Hey, Josh,
What's happening?
Well, I usually listen to my music,
This is what I do in the car,
I have an eclectic taste in music,
It depends on the mood: whether I want to be inspired,
or whether I just want to,,,
thump it out,
Hit me!
# How y'all doing this evening? #
# Do y'all want that bounce? #
Because sometimes you need to bounce before you do something,
# That bounce? #
# Everybody wanna be like you # They want power and praise like you, but #
# See there is no god like our God Like our God #
# There's no one like you,,, #
# And it won't stop,,, #
# And it won't stop #
# One more time, y'all #
# Here we go Let me see your ones #
# There's no one like you Let me see your ones #
# There's no one like you #
# And we don't stop Because we can't stop #
# There's no one like you Let me see your ones #
# There's no one like you You need to remember that #
# There's no one like you #
# God has not given you A spirit of fear #
# There's only one There's no one like you #
Hey,
- Wow, - Got to have a book cake,
Get a picture of our book cake,
Oh, my goodness!
Wow,
- How do they do this kind of stuff? - I wonder who did this?
Wow,
Don't touch it!
Don't touch it, lady!
She's going to touch it, Go sit down,
- Ma, - ,,,these stairs,
- Yep, - Oh, I can see,
I got you, too,
OK, now, you all, we can walk a little faster,
OK, All right, big stuff,
Wow,
It's full, I mean, like, the rafters,,,
I just saw my family
and I got a little,,,
,,,verklempt,
Heavenly Father, thank you for this moment
and for all you've done to bring us to this point,
It's a privilege to have this opportunity,
and we know that you have a greater purpose for all of this,
- In Your name we pray,,, - ,,,amen,
You OK, Mel?
Mel's crying,
All right, I'm not going to touch your clothes,
- Love you, sweetie, - You, too,
Way to go,
You don't have to keep it together,
You don't have to,,, You can cry your eyes out,
- I can't do that right now, - No, OK,
Hello, Chicago!
She served our country
as the 44th First Lady of the United States,
She made us always feel like the White House was really our house,
the people's house,
She is your hometown girl
from the South Side of Chicago,
Welcome, Michelle Obama!
OK, everybody,
- We're home, - We're home,
Yeah, feels good,
I've got to say,,,
can we talk about leaving the White House?
When you got on the helicopter, did you think, "Free at last,
Free at last"?
- Yeah, - Or was it bittersweet? What was it?
That whole day was a trip, first of all,
you know, for so many reasons,
So what was happening on our last day
was that Sasha's and Malia's friends,
who had grown up in the White House,
came to me that night and were like, "We want to sleep over,"
And I'm like, "What?
You want a sleepover?"
"Yeah, we,,,
We're going to miss being here,
We want our last breakfast,"
Because you can get what you want to eat at the White House,
so all those girls were like,
"I think I'll have the fried chicken biscuit,"
"I'm going to have a waffle,"
So we're trying to move,
and then they wake up, and I've got to get them out,
"Come on, wake up, The Trumps are coming,
You've got to get up,
get out,"
you know?
Wow,
And there are tears, and there's crying, and the staff is crying,
and I'm trying not to cry,
I said, "If I walk out there crying,
they'll swear I'm crying for a different reason,"
Yeah, for sure,
So I'm like, "We have got to get it together,"
So it was a very emotional day,
But then we got on Air Force One,
and when I got on the plane,
I think I sobbed,,,
You did?
,,,for 30 minutes,
And I think it was just the release of eight years
of trying to do everything perfectly,
One day, you're a normal family,
An election happens,
and your life changes instantly,
It's like we were shot out of a cannon,
We didn't have time to, like, adjust to it,
Being the First Lady has been the greatest honor of my life,
But how many people are in that position
where the entire attention of everything is you?
Every gesture you make,
every blink of your eye, is being analyzed,
You have the world watching every move you make,
Your life isn't yours anymore,
The whole idea of doing the tour
is to be able to have the time to actually reflect,,,
to figure out what just happened to me,
It's kind of the panic moment of,
"Yeah, this is totally me,
unplugged, for the first time in a long time,"
We are ready,
And now I can leave,
See, this is not normal,
Now I can walk out of my door,
Morning,
Morning, Thank you,
Thanks so much, all of you, Morning,
Love your book,
Thank you so much,
Ooh,,,
Do it,
We want you back!
When we started talking about touring,
I visualized ahead, "OK, how are we going to do this?
How do we reach the most people? How do we reach kids?"
And before you knew it, it was just a big thing,
We have a three-day swing that takes us to Tacoma, Portland and Phoenix,
So it's hard to,,,
Finding, prepping,
doing travel arrangements, and all that stuff for 21 different moderators
is an enormous amount of work,
This is where it's like,,, I don't know the hassle,
But it would be more interesting to have more people and different people,
- It would make for a better show, - No explanation needed,
Do any of those other men jump out at you?
Like, Seth, James, Conan,,,
Justin Bieber?
I would watch, I'm not gonna lie,
What?
But when I think of somebody, it's, like, curiosity and energy,
and sort of a cur,,,
Gayle, you know?
I'm becoming,,,
more comfortable saying no,
more confident saying yes,,,
,,,and more willing to say,,,
what's on my mind,
,,,what's on my mind,
They told me that I am the first male moderator,
We're really testing this out, Conan,
Knowing how to engage an interview,,,
- It's a skill, - It's a skill,
- Colbert is the best, - Yeah,
He will get into some dangerous territory,
Before the White House, did he ever get you coffee in bed on Mother's Day?
Nah,
We are here to talk about a book,
It's a book, Isn't that something?
All of these people are here because you wrote,,,
Nobody's twerking,
No, there's no twerking,
- We are reading, y'all, - That's right,
What I experience in these big arenas
is the power of gathering,,,
of sharing a set of experiences,
Oh, my gosh,
I'm so pumped,
I know, just look at her,
Oh, my God,
I know, right?
How's everybody doing?
- When are you due? - In four weeks,
Oh, my gosh!
