Obama's Books Podcast Is Here!

Book Riot - The Podcast

Hosts Jeff O'Neill and Rebecca Shinsky discuss the release of Barack Obama's new audio series 'A Great Book,' highlighting deep conversation

Key takeaways

• Barack Obama's 'A Great Book' functions as a hybrid audiobook/podcast featuring unscripted, thoughtful dialogues.
• The conversation between Obama and Ta-Nehisi Coates regarding 'The Fire Next Time' is noted for its intellectual rigor on race and power.

Main topics

• Barack Obama's A Great Book podcast
• Booker Prize shortlist

Notable quotes

It is the freest, most unguarded, most spontaneous Obama I've ever heard.

Conclusion

An insightful deep dive into the intersection of high-culture literatu

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:01) Hey there, I'm Travis Hoyum, one of the hosts of Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing. Each weekday on Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing, we talk through the business news you need to know and the stories moving stocks on Wall Street. On weekends, we game plan personal finance strategies and dive into the industries shaping tomorrow and host the experts, authors, and executives that understand them. Tune in for insights and a long-term perspective on investing and of course, stock ideas, plenty of them. To quote a listener, it pays to listen. Check us out and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Speaker 1 (0:33) In January of 1915, Ernest Shackleton's ship, Endurance, became encased in the ice in the Weddell Sea. Through determination, grit, and savvy, Shackleton would lead his men through a brutal winter, then over hundreds of miles of Antarctic ice, followed by 800 miles across some of the roughest waters in the world. It is one of the most extraordinary and inspirational journeys in the history of exploration. Find this story and many others at The Explorer's Podcast. Available wherever you get your podcasts or at explorerspodcast.com. Speaker 3 (1:08) This is the Book Drive Podcast. I'm Jeff O'Neill. Speaker 5 (1:10) And I'm Rebecca Shinsky. Speaker 3 (1:12) Special day here, Rebecca. Very, very special day. Speaker 5 (1:15) Dad's back, Jeff. Speaker 3 (1:19) Barack Obama released. Now, I've got many notes and we're going to start here. I can't ever remember the name of this thing. A great book. Speaker 3 (1:30) Listen, it's not a bad title, except that I cannot remember. It's too generic, Rebecca. I can't remember. When Speaker 5 (1:37) you're Barack Speaker 3 (1:37) Obama, Speaker 5 (1:38) you get to be generic. I Speaker 3 (1:40) guess so. The six episode, quote unquote, podcast that dropped all at once in one file kind of situation. Speaker 5 (1:51) Functionally as one audio book with an intro chapter six. chapters that are each an episode and then a closing. Yeah. Speaker 3 (2:01) So I like this format, actually. It's a hybrid audio book and podcast. I think the podcast DNA is the live conversations. I think these are edited the less than I maybe would have thought. Speaker 1 (2:15) It's Speaker 3 (2:15) spontaneous in a way. We all sorts of question about them. We got most, if not all of them answered, but all six of them dropped today. We're going to at least talk about the first one. I've listened to the first two. this morning. But we'll get into that here in a second. There's a lot to say. In the feed for Zero to Well Read right now, The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Cormac McCarthy is one of the authors that is in a great book. A great book, even though it's six books. Anyway, I can't keep this. It doesn't make any sense. Six great books. Six great books. That conversation is about all the, no, excuse me, all the pretty horses, Lauren Groff, and the first two. We'll talk about those in a second, but that's in Zero to Well Read and coming soon because next week we see on Netflix, East of Eden is coming out. The Florence Pugh-led Zoe Kazan adaptation of John Steinbeck's classic novel. That is coming next week in the Zero to Well Read feed. We had a whale of a time. Rebecca, first time. What a book. What a couple of ringers for you back to back of things you've encountered before. Speaker 5 (3:20) These were two really wonderful and surprising reading experiences back to back for me. I don't know that anything has defied my expectations as much as The Road has. Maybe in the last like 10 years of my reading life, I was so blown away by... just ocean of difference between what I expected the book to be and what it was. And we talked about that a lot in the episode. And then I knew that I would love East of Eden. I've enjoyed my past encounters with Steinbeck, but I did not. I mean, I think there's no way to anticipate really how great the book is, epic in scale and scope. And I'm so excited. to see that Netflix adaptation. We've had a great time doing the read-along as well Speaker 3 (4:03) over Speaker 5 (4:03) in Zero to Well-Rent. I think folks have shared that experience of being surprised by a lot of what Steinbeck has on offer there. Speaker 3 (4:12) As you know, I've been doing my 30 minutes of self-imposed social video around consumption, around books. And the algorithm has picked up that a lot of us are interested in East of Eden right now. And let me just say the quality of the takes are truly despicable. There's some really terrible. Speaker 5 (4:31) You know, there's a reason that I have not joined you in the research on this. Speaker 3 (4:37) I feel a little bit like, you know, in the first season of Stranger