Gwyneth Paltrow Wants You to ‘Experience the Magic’ of Learning With Her New Podcast, The Goop Guide

Gwyneth Paltrow is no stranger to the world of podcasts. In 2018, the actress-turned-wellness brand founder launched The Goop Podcast to further tap into the intersection of health and lifestyle, bringing A-list celebrities and experts on the show to create an open dialogue on the best approach to living—but in Paltrow’s own words, that version of the podcast arrived just ahead of the long-form content boom and felt more “homespun” as a result.

Her new podcast, The Goop Guide With Gwyneth Paltrow—premiering today, November 11, through Spotify and Netflix—will see her joined by “a friend, fellow founder, doctor, family member, colleague, ex-boyfriend, guru, or expert” to “guide her audience on how to live Goop in all the ways that can be defined.” She plans to dive into topics like “the art of reinvention, raising a family, breaking up with friends, Thanksgiving dinner,” and more, depending on the guest of the week.

The goal of the podcast, Paltrow tells ELLE, is to offer a learning opportunity to herself and her listeners. “I think learning defines me more than anything else, like I have so much curiosity about us as human beings, how we move through the world, how we can heal, how we can be better citizens of the world,” she says. She wants her fans to “experience the magic that comes with understanding someone else’s life, their point of view, and what’s making them feel inspired.”

Below, Paltrow speaks exclusively with ELLE about The Goop Guide, detailing her future hopes for the podcast, her dream guests, and more.

View full post on YouTube

Why did it feel like the right time for a new podcast?

We had done The Goop Podcast for many years and it launched before the podcast space became what it is now, so there was no visual component and it was very homespun. As we went on, people wanted it to have video, and so we took a pause so I could think about launching a new podcast in a new format and figure out what I wanted to say or what was missing from the original. The Goop Guide goes back to the very, very early days of Goop and what the point of what Goop originally was, which was to provide recommendations and get to the heart of the best thing. I’m enjoying looking at it through the lens of like, “This person is the Goop Guide to X.”

Does this new show feel like a reinvention of The Goop Podcast?

I would say it’s a completely new show, a completely revamped format. Media is in an interesting place where there’s so many different platforms and our algorithms are surfacing what we see, but at Goop, we like to think about it being this source of trust and bringing that kind of humanity back into curation, which excites me about the show.

It’s also in a longer format, which juxtaposes YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and other bite-sized ways we digest content. It’s interesting that podcasts are growing so much in popularity, because it’s like a healing balm. You put on a podcast and cozy up with someone in a longer form and they’re very different from the AI- and algorithm-driven content we’re being inundated with all the time.

How does this new podcast differ from what you offer on Goop?

A lot of the website is what we make, love, and sell, and it’s transactional, but the podcast is about curiosity. We’re doing that through having meaningful conversations with these guests and trying to approach it from, “What is this person’s unique point of view?” and “What are we here to learn?”

Who are some guests you think fans will be most excited to see?

It’s important to me that we continue to have a varied show. I love celebrities, but I need variety to deepen my own life, so we have people that aren’t just artists.

The launch episode is with Zoe Saldaña, who is an amazing woman and someone I have real admiration for with how she conducts herself in her career and as a mother and a friend. We also have Ke Huy Quan, the actor who won Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars for Everything Everywhere All at Once, and he was in The Goonies when I was a kid, so I’ve loved him my whole life. Also, people like Rick Rubin, who, to me, is like a modern-day sage and spiritual figure. I’m also working on bringing in people who are MDs, scientists, sociologists, or modern-day philosophers. I think it’s really important that we have episodes that feel like being in a classroom.

Who are some of your dream guests for the future?

The first person who popped into my mind so strongly—who unfortunately is no longer with us—was Dolly Parton. To me, she represents amazing, strong women who are legendary and who have redefined ideas about what women are capable of. I would love to have Hillary Clinton as a guest, and I would want to have a legend on the podcast, too. Since it can’t be Dolly, I’d love to have Cher.

What do you hope fans of yours take away from the podcast?

I hope that fans get out of it what I get out of it, which is getting really interesting stories that make us feel uplifted. I want them to experience the magic that comes with understanding someone else’s life, their point of view, and what’s making them feel inspired.

What are some future hopes that you have for The Goop Guide?

I would like to take it on the road! I love the idea of bringing the podcast to the U.K. to host an interview. There’s an audience there and it would be slightly less intimate, but live podcast episodes have this other very alive quality. The performance aspect of it would be so interesting to explore.

This interview has been edited for clarity.