- Do you know what you're having? - Yeah, a girl,
- It's my first, - Strong girls,
- Yes, - Congratulations,
- How are you? - My daughter's name is Sasha,
- You have a Sasha? - Yeah,
Is she sassy like mine?
Oh, we have feuds,
- Oh, it's so nice to see you, - Look at you,
Did you do this for me?
- Of course! I had to put it on for you, - It's fabulous!
- How are you, ma'am? - I'm fine,
- It's so nice to see you, - I'm so happy to meet you,
- Thank you for taking the time to be here, - Of course,
Hi, bright eyes!
- How are you? - I'm good,
I'm in college, I'm going to be a graphic designer,
Excellent, All right, stay on it, OK?
- Thank you, - Proud of you,
- Thank you, - All right,
It's like an emotional, sociological dance with people,
It's important to make sure I take every person as they come up,
- How are you guys doing? - It is such an honor to meet you,
- This is my daughter, - How old are you, babe?
- I'm 13, - Oh, my goodness,
- School's going well? - Uh-huh,
When somebody walks up to me, don't look around,
don't look beyond them;
look them in the eye, take in the story,
Your story about your daughters
for moms who are going through postpartum depression,,,
And just hearing your story is such a blessing,
So I thank you, and God bless you so much,
- Do you have children? - Yes, I have a one-year-old,
Sharing somebody's story
gives me perspective that I need, that I don't get
because all my interactions are kind of sanitized,
It's so nice to meet you, It's so wonderful to meet you,
- Are you students? - We are, We're all undergrads,
We're first-years,
So this is how I relate to people,
and it helps me stay connected,
Oh, my goodness,
Don't make me cry, I just had this face done,
Catch your breath, Take a breath,
- What's your name? - Theresa,
- I so admire you,
Oh, my goodness,
- Thank you so much, babe, - This was unexpected,
I'm sorry,
What did you think was going to happen?
It's so good to see you guys,
,,,next level and deal with their fears,
I'm getting caught up on what you guys are,,,
I crave some longer experiences with young people,,,
through the community events,
The tour could do a great job of giving me a little taste of it,
How do you feel, like,,, How do I put this?
How do you feel, transitioning back to your normal life?
Because, like, it got,,, I don't want to say it got "interrupted,"
But it was, like, a huge,,,
You can say it,
It was, like, a huge bump in the road,
You were going to live this normal life, and then your husband became president,
So how does it feel, trying to get back on the track of your normal life
that you had before?
What I've learned is, "Get back on what track?"
It's a whole new track,
It's not going back, It's not,,,
You know, it's just all different, and it's different forever,
So it's not getting back on track,
but it's creating my next track,
I'm doing what you're doing,
I'm figuring out, "What do I want to do?
What do I care about?"
And it takes time to process your life
and figure out what it all means,
So little of who I am happened in those eight years,
So much more of who I was happened before,
So are you guys going to take a final look when you're done
at the monitors in the foyer?
Mrs, Obama's ready,
I'm ready, too,
So tell us about Michelle Obama as a little girl,
because she says she was feisty,
and that part of you really liked her feistiness,
- True? - I did,
Well, it goes back to Craig,
I think I was too soft with him,
trying to make him the nice little boy,
- That's right, - And I don't think that works,
So I just,,,
She was too soft on you,
No, she made me too soft,
She was too strict,
Your sister took the brunt of that, I hope you feel bad,
Do you feel you have your life back?
Do you miss the White House at all?
- No, - No?
Not at all,
- All right, Bye, team, - OK, All right,
- I'll see you guys tonight, - OK, All right,
- Bye, - Bye,
- Hello, - I thought you were wearing the pink,
No, that was for earlier, and that had food on it,
That's the evening attire,
- That was for the day, - That looks like two belts,
It's one belt, but it's three separate,,,
Oh, it's got a top belt, too,
- Oh, I see, - Yep, this, this, and this,
But it's not separated?
No, It's one belt, but you buckle it three different times,
And is that the style, to have your belt so high now?
Is that the style?
- I don't know,,, - People, what's so,,,
- I don't,,, - I just asked if it was the style,
It isn't about you,
Come on, zip it, Let's go,
That was a compliment, I like the belt up that high,
- I don't know what people,,, - It looks like a holster,
Like, if you had some,,,
- You could, It's when I,,, - You shouldn't laugh,
- That's what I was talking about, - That's the problem,
Come on, Craig,
My brother, my big brother,,,
You know, he was my first crush, my big brother,
My brother's the kind of person,,, Everybody liked Craig,
You know, my mother liked Craig better than me,
I joke about this all the time,
You know, we would have Thanksgiving at the White House,
And I'd be around, There would be butlers and stuff going on,
And, "Where's Craig?
But when's Craig coming?"
And I was like, "Ma, Come on, lady,
I am the First Lady, What more do I have to do?"
You know? I mean,,,
Everybody in the world knows who she is,
That's incredible,
Everybody in the world knows who my sister is,
What is that? That's dumb,
Nobody should have to deal with that, No one,
No brother should have to deal with their sister
being the most popular person in the world,
- Ooh, it's chilly, Hey, Mommy, - It is chilly,
- Sorry for the snow, - Take you on a tour,,,?
If it weren't for you, we'd put the blinds up,
Yeah,
- That's a preference, - Is she allowed,,,
Are those people terrorists? Are they going to attack?
