Katie’s One-on-One with Admiral William McRaven

Retired four-star Admiral and former commander of US Special Operations Command William McRaven oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Beyond his military career, McRaven became widely known for his "Make Your Bed" commencement speech which has been viewed more than 150 million times. Now he's out with a new book, Duty, Honor, Country, and Life , a collection of speeches and essays rooted in the West Point motto he's spent a lifetime trying to embody. Admiral McRaven speaks, at times necessarily diplomatically (as we're at war), at times candidly, about the state of the US military under the Trump administration, the war with Iran, and his growing concern that the president may not fully understand the limits of military power. He reflects on what it means to maintain integrity in an institution under pressure, why he believes the next generation of Americans gives him reason for optimism, and what he wants readers to take away from a book he says is as much for civilians as it is for soldiers.

You can listen to Katie’s One-on-One with Admiral William McRaven online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Katie’s One-on-One with Admiral William McRaven is an episode from Next Question with Katie Couric by iHeartPodcasts.

This episode is 59:08 long.

This episode was published on Apr 23, 2026.

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