Former President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen are making a podcast. The two have teamed up for Renegades: Born in the USA, the second original podcast series from the partnership between Spotify and Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground.
Renegades is an eight-episode podcast featuring Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen in conversation with each other. The two men will explore a wide array of topics including race, fatherhood, marriage, their hometowns, their role models, modern masculinity, and the state of America, all stemming from their 10-plus-year friendship. They first met on the 2008 campaign trail. The first two episodes were released on Monday, available exclusively to Spotify users.
Obama states in the introduction to the first episode: “How did we get here? How could we find our way back to a more unifying American story? That topic came to dominate so many of my conversations last year — with Michelle, with my daughters, and with friends. And one of the friends just happened to be Mr. Bruce Springsteen.”
He continues: “On the surface, Bruce and I don’t have a lot in common. But over the years, what we’ve found is that we’ve got a shared sensibility. About work, about family, and about America. In our own ways, Bruce and I have been on parallel journeys trying to understand this country that’s given us both so much. Trying to chronicle the stories of its people. Looking for a way to connect our own individual searches for meaning and truth and community with the larger story of America.”