- See, that's not right, - No,
Craig always has a good supply of wine,
- Right, So we have some kale salad, - I love coming here and drinking his wine,
I have wine, too,
- I know,,, - Did you see it? China, you still saw it,
I've got wine, too,
That's right,
I get the special wine,
Mich just gets White House wine,
"When I come to Craig's house,,,"
That's right, Ma, You tell her,
",,,I just get,,, The wine is just,,,"
- I'm going to have some of this wine, - Here's some of my wine,
Here, refill mine,
Let me see, Wait, let me see, Let me see,
Family,
These are my favorite pictures,
God, that tree looks ugly,
Because you actually let us decorate the tree,
That's why it looks ugly,
Because a seven-year-old did that,
Oh, here's the,,,
Oh, there's the dress,
You can see all these pleats,
Look how pretty you are, Mommy,
- Could have been on TV, in movies, - So young,
- Were you excited about your wedding? - I think so,
At least you weren't pregnant, because I didn't come until later,
"I might have been happy about it,"
I haven't seen it in a long time, but,,,
that was good,
That was good,
Do you know, the last time we went through these pictures like this
had to be when Dad was alive,
Sure,
He just liked people,
Look how handsome Dad is,
I am from the South Side of Chicago,
That tells you as much about me as you need to know,
It was a typical working-class community,
Some good music,
some good barbecue,
some good times,
Our dinner table was the first table where I felt like I belonged,
And then you go out into the world
expecting the same thing,
You're in high school,
you are accomplished,
You were class treasurer? Do I remember that right?
I was senior class treasurer, yes,
I was still that kid,
You were on the honor roll,
and you went to go see your guidance counselor,
Your brother had gone to Princeton,
and you thought, "I'm going to aspire to go to Princeton, too,"
But that guidance counselor had other ideas,
didn't see in you what you saw in yourself,
Yeah, and she decided that my wish to go to Princeton
was thinking too big,
that I was reaching too high,
And at that point, she told me, "I don't think you're Princeton material,"
- The nerve! - Yeah,
- Well, she was wrong, - Yeah,
I went back to the school just recently and the principal was like,
"She doesn't work here anymore,"
I was like, "I bet she doesn't,"
I share that because obviously it worked out OK,
But that statement, while I was able to get over it, it was a punch,
I'm still a little salty,,,
,,,about that,
Still a little salty about it,
Your book really stuck to me,
how there's just so much that African-American women go through
and African-American individuals go through, as a whole,
And we go through those alone,
We don't have backup, We don't have support,
With me being a first-generation student,
I've lived in subsidized housing all my life,
I didn't believe that I would be sitting
next to the former First Lady of the United States,
And I just wanted to know, how did you, as a black woman,
persevere through, just, invisibility?
For me, I never felt invisible,
And I think, in thinking through my story about why do I not now feel invisible,
I think it's because my parents
made me always feel visible,
It came from not what was going on in the world,
but what was going on at my dinner table,
My mother, she let us ask anything,
You had to be polite,
We got spankings if we were too,,, You know?
She was still a black mother,
But that invisibility, it starts here,
We can't afford to wait for the world to be equal to start feeling seen,
We're far from it,
Time will not allow it,
It's not going to happen with one president, one vote,
So you've got to find the tools within yourself to feel visible,
and to be heard, and to use your voice,
I have high expectations of young people,
It's the same expectations my family had of me,
My grandfather Dandy expected us to be great,
But he went through life being underestimated,
Growing up, he was a brilliant young man,
somebody that loved to read books,
loved to delve into things in a deep and meaningful way,
He could have been a professor, He could have been a doctor,
But because of race and class,
he couldn't get into colleges,
He didn't have the money, the resources,,,
And imagine walking around with all this ability,
and the world telling you, "No,
No, you're not good enough, No, you're not ready,"
Watching people half your intelligence
being promoted past you,
You know, watching opportunities slip away,
not because you're not able, but because nobody thinks you deserve it,
That caused him a lot of disappointment and anger,
That made him push us to be better,
This is a super-normal Wednesday,
Very normal,
Every so often a book comes along that creates bridges,
Yeah,
So we thought it was a great idea to bring two book clubs together
to talk about their unique experiences with the book,
but also the common things,
- You come from Chicago, also, - My parents,
- Where did you grow up? - My mom's from Gresham,
That's where Barack organized,
But it was fascinating to read because they were lifelong,
they lived there, they grew up there, family there, steeped there,
And they were definitely part of the white flight,
Do you have a sense of what they were fleeing
when they decided to leave?
Or did they even know?
I don't know that my parents did,
If you look at my parents' parents,
that's when you see the veiled racism,
That's when you would hear the off-the-cuff remarks
like, "Well, they're moving into the neighborhood,"
And it was so interesting to read that from your perspective, versus what I knew,
Yeah,
What was going on in the '70s
was that, as black families like ours were moving into neighborhoods,
white families were being scared away,
They were being told, "Sell your home quick,
Your property values are going to go down,"
And so they fled further to the suburbs,
You can even see it in class pictures of my kindergarten class
and my eighth-grade class,
I mean, it does something to kids like me,
and we have to remember that
as we are pointing out people who belong and don't belong,
Because my family, sadly,
was one of those families, to some, who didn't belong,
I ended up going to Princeton,
I was one of a handful of minority students,
It was the first time in my life where I stood out like that,
I learned that one of my roommates moved out
because her mother was horrified that I was black,
She felt her daughter was in danger,
I wasn't prepared for that,
In hindsight, I think I needed to go to Princeton to see for myself
what all this was that I wasn't good enough for,
And then you're in class with some of these guys, and you realized what?
Well, they're not that smart,
And it's not even just an image that we have,
It's an image that we're given,
People have told us, "No, these are the things that aren't for you,"
So one of the most empowering things as a young person
was to go to one of the top schools
and realize that there are all kinds of affirmative action,
You know, there's legacy,,,
Yes,
- There's,,, - Yes,
There's the college athlete,
And universities have a right and an interest in diversifying,
The problem is that when it comes to students of color, poor kids,
all of a sudden, that's affirmative action,
and that's a problem,
- And they're lesser than, yes, - And they're lesser than,
And I have been at, probably, every powerful table there is in the world,
I've been at G-summits, I've been in castles and palaces,
in boardrooms and academic universities,
- And,,, - Can I drop the microphone?
And I'm coming down from the,,,
Yes,
You know,
I am coming down from the mountaintop to tell every young person
that is poor and working-class,
and has been told, regardless of the color of your skin,
that you don't belong,
don't listen to them,
They don't even know how they got at those seats,
Yes, yes, yes,
They don't know,
D,,,
O,,,
L-P-H-I-N-S!
