a doctor. You're a doctor. So I developed a program.

I went into every school in the state of Delaware, and it was so long ago in Dover High School, they made the girls have a permission slip because we were saying the word breast. Honest to God, that's the truth. And anyway, we went in with breast models, and we showed women what it felt like, you know, a lumpy breast or if you could feel something in your breast.

And we taught them good health practices. And anyway, I did that, I think, for 20 years. Wow. And then, you know, I finally had to stop because I was second lady. But that was my beginning of work, you know, trying to fight against awareness and prevention, which I think is really where we should be focusing is prevention with all these cancers.

Yeah. So think about it. Think about getting your screening if you haven't. And I know it's hard, and I know you're afraid a lot of you, but you're gonna be more afraid if you get that negative diagnosis like Joe got. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, we all wish him very well. I know. Please tell him Boston said, happy anniversary. And thank you. I mean, frankly, we're very lucky that he lent you to us on your anniversary. It's like, we got a gift. So I hope we can send some real positivity his way. And I think it's a really amazing thing that you've chosen not only to do the advocacy work,

but so many of these moments that are so devastating for families as you've shared. you as a family have shared with our families and you've made us all feel less alone in grief or illness. And I'm guessing I can speak for everyone in the room in this moment when I say thank you. Because to know you're not alone in that, that also helps save people. Well, everybody's touched by cancer. I bet every person in this auditorium has been touched by cancer, by someone they love or themselves. Happy Pride Month, Toronto.

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Pride is so great because it gives a whole bunch of people this visibility that they've never had before. We have a ton to celebrate Toronto. Happy Pride. I heart radio. I think there's something about the presence with which and the frankness with which you speak about it, though, that not everybody does. And I want to give you your flowers for that. You really, you know, you've chosen to model not just the good.

And you talk in the book about how sometimes the job of a first lady is to sit with you. people in grief, whether that is a family who's lost someone to cancer or mothers who've lost their sons in Ukraine. I mean, you've made it universal in a way when a lot of people want to put it on the bottom shelf and not talk about it. Do you see the willingness to sit with grief as a form of activism also? Well, I never thought of it that way, but definitely. For me, and I'll just speak for myself as a former First Lady, I felt that when Americans, something tragic had happened, like Yuvaldi, horrible.

Maui, the fires in Maui, Surfside in Florida. I mean, there were so many times when Joe and I would go and sit with families and just talk to them and empathize. about grief. And I just think that's part of the role of a First Lady and a President to take care of people who are experiencing grief and loss. And...

Well, it's just such a gorgeous act of compassion. We miss it. I miss compassion so much. You know, you have spent 50 years together. You share wonderful pieces of your relationship. I love that he had to propose five times. I'm like, good for you, Dr. B. But you also share about your female friendships.

You know, you talk about your sisterhood. You also talk about the peculiar pressure placed on women in the first place. You write in the book about this, and I think most women, while we've never been the first lady, we get this part. You say that being the first lady could feel like a catch-22 because you're encouraged to use your platform to do good, but not be too aggressive in pursuing policy goals,

less you be seen as overreaching. And if you knew too little about what you were talking about or maybe pretended to not be overreaching, I don't know, then you're like some kind of embarrassment. So the balancing act, you know, your story is specific, but the balancing act, I think, is very universal for us. How have you figured out how to do that, and are your female friendships kind of the key?

Well, I think they probably are the key, and I think every First Lady has done the role a different way. I mean, if you remember, Rosalind Carter sat in on cabinet meetings, and I don't remember that she was criticized for that. It was just like that was part of their partnership, and so she did. God forbid I should sit in on a cabinet meeting because then it would look I mean I was criticized I went to one in four years that I walked in to talk about women's health

for like 10 minutes and so it's true you can't know too much or know too little or be aggressive or not aggressive enough so it is a fine line and you know it's nice to I mean I always felt like so supported by really the women in my friendships. I mean, they've meant the world to me. Of course, as you know, I have four sisters. But the cool thing is, like, I've been supported, like my friends Marianne, her sister-in-law is here,

or Annie and her parents are here. People that are just, have been, and people in my staff are in this audience who work for me, like, yeah, BP, I mean, you know, and I've always felt that support. And it's a really important part of my life. And I don't

know whether it stems from growing up with four sisters and being so close to my mother and my grandmothers. I mean, it just was, I mean my poor dad, honest to God, he said, even the cat is

a female. But he felt overwhelmed, but he handled it okay. He could hold his own. I love it. Who when you think about inspirational women who inspires you these days? Oh my gosh There are so many inspirational women today for instance. I just wrote a note to Billy Jean King Oh

