Former US First Lady Michelle Obama has debuted her podcast as a Spotify Original. Users who are premium members of the platform will see the podcast appear prominently in the home feed, but those who don’t use Spotify can also download the app or Spotify Lite and listen in for free.

For the very first episode, Michelle enlists her husband, former US President Barack Obama, for the podcast is to be a personal framework within which many things will be discussed including relationships, community, viewpoints and the state of the world. She will call upon family and friends to discuss ‘big topics’ together and sort through the questions that everyone is trying to answer.

Michelle hopes it will be a place to open up and and be a ‘little vulnerable’ but have fun along the way. In this first season, she will start with her closest relationships, starting ‘basic’ and ‘exploring the relationships that makes us who we are’.

Introducing the podcast, Michelle says, “Sometimes that might be as personal as our relationship with ourselves. Or how we navigate our health and our bodies at various points in our lives. In other episodes will be talking about what the challenges and joys of being a parent are, or a spouse, the growth we gain from leaning on colleagues and mentors, the friends who help us sort through the toughest times. What I love about these conversations is that they’re topics and issues that we are all dealing with no matter what's going on — whether that's a pandemic or nationwide reckoning with race. Or just any old summer afternoon sitting with our own thoughts.”

Debut episode

In the first episode with her husband as the guest, the conversation flows easily between the two, punctuated with warm hearted and charming banter and laughter. The Obamas discussed their roots and touched upon how they were brought up and what their expectations from life were back then. They talk of how they relate to the community around them. Although the podcast is naturally very American and something that Americans will relate to best, there are interesting thought-provoking ideas that would apply to anyone trying to understand their relationship to the world around them.

Perhaps more than anything else, the Obamas discussed how their closest relationships can’t be isolated from the community they are in. They talk of how the world and its problems are not tackled alone but together and encourage listeners to move from a sense of “I” to a sense of “We”.

“It is much more hopeful, it is much more gratifying, much more effective to live this life as a ‘we’. And I think as young people listen to this, as they are starting to shape their paths, I would really strongly encourage them to think about building lives that are selfless. Not just because it’s the right thing to do, but it truly is the better way to live,” says Michelle on her podcast.

Quote Cards

During the course of the Michelle Obama Podcast, Spotify will be testing a new feature called Quote Cards in which colourful cards with short quotes will appear on-screen. The quotes will be shareable, helping listeners get more out of the podcast and popularising it as well.

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