How he balanced governing with being a husband and a dad in his recently published book a promised land. We dropped in on the former president in chicago, in high school where he was visiting with a group of young men who have been part of my brothers keeper to talk about their lives and the challenges they face. Are you going back to Community Organizing . Well, you know, probably im a little too grayhaired and old to be going door to door like i used to be. Plus secret Service Still follows me around, so im pretty disruptive. But i am going back to what inspired me to get into public life. One of the things that inspired former president barack obama these days are meetings like this one. Hey, people. Hey, hey. Its called a bam circle. Bam stands for becoming a man. A program that started in chicago in 2001 to mentor and support boys and young men. How is everybody doin . The idea is to create a place for them to safely and honestly share their struggles and successes, issues at home, in school or on the streets. President obama first joined a Bam Circle Back in 2013. Thats when he met High School Students james adams, Lazarus Daniels and christian champagne. Today in the same classroom they sat in eight years ago at the Hyde Park Academy, a high school on the south side of chicago, mr. Obama is catching up with them. James and lazarus are now 26. Christian is 25. He says talking with the president back then was lifechanging. It was so crazy. That first period that i went to the class, it was like, im going to meet the president. That was the most inconceivable thing that you could possibly think of. Then my heart was like racing, like when we were just sitting down and he just walked in. It was just like im forever grateful, and it changed the trajectory of my life dramatically. [ applause ] that meeting had a big impact on President Obama as well. One of the things that led him to launch an initiative called my brothers keeper, which he announced at the white house in 2014. Christian, lazarus, and james were there. James, when you went to d. C. , that was your first time out of chicago, is that right . Yeah. So that was my first plane ride, and that was really my first time being out of my neighborhood. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Christian champagne was 18 years old at the time. He sat down with us and shared his story, and to my surprise, he was just like me, growing up without a father and sometimes not too concerned with school. [ laughter ] it was like, okay. Thats pretty nice that this is a black president , grew up without a father. Some of the guys grew up without a father is relatable. Its not just, oh, he had it made from jump and hes the president. Its i can relate to him. Mr. Obama has been candid about the struggles of his youth. He hopes sharing his story will inspire other kids to believe they too can accomplish great things. I made bad choices. I got high without always thinking about the harm that it could do. You say you were a lackadaisical student, a passionate Basketball Player of limited talent. No Student Government for me, no eagle scouts or interning at the clol co local congressmans office. I have to be careful not to overstate. I was not going around, you know, beating kids up. I get it. And, you know, setting things on fire. But i understood what it meant to not have a father in the house. I understood what it meant to be in an environment in which you were an outsider. One difference between me and these young men is there werent a lot of black people generally at the time. You also were growing up before that in indonesia as an outsider. And im also an outsider in indonesia. And so there was, mixed in with the teenage hormones and just, you know, the usual stuff that teens go through, that sense of whats my place . And how do i raise myself to be a man . And what does that entail . What responsibilities are there . What obligations do i have . You know, what i try to record in the book is the sense in which, in part, the values that my mother and grandparents had instilled in me, even if i wasnt always following them when i was a teenager, led me to the realization around 20, a little later than some of these guys, that to be a fullgrown man meant not acting out, not being cynical, but taking on some responsibilities, not just for yourself but also for the world around you. Helping boys and young men become fullgrown men is what bam is all about, and the Obama Foundation supports bam programs in several cities through the my brothers keeper alliance. Do you think you would have benefited from having this as a teenager . Im sure i could have. You know, when we came here, three of the guys here, you know, were still in school at the time, and we had a chance to have a conversation. Part of what i shared with them was and i think this surprised some of the guys was my life wasnt that different than yours. I wasnt that different from you. The main difference was i was growing up in a gentler environment. In hawaii. Right, in hawaii. So, you know, the violence and drugs and some of the issues that the guys were dealing with day to day were different. But the mistakes i made, the struggles i was going through, were similar. And i think that it would have been useful for me at that time to have just a circle in which you can talk. And i think that, you know, one of the things we all learned from the pandemic was that Human Connection matters, that were not all by ourselves, and we dont accomplish most of the things we accomplish by ourselves. You know, it requires a community. And i think particularly for boys and young men of color, many of whom grow up without fathers but many of whom also live in relative isolation where the communities, because of safety issues or economic issues, folks dont have as many resources around them. It becomes that much more critical to be able to have someplace where you can come and just say, listen, im struggling with this or, you know, im confused about that or, you know, these are the kinds of pressures im dealing with and have somebody who either is their peer or somebody older, who can say, yeah, man. Thats something that i went through also. Im struggling with this too. You know, this is something im confused about. And them being able to talk it through. President obama says he found his purpose and ambition in life through Community Service and eventually a career in politics, becoming a father to daughters sasha and malia gave him the chance to be the kind of father he never had. James and lazarus are now fathers as well. We were talking before. The three