MS NOW Exclusive | Hope Comes Home: Inside the Obama Presidential Center - Part 2

Commercial Narrator

I'm pretty confident talking into a mic.

Barack Obama

Hey, I'm doing it right now.

Commercial Narrator

But home projects, I second guess everything. Is that noise normal? Is that water damage? Who do I even call? That's where Thumbtack comes in. Just upload a photo or voice note and it uses AI powered search to match you with the right top rated local pro. So instead of guessing you get clarity and can hire with confidence for your next tone project, try thumbtack. Hire the right pro today.

Mathnasium Advertiser

Parents, have you heard your kids say I'm not a math kid? Well, with Mathnasium, every kid can be a math kid. They customize their math instruction so kids who are struggling are able to catch up and get ahead. And advanced kids are challenged to reach higher. Mathnasium makes math fun so kids learn to love it. Parents say that Mathnasium has not only improved their kids grades, it's given them a new level of confidence in math and in school overall. Visit mathnasium.com to find a location near you.

Barack Obama

Thank you so much, United States. We are America created equal.

Michelle Norris

Welcome back to Hope Comes Home. Inside the Obama Presidential Center, I'm Michelle Norris. This hour we will take you further into the brand new Obama Presidential Center. We'll hear more from President Obama and we will hear from first Lady Michelle Obama. We sat down for an interview right here on the south side of Chicago, where she grew up and where the Obamas are bringing their legacy home. Chicago is a city that gets up in the morning and goes hard all day. Ambition, creativity, community. The hope that all that hard work pays off. Oprah Winfrey was born in Mississippi, but she became a media titan in Chicago. Everybody gets a car. Same for Muddy Waters, who then helped Buddy Guy. When Ferris Bueller played hooky, he went to downtown Chicago. The question isn't what are we going to do? The question is what aren't we going to do? Film, architecture, science, music. Oh, so much music.

Barack Obama

We wish you love, peace and

Michelle Norris

soul. Train got its start here. This is a city that gifted the world with Nat King Cole, Sam Cooke, Lou Rawls and Ramsey Lewis. Let's not forget Jeff Tweedy, Billy Corgan, Eddie Vedder, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, Ain't Nobody nobody Loves Me Better, Shaka and Mavis, Kanye and Chance the Rapper. There's not a chance we could name them all. There are just too many. You see, Chicago has always been a cauldron for culture. The blues, the Bulls. Here's Jordan. It is all on the Bear. And the Bears. The Bears writers Sandra Cisneros and Studs Terkel, Dan Aykroyd, and all those stars from the Second City comedy troupe, the ones who made Saturday Night Live sparkle and pop. Chicago the City Beget Chicago the Musical. Settle that child. Let all that child. The Windy City has long been a jewel on the shores of Lake Michigan, a big and shiny magnet for waves of newcomers looking for a better life. Immigrants from Poland, Ireland and Latvia, from Mexico and China. Seekers trading small towns for big city life. Refugees fleeing oppression in the Jim Crow South. In the Great Migration, hundreds of thousands of black Americans headed north and poured into Chicago's south side, striving for a better future. Thousands, including my father and his five brothers. When they first landed in Chicago, they all lived together not far from what is now the Obama Presidential center, in a neighborhood known as Bronzeville. A black president in their lifetime was not a possibility. My dad used to say that Chicago has a great front yard, with the power and prosperity concentrated in those gleaming skyscrapers along the lake downtown. But the backyard, he would say, needs some work. He loved Chicago, especially Bronzeville, but he understood something essential about the city's south side. Along with the solid institutions and one of America's largest black middle class populations, the south side has also seen its share of hardship, poverty, gang violence, underperforming schools, and under resourced public housing. The new Presidential center sits across the street from a striving public school that lost a student this year to gunplay. The Obamas could have located their campus closer to downtown Chicago, a focal point for tourists from all over the world. But they came back to the south side, back to the place where they raised their daughters, where Michelle Obama grew up, with the goal of changing the footprint and the fortunes of the south side with new jobs, new visitors, and yes, new pressures from gentrification. For the Obamas, choosing the south side is an expression of hope that sweet home Chicago can not just handle all of that, but thrive. Let me ask you about the neighborhood. It's in the south side on the south side, on Stony island, right? A street that is too often in the news for sometimes the wrong reasons.

Barack Obama

Right.

Michelle Norris

What does it mean to place this center in a place that doesn't usually see this kind of investment?

Barack Obama

Well, part of what we want to do is to recognize this is a big investment and it can potentially help anchor and catalyze economic development and opportunities for communities that oftentimes have been left behind.