Some of these young women that we selected for this activity today
asked the question, "Why me?"
"You chose me, Why?"
- Well, why not? - That's interesting, yeah,
So, how many of you thought that? Like, "Why me?"
There's girls who I feel, like, they are president of this club,
their ACT, SAT is this, this,,,
Whatever, right?
I just literally come to school,
I do whatever I have to do,
and then I stay for one club, and that's Latinos Unidos,
and then I leave, and then I go to work,
And why do you work?
My dad,,, He had an accident,
He doesn't work like he used to,
Helping him out in some way would make him feel good,
And also because I have three little brothers,
everything that I do is for them,
I go to work and I bring them food,
Like, everything,,,
And she wonders why she's here,
That story,
with all the highs and lows,
and what seems so ordinary,
and what seems like nothing to you,
is your power,
Oof!
Last day,
Chris,
Over here,
Do you have your yearbook?
I am a senior at Whitney Young here in the South Side of Chicago,
And I am a Mexican girl,
This is my last week of high school,
I remember the first year, I was like, "I want to transfer to a different school,
I can't do this work,"
Just putting myself down,
- That's nice, - Yeah, Sorry,
What kept me motivated was
here you get to be friends with people
that are completely different from you,
from different parts of the world,
and I'm very thankful for that,
Girl, you always cry!
Knowing that I'm one of the first ones to graduate high school
is just very important for my family and I,
Elizabeth Cervantes,
I'm very excited about what the future holds
and going to college,
It's a huge accomplishment for me,
When you come out, you'll say, "Hello, Washington D,C,"
However you would want to maybe identify yourself,
"I worked with the Obamas,
I've been an advisor for the Obamas for years,
I'm Valerie Jarrett, your host tonight,"
Just to do a little establishing,
- OK, I can do that, - Cool,
And then she comes up here, You are in this chair,
She's in that chair,
So you guys can hug, wave, sit,,,
converse,
And now, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Michelle Obama!
# This girl is on fire #
I was in my twenties,
I was a lawyer,
And up until that point,
I had been what I describe in the book as a "box-checker,"
I was doing what I thought I was supposed to do,
You know, I was an A-student, I got the star,
And that landed me from Princeton to Harvard,
to a firm,
without really thinking about what I cared about,
You start practicing law,
and then, out of nowhere,
comes a young man with a very peculiar name,
And you were supposed to be his mentor,
And then I had to call him on the phone,
This is when I first got a hint that there might be a little something more there,
He's like, "Hello?"
And he's got that Barack Obama voice
that did not match the nerdy image I had in my head,
And I was sort of like, "Whoa!"
I really was like, "Whoa!"
The heat was coming out of the phone from that voice,
But then he was late,
and I was like, "Trifling black man, late on the first day,"
He flashed that smile,
He was like, "Oh, I'm so sorry,"
"I was,,, I was late,
I wasn't equipped with an umbrella,"
You know, and I started going, "OK,"
And he was walking by,
All the secretaries were looking at me, like,,,
And I was like, "I know, I know, girl,"
Get him in the office,
Yeah, it's fun listening to her tell these stories,
- Yeah, - Some of which, you know,,,
Part of me is like, "No,
Hold on a second,
That's not exactly how it happened,"
But because he was my advisee I was like,
"Yeah, no, we're not dating,"
Because he asked me out probably a month in,
and I was like, "Dude, that would be so tacky,"
The two black people from Harvard, you know?
I was like, "That's what they're waiting for,"
It's like, "You guys love each other, don't you?
You're black, he's black, This will be great,"
I was not gonna fall into that stereotype,
But how do you fall for a guy who's driving a yellow Datsun?
Yellow,
with a hole in the floor, that when you're driving,
you can see the street as you're moving,
I mean, this was love, y'all,
One day, you guys are hanging out in the middle of the night,
and you see him staring off into space, and you're thinking,
"I wonder if he's thinking about moi?"
And you said, "What are you thinking about?"
It could be, like, income inequality or,,,
the fate of the black community,
I was like, "Oh, how romantic,"
He was a different kind of dude from the very beginning,
He was very different,
And he was different from me,
and he challenged me in different ways,
I knew he was a tsunami coming after me,
and if I didn't get my act together,
I would be swept up,
I didn't want to just be an appendage to his dreams,
So that forced me to work and think,
and make decisions like leaving law,
Speaking of your husband,,,
Flowers!
Wait, this is like when Jay-Z comes out
during the Beyoncé concert,
# Young B and R-O-C #
You know, that's in "Crazy in Love," It's the same thing,
It's just a little sample,,,
to enhance,,,
the concert,
There are a couple of things I would correct,
You don't have to do that here,
- It's my book, - But that's my point,
- It's my book, my version of reality, - And we have to drive home together,
My relationship with Barack was all about our partnership,
If I was going to have an equal voice
with this very opinionated man,
I had to get myself up,
I had to set myself off
to a place where I was confident that I was going to be his equal,
The thing that really changed it was the birth of our children,
I wasn't really ready for that,
That really made it harder,
Something had to give,
and it was my aspirations and dreams,
I made that concession,
not because he said, "You have to quit your job,"
It felt like, "I can't do all of this,
So I have to tone down my aspirations,
I have to dial it back,"
You shared that you went to marital counseling,
which I think is so important,
Counseling helped me to look at,
"How do I take control of my own happiness within our marriage?"
But it's hard, It's hard,
- It is hard blending two lives together, - Yeah,
Did the marital counseling help?
I went to five marriage counselors, It didn't help me,
What was the name of yours?
I should have gone to your guy,
That's what I should have done,
So, did it help?
Because, you know, you think,,,
You go to marital counseling and you think that they're going to tell you,
"He's right," or "You're right," or, "You're wrong,"
- And in my view,,, - That's frustrating,
I took Barack to marital counseling
so that they would fix him,
Yes,
And then he started looking over at me, I was like, "Why are you talking to me?"
