Audio Transcript

Part 1

Holly: Hello and welcome to my next instalment of Meet the Author. Today I am sitting down with the incredible and the inspirational Michelle Obama and we’re going to be talking about her book: ‘Becoming’. Hello Mrs. Obama. Is it ok if I call you Michelle?

First Lady Michelle Obama: Of course Holly, how are you? It’s great to see you again.

Holly: You too, I’m really good thank you very much. I just want to say how much I absolutely love this book. You’re the most phenomenal storyteller and and I know that’s what you’re like from your personality. You’re very open and honest and that really shines through in every little bit of the book. From the very first moment, first chapter, I was sucked in, especially as I was listening to you on audiobook and I was listening to you tell me the stories of your life and I really felt like I was very much there, so well done; it’s something you should be really proud of.

First Lady Michelle Obama: Thank you so much.

Holly: It’s absolutely brilliant. I’m not the only one who thinks it’s great. You have sold two million copies in the US alone.

First Lady Michelle Obama: Yeah.

First Lady Michelle Obama: Best selling author of 2018 in two weeks. Did not anticipate any of that so it’s exciting. It’s good to know that the book is resonating with so many different people. I think that was my hope all along, that the story would connect with people of all backgrounds, all over the world, so I’m excited.

Part 2

Holly: And you shared them so well and I feel like your mother, Marian Robinson, had a really big part to play in that. She says “as parents you’re not raising babies – you’re raising adults.”  How do you feel in reality… what did that actually mean for you and your brother Craig when you were growing up?

First Lady Michelle Obama: That meant that our voices had real value in our house. There’s some people who raise kids and they use the philosophy – ’kids are to be seen and not heard’ – and it was just the opposite for us. I mean we sat around the dinner table at night and we told stories about our day and when you grow up with parents who not only respect your voice but enjoy your voice that’s how I felt in our home that my parents thought we were brilliant and funny and they wanted us to… you know I say in the book, my parents knew that there was a flame in me that they wanted to keep lit and that’s, what I call, ‘Zen Neutrality’ in parenting, I describe my mother in that way. It’s that gift of understanding that to empower children in the long term you have to give them that space and that room to be themselves when they’re young so our’s was a household full of lots of conversation, lots of debate, one-upping each other in story telling and that wasn’t just true in our immediate family but we grew up in a vast extended family that I describe in detail. Grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins and second-cousins and when you grow up in a big family you find that you have to use your voice to get a word in edgeways and I grew up in a family of storytellers so…