-Hey, guys, we're here
at McNally Jackson bookstore in midtown Manhattan, and we're
about to surprise some people who think that they're part
of a promotional campaign for Michelle Obama's new book,
"The Light We Carry." They're going to press a button
to hear inspirational quotes from the former First Lady,
Michelle Obama. But what they don't know is
that the real Michelle Obama will be reading them
the quotes live. -That is me.
-Ready? -Let's do this. ♪♪ -I was going to
get this one, too. -Please press the button. ♪♪ Please press the button to hear
an inspirational quote from Michelle O. -We practice our faith
in the smallest of ways. With it, we are saying, "I can." We are saying "I care." -Simon says, touch your head. Simon says,
touch your shoulders. Press the button. Simon didn't say. Now pose for a picture. Three, two, one. Turn around.
-Smile, ladies. -[ Gasps ]
-Turn around, please. -Simon says.
-Oh, my gosh! -Smile.
-So nice to meet you. -Oh, my gosh!
-Hi. I'm Jimmy. -Press the button. -We practice our faith
in the smallest of ways. With it, we are saying, "I can." We are saying, "I care." -Simon says touch your head. Simon says scream. -[ Screams ] -Louder. -[ Screams ] -Simon didn't say
that last one. -But Michelle Obama did.
-You lose. But maybe you didn't lose.
-Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Wow! -Because my mother
had faith in me, I had faith in me, too. -Mother's Day is coming up. What are you getting
your mother? -Let's see. -You can pick up
a few books right now. -Please buy my book. Pretty please? -"Pretty please
with sugar on top." -With sugar on top? -Please grab a book and look.
-Are you ready? -Oh, my God!
-It's Michelle Obama. -Buy my book. Tools evolve over time. And speaking of time,
it's time to dance. -Oh.
-Show us your best moves. Go. Drop it low. To the floor. Down lower. Go, go, go, go. -Now pose for a picture.
Three, two... -Go.
-[ Screams ] Oh, my God! Oh, my God! -You've got some great moves.
-Oh, my God! -Thank you just for going
through this entire journey with grace. That's what you are. And to have the opportunity
to say that to you, thank you. -Oh, sweetie,
that means everything. It means everything to me. -Ahhh!
-Ahhh! [ Camera shutter clicks ] [ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪ -And thank you for stopping by.
And thank you for -- -Thanks for having me. -Thanks for playing yet again.
We did another fun -- -We have played so much. -We've had so many fun bits. -You know, the first
crazy skit I did, if you all recall, was -- -In the White --
-In the White House. And we did a potato-sack race
in the East Room. [ Laughter ]
-That's right. We did. -You were the first silly I had.
[ Laughter ] -I like being the first silly.
I love that. -So, thank you for that.
-I gotta say, I love having you. I love talking to you,
obviously. But to see people's reaction
to you next to you, it makes me feel so good.
People love you. I mean, we all love you,
but we really -- [ Cheers and applause ]
-Aww, you guys... -You gotta... -Look, I don't
take it for granted. Look, we don't get out much.
-Oh, yeah. -So it's just nice to hear
what it all meant to people, particularly young people. So I don't take
any of that for granted. -Do you ever get starstruck
anymore, or...? -Oh. Pfft!
Questlove. -Oh, come on.
Oh, come on. -Hi, hi!
[ Both laugh ] Absolutely I get starstruck.
-You do? -Well, maybe not exactly
right now, in this moment, but in the course of my life...
-What? -I mean, you just imagine
the people that we met. Stevie? You know,
when I first met Stevie Wonder? -Yes, of course.
-I mean, I was just like, "Stevie!"
I fangirled out. -You have to, yeah.
-You know, Prince, I mean... [ Cheers and applause ] Prince played
at the White House months before he passed,
actually. And just -- I know.
It was just -- -Isn't he great,
the way that Prince was, also, as a person? I've had conversations with
your husband about this, too, that everyone is kind of
who they should be. -Yeah.
-Prince is a magical -- -He appears.
-Yes! Yes, he kind of --
Like, a puff of smoke. He just kind of shows up. -He's in the Blue Room,
standing in front of President Obama,
and he's just like, "Yo." [ Laughter ] -He's just cool.
-Still right here. -Yeah, exactly.
-So, yes, I fangirl out all the time. -Congratulations on
"The Light We Carry." It's another New York Times
Best Seller. And the book -- You dedicate
the book to your parents. -Oh, my God.