Things or in Chernobyl, where they go into the reactor or into the upside down with like a hazmat suit. I kind of feel like I have an intellectual hazmat suit on. I know there are people doing interesting things. I think there's much more interesting things for me in the longer form stuff on YouTube. I'm starting to get my toe in a little bit into that. But especially when I'm not sure all these people have read the book. Here's what I can tell you. The takes may be bad, Rebecca, but we have read the damn thing. We did the homework. We Speaker 5 (5:08) do the homework. Speaker 3 (5:09) Yes. So that's there. Now, speaking of doing the homework, if you are or would like to join the Patreon. One of the forthcoming attractions is we will be book clubbing Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel. And we will be locking in our Fantasy League picks. Laura's going to come back. Sharifa's going to come back. That's in the Patreon as well. Speaker 3 (5:34) I'm really looking forward to this lock-in for myself. You're Speaker 5 (5:37) doing great so far. Speaker 3 (5:39) Marlon James is carrying all of my water. I think at Speaker 5 (5:43) this point, the only shot that any of us have to beat you is if Louise Erdrich wins the Nobel and I just get to take it in one go. Speaker 3 (5:52) I think that would be a great outcome for the world. And I would really want that to happen. Only a very small part of me would be upset about that, but not really. That would be terrific. So those are coming attractions. We really need to talk about this Obama thing. So let's get our sponsor break and gig from there. Speaker 4 (6:14) Today's episode is brought to you by JN Chaney, Terry Maggart, and Ethan Vault. The best lit RPG, fantasy, sci-fi, and horror. If you would like something that's like We Are Legion, like the Boba Fett series meets Old Man's War, this is for you. 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They're great for... introducing kids to audiobooks and to stories, and they do so without a screen. Let's get into Tony's, y'all. So Tony's education is dedicated to promoting early literacy. building vocabulary and nurturing imagination through the screen-free Tony box system of play. The storybook Tonys have become incredibly popular at local libraries as a fun, engaging way for kids to learn. We encourage families to check with their local library to let them know you're interested in seeing Tonys on the shelves. Listeners can learn more about Tony's education and the whole child benefits by visiting their website. Go to us. tonies.com. Again, that's us.tonies.com. And get into Tony's. I think y'all will love them. They also have a Miss Rachel Tony, by the way, just throwing that out there. Thanks again to Tony's Education for sponsoring this episode. Speaker 5 (9:01) This podcast is supported by Warby Parker. 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Prescription glasses start at $95, and they have more than 300 stores across the U.S. if you prefer to shop in person. After more than a decade, there's a reason I keep going back to Warby Parker. I can find glasses that feel like me. Right now, buy one pair of glasses and get 20 % off any additional pairs at warbyparker.com slash bookriot. That's 20 % off any additional pairs when you purchase one pair at warbyparker.com slash bookriot. Speaker 3 (10:21) So the first episode was Tom Hanks talking to President Obama about Marilynne Robbins' Gilead. I just had a couple of the questions that we had sort of floated around about what this was going to be like. How long is it going to be? Are they, will have they read the books recently? How are they picking the people? What is the nature of the editing? Are they going to have notes? Is it going to have a structure? Rebecca, what are the answers to those? What Speaker 5 (10:50) are the answers to those Speaker 3 (10:50) questions? You understand? Well, Speaker 5 (10:52) I think last week we did the over under on the length of episode. You pegged it at 47 minutes and I took the over and I'm happy to report that I won there. Most of these are around an hour. The first one is, I think, 56 minutes. The next one is about an hour 20. They are. very thoughtful conversations between people who have read these books multiple times and engaged with them very recently. They're pulling quotes, they're reading sections into the show, and they're talking about the ideas from the book, what moved them. Some of the, like, I do not think Barack Obama listens to zero to well-read. I would love to find out that I'm wrong, but some zero to well-read DNA of like, when did you first encounter this book? What did it mean to you? And how has that changed over time? And there's a variety. I mean, even just in the first two episodes, it's Tom Hanks with Barack talking about Gilead, as you said, in the first one. The second one, he discusses James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time with Ta-Nehisi Coates. And that's a... wide range in subject matter and tone. They are challenging conversations at points, but thoughtful, wise. Obama talks in the introduction to it. to the whole project about turning to books for moral framework and for a way to understand the world that we live in, how to encounter other people, how to be a person in the world. I think he's using books in the way that we hope to use books in our lives. And that's what these conversations are about. They are substantial. These are not frothy. How would you feel if you were this character kinds of