Laverne Cox Launches New Podcast in Hopes of Experiencing 'Spiritual Makeover' Alongside Listeners
Laverne Cox is making big moves.
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the Emmy-nominated actress and activist opens up about the launch of her first podcast, The Laverne Cox Show, why she made the decision to share her vulnerability with listeners and what she hopes to gain from her journey.
"Shondaland approached me a couple of years ago and asked me if I wanted to do this," Cox, 48, says of the how the podcast — a project produced by Cox and Shondaland Audio alongside iHeartMedia — came about. "And I was like, 'Well, if I do it, then I think I want to have intimate conversations with people who I can learn something from.' And so that's really what the podcast is. It's me, in intimate conversations with people — some people I know, some people I don't know — about topics that I want to learn more about and want our listeners to learn more about."
The podcast, which launched on Thursday, will release weekly episodes featuring guests from various walks of life discussing thought-provoking topics while offering different perspectives.
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For Cox, the decision to take on the project had everything to do with "personal growth."
"We have an episode about residential segregation and systemic racism, but then we have some stuff about dating — a good number of things about dating," Cox reveals. "A lot of this is about my own growth."
"I really am interested in having a spiritual makeover and that's really what this is about," the actress adds. "It's about having conversations that will inspire new perspectives, that hopefully will encourage us to live differently and make different choices."
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Since Cox began her podcast journey as "the interviewer," the star says she's evolved significantly.
"I've grown since the podcast has happened," she says. "But that is an ongoing process, and sometimes it's two steps forward and one step back when it comes to spiritual growth and psychological and emotional growth."
"So today I'm feeling really good, tomorrow something might come up, and I might be challenged," she continues. "And I'll have to pull out some of my skills from the community resiliency model. I might need to pull out some shame resiliency tools. A lot of it's about having different frameworks. Because then we can usually use a calmer lens to look at something."
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Cox hopes listeners take "whatever they need for themselves to be the very best version of themselves."
"There's a phrase, 'Take what you want, and leave the rest,'" she says. "And sometimes, we listen to something or we read something and it doesn't resonate with us in the moment, or one part of it will resonate with us in the moment. Because that's what we need at the time. And then we might listen to it a year later, and something else resonates, because that's what we need at the time."
"So I hope my listeners get what they need to be the best version of themselves in that moment," she continues. "And what they need to grow in this moment. Because it's really about individual moments. That's what our lives are. The only thing we can really be guaranteed, is this moment."
New episodes of The Laverne Cox Show will be available every Thursday on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.