-Which I do love. You've talked
about the influence that your father's had on you, but, also, there's a whole
chapter here about your mom. -Marian.
-Yes. -She deserved a chapter. She's -- She's --
You know, my parents are where I get
any wisdom that I have. And the fact that she allowed me
to even say her name in the book is a big deal,
because Marian Robinson isn't impressed with anything
at any time. So I had to ask permission.
I was like, "Mom --" We were trying
to get her to write a book. She's like, "Nobody wants
to hear what I have to say." I was like,
"No, mom, everybody..." -Everybody wants to hear, yeah.
-"...wants to hear what you have to say."
-She does have some great tried-and-true parenting
in the book. Number five is "Come Home.
We will always like you here." -Yeah. Yeah.
[ Laughter ] That is true.
-I mean, let me tell you how grounding that is. And for parents,
it's important to remember. Because she said that
because she knew that, as kids of color,
as women, as a woman, young woman,
young Black woman in the world, that I would be confronted
with a lot of people who would set my bar low for me. You know, she knew we were
going to hear racial insults. She knew what we were
going to confront. And she never wanted us
to get our self-worth from outside the home
because we couldn't count on it. So that maxim is
"Don't sweat the small stuff." Don't lose it because
a teacher doesn't like you, because somebody
called you a bad word. Don't let your self-esteem
be based on that. You know, get your
self-worth at home. And so that's a powerful thing
for all parents to remember. But it's an important thing
for adults to remember as we deal with young people,
that our words to them matter. You know?
-Yeah. -What we say,
how we treat them, it has an impact, because
some kids don't have a home to go to
to feel that love. So I think about that every time
I interact with a kid, that my interaction with them may be the time they feel safe
and they feel at home. So I want everybody
to think about that. -That goes so far.
-So I got that at home. [ Cheers and applause ]
-I love that. How, uh... How are the kids? -Kids are good. Those two.
-Sasha and Malia. -They're not kids.
-Are they still -- -They are grown --
-They're 7 years old? How old are they?
[ Laughter ] -That's how the world
sees them. Twent--
They'll be 25 and 22. -When did that happen?
-Yeah. You all are old. [ Laughter ]
When did that happen? -I know.
Before our very eyes. All I can say is,
no more babies, no more tuition. [ Laughter ]
Bye. It's like, "Here's your life."
-"There you go." -"Good luck."
-Yeah, "Let me know how it works out."
Yeah. But now they're
living together, right? They're roommates?
-Right now they are, yep, yeah. -Do you visit them?
-We visited them once. -Okay.
-When we're your parents, you don't really want us
around that much, you know? [ Laughter ]
-Really? -So -- But we did get
invited over for cocktails before dinner because we had
to take them out to dinner, and they invited us
over for cocktails. -No, no, no.
-Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. -No, you don't drink a cocktail.
-Oh. Pfft! Not only did they drink it,
but they made one. -No!
-That was a bad martini. [ Laughter ] It was very weak,
in a tumbling glass. [ Laughter ] You know,
they stumbled through -- It was mostly vermouth and ice.
[ Laughter ] -I still do the same thing. -Well, maybe it
wasn't even vermouth, because I don't even think
that they knew vermouth was in a martini.
-Yeah, that's exactly it. But they're trying to
impress you with a martini. -Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah, yeah. And a charcuterie tray.
-Ooh! -Which they complained
about the price of cheese. [ Laughter ] -That's good.
-Malia's like, "Do you know how much I paid
for that cheese? [ Laughter ]
And I was like, "Yeah, girl, you eat my cheese all the time."
-Exactly. -Now you --
-Never worried about the price when you eat
my charcuterie tray. It's like...
-You've always said when we've talked about the kids that you wanted to give them
the most normal childhood that you possibly can
while you're living in the White House,
which has got to be tough. But I remember when you were
saying even Barack coached their basketball team?
-Yes. Yeah, he was -- he was dad
in the White House. -How did you sneak out
and do that, though? How is that possible?
-You know, it's amazing. You know, and he wasn't assigned
to be the coach. This was fourth-grade rec league
for little girls. Right? Sasha was playing,
and he and Reggie Love, who was his aide at the time, who was a Division I player
for Duke, they would sit and watch these
girls not have their shoes tied, they weren't running plays, because it was a parent-coached
league, right? -Yeah.
