Podcasts: Renegades Born in the USA

Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen co-host Renegades Born in the USA, a podcast about race in the United States.

Then US president Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to musician Bruce Springsteen in 2016. The pair now host a podcast together.

Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen’s unlikely friendship began during the 44th US presidency when the rock star was invited to play at political events. Obama thought Springsteen was quiet and shy. After Obama left office they caught up properly and between drinks and songs they had those kinds of conversations where you recognise things you have in common. Their wives Michelle and Patty hit it off, too. Now they’re co-hosting Renegades Born in the USA, a podcast about race in the United States. It’s made by Spotify with help from Gimlet Media. You can tell their work by the intercutting of in-the-room-audio and the exposition of speeches and songs, layered from mono to stereo. This makes a big difference and elevates two guys talking to hearing their remembrance of things past. One of the speeches we hear is a tape of Obama’s oration on the 50th anniversary of the Selma March, led by John Lewis, who died recently. What he marched for in 1965 echoes in the Black Lives Matter protests today. Talking about race isn’t always easy, particularly at the time of the George Floyd trial. But, Obama says, “all of us in our places of work, our politics, our places of worship (must) make more of an effort to understand each other’s realities and our own unspoken attitudes”.

Springsteen says the political comes from the personal.

They recount their experiences of racial slurs and the motivation behind them – to hurt – as well as their infantilising affects.

Obama discusses growing up in Hawaii and how he stood up for himself against a racist remark from a tennis coach. His friends were from broken homes and were emotional outsiders, as was Springsteen. For Obama, basketball was the great equaliser. He wasestranged from his father, but his old man gave him his first ball.

Springsteen could empathise with Obama’s relationship with his father because his own dad has schizophrenia and despite being present physically, he was emotionally absent.

Springsteen grew up in a small town in Freehold New Jersey, population 10,000. A lot more people than that will be listening to these two.

Listen to Renegades Born in the USA on your favourite podcast app.