Former President Barack Obama is a four-time bestselling author, but his newest post-White House project will delve into the pages of beloved American books.
The "A Great Book With Barack Obama" podcast, a six-part series premiering Sept. 24, will explore books "that have profoundly shaped his worldview and our society," according to a press release earlier this year.
The last installment features Obama in conversation with novelist Lauren Groff about "All the Pretty Horses," the author Cormac McCarthy's opus that garnered the National Book Award for fiction in 1992. In "Pretty Horses," Texas cowboy John Grady Cole leaves his Lone Star life behind for Mexico and later falls in love with Alejandra, the daughter of an affluent rancher.
"A John Grady
Cole, I want a bunch of men like that," Obama tells Groff in a clip shared exclusively with USA TODAY. "The question then becomes ... 'How do we as a society have a language to try to cultivate that?'"
He continues, "The challenge I do think is, for a lot of boys and men, when they hear, you know 'patriarchy' and you know 'toxic masculinity,' etc., there's a part of them that's thinking, 'Well, gosh I don't know, I don't want to be toxic.'"
Obama is a voracious reader and announced the "Great Book" podcast days after releasing his annual summer reading list. This year's selections feature 11 picks, including "Kin" by Tayari Jones, Roopika Risam's "Data Empire" and "Whistler" by Ann Patchett. He also recaps each calendar year with an additional list of favorite reads.
During the "Great Book" episode, Groff replies, "You, sitting in front of us here, were and are the best possible argument for that kind of man." The "Fate and Furies" author then tells Obama, "Personally I feel so grateful that you were the president when my oldest son was born. You gave an example."
The clip ends when Groff says we may not need language for young boys and men but, instead, examples of radical empathy and compassion coming from places of power.
Obama's next chapter: 'A Great Book'
The Obamas have embraced post-presidency media ventures. Michelle Obama currently hosts "IMO" with her brother, Craig Robinson, and Obama recently launched "Reconstruction: The Unfinished Promise," an eight-part history series with Malcolm Gladwell.
Both Obamas released post-White House memoirs: The former first lady penned her personal memoir "Becoming" released in 2018, accompanied by a 2020 Netflix film of the same name, while Obama's "A Promised Land" was released in 2020.
Previously, he wrote "Dreams From My Father" in 1995 and 2006's "The Audacity of Hope," both New York Times bestsellers. He wrote a children's book, "Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters," in 2010, and "Renegades: Born in the USA," co-authored with his close friend and rocker Bruce Springsteen, came out in 2021.
Audible, owned by Amazon, signed a multi-year, exclusive first-look production deal with the Obama's production company, Higher Ground, in 2022. The Obamas previously produced "The Michelle Obama Podcast" and a "Renegades" companion audio series with Springsteen under a three-year deal with Spotify.
Contributing: Clare Mulroy
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Exclusive: Barack Obama reflects on masculinity in 'A Great Book'
