Michelle Obama On “Las Culturistas” Podcast

Michelle Obama sits down with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang on the “Las Culturistas” podcast.

We share this week’s episode of the wildly popular podcast, “Las Culturistas” with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, from iHeartMedia and Will Ferrell’s Big Money Players Network.

In this week’s episode, Bowen and Matt talk with Michelle Obama and her brother Craig Robinson.

They discuss life after the White House, dealing with public scrutiny, and why parent-teacher conferences didn’t stop after the presidency.

They also talk about enjoying guilty pleasures like “The Real Housewives”, the quiet of Inauguration Night in Chicago back in 2009, how Stevie Wonder’s music helps Michelle prepare for speeches, going to Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” concert, and her love for Broadway.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

• [17:01]: MICHELLE ON HOW HER CHOICES ARE NOW PERCEIVED OUTSIDE OF THE WHITE HOUSE

MICHELLE: “For 50-plus years, I was making decisions for other people and that’s kind of a buffer, you know? I could always say, ‘Well, I’m doing this because my husband needs it,’ or ‘because my kids need it.’ So the consequences of those decisions, I could sort of subconsciously throw off on them… I am now accountable for the outcomes of all of my choices. They’re all mine now, right? There’s no one to blame if it doesn’t go right or if there’s backlash, if I don’t attend a thing. It’s not, well, I did it because I had to. This was my choice, I stand in it and that’s new at 61 years old, but it is freeing… I know my girls are good. They’re full adults, they’re not completely independent but they move through the world as independent, responsible people. They do not call us for everything. They figure stuff out and then talk to us afterwards to get our advice or reaction to what they already decided… That gives me comfort. I sleep better at night. I still sleep worse, even as adults when they’re under my roof. When they’re here I’m like, ‘What time did you get in?’…But I’m free of that, right? So it’s good. It’s really liberating.”

• [19:14]: MICHELLE SAYS WATCHING “REAL HOUSEWIVES” IS LIKE HER GOLF

MICHELLE: “I watch it all. It’s like my golf, I’d say that to Barack. It’s like TV you can tune in and out, watch it or not watch it and still catch up…it’s soothing sometimes…I would tell all the housewives– learn. Just like all of us know, you’re at the middle of it and then it can all be gone. So what’s the plan for when it’s all gone? This moment that feels so good. We all at some point in our lives are formers.”

• [28:54]: MICHELLE ON BROADWAY CULTIVATING REAL TALENT

MICHELLE: “All talent doesn’t come from the rich, right? Talent is born and if there’s no place for kids to access a trumpet or a set of drums, they don’t get to cultivate that talent, right? That’s why I love Broadway. Broadway to me is where the real talent lies. You go to these shows–everybody’s a freakin’ star…They do it day in and day out, with the same level of energy. They’re flying without a net every night and it’s just phenomenal to watch.”

• [30:10]: MICHELLE ON BEYONCE AND ATTENDING THE RAINY NEW YORK “COWBOY CARTER” SHOW

MICHELLE: “I mean, it is the sojourn of me and my daughters and I and Beyonce’s my girl first of all, I got her back so the girls and I have gone to every concert that she’s had….we were in New York at the rainy show… It poured for the entire concert and none of them missed a beat…The stage was just a puddle and she was stomping. She just performed wet and beautiful….[Blue Ivy] is in middle school. All right, okay, people. I mean, she is like a worker horse and that’s what she’s learning. That’s what her parents are demanding of It’s like, okay, if you say you want to do this, then you got to do it and you’ve got to perfect your craft. So yes, I was there and loving it.”

• [32:39]: MICHELLE SAYS SHE THOUGHT SHE’D BE ON PAGE SIX IF PEOPLE SAW HER LAUGHING DURING “OH MARY”

MICHELLE: “A lot of times I sneak in afterwards, so I don’t think that people knew I was there…I didn’t know fully what ‘Oh Mary’ was…Scene one, and I am cracking up, but feeling like, ‘Oh my God, if people see me laughing, it’s gonna be on Page Six.’ I loved it. So happy for the Tony win. Just out of your mind—it’s like, who thought of this? What’s going on inside that head? The retelling of history in this very interesting but powerful way. I loved it, loved it.”

• [42:29]: MICHELLE SAYS SHE LISTENS TO STEVIE WONDER’S MUSIC BEFORE SHE GIVES A SPEECH

MICHELLE: “It’s my soundtrack. Stevie is the music that gets me going right before I’m about to give a speech, when I’m on the way in a car to do something hard. There is some kind of song that Stevie has made that will get me to that place.”

• [7:08]: MICHELLE ON DEALING WITH PUBLIC SCRUTINY AND PARENTING

MICHELLE: “I think my husband has a very calm demeanor and I think he was built for the job. I’m a little more feisty, less so for myself but more for him. I get my back reared up when somebody goes after [Barack] and they don’t appreciate his intellect and his sacrifice. Don’t go after my kids. It is uncomfortable. Any time my kids call me with some bad interaction they had with somebody on the street because of their last name, or people thinking they don’t deserve the credit for their hard work that they do, my mommy mode gets on. But I had to practice being okay with it — for the sake of them . Because kids respond to how their parents respond…Yes, there are men with guns at your school because your dad’s here for parent-teacher conferences but keep going. It’s not about you. Just trying to make sure that through all of this, they felt normal. So I couldn’t respond too much. I couldn’t voice too much concern because then they would start panicking, right?”

• [10:33]: MICHELLE ON HOW SHE AND BARACK STILL WENT TO PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES POST-PRESIDENCY

MICHELLE: “You went before you were president, you went to every one of them, we are parents, we have to ignore this, this is how you get about the city and this can’t be the excuse for you not to participate as a father because you deserve that. He enjoyed that. He enjoyed those moments of normalcy. Even if it came with a 20 car motorcade and helicopters and a CAT team on the roofs, which is counter assault weapons, machine guns out. I mean, total lockdown. So yeah, that was, and thank you Sidwell for putting up with us.”

• [12:57]: MICHELLE OBAMA AND CRAIG ROBINSON REFLECT ON THE PEACEFUL QUIET OF INAUGURATION NIGHT IN CHICAGO

CRAIG: “Wasn’t it ‘We Are Family?’”

MICHELLE: “I don’t remember. I think I was numb— I was completely— Did they have a song?”

CRAIG: “‘I remember “We Are Family’ I don’t know if it was in my head or if they were actually playing it. We’re from Chicago. I’ve been in Grant Park–”

MICHELLE: “In November.”

CRAIG: “In all my life, when that inauguration was over you could almost hear a pin drop and people are walking away. They’re just in this euphoric, quiet, calm state. They were so happy. I mean, black people, white people, people from the North side, people from the South side, people from the West side all together, just walking back to wherever they were going, quietly, orderly, no police sirens, you could see flashes of light, but it was surreal for a kid who grew up in Chicago.”

MICHELLE: “…So we’re in the car on the way to Grant Park and it’s this deep silence and we’re all quiet in the car, the kids are in the back and Malia said, ‘Dad, I don’t think everybody’s coming to your party.’ Because no one was on the street and this is Lake Shore Drive it was always busy. We were like ‘Oh sweetie no this is what happens now that your dad is president. No one will ever be on this street when he’s on the street again’.”