“The first six months of me running for president I was miserable because I was missing that family bad,” he says. “And we got through that only by virtue of Michelle’s heroic ability to manage everything back home and the incredible gift of my daughters [Malia, now 22, and Sasha, now 19] loving their daddy anyway.” In an exclusive clip of Monday’s podcast below, only a small part of the wide-ranging and high-minded discussions the two friends have, Obama focuses on time spent with his daughters in those early years—and his wife’s role in his success as a father. https://open.spotify.com/episode/0GvUUW1YHtbWiRIsjUevgG “Look, it wasn’t even as if I was working for money that would allow [Michelle] to take a break,” he says, praising his wife in the initial days of his political rise, running for U.S. Senate in 2004. “She was still working, initially full-time and then part-time when I started running for president. Here’s a smart and accomplished woman who has her own career that she now has to adjust to my…my crazy ambitions.” Drawn from a series of one-on-one conversations at Springsteen’s New Jersey home studio, the podcast showcases the friends in intimate discussions on race, parenthood, marriage, the country’s divisions and their own “parallel journeys,” as they say. This upcoming episode isn’t short on their hard reflections on fatherhood—and importantly, how they became good parents despite their own lack of father figures. For Obama, the distance he experienced on the campaign trail closed once he was elected President, an aspect he took full advantage of. “What I didn’t anticipate was the fact that I get to spend much more time with my kids once I’m president, because now I’m living above the store," he says. “I have a 30-second commute. So I just set up a rule [that] I’m having dinner with my crew at 6:30 every night unless I’m traveling. And I’m going to be entirely absorbed with stories about the annoying boys and the weird teacher and the drama in the cafeteria, reading Harry Potter and tucking them in. “And that actually was my lifeline.” Spotify subscribers can find the first six episodes of Renegades (a coproduction between Spotify and Higher Ground, the company founded by Barack and Michelle Obama) here. Tune in on Monday, March 29, here for the full-length episode with The Boss and the President. Next, Barack Obama sends message of hope to young Americans of color: ‘Your lives matter … your dreams matter’
