The veteran journalist could speak, walk and take part in public panels, yet later remembered none of it; Israeli neurologist explains transient global amnesia, why it can resemble a stroke and why sudden memory loss requires immediate medical evaluationNoga Shavit Raz|June 27, 2026, began like an ordinary day for veteran American journalist Katie Couric. She was in Aspen, Colorado, where she had been invited to take part in the Aspen Ideas Festival, and started the morning with a visit to the local farmers' market."There was nothing all that unusual about that Saturday morning," she later wrote in a post recounting the episode. "John, my husband, went to work out, so I walked into town from his parents’ condo in Aspen to go to the weekly farmer’s market and get some iced coffee. I bought some beautiful peaches and nectarines, a big bag of kettle corn and a cute straw hat I really didn’t need. I headed back, ate a bowl of cereal with one of the peaches, and got dressed for an afternoon at the Aspen Ideas Festival. I decided to wear a white linen suit, a navy and white knit sleeveless shirt, and my new hat. John drove with me to the campus of the Aspen Institute and was excited to go to the hot dog stand for lunch. That’s the last thing I remember."GalleryMemory loss(Photo: brizmaker/Shutterstock)Couric, 69, is one of the best-known figures in American broadcast journalism. She spent 15 years co-hosting NBC’s Today before moving to CBS, where she became the first woman to serve as the sole anchor of a major U.S. network evening newscast.She had been invited to Aspen for two sessions: one moderating a panel on artificial intelligence and another discussing the future of journalism.What happened afterward is something she knows only from what others told her. Couric went onstage, participated in both sessions as planned and appeared to function normally. Only after the second panel did her husband notice that she seemed weak, dizzy and “not quite herself,” and decided to take her to a local hospital.During the initial examination, doctors asked her the date and the name of the current president, but she got it wrong. "I wasn't sure of the month. I thought it was 2024. And I believed Joe Biden was president", she wrote.Even more concerning to doctors was that she could not remember that a granddaughter had recently been born. She repeatedly asked the same questions and reintroduced herself to nurses each time they entered the room.Doctors initially suspected a stroke, but an MRI ruled that out. After further testing, Couric was diagnosed with transient global amnesia, or TGA, a condition that causes temporary short-term memory loss. Doctors told her the episode would resolve by the following day.“The cause seems to be as mysterious as the brain itself,” she wrote. Couric said someone later described the experience to her as though her brain had simply failed to press the record button. "I have no idea what we talked about, or of what occurred when the panels ended," she wrote.Couric ended her account with mixed emotions. “It was a strange and frightening event, but it could have been much more serious,” she wrote, adding that she ultimately felt relieved, even though a few hours from that Saturday in June would always be missing from her memory. Couric’s experience has drawn attention to TGA, a relatively little-known neurological condition that can be extremely frightening. During an episode, a person may appear fully functional while being unable to retain what is happening around them.“The resemblance to symptoms of a stroke makes awareness of the condition and accurate diagnosis even more important,” said Dr. Jeremy Molad, deputy director of the Neurology Division and senior deputy director of the Stroke Neurology Department at Tel Aviv Sourasky (Ichilov) Medical Center.How can someone talk, function and participate in a discussion, yet remember none of what happened?