Michelle Obama’s IMO podcast with her brother Craig Robinson is the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to churning out episodes chock-full of highly unflattering musings about her marriage, her children, and her time as first lady to name a few.
Last summer, Barack Obama even showed up to claim their union was still going strong (their “performative” exchanges and stiff body language suggested otherwise). And now it looks like that appearance may have been the start of something new for the former president.
Barack just announced he is getting behind the mic for a new reading-focused podcast launching next month, but both the premise and the run-time are raising eyebrows. On Thursday’s show, Megyn was joined by Maureen Callahan, host of MK Media’s The Nerve, to discuss the former president’s new project.
The Podcast
In a social media post on Monday, Barack announced he will be hosting a new podcast titled A Great Book With Barack Obama in partnership with Audible.
“At a time when fewer people are able to sit down with a book, it’s important to remember the joy and power that can come from reading,” he wrote in an Instagram post. “And some books don’t just tell a story — they change the way we see the world. That’s why I’m excited to share my latest podcast.”
The book theme isn’t totally out of left field. Since leaving the White House in 2017, Barack has released semiannual reading lists highlighting the works he has enjoyed that year. The podcast appears to be a play on that.
“A while back, I revisited a few of the books that made an impact on me as a young man, influencing how I think about family, faith, race, politics and America: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren, and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré,” he explained on IG.
The six-episode series will apparently focus on those six books and feature Barack interviewing “some friends” about “why these books resonate, how they can shape our understanding of ourselves and each other, and why literature matters now more than ever.”
Megyn took issue with the premise. “I’m bored already… [It’s] not current books; [it’s] just books that have impacted him over his life. [It screams], ‘I’m narcissistic. I know you all love me so much. Let me show you how I got this way, and the books that I read 30 years ago.’ Honestly, who would listen to that,” she asked.
Barack’s Identity Crisis?
The podcast is but the latest sign, in her opinion, that the former president is rudderless since leaving office. “This is why you shouldn’t become president too early. This is why it’s better to do it the way Trump did it: Live a big life, accomplish a lot in the world and in business, put your name on things in a way that people remember, and then, if you want to make the presidency your crowning professional achievement when you really don’t have anything to lose, I think that’s great,” Megyn said.
“That works well because your ‘give a shit’ meter changes when you’re at that point in your career,” Megyn posited. “Barack Obama did it in his young forties and now he wants the job [Maureen] and I have… Our job is good. We like our job, but you kind of hope you’d be doing more if you were the president.”
Callahan agreed. “It’s such a disappointment. There is so much he could be doing with his post-presidential life and legacy, and all he wants is to just be a celebrity,” she lamented.
She pointed to the former president’s recent cameo in Larry David’s HBO sketch series Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness as one such example. “I caught this just randomly… [but] Barack is very wooden and he can’t really act… It’s just like what are we doing here,” Callahan noted.
In her view, Mr. Obama is following in Michelle’s identity-crisis footsteps. “Your wife is busy also just wanting to be famous, being a celebrity, being adored and aggrieved, and her podcast is unlistenable. And nobody is going to go listen to Barack’s, like, sizzling podcast. There’s only six episodes too, which tells us a lot,” Callahan said.
If the podcast fails to resonate, Megyn said it will at least give the Obamas something to commiserate about. “Her podcast is not a hit. It hasn’t been a hit. And by the way… Aggrieved and Adored would be a better name for her podcast than whatever it is now,” she quipped.
Ultimately, Megyn has a recommendation for anyone looking for a quality podcast about books: “If you want a good podcast on books, you should listen to Dedicated with Doug Brunt, which actually talks with authors about their process and their books and it’s fun.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Callahan by tuning in to episode 1,379 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.