Michelle Norris

Now, are you worried about displacement, though? I mean, Airbnb rates are going up, rents are going up. You know what, do you have a plan to Monitor or mitigate the kinds of things that can happen with gentrification.

Barack Obama

Well, look, this is always going to be. There's nobody's figured out this solution right perfectly, which is, hey, these communities are underinvested in and they're poor and there aren't enough businesses and opportunities. And then people make investments in their businesses opportunities. Hey, wait a minute. Rents are going up and the tax base is going up and Airbnb rates go up. There's no way to make massive investments, bring about a bunch of tourism dollars and create greater interest and beautify communities and not also see some values rise. That's part of the purpose of it. The question is always, from our perspective, are we making sure that the people who are already there can get a piece of that rising tide? Can they access those opportunities? Which is why, in terms of employment at the Presidential center, one of our biggest priorities was making sure that folks were able to not just apply for jobs, but actually get jobs and get trained for jobs. The young people who are living in those communities, are they going to be able to get internships and fellowships? And we're exposing them to the work that's being done and what opportunities they have as a consequence. The vendors, you know, the cleaning crews, the contractors, all those folks, we've been very systematic about working with community groups in those communities and saying to them, this is yours, not just ours, and we want you to be a part of this. And I think there will, over time, the kind of community improvement that is not just bringing in people from the outside, but also lifting up folks from the inside. That's our hope.

Michelle Norris

It is the hope, not just for President obama, but for Mrs. Obama as well. Of the two of them, she is the one who actually grew up on the south side. We're on the south side of Chicago.

Michelle Obama

We are home.

Michelle Norris

And I want to talk to you about the south side. And I invite you to correct me if I'm not saying it right, because I lived in Chicago. I have all kinds of relatives who are on the south side, but I've lived on the south side. And there's a particular way of saying it.

Michelle Obama

Oh, well, it just depends on the mood. You know, if you really calling out it's south side, you know, but otherwise. That's exactly right. Otherwise, it's the south side.

Mathnasium Advertiser

Yeah.

Michelle Norris

Well, I want to talk to you about the south side.

Michelle Obama

What do you want to know?

Michelle Norris

This, you know, incredible complex lands here, right on the south side of Chicago where you grew up. What does it mean to you? What does it mean to your community to have this level of investment in the place where a young Michelle Lavon Robinson grew up.

Michelle Obama

Yeah.

Michelle Norris

Did double dutch her bike around this area.

Michelle Obama

Let me give you a. A sense of what the community was like when I was growing up. You know, I was born in the 60s, I think my parents moved from a little further south to 74th and Euclid with my aunt Robbie when I was one. So my adolescent years were in the 70s and that was at the beginning of white flight. So this community that we moved into was a mixed race community. And it was people of all backgrounds and races. People planted their flowers and mowed their lawns. My uncle Terry mowed his lawn where kids played outside and there were block club parties. But you could slowly see the slow deterioration of the entire south side. Stores that were closing down. You know, the park programs just kind of went away. You just slowly notice that the stuff wasn't there anymore. And I think as I got older and started leaving my community, especially when I went to high school, which was a magnet high school on the west side.

Michelle Norris

You went to Whitney Young?

Michelle Obama

Went to Whitney Young. My commute took me more and more through downtown and over west. And, you know, we were cultured. You know, we went to museums, we did things like that. But I started noticing that the investments downtown were very different. You know, that in order to do or see or experiencing anything beyond what you knew, you had to get on a bus or pay for parking or, you know, take the L and go to a whole nother community to experience beautiful parks and to really enjoy the lake and to see art and to see culture. It was here, but it wasn't here. All right?

Michelle Norris

I think they call that disinvestment.

Michelle Obama

It's disinvestment.

Michelle Norris

So when something like this opens and there really is nothing else like this, and you decide to make an investment

Michelle Obama

in a community like this, an $850 million investment.

Michelle Norris

That says something. Yeah, that says something. That says you count.

Michelle Obama

It's supposed to say something.

Michelle Norris

Hope comes home inside the Obama Presidential center continues after this. This episode is brought to you by SoFi, the all in one finance app where you can bank, borrow and invest. It's time to achieve your financial ambitions. Earn more on your Savings with a SoFi Bank High Yield savings account. Ditch your high interest credit card debt with a Sofi personal loan or start investing on an easy to use platform with SoFi. Invest wherever you are on your financial journey. SoFi's got you covered. Learn more at sofi.comsxm

Commercial Narrator

this heat isn't letting up and if your windows and doors aren't performing, your home is feeling it. Now's the time to replace your old worn out windows and doors during the renewal. By Andersen Summer Sizzler eventually, for a limited time, enjoy. Buy one, get one 40% off plus $50 off each window and door with a minimum of four and buy now and pay later with our special financing. Stay cool with these summer Savings by visiting renewalbyandersonhome.com today and get your project started.