of you guys were in the program. You were in the school. Now you guys have moved on. Two of you are now fathers. Yes, sir. And both of you have daughters. Anderson here, hes a new father. How old is wyatt . Just turned 1. So hes still in diaperchanging mode. Other than changing diapers, how has that changed your perspective, and how do you think about it because, look, meeting the president , you know, its cool. But its not lifechanging in the same way that being a parent is. Before having a daughter, like i was able to make stupid decisions. But now that i have a daughter, i have to think about her. I have to think about her mother, her sister because now im the man of the house. And everything that i do is pretty much revolved around her. So i want to be that father thats always there. I want to be the one that you come home from school to, that brightens up your day. Anything that you need, you can always come to me. I didnt have that growing up. I didnt have a father. Like it was one point in time i didnt see my father for like ten years. Right. So i want to be there for her, for everything. Fantastic. How about you, lazarus . Being a father, its amazing to me. My baby girl got a great big smile, full of energy, full of life, full of joy. Bam counselors often act not only as mentors but also father figures to the young men in their group. They check in on their grades, their health, their safety. Christian champagne says President Obama has checked in with him over the years since they met more than his own father has. Whats going on, man . Things going all right . I know excellence is possible, and i need to strive for that. Although sports are important to me, i focus on my gpa, and i will get it back to a 3. 8. [ applause ] whats your life been like since that meeting . You went to morehouse. Yeah, i went to morehouse, well, for like a semester. Then i realized i couldnt pay for it, so i had to come back home. But before i wasnt really thinking about going to college to be honest because i was always worried about could i pay for it . Would i be accepted, you know. I think after the first visit you made here, i worked a little harder on my grades, you know. I stopped playing around. It was like maybe maybe i could do something else. Maybe i could go to college. When you sit in a circle like that, you know, the obstacles these kids are facing and able to overcome is really extraordinary. Yeah. You know, the first time i sat down with these guys, the most important thing for me to communicate at that time and i was the president of the United States was you guys in many ways are ahead of me, of where i was at your age. I just had certain advantages you guys dont. I could make a mistake and land on my feet. But even, i mean, you know, christian, whos 25, his single mom i think he had five or six brothers and sisters, family of six. Right. He got into morehouse, had to drop out because of money, went to another school, had to drop out because he got ill. Now hes working, hoping to go back to school. I mean its not a question of not working hard enough or, you know, being motivated enough. And that is where sort of for me, my personal Journey Intersected with i think this broader question of how are we setting up a society so that young men like that can succeed or not succeed . And thats what led me to the south side of chicago. Thats what led me to be a Community Organizer was that sense that, look, when i walk down the street of the south side of chicago, i see young people, and they look and remind me of me or michelle. And a combination of circumstance allowed us to succeed. But these kids are just as talented. Theyre just as smart. They could achieve just as much if weve got an education system, a social safety net, Job Opportunities that expose them and give them a chance. You know, i think that the single most important thing i learned as an organizer when i was here in chicago was that, you know, the line between success or failure in this society so often is dictated not by anybodys inherent merits. It has to do with the circumstances in which theyre in. That doesnt mean they dont have individual responsibility. I think all these young men you heard them. They recognize, no, ive got to work hard. Ive got to do my part. But it also means that we as a society continue to fail them. But how stacked the deck is against so many people in our society from even before they are born. Yes. I heard i was reading in a speech you gave a while back a figure i had never heard before, that by the age of 3, if you grow up in a lowincome family, youve heard 30 million fewer words than a 3yearold child in a welloff family. Which means by the time you show up in first grade, you are already significantly behind. Now, the good news is it turns out, as youre learning as a parent, kids are amazingly resilient, and they can catch up. But it also means that we have to make investments to ensure that they catch up. Well, the other thing, i mean i leave that Room Thinking how many other kids are there who arent even in that room. No. Well, one of the things we really liked about this program, becoming a man, was they didnt focus on the superstars, right . They deliberately target not the kids who are either in the most trouble or are either most successful in defying the odds. But the kids who are right there, sort of in the middle, that can tip in either direction, that if they get an encouraging adult, if they are able to, as lazarus was expressing there, if they can find words to tell their story and express themselves and talk out what theyre feeling, they can succeed. And thats part of what i think made this conversation wonderful is, yeah, these kids arent like sort of one in a million. This is what you just heard was young black men all across this country. Thats who they are. Its not the stereotype. These were not prodigies or savants, but they are brimming with potential. So if we have a society that is afraid of them, we need to listen and hear them because theyre no different than you or i in so many ways except for the opportunities that they have or dont have. Mr. Obama will be writing another book about his final years in the white house and what happened after. But in a promised land, the president writes about the beginnings of the changes he witnessed firsthand in the Republican Party when john mccain selected sarah palin to be his running mate. You talk about dark spirits that had long been lurking on the edges of the Republican Party coming center stage. Did you ever think it would get this dark . Its been more than four years since the obamas