Michelle Obama

“As the older generation, it’s our responsibility to believe in the future. If you don’t believe, then you stop working—and who suffers but children? We’re working for them. Nelson Mandela was in prison for most of his life and died before he saw the full fruits of his labor. People in the Civil Rights movement, people who fought for women’s equality and gay rights. They didn’t experience the fruits of their work because it wasn’t for us. It’s for our kids and our grandkids.”

-Michelle Obama, episode 453 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Michelle Obama is the former First Lady of the United States, a bestselling author of books like Becoming and The Look, the co-founder of Higher Ground, and now, a host alongside her older brother Craig Robinson on their hit podcast, IMO.

We start today’s episode in the present: her pivot to podcasting, her version of doomscrolling, and why she believes these times are “janky.” Then, she shares vivid memories of growing up on the South Side of Chicago, the work ethic modeled by her father, the ambition that propelled her from Whitney Young High School to Princeton University and later Harvard Law, and how she learned to question authority early as a “young, outspoken student.”

On the back-half, we walk through the first lunch she shared with her future husband, the period of adjustment that followed Barack’s bid for the Presidency, the complicated dynamics of life inside (and outside) the White House, her freighted final speech as First Lady, the enduring influence of her late mother, the beloved Marian Robinson, working for future generations, and how her hard-fought belief in the American people has never faltered.