Barack Obama

Lemonade sings a Pet Insurance Customer Review

Michelle Norris

My new puppy Swallow the bone. Still a good boy though. And boy was I glad that I had lemonade. I was paid back quickly and efficiently. Everyone was so nice. Get this pet insurance

Barack Obama

and get a quote@lemonade.com pet.

Michelle Norris

In the new branch of the Chicago Public Library, President Obama has chosen 3,000 of his favorite books to fill up the shelves of his presidential reading room. Books from celebrated authors like Joe Lepore and Haruki Murakami and Isabel Wilkerson. And of course, one very particular author the President knows quite well. Favorite book in the new library must be Becoming. Smart answer.

Barack Obama

What are you talking about?

Michelle Norris

Of course, of course. Very smart answer. Becoming is the memoir written by Michelle Obama about growing up on the south side of Chicago, not far from the Presidential Center. The former first lady has star power of her own and her emergence on the global stage is also captured in the museum. The display of some of her standout dresses and gowns has already become a favorite with visitors, so here is what President Obama refers to as the exhibit everybody wants to see. But let's be clear. Michelle Obama was more than a style icon, more than a best selling author, more than just Barack Obama's wife. She was an integral part of the Obama White House with her own initiatives, her own fans and her own critics. Her presence at this museum is not an afterthought. Her memorabilia is not pushed into a corner of the museum somewhere. Her role in the White House is woven throughout the larger story. All over the campus you will hear her voice and her most famous speeches as you walk through the museum that

Michelle Obama

the American Dream endures.

Michelle Norris

You can see her gardening glove from her days planting fruits and vegetables on the White House grounds, a miniature recreation of the time she hosted a Girl Scout camp on the South Lawn. The museum explores her upbringing on the south side and her accomplishments at Princeton and Harvard. At the restaurant on campus, you can order the red rice that's based on her mother's recipe, the sledding hill that was the first lady's idea, she insisted, so Southside kids today could fulfill one of her girlhood dreams. She had always wished that the pancake flat prairie terrain of Chicago had hills for sledding during those long Chicago winters. Above all, the Obama Presidential center examines the former first lady as an intellectual partner with an interior life and a legacy worth preserving, because Michelle Obama is no one's second fiddle. When you got the first look of the portrait of the two of you, it's the first time that you're both in a portrait together and they call it into Jeka Crosby, let's give her her flowers. We got to see you see it for the first time. The video was released and your expression was priceless.

Michelle Obama

Oh, what was it?

Michelle Norris

I mean, you were just like wide eyed. And partly because it's a beautiful piece of art, I imagine you were surprised at the size. It is beautiful.

Michelle Obama

Was there anything that surprised you?

Michelle Norris

It's not just your story. It's probably going to be a choke point in the museum because you see so many different images in there.

Michelle Obama

That's also the artist approach, which is why I love Indajeka the artist. All of her paintings are paintings within paintings, pictures and images within. When you step back and see the bigger image and then slowly get closer and see the power of all the selections of images that and where she placed them and why she placed them there, I mean, it's like, where's Waldo for the Obama administration, you know? So, for example, she decided to put in the backdrop a window that has my childhood home. And in the windows upstairs, it's the image of Barack and my mom sitting on the sofa the night of the election when his name was called. It is a very powerful image where, you know, mom, she's just got the kind of, oh, my goodness, it happened

Michelle Norris

back in the sofa and she just

Michelle Obama

reaches over to him and says, oh, my baby. She bit off a big thing, you know, and it's that kind of look, but it kind of frames. It's like the center of the home and the center of the portrait.

Michelle Norris

And they're in two different windows upstairs, you see, and their hand is in one of the windows. I'm glad you brought her into this conversation, Mom. I loved your mom. Yeah, she was a beautiful woman.

Michelle Obama

She was something else.

Michelle Norris

And you brought her along for the journey in a very beautiful way. I remember on the morning of the inauguration and so many people were coming wearing pictures, literally pictures pinned to their coat, bringing someone along, holding pictures in plastic baggies, you know, bringing them there for Inauguration Day, bringing people along who couldn't make it all the way for the journey. That is what you did with that beautiful skirt that you wore with a beautiful image of a young Marianne Robinson. What a way to honor your mom.