I am perfect,
He is the problem,
But one of the things I learned that helped me,
and I think helped our marriage,
was that my happiness is not dependent on him making me happy,
Yes, Bravo, yes,
And sometimes I felt that that was one of the rubs,
My resentment for him was that Barack was prioritizing himself, in a way,
We had babies; he was at the gym,
I was like, "How do you find time to work out?"
Yeah, Yes, Yes,
"So let me stop being mad at him for going to the gym
and let me get to the gym," you know?
Did it feel like a show that you would want to see?
Yeah, You're just a good storyteller,
OK, Thank you, guys,
Thank you, It was amazing tonight, Thank you,
- Thank you, guys, - Thank you,
- Thanks, - Take it easy,
Thank you,
Thanks,
Good afternoon,
Can you all,,,? Oops, Sorry,
Good afternoon!
This is the Obamas,
This guy you'll hear from later, Barack,
Sasha, better known as "Natasha," and Malia,
And I am Michelle Obama,
I'm married to this guy,
She is fantastic,
She really is,
- Done, Thank you, - Michelle, you ready?
- Not today, - OK,
There was something about Michelle Obama,
I quit a job that I had been in for ten years
to go work for her,
As a friend, I have been by her side for almost all of this,
See, some beats are just good,
# Look, I just flipped the switch #
Oh, good Lord,
Do you know Melissa loves Barry Manilow?
And I don't even know why we're friends,
We couldn't be more opposite,
That's why we're friends,
Having watched her begin this journey being so nervous,
you know, she wasn't crazy about the process,
She doesn't like politics,
and here we were, dragging her around Iowa,
For the first year of the campaign, it was exhausting and not glamorous,
and we ate,,,
a lot of McDonald's,
And she'd lose her voice
by the end of the day,
because that's how hard we were working her; she was that valuable,
She said to me, "I don't know if this country is ready
for someone like my husband,
I hope they are, but they may not be,"
Here you are on the campaign trail,
and the way that you were vilified in the press,
the way you were misinterpreted in the press,
really, was a horrible time
that I think many of us really were not aware of,
Yeah,
Because I was going around the country doing big, huge rallies,
It was so much fun,
Please join me in welcoming Michelle Obama
and the Democratic Party's nominee,
But then the attacks started,
A fist bump? A pound?
A terrorist fist jab?
The gesture everyone seems to interpret differently,
I was becoming effective in the campaign,
so they went after me like they went after a candidate,
It blindsided me,
One way people will try to defeat Obama
is if they can't prove he's a Muslim,
"Then let's prove his wife is an angry black woman,"
And I think it's going to get ugly,
She's out on the campaign trail,
She's making speeches on behalf of her husband,
She's fair game,
One of her biggest hurdles will be defining herself
before anybody else does,
Over the course of the campaign,
I was telling my story,
I was being vulnerable,
Let me tell you something,
For the first time in my adult lifetime,
I'm really proud of my country,
And not just because Barack has done well,
but because I think people are hungry for change,
And to have that distorted,
it just felt so wrong,
Does Michelle Obama dislike America?
I think she's got a chip on her shoulder,
She has a Stokely Carmichael
in-a-designer-dress thing going,
Her instinct is to start
with this, "Blame America,
I'm the victim,"
Speaking her mind can get her in trouble,
An angry woman,
She's not warm and fuzzy,
She's adding fuel to the fire,
Michelle must think about what she's become in her life,
I stopped talking off-the-cuff,
I stopped talking freely,
I used teleprompters,
I had to be much more scripted
than I had ever been before,
I was just, sort of, waking up to,,,
the truth of who we can be:
so ready to assume the worst in people,
The only thing I can do is share that that does hurt,
Because if we walk around pretending like it doesn't hurt,
the perpetrators just say, "Oh, I was just joking,
It's just politics,"
It's, like, "No, no, No, no,
That changes the shape of a person's soul,"
It's important to have a place that you know as your home,
One place where people know you, they've seen you grow up,
where people don't have to make up a story about who you are,
It's what keeps me grounded,
And this tree has been here forever,
This was the tree where I had one of my first kisses,
Hmm,
That's it,
She always played everything over and over and over again,
It had to be perfect,
- The bulb is burned out, - OK,
You can tell it's stale in here,
This was the living room,
And this is,,,
the radiator that Mom turned into a chimney for Christmas,
And there used to be mirrors on this wall to make this look bigger,
I was a teenager here,
and Barack and I lived here for a year together,
But this is my dad's chair,
He always had some version of this recliner,
where he would sit and hold court,
And when we all lived here,
his stereo system would be lined up there
with his speakers and all of his jazz albums,
And the couch was kind of that way,
And he would sit for hours just playing,
He would get into his mood where he would just want to hear his jazz,
You know, he fills up this space,
I think about all that we did,
and I think about my husband, and,,,
I always think about him coming home from work, coming up those stairs,
Mm-hmm,
But him coming up those stairs was like God returning home,
My father had MS,
It's a disease that slowly deteriorates the body,
I can't help but think of that time right before his death
when he struggled to get out that back door just to get to work,
not giving up, not in the least,
While his death was sudden,
it was always looming,
The pain of losing him is an emptiness I still haven't gotten over,
I think about all that he gave us,
and all that he wasn't able to see,
He had a way of making people that he was with
feel his presence,
He just made people feel loved,
My grandma's from Thailand,
A lot of the culture in the house is kind of influenced by her,
And when I was, like, five years old, I got this little pencil skirt
and off-the-shoulder top,
Yeah, I tell people we focus too much on stats and not story,
Stats are, like, "What college are you from?"
But your story is, like,
"What was your grandfather like?"
"Who was your favorite relative and why?"
What advice would you give to someone
who's trying to avoid just becoming a stat?
Like, when you go to college you're not just the kid with the 3,0 GPA,
or when you're applying for jobs
you're not just that person who graduated top of her class,
How do you avoid just becoming a number?
