Michelle Obama is kicking off her Spotify podcast Wednesday, and her first episode will feature a familiar guest: former President Barack Obama.
In the debut episode, the Obamas talk about how their neighbors helped raise them growing up, and how this helped them understand the importance of contributing to their wider communities.
“That was a really common theme,” former President Obama said in an exclusive clip from the episode. “Ms. Smith down the street, she’d see me messing up. She’d scold me … Then when I got home, I might get whooped because Ms. Smith would have called my mom.”
His wife clearly related to this, laughing and imagining what his mom would have said when he got home.
“‘How dare you have Ms. Smith calling me and telling me you were on her grass and then you said … And you had the nerve to talk back, boy,’” she said.
The former first lady will interview several loved ones in future episodes of “The Michelle Obama Podcast," including her mother and brother.
“You’ll also hear from many of my girlfriends, the women who’ve always been there with a shoulder to lean on, a perspective to think about, or simply an open line to vent to,” she wrote in a recent Instagram post. “In this time of social distancing, it’s more important than ever to invest in the relationships that make us who we are.”
There will be plenty of non-family guests, too, including late-night host Conan O’Brien and journalist Michele Norris.
Obama’s new podcast is the result of a partnership between Spotify and Higher Ground, a production company launched by the Obamas in 2018.
Under the partnership, the couple “will develop, produce, and lend their voices to select podcasts, connecting them to listeners around the world on wide-ranging topics,” according to a Spotify release last year.
“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to amplify voices that are too often ignored or silenced altogether, and through Spotify, we can share those stories with the world,” Michelle Obama said at the time. “Our hope is that through compelling, inspirational storytelling, Higher Ground Audio will not only produce engaging podcasts, but help people connect emotionally and open up their minds — and their hearts.”
CORRECTIONS (July 28, 2020, 4:22 p.m.): An earlier version of this article misstated the launch date for Michelle Obama’s podcast. It debuts Wednesday, not Friday. In addition, the earlier version mistakenly included actor Craig Robinson among the list of guests on the podcast.