Hoda on the 1 thing that is ‘so cleansing’ for her to do in her routine after TODAY (2025)

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More than two months after leaving TODAY, Hoda Kotb is opening up about settling into a new routine.

The former TODAY co-anchor discusses what making space for herself looks like — a question she often asks her “Making Space” guests — at this point in her life in an interview with TODAY.com about the latest season of her podcast.

"It looks like slow, deliberate walks during the day, in between meetings and phone calls and interviews," she explains.

On those walks, Hoda says she doesn't have earbuds in, and she's not on a phone call.

"I am just walking, and as I'm walking, the only thing I'm thinking about is, 'I'm walking,'" she says. "That's it. It's almost like emptying it out, and when a thought comes, see it like a cloud. There it goes — and just continue walking."

She adds there's "something about being outside in nature" that is "so cleansing" for her.

Hoda, who moved from New York City to the suburbs last year with her two daughters, Haley Joy, 8, and Hope Catherine, 5, describes her walk as a "midday kind of recharge."

"You don't even realize it until you sit back down, and you're like, 'That's it. OK, that was it.'"

Carving out "morning time" for herself is also crucial to her personal routine.

"Just as I always did," she says.

"That one hour of quiet time is just for me," she says, adding that "everything is crazy" after her kids wake up.

"I used to think there was my time and then my kids' time and then my work time," Hoda explains. "If you start looking at your time with your kids as your time. Like, 'This is my time with them.' Not like, 'This is their time.' ... And then you realize how much more time you have."

"I'm enjoying my time with my kids," she adds.

Hoda says she's learned to stop "divvying up" her time pie so much.

"You can actually be in all of it," she adds.

Some of Hoda's time pie has been dedicated to Season Seven of her podcast, which includes guests like Elle Macpherson, Big Sean, and Christina Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler.

"I feel like we keep going deeper," Hoda says of this season. "We keep excavating, we keep seeking."

"As they excavate their lives," she explains about her guests, "it helps you do the same for yours. ... It's been so fun to learn from these people."

Sometimes during these discussions with her guests, Hoda mentions her daughters.

When asked what she hopes her girls will one day take away from listening to their mom on her podcast, Hoda says, “First, I hope they’ll give me grace.”

"Secondly, I hope that what they take away is they realize that there are tons of life lessons everywhere," she says. "I mean, they've taught me more than I can even count since they've been born. But I hope that they become curious and like to listen to other people's stories and realize that because you can only live one life, it's nice to learn from others, because there are lessons that maybe you never would've learned on your own."

She also hopes her daughters will "get a laugh sometimes" by listening and that maybe they'll eventually "understand" what she did for a living.

"Even though they know I worked at the TODAY show, they're like, 'Yeah, my mom goes in there and does X.' I think it'd be cool for them to understand this is what, you know, they're teaching me about listening. And this is kind of what their lessons have taught me. Like, this is how I do it now."