Renegades: Born in the USA

Nowadays it seems everyone has a podcast. So it may have just been a matter of time before former world leaders work their way into the game.

For one particular world leader it seemed particularly inevitable that he would experiment in this very popular platform. This world leader is, of course, Barack Obama.

Many factors make it unlikely that Obama would have been eliminated from the public eye after his term in office ended. The position of the President of the United States is a special one. America has long been the most powerful English-speaking nation in the world, both in the political sense and a cultural sense. Movies, music, TV and sports are all areas in which in which the US dominates

Even in comparison with other US presidents, Obama has always been pop culture savvy, coming across as much a celebrity as a politician. This is most likely because of the rise and popularity of social media during his term. It may also be because Obama was notoriously popular amongst actors, musicians and athletes.

As well as this, Obama has a story to tell. He is a Black man with an African American father and a white mother. He grew up in Hawaii. His parent’s jobs took him all over the world at a young age, including Indonesia. He has a unique perspective on what it means to be American.

That’s what is really the theme of this podcast: what it means to be American.

Obama isn’t alone in exploring the theme though. He enlisted the assistance of long-time friend and legendary rockstar, Bruce Springsteen. That’s an interesting choice, as the podcast was advertised as these two American icons “who always kind of felt like outsiders”. Bruce Springsteen is about as American as one could get and built a career out of it. And Obama was President of the entire country—hardly an outsider.

Still, perhaps both began as outsiders. Springsteen talks about growing up in a small town in New Jersey. He describes how his hometown was extremely racist in the 1950s and 60s. In the first episode he tells a story about a car full of white guys shooting at a car full of black guys to illustrate the type of violence that occurred. It is an interesting note that Springsteen is a person who related more with the black kids, rather than the white gunmen or even as just a third-party observer as he was not in either car. In fact, throughout most of his stories in the podcast, Bruce paints himself as the white savior, the only white guy in his town with black friends.

Bruce and Barak discuss America in a way that is very optimistic and full of great patriotic tradition. For example there is a full episode about driving on the open road. They discuss issues such as health care and racism, but in a way that is maybe not as intense and critical as other commentators on American politics. A good example is democratic politician, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who’s view of America is one of ingrained oppression. She believes that the injustice runs deep and can not simply be solved with a few changes in the law. Her view aligns with many left wing activists including the main view of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Although this podcast could be described as relatively pro-America, it's nothing compared with the campaign of Donald Trump and his average supporter. They had a view of extreme patriotism, often speaking about protecting the United States and disliking outsiders.

You might think that because Bruce and Barak fall somewhere in between these two sides, they might be centrist. But I would hesitate to say this, as they are full of praise for people like AOC and BLM, even if they do undersell race inequality in America. Also, even though Obama remains respectful to his successor, Trump, he is very critical of his term in office, particularly how he handled Coronavirus. If these outsiders have become centrist, then that tells us something about where the centre currently is.

In final analysis, this podcast is good for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, it’s very nice to hear Obama’s story in such a personal way and to hear him tell it in a conversational manner. Secondly, with everything going on currently, a pandemic like nothing we've ever seen before, it’s interesting listening to a former president talk about how he would handle it. It’s fascinating to hear Obama’s take on the Black Lives Matter movement as a black man but also a patriot. He is so elegant when he is expressing frustration about problems facing America and always seems to know the best way to say it. Even though the conversation is unscripted, you wouldn’t know it the way Obama speaks with such conviction, inspiring the listener to be a better person and to educate themselves on human rights issues. I guess Bruce Springsteen is there too.