Exclusive Podcast Clip: Michelle Obama on the Importance of Showing Kids 'Gladness'

As parents, we've all been there. Our adorable child comes downstairs, dressed and ready for school. We should greet them with a hug and say something like, "Good morning, love. How did you sleep?" Instead, we find ourselves chiming in with something like "Your shirt doesn't match your pants." Or: "Can I fix your hair?"

That's what Michelle Obama calls greeting your child with a "critical eye." It's just one of the many insights the former First Lady shares on her new podcast, Michelle Obama: The Light Podcast, debuting on Audible.

In a first listen shared exclusively with Parents, Mrs. Obama talks about practicing giving kids our "gladness," instead of trying to fix them.

The podcast is the first project from a newly-formed production deal between Audible and Higher Ground, the production company President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama formed in 2018. Their goal was to elevate diverse voices and tell inspiring and powerful stories through TV, film, and podcasts. New episodes from Mrs. Obama's podcast will be released on Audible weekly.

Michelle Obama: The Light Podcast highlights parts of conversations Mrs. Obama had during her 2022 book tour, which featured chats with some of her closest friends in front of live audiences. You know, friends like Ellen DeGeneres, Tyler Perry, Oprah Winfrey, and Hoda Kotb just to name a few. But it weaves in new clips of the former First Lady reflecting on her time on tour as well and includes other guests who didn't appear with Mrs. Obama on the book tour.

The first episode of the podcast is from the stop in Philadelphia last November, when Mrs. Obama sat down with pal Hoda Kotb, the co-host of NBC's Today. When talking about "gladness," Mrs. Obama quotes Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison.

"What Toni Morrison says is that our kids just want our gladness. They don't need us to fix them," she says. "They don't need us to point out the thing that's wrong first and I write about that because that is a practice. I know that I try to practice that with kids in the world."

Mrs. Obama knows she has an impact on people, especially children. She says that's why she spends so much time with kids. "There are a lot of kids who can live their whole life and not be received with gladness and I just think, man, if this interaction is their chance to be seen by somebody and somebody that they think is important, I'm not gonna squander it," adds Mrs. Obama.

The former First Lady also talks about how important it is for adults to be role models for children. She says adults should be careful how they communicate with kids. "Sometimes you will attack them like they're grown up—you shoo them out of your store, you treat them like they don't belong in a museum, they are nuisances. And as adults, showing them that leaves a mark on them," she says.

Mrs. Obama says children don't have the capability to see that if an adult is speaking to them improperly, it may be because they have yet to find the gladness within themselves. So we, as adults need to help them figure that out.

“Like so many people around the world, I felt isolated, disconnected, and discouraged during the pandemic," Mrs. Obama says in a press release. "Writing The Light We Carry was a way for me to make sense of it and reflect on some of the biggest challenges we all face in life—and the tour was an incredible way to share those stories with my readers and connect with real people once again...That’s what Michelle Obama: The Light Podcast is all about—it’s a deeper examination of those fun and meaningful moments."