I think what makes you more than a stat is once you see yourself,
you see yourself as more than a stat,
and you start thinking, "Who are you?
What do you care about? What brings you joy?"
And I hope my story urges you to see the power of your story
and to own that,
Now that I'm going into my senior year,
I'm thinking about how to make sure I'm doing the right things,
So reading Michelle Obama's book,
we see that she just slowly started to assert herself,
and all those insecurities just become, like,,,
small voices,
Reading about how her family works,,,
I was like, "Wow,
Wow,"
That's our family,
# Caught in a landslide #
In the morning time, we dance through our morning routine,
We'll just dance through the hallways,
If they're up, pleasant and having a good morning,
we're playing some music, you're kind of in good spirits, so,,,
It helps everybody shake off the cobwebs,
Yesterday's mistake,,, It's a new day,
I do like these curls, Turn, please,
The sacrifices my mom would make makes me think, like,
"All right, just strive to do what you can,
and just be prepared for whatever life throws at you,"
- I love you, - I love you, too, Have a good day,
I want to be successful, and I also want to impact somebody,
America opened itself up to you
with that historic election,
And I think everybody in this room will remember where they were
on that November evening in 2008,
From the minute that the announcement happened,
the world changed for us,
People came in with briefing books,
and world leaders were calling, right then and there,
So we had to leave the hotel to go to the campaign event,
and everything is shut down
when the presidential motorcade comes down,
Streets are clean, Nothing is going on,
So it's just us in the motorcade,
and Malia's like,,,
"No one's coming to your party, Dad,"
That's what she was saying,
And she was like, "Oh, I feel bad for you,"
I would not be standing here tonight
without the unyielding support
of my best friend for the last 16 years,
the rock of our family,
the love of my life,
the nation's next First Lady,
Michelle Obama,
Yes, we can! Yes, we can!
We'll take a look first and come back,
Good afternoon,
We're going to be leaving the RON to go to the O2 Arena for this evening's event,
It was at 93%
when we had our walkthroughs earlier, so approximately 15,000,
- The venue holds 17,500, all right? - And now it's up to 98%,
For those of you who have worked these before,
it should be the same footprint, as far as the buildout and everything,
From her hold to the stage is 65 feet,
The stage is five feet tall, And there are the six stairs to the back,
She goes through the hockey tunnel,
- Everything OK, Allen? - Yes, ma'am,
One day, I've got to sit and see how the sausage is made,
Like, all the pre-stuff that goes into it, I'm just not a part of,
You know? But I always ask questions, I always want to know where the guns are,
Because what if somebody really was trying to take me out?
They would take these two out first,
I could get us to safety, Allen,
You guys, I got you covered, I'm always thinking,
I know you could,
I'm very confident in that,
Agent Allen,
Allen is more like a brother than he is an agent,
He was my first experience of having a detail,
of being on a detail and having a detail leader,
So that's been,,, oof!
Well, that's 12 years of a relationship, if not more,
And I've spent a lot of time looking at the back of his head,
I've been working with Mrs, Obama since 2008,
You need to eat a little dinner,
- It's not enough time, - We know,
Over that time, if you're around a protectee,
you get to know each other very well,
I'll come back to you,
I'm going to win you over,
The stakes are very high in this job,
It's a no-fail mission,
so you have to get it right 100% of the time,
We took a trip to the Great Wall in China,
It had been planned out that the girls would have the ability
to take the slide down,
And when Mrs, Obama saw the slide,
she became interested in wanting to do it as well,
As you can see, she's smiling and I'm not smiling,
But obviously it's a very special photo, It's a fun photo,
It's actually one of my favorites,
And that's something I always have to pinch myself over and say,
"Did I really experience all of that?"
What did you think life in the White House
was going to be like before you got in there?
Is there any way somebody coming into that house can know?
Families who have the legacy of the White House have some idea,
I mean, the Bushes, their daughters were granddaughters in the White House,
We were not those people,
I didn't know what the residence part of it looked like,
but I do know, when I went to visit and have tea with Laura Bush,
there were butlers there fully-dressed in tuxedos,
which they wore all the time,
most of them African-American or Latino older men,
What I spent a lot of time thinking about is,
"How do I make this mansion with butlers and staff
feel like a home for two little girls?"
First of all, I didn't want them to grow up thinking
that grown African-American men served them in tuxedos,
Because, you know, the truth was that some of those men were my uncles,
and they were the Pullman porters, and the folks,,,
And I didn't want my girls to grow up with that image,
so we had to change the dress code,
It was like, "You can't walk around every day in a full tuxedo," you know?
Because the girls would have pool parties and play dates and little kids over,
And it's, like, that just doesn't even look right to me, you know?
And, you know, I had to beg the housekeepers,
"These girls have to learn how to clean their own rooms
and make their beds, and do their laundry,
You cannot do this every day because they will not live here forever,
And I am not raising kids that don't know how to make a bed," you know?
So,,,
Of course the girls were like, "They make your bed,"
And it's like, "Because I'm the First Lady
and I have a degree,"
# I live by my own Just in case my faith go #
# I live by my own law I live by my own law #
# I live by my own #
As First Lady,
I was slowly watching myself being exposed to the world,
I had to become more strategic in how I presented myself,
because it had the potential of defining me for the rest of my life,
Fashion for a woman
still predominates how people view you,
and that's not fair, that's not right, but it's true,
And that's when fashion isn't just fashion;
it's how you turn it into your tool, rather than being a victim of it,
There is a lot of thought that Meredith Koop puts into it,
And I trust Meredith,
She's like my sister,
daughter, friend, everything,
People have these ideas of a First Lady look,
You're dealing with these outside forces
saying things that don't match up with this woman,
So I felt a lot of my work in the White House
was more like costume design,
Dressing her and her children for this role,
And then it's about, "Let's move the conversation on to what she's doing
versus some little fashion detail,"
I'd make some impassioned speech and they would say,
"Oh, she was wearing an interesting designer dress,"
So a lot of it was, "OK, let's embrace the fact that people are looking at my shoes,
not just highlight me and the clothes,
but who we wanted to be as an administration:
forward-thinking, embracing youth,
embracing diversity,
Now that we're out of the White House,
not to be viewed, judged, and parceled by every other person on the planet,
yeah, it's better,
It's absolutely freeing,
Oh, my God!