left the white house. It was a moment the former president describes as bittersweet in his book. Hello, everybody. Partly because they were leaving and partly because of what he thought might happen to the country. You write about sarah palin, about her brief ascendancy, and you talked about dark spirits that had long been lurking on the edges of the Republican Party coming center stage. Did you ever think it would get this dark . No. I thought that there were enough guardrails institutionally, that even after trump was elected, that you would have sthe socalled republican establishment who would say, okay. You know, its a problem if the white house isnt doesnt seem to be concerned about russian meddling, or its a problem if we have a president whos saying that, you know, neonazis marching in charlottesville, there are good people on both sides, you know, that thats a little bit beyond the pale. And the degree to which we did not see that republican establishment say, hold on, timeout, thats not acceptable, thats not who we are, but, rather, be cowed into accepting it and then finally culminating in january 6th where what originally was, oh, dont worry. This isnt going anywhere. Were just letting trump and others vent, and then suddenly you now have large portions of an elected Congress Going along with the falsehood that there were problems with the election. And the leadership of the gop briefly for, you know, one night when they still had the sort of scent of fear in them yeah. You know, going against the president. Then poof. Suddenly everybody was back in line. Now, the reason for that is because the base believed it. The base believed it because this had been told to them not just by the president , but by the media that they watch, and nobody stood up and said, stop. This is enough. This is not true. I wont say nobody. Let me correct it. There were some very brave people who did their jobs, like the Secretary Of State in georgia, who was then viciously attacked for it. And all those congressmen started looking around and they said, you know what . Ill lose my job. Ill get voted out of office. Another way of saying this is, i didnt expect that there would be so few people who would say, well, i dont mind losing my office because this is too important. Americas too important. Some things are more important our democracy is too important. We didnt see that. Now, you know, im still the Hope And Change guy, and so my hope is is that the tides will turn. But that does require each of us to understand that this experiment in democracy is not selfexecuting. It doesnt happen just automatically. It happens because each successive generation says these values, these truths we hold selfevident. This is important. Were going to invest in it and sacrifice for it, and well stand up for it even when its not politically convenient. One of the things you write, we need to explain to each other who we are and where we are going. I mean, as somebody who has dedicated myself to storytelling, that really resonates with me. But i wonder are we as a country still willing to listen to each others stories . I think this is the biggest challenge we have, is that we dont have the kinds of shared stories that we used to. Theres always been a division along lines of race, right . You know, we have 400 years of whites and blacks not being able to have shared experiences because of slavery and segregation and so forth. But even within, lets say, the white community, right, the stories of kids who are growing up in manhattan and the stories of kids who are growing up in abilene, texas, and the stories of kids growing up in montana those stories no longer meet, partly because of the segment you know, the siloing of the media, the internet entertainment. We occupy different worlds, and it becomes that much more difficult for us to hear each other, see each other. The thing i learned first as an organizer and then as an elected official, as a politician, was when you start hearing peoples stories, you always find a thread of your own story in somebody else. And the minute that recognition happens, that becomes the basis for a community. But it does seem like something has changed so that its become so extreme that were not even allowing ourselves to get into a position where we can see that commonality. Ive heard in the past you talk about when you were starting out in politics. You would go down to Southern Illinois to very conservative districts. Yeah. Theyd give me a hearing. No, and i think thats changed. Part of it is the nationalization of media, the nationalization of politics. You know, the fact is that, you know, you used to have a bunch of local newspapers, local tv stat stations. People werent having these highly ideological debates, but they were kind of focused more on whats happening day to day. And part of it is also the structure of our economy and our communities. Look, it used to be that a high school the average high school in america, the average public high school, you would have the bankers kid and the janitors kid in the same school, and theyd interact, and their parents would be both going to the same Football Game and would have to know each other. And if it turned out that there was a talented kid of a janitor who also happened to be on the football team, the banker president might say, hey, why dont you come work at the bank here because he knew that person. Now we have more economic stratification and segregation. You combine that with racial stratification and the siloing of the media so you dont have just Walter Cronkite delivering the news, but you have 1,000 different venues. All that has contributed to that sense that we dont have anything in common. And so, so much of our work is going to have to involve not just policy, but its also how do we create institutions and occasions in which we can come together and have a conversation . In promised land, you write, our democracy seems to be teetering on the brink of a crisis. Since you wrote that, there was the attack on the capitol. Youve got the big lie being pushed continually by not only the former president but republicans in congress. Right. Are we still just teetering on the brink, or are we in crisis . Well, i think we have to worry when one of our Major Political parties is willing to embrace a way of thinking about our democracy that would be unrecognizable and unacceptable even five years ago or a decade ago. When you look at some of the laws that are being passed at the state legislative level, where legislators are basically saying, were going to take away the certification of elect