Also, they're in fourth grade. -They're in fourth grade, but Barack Obama felt
that they could do better. [ Laughter ] So each game,
he would slide closer down to the players' bench
and whisper to the parent coaches,
who I'm sure were like, "Oh, my God, it's the President
telling me to run a play." Eventually, he took over. He had them practicing,
he taught them plays. And the funny thing is, like, it wasn't only Sasha
on the team, but it was Maisy Biden,
Joe's youngest granddaughter. They're very good friends. So imagine it,
on any given Sunday, in a rec gym in Chevy Chase -- 'Cause we all came out, right?
-Yeah. -You're playing
against the Vipers. That was their name.
They were the Vipers. -Yeah.
-It would be the President, the Vice President,
the first, second lady, all the kids,
and all of our details. [ Laughter ] So you imagine
being the poor kids on the other team...
[ Laughter ] ...with Joe yelling,
"Maisy, pass the ball!" [ Laughter ]
"Box out!" You know, at the time, I would
have to tell them, "Chill out." "You know, this is --
these kids -- I think that little girl
is crying 'cause the President's
yelling at them." [ Laughter ]
-How did they end up doing? -They won the championship. -Come on!
That's exactly right! [ Cheers and applause ] -♪ The Vipers ♪ -Guys, more with Michelle Obama
when we come back. I noticed that you went back -- you went back
to the White House recently. You haven't been back.
-No. Wasn't invited. [ Laughter ] Ooh, shade. [ Laughter ] -Wow. Wow. I'm adding a chapter right here.
Hold on. -Oh, yeah.
-And so you return. What did it feel like
to go back and you go, "Oh, yeah, I lived
a lot of time in this place"? -We were -- We were good
when it was time to go. No, it was really
a beautiful experience, because, you know,
that's a tradition. You do your official portraits. The next president is supposed
to invite you back to hang them. We were never invited back. So these pictures had been done
for a long, long time. But it's also a chance
for the staff to come back and reminisce
and to be together. It's a -- It's a ritual.
So it was good to see everybody. It was good to see
all of the staff. I mean, as quiet as it's kept, my girls lived
in the White House longer they lived any house.
-Yeah. -So that's where they grew up. So to go back and to see all
the staff that are still there, to see all the people
that they grew up with, it was really -- Well, the girls weren't there
at the time, but it was good for
Barack and I to see everyone. -Do you ever have dreams
that you still live there? -Oh! No. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that
like that. It's like -- No, no, I don't --
I don't have dreams. -You don't ever go like,
"Oh, yeah, I'll go down the steps here and do that."
-No. No. Funny story. At Biden's inauguration, all the formers gathered, and they were doing
a public service announcement. And then we had to leave. And this is the first time
Barack attended -- I think he was there
when somebody else's presidential motorcade was out. So he walks out,
and usually the first car up is the President, right? And he goes walking to the first
car, and his security is like, "Sir, um, that's not --
that's not your car." -Oops.
-He's like, "Oh." He's like, "Okay.
Well, where do I go?" So we had to pass
the presidential motorcade, then the VP, and then we went
way back, and then it was ours. Because you go
in descending order. -You're like,
"But I was just..." -But the thing was,
we were so glad to get in that back motorcade
and to go home... -Yeah.
-...to our house. -To your actual house. -You know, that's
the progress of democracy. You do your time,
you pass it on, you let the next president lead. And so it was --
it's kind of a relief. -In this book, there's so many great stories
about your life, but there's also tips
on how to deal with what we're dealing with,
with everything, with what we all --
isolation with COVID. And just everything is kind of
touched in this book. And one thing I loved
is "the power of small." -Yeah, yeah, that's one of
the early chapters because -- I wrote this chapter
particularly for young people who are feeling so anxious
about the state of the world. I mean, no wonder. Climate change,
riots on Capitol Hill, gun violence, on and on. And these young kids,
young kids as young as 15, are trying to figure out
how to solve these problems, and they're getting all twisted because they don't yet
have the power because they're trying to
bite off too much, too soon. And so "the power of small"
is to focus on what you can
uniquely control. And for a kid in high school, it's graduating
from high school. You know, get your education
because you can't do that -- You can't end violence
in your neighborhood unless you focus
on what's at hand. So starting small,
even for us as adults, is about focus
on your own knitting, because there's power in that. You know, if each of us
just raise the children we bring into the world -- you know, if we did nothing else
but do that -- oh, just imagine
where we would be as a nation, as a human race,
if we just took care of that, if we showed them
the love and the focus and if we put our time
and energy into that instead of trying to solve
all the big problems. So change happens
in small bites. It's not just the big stuff. -Yeah, because it starts small, then it goes to a family,
then it goes to a community. And it was great.