She is not a minimalist,
Like, she's not,,, Like, hello,
And, I mean, when I look at this suit, I do see Elvis,
and I don't have a problem with that,
I had to shake all of that up,
But, yeah, it's hard to wake up every day
and maintain that level of perfection
that was absolutely required of me and Barack
as the first black president and First Lady,
- Thank you, - Have a good night,
All right, You, too,
Our presence in the White House
had been celebrated by millions of Americans,
But others reacted with fear,
When Barack was first elected,
various commentators had naively declared
that our country was entering "a post-racial era,"
in which skin color would no longer matter,
Many were overlooking the racism
and tribalism that were tearing our nation apart,
Barack and I lived with an awareness
that we ourselves were a provocation,
Michael Brown,
Tamir Rice,
Freddie Gray,
Eric Garner,
Trayvon Martin,
Sandra Bland,
When you see people gunned down
because somebody was so afraid of a kid in a hoodie
that that ended his life,,,
So how were these people dealing with the fact
that a black family was in what they perceived as their White House?
That is the America that we live in,
So if we're going to get anywhere with each other,
we have to be willing to say who we are,
I am the former First Lady of the United States
and also a descendent of slaves,
It's important to keep that truth right there,
My grandfather's grandmother was in bondage,
People have been taught to believe in the ultimate inferiority of people
because of the color of their skin,
A death threat against the president,
D,C, police looking into an officer threatening Michelle Obama,
Gunshots near the White House,
Seven bullets hit the building,
You hoped people were more ready for us,,,
than maybe what they were,
Barack and I had incredible highs
and incredible lows in one day,
So, on the day that marriage equality became the law of the land,
it was a very powerful day,
But until I wrote the book,
I forgot that that morning,
we had attended the funeral
of men and women who were killed in Bible study in Charleston,
# Amazing grace #
# How sweet the sound #
# That saved #
# A wretch #
# Like me #
So imagine coming back from that heavy experience, flying in,
And then we're at dinner,
and we hear the sounds of people gathering
on Pennsylvania Avenue,
And we had arranged in advance to have the White House lit up,
celebrating the passage of Marriage Equality,
And we see this happening on TV, and I thought,
"We are living in this,
This is outside of our house, I don't want to watch it on TV,
I need to be a part of this celebration after today,
I need to be reminded of how much progress we're making,"
But then I had to get out,
So I go to Malia and she's like, "OK, Mommy, I'm game, Let's do it,"
So you walk out your door, There's a Secret Service agent out there,
And I'm telling Malia, "Don't look him in the eye,
Don't say anything,
We're just going to walk,"
So we get downstairs to that front door,
and I go to open it, and it's locked,
So I am literally shaking it,
and now more Service have been called,
because they don't know what I'm trying to do,
"What is ma'am doing?"
"What is ma'am doing? Where is she going? She still hasn't told us anything,"
And nobody really wants to ask you,
because they're not supposed to ask where you're going,
They're trying to pretend like you have freedom, So,,,
So I had to turn around and say, "I just want to get outside,
Help me get outside,
I want my daughter and I,,,"
So I'm just yelling, "Get me out of this house!"
And she's like, "OK, I have an idea,"
And we ran around some back steps, We finally got outside,
We were, like, off in a corner,
and we could just barely see the sides of the lights,
But Malia and I were out,
And I hugged her tight,
But that's sometimes how you feel, like,
"I have to have some indicator that all of this is worth it,
that we are moving this country forward,"
Hi,
- How are you all doing? - Hi,
Hello,
- Hey, - It's amazing to see you,
How are you?
What are you looking forward to in life? And what brings you down?
It's just us reservation kids going through universities
in the era of Trump,
I see Trump hats every day in classes,
and it's just like an impact that you can't really describe,
But it's just there, subconsciously, on a subconscious level,
Could you share any tips or recommendations?
Yeah, I mean, I can't imagine how tough it must be for you all,
And I want you guys to have perspective as you're going through it,
and not let this time shape what will be,
So, you're in school,
Be in school, Get your fricking education,
You know, Barack and I, all through this presidency,
through the lies and the stuff they said about us,
all we could do was wake up every day and do our jobs,
and let our jobs and our lives speak for itself,
Barack and I are not interested in being at the forefront forever,
not even for that much longer,
Everybody here is special, right?
You know that, right? Well, that's why I'm here,
We've got this platform,
If you believe in God, God gave us this platform for a reason,
so let's not waste it,
- Don't drop the baby, - No,
- Thank you, - She's so cute,
It takes some energy to go high,
and we were exhausted from it,
Because when you're the first black anything,,,
- Yes, - You know?
So the day I left the White House,
I wrote about how painful it was to sit on that stage,
and that a lot of our folks didn't vote,
So it was almost like a slap in the face,
I understand the people who voted for Trump,
The people who didn't vote at all:
the young people, the women,,,
That's when you think, "Man, people think this is a game,"
And it wasn't just in this election, but every midterm,
Every time Barack didn't get the Congress he needed,
that was because our folks didn't show up,
After all of that work,,,
they just couldn't be bothered to vote at all,
That's my trauma,
Being the First Lady has been the greatest joy of my life,
But as the first family in the White House,
we had to look at what we would say in any given moment:
what would that mean to the future?
What long-term impacts would that have?