conversations? Speaker 3 (12:33) No, it is. Better than I thought it would be. I didn't think it was going to be bad. It's better than I thought it would be. I have not consumed every bit of Obama content since 2008, so I can't speak declaratively. But for me, this is the freest, most unguarded, most spontaneous Obama I've ever heard. I agree. Which is something I wondered about. I think on this show, like, how are you going to do this in a way that's interesting? And be running for something. Not in a pejorative way, but that public persona. And he is still him. He talks deliberately. He speaks deliberately. But he doesn't have talking points. He is extraordinarily generous with Hanks and Coates. Hanks talks a lot more than I thought in the first. And then Coates asks him direct questions. And he tries to answer them. He does. In his Barack Obama way, which I was very, very... The second episode is the star of the two. I enjoyed the first one, but the second episode so far is the star of the two. And I would be surprised, Rebecca, if it is not the star of the whole series. And I think we're nodding at each other, but talk to me why I'm right about that. Speaker 5 (13:46) Well, I mean, so The Fire Next Time and James Baldwin are difficult and challenging. Prickly, just... Really important and very nuanced. texts in history. And I think to go back quickly to something that you were saying a second ago, I think that one of the reasons that Obama does seem looser in this is that he is in conversation for the most part with people that he knows and has long relationships with. He says at the top of the Hanks episode, they've been friends for a very long time. He and Coates have been acquainted since Obama's White House days. I have a source at Higher Ground who told me that like all but one of these hosts or all but one of the guests are people that Obama was. pretty close to before. Speaker 4 (14:29) And Speaker 5 (14:30) I guessed about who the one was that he was not close to and I was wrong. And that's all I'm allowed to say. Speaker 3 (14:37) I'm going to need that from you offline. Oh, yeah. You're going to Speaker 5 (14:40) get the dirt offline. But this is also to say, if you have little birdie tips about other projects we're talking about, we will keep them under wraps for you. We just like to know things. Speaker 3 (14:47) We've never burned a birdie. Never done it. We have Speaker 5 (14:49) not. We've not burned a birdie. To go back to Coates and The Fire Next Time, the book is about race in America in many ways and the complexities of being a Black person in the country. But it's not just about that. It's a two-essay collection. It's been a long time since I read it. So I also appreciated that Obama and Coates gave us some structural reminders about how the book is put together. And there are observations that Baldwin makes. about Israel and about the state of Islam. And they are obviously still relevant today, part of the conversation today. And Coates really pushes Obama on, like, talk about Israel, talk about Gaza, talk about the moral framework that Baldwin provides and use it to interrogate justifications of oppression and violence by people who have been oppressed violently. And then at one point he even asks Obama, like, how can you have read this book and then want to become president of this country? And how do you hold those things? Because the position does inherently involve committing violence against other people and nations. It's I mean, I was delighted, like thrilled that they went to the places that they went to and that. There was a moment where Coats had asked Obama a question, and I thought I heard Obama starting to sort of like maneuver around it because he was doing his professor thing. But he actually did come around and answer it directly. And they like they engaged with these challenging ideas in a way that, frankly, a president would not be allowed to do during the time that they hold office. And I think it's really smart to do it in this format where. These will get clipped and passed around social and stuff, but it's in a format. You pretty much do need to be seeking it out to be engaging with the conversation. You can't do anything to Barack Obama now, so he might as well talk about these big ideas. And he says that he refers to the fire next time frequently, that he goes back and rereads it often, that it's shaped his thinking for decades and decades of his life. So that's also really... interesting to hear. But that conversation was so much deeper and broader and more complex than I was expecting him to allow it to be and challenging, but really a wonderful surprise. Speaker 3 (17:21) And while in both there's direct quotation of the text, there is not much, if any to my mind, biography. I'm not trying to compare it to Zero to Well, but sort of anchor it in what... something we know about and like what the goals of it is. So I was wondering, like, if you haven't read Gilead, you can still get a lot of out of that conversation because it sort of isn't about Gilead. Like it is a little bit, but it's a, it's really a jumping off point for them to talk about fatherhood and time and memory and faith. It's cool. And I think the second one is similarly oriented. Like you don't need to know really anything about the fire next time or Baldwin to get some of the other conversation because it. It's more of an avenue into conversations about bigger ideas, Speaker 5 (18:07) which Speaker 3 (18:07) is welcome. And I think that's what you want from