Michelle Obama’s first episode of her new podcast, “The Michelle Obama Podcast” featured former President, Barack Obama.
What We Know:
- The episode was released on Wednesday. Throughout the 49-minute episode, the Obama’s reflected on the insights they gained while attending their prospective college, Harvard University and how they used their experiences as a strong tool to empower their communities. They also discussed social injustice amid George Floyd’s death, the importance of the younger generation being politically engaged, and family.
- Barack Obama claims Harvard gave him the “credentials and security” in order to work in community organizing. He states, “Once I got to school that if I am chasing after my own success, that somehow, I am going to end up alone and unhappy. That’s why I ended up going into community organizing and the work that I was doing because when I thought about how I want to spend my life, what I looked at was what those civil rights workers had done…And the freedom riders had done.”
- Michele Obama grew up on Chicago’s South Side and discussed working as a junior associate at a law firm called Sidley Austin. She says she felt lonely looking back at the neighborhood she grew up stating she was doing what she thought she needed to do because she was poor. She explains how she only saw a limited version of what she could be because she wasn’t shown the world in schools; they just showed her a list of careers.
- When talking about young people, politics and the government, she tells her listeners that she has hope in young people despite hearing they question whether to vote or not. She says, “Well, partly because they have been told. The message is sent every day that government doesn’t work. They take for granted all the things that a working government has done in the past… in some ways, we’re still living on the investment that was made by that greatest generation.”
- Both Michelle and Barack agree that young people only understand what’s going on in the government when it’s not working. Obama says that at the end of the day, he believes people will do the right thing.
You can listen to Michelle Obama’s podcast on Spotify; it’s open to premium and free subscribers.