Your iconic line,
"When they go low, we go high,"
sometimes for many people, it's really hard to hold onto that,
I'm assuming you still maintain that and still believe that,
- I try, - OK, yes,
I try, I try, We're only human,
When you're President of the United States, words matter,
You know, you can start wars, you can crash economies,
There's too much power to be that careless,
And so that's how we operated, because,,,
we had to be bigger and we had to go high,
The higher up you go, the higher up you have to be,
We act like it doesn't take a toll on us,
but you do not understand what toll it takes
on the people around the president,
- Oh, hi, - Hey, little potato,
- Oh, hi, - Hi, you,
Oh, hi,
- Hi, - Good job,
You're so good, I love you too much,
I cried again,
- Why are you always crying? - No, it's always so,,,
It's always so,,,
What made you cry?
But this has demonstrated, in a way,
just, like, damn, those years weren't for nothing, you know?
You see that huge crowd out there?
And that last speech you gave about, just, like,,,
People are here because people really believe in love and hope in other people,
Yeah,
And also, every time you guys play Stevie Wonder,
I don't know, I cry a little bit,
I do,
- Where are Taylor and Jane? - Taylor's in the car,
They're in the car? Everybody's in the car already?
It's so nice to see you all,
It's nice to see you,
What were you all going to talk about?
Becoming,
I want to eavesdrop,
We saw you last night,
and you said that you missed your spiritual community,
So I want to ask our group,
what advice would you give our First Lady?
The first reaction, really, is you've got to find your life again,
There are so many different phases of you,
and a lot of them you forget while you're childrearing,
and married, and all that stuff,
So my advice to you is just do what you're doing,
- Keep on doing it, - Yes,
As my mother says, give it some time,
And I'm so glad you did not get yourself
wrapped up in the fluff of being the First Lady
and living in the White House,
and, "My husband is,,,"
Your view of me matters,
Every time we showed up, we showed up to make you all proud,
Right, And you did, You did that,
When I saw you on television, when you were inaugurated,
I said, "I never thought that I would ever see,,,"
Right, My mother said the same thing,
And I look back, and my mother and my father had never seen it,
But it was something,
- I thank you and Barack for that, - You saw it for them,
I saw it,
So it is a blessing,
- Yeah, - Michelle, I thank you,
So God is good,
- And you will always be First Lady to me, - You will always be First Lady,
- Forever First Lady, - You will always be First Lady,
# Happy Birthday to you #
You guys!
# Happy Birthday, dear ma'am #
Old ma'am,
Oh, you can see the "ma'am,"
#,,,to you #
- I'm rounding to 60, - I know,
- Yay! - I can still blow out the candles,
- Thanks, you guys, - A little gift,
- Oh, yeah, - A gift?
- A not round-to-sixty gift, - A gift!
What happens when you round to 60?
- Yikes! - Yeah,
OK, Is it a magnifying glass?
There you go,
Oh, it's a selfie-cam!
- Yes, - That will come in handy,
Look at the camera, not the remote,
OK,
What's next in life?
I want to keep working with young people,
The future of our nation is up to the next generation,
But I know that doesn't just happen,
Young people need some encouragement,
You've got my eyelashes,
Hi, Michelle,
All right, get it done, Get it done,
How are you?
I love you, You guys are up next, OK? So proud of you,
Barack and I are empty-nesters,
and that has been exhilarating:
to watch the two little beings you were in charge of grow up,
I'm excited for her to be proud of what she's done,
because I think that's the most important thing for a human to do:
to be proud of themselves,
No longer facing that same scrutiny,
being able to let all of that leave your mind,
creates so much more space,
I want to take care of me,
rediscover my husband,,,
My life is starting to be mine again,
There is another chapter waiting for me out there,
# I will always love you #
# How I do #
# Let go of a prayer for you #
# Just a sweet word #
# The table is prepared for you,,, #
# You look down on where you came from #
# Sometimes #
# But you'll have this place To call home #
# Always #
# Still, I'll always be there for you #
# How I do #
- Tonight, the 34-stop tour ends, - This is it, y'all,
This is it,
What has this journey been like?
What have you learned, maybe about yourself?
And what has surprised you most about your travels?
I've had the rare experience to see the world in this way,
which is why I feel like I've got to share with you all
that, you know, the energy that's out there
is much better than what we see,
I wish people didn't feel badly,
because this country is good,
People are good,
People are decent,
I tell you what I'm nostalgic for,
I miss the opportunity we had
to have leaders who talked to us about hope,
and the possibility of change, which is what hope is,
Well,,,
here's what I've learned just on this book tour,
You know, one of the things we do miss about Barack Obama
is that he would get out into the country
and he would campaign around hope,
and he would fill arenas,
and then people would come out and remember,
"Yeah, Yeah, Yeah,"
"I do like this,"
And then people would be surrounded with each other,
of all different backgrounds, and they would go,
"Yeah, I'm not alone in this,
I like this feeling of not being divided,
I do,"
If we can open up a little bit more to each other and share our stories,
our real stories,
that's what breaks down barriers,
But in order to do that,
you have to believe that your story has value,
Be vulnerable, Dare to be vulnerable,
We're at a crossroads
of where we have to think about,
"Who are we as a nation?"
I remain hopeful that people want better,,,
if not for themselves, then for the next generation,
And that is my basic joy,
You know, it gets back to mentoring others,
That's what I'm going to do until people are like,
"OK, you're done, old lady,"
I'll just be on stage in a wheelchair,
just going, "And another thing,,,"
You know? And they'll be, like, "Oh, that little old Michelle Obama,
She's still just talking," you know?
I want to be the 90-year-old woman that you just excuse, you know?
Ladies and gentlemen, join me in thanking Michelle Obama for being here tonight,
Thank you all so much,
- I am becoming a strong,,, - Yes,
- ,,,confident, fierce girl,,, - Yes,
,,,who realizes that I have the power to change the world,
Yeah!
I am a nonbinary human,
And I am becoming brave
and unafraid to live openly,
truthfully and joyfully,
I am becoming a mom who is teaching my teenage boys
to value and respect strong, smart, independent women,
Woohoo!
Thank you!
My parents emigrated from Mexico,
and because of them,
I am becoming a man who is living the American Dream,