Hoda Kotb BREAKS DOWN ON AIR As These Two Guests Share Stories That Leave Her UNABLE TO KEEP COMPOSURE On Making Space Podcast

In the past year, Hoda Kotb has undergone a period of change, but one of the things that has remained constant in her life is her podcast.

“Making Space with Hoda Kotb” kicked off its seventh season on March 26 with model and businesswoman Elle Macpherson as the first guest.

“Whenever you’re at a new phase, you’re almost a new person and you see things from a different perspective,” Hoda tells TODAY.com.

“When I interviewed Elle Macpherson, she was talking about how she’s had so many lives. She thought her life was being a supermodel, and when that went away, who was she? And I thought to myself, ‘That was so interesting.’ She goes, ‘I thought that was it. When I stopped having my youthful looks, then what? That’s how I’ve been defined my whole life.’”

Hoda is also entering a new life phase: She left her job with TODAY in January, and while she will remain in the NBC News family, she plans to venture into the wellness space.

Macpherson, 60, discussed feeling optimistic about her future, which led Hoda to reflect on her own recent milestone birthday.

“That’s sort of how I feel, too,” Hoda, who turned 60 last August, says. “You’re at this new phase in life, and you wonder, ‘Who am I if I’m not doing that? Who am I if I’m not anchoring the TODAY show?’”

“It’s a new definition of who you are,” Hoda explains. “I approached this new season in that way. Like, let’s all jump into something new.”

The mom of two, whose new book, “Jump and Find Joy,” comes out this September, has an impressive lineup of “Making Space” guests this season who have overcome mental and physical challenges — much like herself.

‘Making Space with Hoda Kotb’ Season 7 guests

Christina Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who both have MS and co-host a podcast together, sat down with Hoda for an upcoming conversation.

“What I noticed is these two women are both going through the muck, but in it, they’re helping each other,” Hoda says. “There was a moment that was so telling. Christina feels very — she’s in this defeated part of it — like, ‘I just want to boogie board again … I just want the basic things that I just had.’ And my heart broke.”

She explains Sigler also said something that was “so poignant” to her.

“She said, ‘Sometimes, I do a lot of other things … holistic things to try to make my life better.’”

One of those things is meditation, which Hoda asked Sigler to tell her more about. Sigler told Hoda her son asked her what she thinks about while meditating, and she answered honestly by saying she envisions running on the beach with her sons.

Hoda explains she thought it was “so telling” that even in “difficult times,” Sigler found a way to “put herself into a place that she loved, even though she couldn’t physically be there.”

“Watching two women go through this journey together … they’re supporting each other and cheering each other on,” Hoda says of her podcast guests. “You watch where two people who are on the same path but at different stages are helping each other kind of live, and I was weeping.”

Some of Hoda’s other guests this season, including Dwyane Wade and Martha Beck, have experienced their own share of physical and mental health challenges. Wade was diagnosed with cancer at 41, and Beck has been open about her struggle with anxiety.

“When you understand somebody, it just makes the conversation deeper and better,” Hoda says of her own breast cancer diagnosis in 2007. “It’s kind of a tricky line sometimes because you’re like, ‘This is not my story. This is your story.’ But I think at the same time, it’s that whole poem that says, ‘We’re stronger in the broken places.’ When you see a broken place in someone else that you have, you’re like, ‘Oh, OK, so they do know what I feel. They’ve been through what I’m going through.’”

“I try to share some of me with the goal of making their conversation better,” she adds, saying she finds the “common thread” to be “the resilient spirit” of her guests.

“I feel like we keep going deeper,” Hoda says of this season. “We keep excavating, we keep seeking … it’s been so fun to learn from these people.”

Hoda shares her dream ‘Making Space’ guest

Hoda says she likes “anybody who is taking a risk.”

“My favorite people to interview are people who are like, ‘I was on the edge, I didn’t know whether I should do it!’”

One of those people for Hoda is Joanna Gaines.

“I’ve gotten to know her over these last several months,” Hoda says. “I love her, adore her and am inspired by her. She told me that she always colored in the lines and never wanted to take a risk — and then she met Chip. And then she was like, ‘Hang on for dear life, here we go.’ Then she realized what her own potential was.”

Hoda’s go-to podcasts

When she’s not hosting her own podcast, Hoda listens to “SmartLess,” hosted by Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett.

“I laugh hysterically every time it’s on,” Hoda says, before pulling up her phone to see her other recently played podcasts.

“I have weird podcast taste,” she jokes.

“Jack Canfield, I really like him. … He interviews interesting people, and whenever I’m done, I always go, ‘Huh, I didn’t know that,’” she says.

She’s also a fan of “Becoming You,” which is hosted by business writer and speaker Suzy Welch, who also appears as a “Making Space” guest this season.

Hoda shares she also likes Jack Kornfield and Mel Robbins.

“Mel has become kind of the gold standard,” Hoda says. “I really am enjoying her.”