There's also a chapter dedicated to
"when they go low, we go high." -Well, people
still keep asking me, "You still mean that?"
-Yeah. But that was --
that was an epic line. That was just --
It stuck in everyone's head. Did you realize how powerful
that would be years after? -No, no. I didn't know
I'd be known for that line. But I'm proud of that. People ask me,
do I still -- do I ever go low? And, yeah, I go low. -You do.
-I go low a lot of times. But I think for people
who have a platform, who are being looked up to, we have a responsibility
to stay high because kids are watching us. If you need to go low,
go low at home. Do it with your kitchen table,
with your spouse. But we set the example,
because leaders set the tone. And we felt what it's felt like
to be led with low, and it didn't feel great. That's why it's important.
It's a practice. It's a habit. It's something we show
the next generation, that we don't --
That doesn't mean we settle. That doesn't mean
we're complacent. It means we think
before we speak, because words matter,
and I still believe that. And I try the best that I can
when I'm in the public eye, when I know that kids
are watching, to stay high
because high begets high. -That's right. [ Cheers and applause ] Now, uh... you went on a book tour
around the country, and you had
amazing conversations with amazing people. Our pal Gayle King, who we love.
Tyler Perry. -Lots of great people.
-Hoda Kotb. -David Letterman.
-David Letterman. -Oh, so many.
Sure. Conan O'Brien. Sure. -Alright. Alright.
You were busy. -Yeah, yeah. It's interesting. But, you know,
there's always time for another book, you know?
Um... But the list is --
Amazing people. And you turned it
into a podcast. -Yeah.
-And this is great. It's a great thing.
You have to listen to it. It's such great conversation.
-"The Light Podcast." So, for those
who missed the book tour, we've recorded
every conversation, edited it down
to the best of the best. And, you know,
it touches on the book, but we also each share
our own stories of finding light and developing friendships
and relationships. It's really a fun
set of conversations that are now on Audible. -And then you have --
One of the interviews or the conversations
are with Oprah Winfrey. -The one and only.
-Yeah. Oprah Winfrey. And it airs --
-That Oprah. -That Oprah. And it's airing on April 25th
on Netflix as a special. -Yeah, that will be televised,
because when you're with Oprah, you just televise it. -I just feel like, yeah,
you have to televise it. Yeah, but you have
actually become friends with Oprah Winfrey.
You guys are really -- -I mean, Oprah was one of
the very early supporters before Barack
was even thinking about running. I mean, she spotted him
when he was a U.S. senator. And she has sort of been -- Oprah is that person
who never asks for anything but is always there with her
generosity and love and support. There isn't anything
you can't ask her to do if you're a friend
that she won't try to do. She is who she appears to be.
-Yeah. -And I am lucky
to call her a friend. -I want to show a clip
from your special. Here's a look
at "The Light We Carry: Michelle Obama
and Oprah Winfrey." -When you first arrived
in Hawaii, you were looking for --
and I understand why -- You were a working woman
and had never been to Hawaii. So you're looking for the Hawaii
in "Hawaii Five-0." Those of you who remember
that show. -Mai Tais
and sunsets on the beach. -And honeymoon suites.
Instead... -Yeah, instead, it was a trip
home to visit his family. That's where he was from. He wasn't going back
to some island vacation. He was going back
to be with his people. But I was young and I was --
It was cold in Chicago, and I thought, "I'm going
to Hawaii with my man. It's going to be so romantic." [ Laughter ] And then we landed,
and we went straight to Toot and Gramps' apartment.
No ocean. It was a high-rise building. Go up to the 10th floor.
You know, walk in. Looks like
my grandparents' house. Might as well be on
the South Side of Chicago. -[ Laughs ]
Isn't that reality? I love it. Michelle Obama, everybody. "The Light We Carry: Michelle Obama
and Oprah Winfrey" premieres April 25th on Netflix. More "Tonight Show"
after the break. Stick around.
Thank you, as always.
