This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Audie Cornish, the 46-year-old CNN senior analyst and anchor of “CNN This Morning with Audie Cornish,” and the co-host of the network’s podcast “Engagement Party.” Cornish is based in Washington, DC. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I joined NPR in 2006 and began hosting the “Weekend Edition” Sunday show in 2011 before co-hosting “All Things Considered” during the 2012 election year.
I’ve been at CNN since 2022, and I started hosting “CNN This Morning” in 2025. I’m an analyst, which means I show up on election night and talk about what’s going on.
I’m also an anchor of a morning news show that airs at 6 a.m., and a podcaster. My new show, “Engagement Party,” is co-hosted by my friend Ari Shapiro.
I wear a lot of hats. Here’s a day in my life in Washington, DC.
I start my day at 2:15 a.m.
I don’t drink coffee — I just need some time to wake up. I glance at the papers on my phone. A shower is my cup of coffee.
I get in the shower at 2:30 a.m. and then leave for work right after.
I head into the office at 3 a.m.
It takes about half an hour to drive there, and when I get there, I need something in my system to get going.
In the first six months of the job, I never ate before the show. I felt so run down, and it was very hard. What I’ve learned from a morning shift is that what you do first thing sets off a domino effect for the rest of the day.
I have a meeting with the team at 3:30 a.m.
We discuss what will be on the show, and I share my ideas for supplementing what they’ve found. There’s fact-checking, and we address all those questions.
I also get my hair and makeup done during this time. I take the Zoom call from the makeup chair.
I’m done with glam at 4:30 a.m.
CNN
Then I settle in for my office-kitchen breakfast. I put together the world’s saddest bootleg omelet, which is made less sad by little sprouts on top and a cucumber slice. It makes it look like a proper breakfast.
I always have some sort of tea. That’s the only caffeine I drink, really. I’ll have either an Earl Grey or a Jasmine Pearl. I love the process of making it.
I read the research shared with me while drinking my tea at about 5 a.m.
I think about the stories we’re going to do, the things the guests might say, and the things I have to remember, like “oh, I need to fact-check this, or I have to say this or that.”
I get into a flow state of work, even though it looks like I’m just having tea. It’s very helpful.
I start filming for the show at 6 a.m.
Once we get into the show, it’s live, and there are multiple people chatting. I picture it like I’m at the breakfast table and I’m checking in on everybody like, “What’s happening in your world? Let me tell you what I’ve learned.” I look at it as my time to connect with the audience.
I think about all the parents getting their kids ready for school, all the people who get up early to go to the gym, the people at the airport at the bar, the people who are stuck in places they don’t want to be, and I try to make that hour really interesting and fun and to wrestle with complex ideas in a fun way.
As soon as the show is over at 7 a.m., I have a meeting
I do socials where I’m talking to people again. I look at that as its own shorter show, but there’s an audience there that I know is scrolling first thing in the morning, and they want to know what’s going on, too.
I have to pivot my brain after wrapping the morning show, and it feels like mental origami. I have to scramble and then think of entirely different things, especially for a pop culture show like “Engagement Party.”
On a podcast day, I prepare from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m.
CNN
At 8 a.m., I’m back to hair and makeup, and I leave the office by 8:30 a.m. to get to the podcast location.
I have to do my hair and makeup again because five hours after getting it done the first time, I look like The Joker.
By 9 a.m., I’m on chapter four of my day
That’s the beef of my day. Most people are just getting up, and I’m already on my second show, which I think is pretty common for this kind of job.
Tuesdays are my busiest day when we record “Engagement Party,” but we also record interviews throughout the week. It may be that an author or a comedian can only talk to you on Wednesday at 1 p.m. Now, on Wednesday at 1 p.m., I should be gone, but I don’t want to turn down the opportunity to have these conversations.
I start taping “Engagement Party” at 9 a.m. From 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., we’re checking in with the editors from the morning show and the podcast team for the next day’s work.
At noon — if I’m lucky — I get to leave
My only food so far was at 5 a.m. By then, I’m starving, exhausted, and falling asleep. Still she rises!
I want 30 minutes of sunlight every day, which may sound like a low amount, but setting a target like that feels achievable. That might mean getting out of the car, putting my bag down, then walking a few blocks to feel the sun on my face.
I try to unplug from the news during the day after finishing my talk shows, but I have to figure out what to do with myself. For a night owl, that’s a little bit of a struggle. Mostly, I want to nap, but I don’t nap. There’s a whole art to napping, and the first few times I tried, I slept too long. Now, I only nap on Friday afternoons when my body quits.
The rest of the week, I try to stay awake — run errands, go to the gym, try to find a way to take care of myself before my kids get home, but I have very long days without sleep, and I haven’t really solved that.
I walk into a buzzsaw of family when I come home around 3 p.m.
My family time is incredibly important, even more so than my sleep. On the days I can exercise, I have after-care for my kids. On days I don’t, I walk to school and pick them up at 3:30 p.m.
I don’t really want to tell them “Mommy’s too tired,” so if they want to play, I want to play with them. If they want to tell me about something they’re watching or listening to, there’s nothing in the world that will stop me from doing that.
By 4 or 5 p.m., I wear amber sunglasses to block all the blue light
The glasses signal to my body, “You have to go to sleep soon.”
We have dinner, then bath time at 7 p.m.
If I miss my kids’ breakfast, I don’t want to miss their bedtime. This is a really special age: They’re between 6 and 10, and I’m never going to get that time back. I’m never going to think on my deathbed, “I really wish I read that last article online,” or, “I really wish I read that last tweet,” because I’m going to be glad that I have my kids at bedtime, even if I’m exhausted.
I go to sleep at 8 p.m. or 8:30 p.m.
I don’t do anything to decompress after the day. I lie there like a machine that’s trying to power down, and my brain is a spinning beach ball.
However, I do use an app called Endel, which plays special music for sleep. My downshift is through relaxing sounds: birds, the ocean, and James Blake. That’s what I need to power down the machine.
A lot of my personal challenge is reconciling my ambition with self-care, being protective of my energy, and understanding that energy is finite.