Greatest does anybody know why she got her college degree Yes and she got her college it was in the paper you must have missed it but I thought good for you I mean, remember that tennis match and she was the winner. I mean, I love... 1973. Yes. I love female athletes and what they're doing because I feel like, you know, having gone through the Title IX and money for women's sports,

that women's sports is finally coming into its own. And I love that. So they inspire me. And the women, I think, you know, in women's in health research. I mean, these young scientists that are making, all these discoveries for endometriosis, osteoporosis. I mean, some of you in here are maybe a little bit older, and I know is now this new and hot topic,

no pun intended, is menopause. So now we're centering on that. But I have to tell you, I mean, I'm past that. I'm like this next wave, and I told my daughter, I'm in my last quarter, and she's like, Mommy, don't say that. But anyway, there are all these women. post menopause who are like, is this normal?

I mean, the things that we are now experiencing in our 60s and our 70s and our 80s, like we don't have answers. We don't have answers. It's because the mice are men. Yes. Hello. So there has to be a national conversation

about aging so that when something happens to you or your spouse, you don't say, what the heck is this, that we have facts, and we know where we're going. We've got to start this as Americans. We do. Yeah. Especially when you think about, you know, this notion that this is a country built on a dream, right? The American dream doesn't stop because you retire.

That should be your best life. Yeah. If you get to retire, you should be like living it up. I want you to be having a time. And you're right. You shouldn't be looking around going, what's happening to me and does anyone care? Yeah. You know, it should shift.

Yeah, it should. I have a couple of just like quick little fun questions for our last few minutes, if I may. You're not in the fishbowl anymore, but there are still lots of people with the badges around. Thank God for them, honestly, God. Thank God. Oh, they're so wonderful. They're so great. I had to run back into my dressing room to grab something and like four dudes turned.

I was like, it's just me. Just hobgobbling around. I just needed my papers. Please don't tackle me. Honestly, they're so kind. I just can't thank them enough. All of them. Thank you.

Thank you, secret service. Pretty incredible team you have. Yeah. What does a typical day look like now? Do you open windows? How often do you go for a walk? Actually, we do have bulletproof glass in the back of our house because now we have to, right? Because there's like a lot of craziness.

But a typical day, I'm an early riser. I love the morning. And so I get up early. And we have two new black lab puppies. Okay. So here's a quiz question. Their names are Scout and Boo. Where does it come from?

To kill a mockingbird. Yes, good. Some of you are readers. I love that. So anyway, so I make sure the dogs and willow are all fed and taken care of. And then I just sit, like, you know, just sit and have quiet and just appreciate really my life and what I've been given and the opportunities. And then I go to exercise every morning, and I went this morning to bar.

And if you know, bar three. Wow. So I cycle, I do bar, Pilates. You know, I'm a big exerciser. And then I have like a ton of things to do between women's health and writing and, you know, Joe's writing his book. He's always home. I always have to make him breakfast.

He's a terrible cook. So the day is full. And, you know, usually my kids, my grandkids are in and out of the house. or bringing their friends. I mean, half the time, I don't even know who's sleeping in my house, you know, because they just come with their friends, and that's the way I want it. That's the way it's always been, and everybody's welcome. And so, anyway, that's my life.

I love that. I think a full house is kind of a true. Yeah. Yeah. I'm Cynthia Lois, and I'm Josie Dye. And we're done pretending we have it all figured out. Each week we laugh, cry, and talk our way through life's, messiest moments. The things you think about but would never say out loud. The questions you are

always too shy to ask. Relationships, regrets, awkward moments, and the stuff no one warns you about. It's honest, it's funny, and sometimes it gets a little uncomfortable. But that's kind of the point. This is Cynthia and Josie's unmentionables. Listen on the free IHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. What, as our exercise guru on top of all the other things you do, what's this phrase that you've coined soul cycle diplomacy? Oh, this is so much fun. So when I would go to foreign countries, I would still cycle,

because they have sole cycle all over the world. And so it was, we were in England, and so I cycled there with, God, I can't, Rishi, I'm thinking ahead of, thank you. And so anyway, we cycled together, Sorry, I had just one of those moments.

