Michelle Obama Opens Up About Embracing Ambition and Overcoming Despair ✨

Michelle Obama says she’s never truly been able to realize her own ambition. But now she’s changing that. She’s saying “no” to what’s expected of her and “yes” to what she wants to do, including starting a podcast with her brother, “IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson.” She reflects with Rachel on owning her decisions, divorce rumors and the words her mom told her at the end of her life.

CHAPTERS
0:00 - Intro
1:20 - On how her childhood home was her safest place as a kid
3:00 - Michelle’s mom would tell her “You’re special, but you’re not singular.”
3:50 - Michelle’s high school counselor said she wasn’t “Princeton material”
6:35 - Owning her voice after being First Lady
8:40 - On marriage rumors: “We don’t Instagram every minute of our lives!”
10:13 - Special place in the culture, role model
12:26 - On being done with politics
13:54 - Barack helped Michelle be more comfortable with change
17:53 - On only now fully stepping into her own ambition
19:52 - On saying “staying put” and not attending major political events
22:02 - On death: “If I’m truly blessed, I have maybe 25 more summers.”
24:43 - What Michelle Obama’s mom told her at the end of life
27:20 - Her best defense against despair? Kids
30:39 - “We aren’t built to do this life alone.”
32:53 - On making change with the “power of small”
33:51 - On wishing she could relive a game night in her childhood home

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Part-interview, part-existential game show – this is Wild Card from NPR. Host Rachel Martin rips up the typical interview script and invites guests to play a game about life's biggest questions. Rachel takes actors, artists and thinkers on a choose-your-own-adventure conversation that lets them open up about their fears, their joys and how they've built meaning from experience – all with the help of a very special deck of cards. You can reach out to us at wildcard@npr.org. We love it when you do.

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