And then in Paris, I went to the cycle center. And so I would always invite people to cycle with me. I mean, leaders of foreign countries. And sometimes they came and sometimes they didn't. But it was so fun to go because even in France, and I don't really know French that well, but you just followed the person ahead of you and you just do what they do.

And, you know, it was just funny. Yeah. And it was fun. And it was a way to connect on a different level. And so, and, you know, Sophie Trudeau and I, I mean, just, we just, it's another way to connect with people that isn't like stuffy and, you know, that you just go have fun. So that's what soul cycle diplomacy was. Well, it strikes me as you bringing some of that normalcy to an extraordinary situation, or perhaps it itinerary is the word. should have used. I have another

little pop culture question because I did hear that you just went and saw Bono at the sphere. And I do know because you know you did admit it once and now everything we've ever said is on the internet. I do know he is your celebrity

crush. That's true. And I know like in the world should we say this on my anniversary though? Joe's not here. He's not here. I know in the world, like most people would say, I'm intimidated by a rock star. But does a president get intimidated by a rock star? No, not at all.

I didn't think so, but I needed to know. No. But can I tell you the Bono story? Yes. Please. Okay, so it was, so anyway, Joe and Bono started out as friends. And so Bono would come to the White House. And when he's talking to you, like all he does is speak.

poetry. Like he just recites poetry. I mean, his soul is so beautiful. And he does so many good things in the world. I mean, he's a humanitarian. He's really a good, decent man. So Anthony took me to the sphere for my birthday one year. We were out there for something, probably campaigning. And so you two was there. And so Bono said, come on backstage and meet the band and, you know, meet my wife, etc. This is the beautiful thing. So before they go on stage, they get in a circle and they pray. And that's what we did. We got in a circle, we held hands, and we prayed before they went out on stage. Then they go out and they play this crazy rock music and everything. And then the last song of the night, he dedicated to me. Come on.

I love it. I love it. Now you see why. Yeah. I mean, we won't tell Joe. You know, you can tell them tomorrow. After everything you have experienced as a teacher, a mother, a wife, a first lady, a memoirist. I love that word memoirist.

I know, isn't it? It feels, it has a nice mouth feel. Yeah. What's your favorite word? Oh, my favorite word? I mean, not to be cheesy, probably love. Love. Oh, what a great answer.

Yeah. Oh, my God. You know what other word, though, has one of my favorite mouth feels. What? My favorite word in Spanish. Esquerta. What does that mean? It's a right or left.

It is left, right? Okay, great. Left right. No, by the way, I just started my Spanish lessons on Duolingo. I did take French, and I'm not good at that either. But, like, the word? just saying it Esquira. I'm like, that?

Like, I don't need to, it sounds sexy to me and it feels nice and it means left. But, you know, I think progressives are sexy, so maybe we're on to something here. I don't know. What's your least favorite word? Well, we all know that. We know.

I think we share it. You've done so much. You know, you've like, you've just lived this big beautiful life and you've set an example for so many of us and and you know you've checked so many things off the list the bucket list you've soul-cycled with you know foreign leaders but I'm curious with all the things you've done and everything you have to be so proud of what in your life still feels like a work in progress oh everything I mean everything is still work in progress I mean I'm not giving up

And I don't know, I still have a lot to do. I just, you know, like I said, my teaching, I want to, I do want to do stuff with women's health. I do want to do prevention of cancer. You know, going into the prisons, I just, I have a lot to do. Plus garden. Plus garden. Me too. Oh, I didn't know you were a gardener.

Oh, yeah. Okay, we'll talk afterwards. We have a lot to discuss. I need your tips because I've been a West Coast gardener my whole life. And now I'm an East Coast gardener. Oh, it's totally good. Yeah. My plants.

I know. Okay. Okay. This will be for later. But for now, we're out of time and those are all my questions. Oh my gosh, we are. I know. This has been so much fun.

Thank you for coming. One, two, six. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.