Michelle Obama

Well, everybody in our lives was touched by Mom. It broke Barack down because I. You know, he didn't. He hadn't seen the scene.

Michelle Norris

You had to cover for him for a while.

Commercial Narrator

I know.

Michelle Obama

Right, right.

Michelle Norris

I mean, you kept talking because you gave him a moment to.

Michelle Obama

Yeah, yeah. So when I walked in, I met him backstage, and he was like, ugh. And I forgot what I was doing. I was like, what's going on? He was like, you're not doing that to me. Right. You just showed up in this beautiful skirt. I had already sort of recovered, so I was like, oh, I'm sorry. You know, it was like, my bad. I had gotten sort of emotionally accustomed to the beauty of it.

Mathnasium Advertiser

Right.

Michelle Obama

So to me, it was just a beautiful dress, too. Beautiful skirt. So, yeah, I kind of did them wrong. I should have prepped him for it. But it was also a beautiful surprise. My brother was. I think he was in the audience. He had seen it before. Nobody had seen it.

Michelle Norris

Oh, must have got to him, too.

Michelle Obama

Yeah, it got to everybody. But as you said, it's. You know, I was so glad to have her there with us. And then my team, while we were speaking on stage, they said that the minute Barack mentioned the skirt, it downpoured. Like, it was clear. Because afterwards they said, oh, it rained so hard. I was like, I didn't hear the rain. They said it rained right when Barack was talking about the skirt and it

Michelle Norris

stopped the ancestors, she was there.

Michelle Obama

She's like, go on, girl. She's like, aren't you something? You know what mom would say? She'd be like, oh, I can't believe this. Oh, you're just something else. So she's here, as are all of our ancestors, and not just me and Barack, the stories of our upbringing. But I think that's what resonates. And what will resonate for people of all backgrounds is they will see themselves in these floors. America will see itself. And I'm saying all of America, regardless of political party, regardless of whether you voted for us or like us or have nasty things to say about us or not or love us, you will walk through these halls, and you will feel seen here.

Michelle Norris

We saw something of your husband in that encounter also. It was a full circle moment, because you reached out and grabbed his hand the way your mother had grabbed his on election night. Yes, I did. I saw it. I noticed it. And we saw his emotions. And he is someone who is free with his emotions. And you don't always see that. Okay, let me just spin backwards. You don't see it in a man. If I can get really granular. You often don't see it in a

Michelle Obama

black man because you're not supposed to. They're not supposed to be emotional.

Michelle Norris

And you don't see it in a president. Yeah, but you do with him. So what does it mean to have someone in leadership who is willing to show their emotions? And in this process, are we seeing another facet of him?

Michelle Obama

Well, you know, we're in the. We're at a time when there's a lot of talk about what it means to be a man. You know, it's all out there. There's a lot of mansplaying going on. And what you feel in those conversations is. What we understand is that men struggle just as much as we do in figuring out who they are and where to find place. And I've said this time and time again, I don't have sons. You do. I know a lot of my friends, sons. I love these young men. But we've done a great job in our lifetime of expanding the possibilities of what women and girls can be. We've worked hard to redefine that and to say, you. You know, you can take home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, right? You can do it all. You can be a mom. You can. You can have emotion. You can be tough. You can box, you can run. You can be strong. Right? You can be a musician. But during that time, I don't think we've done an equal justice to opening the aperture for what our men and boys can be. We've talked about this. There's still a very narrow definition of what it means to be a man. And it's still you gotta win. Gotta be tough.

Michelle Norris

Gotta be strong.

Michelle Obama

Gotta be strong. Don't let them see you hurt. Gotta, you know, you gotta make money. You know, Gotta dominate. Gotta dominate, right? But men come in all shapes, sizes and colors, too. Temperament, we're born with it. You know, it's not unique to us as the female species. You know, there are a lot of young men who are born to create, like my father, who was tough and boxed and all that before he got Ms. There are young men who were born to nurture, to be teachers, to work with small children. There are young men who are wonderful child psychiatrists, you know, who can empathize and help people find their voice, right? But if all they're rewarded for is win, throw the ball, catch the ball, beat up, make money, wow, how sad it is for all the majority of men and boys who don't naturally fall into that, those narrow categories of what being a man is and how sad and lonely that must be for them. So I think having leaders that model more matter, you know? And I know that Barack understands that. He's a tough guy. He doesn't cry much. But I think he has learned to let his emotions go because he knows he needs to show young men that that's okay, too. It's okay to love your wife forever. It's okay not to cheat and lie. It's okay not to be a baller. It's okay to, you know, be sad when sad things happen, you know, and not have to suck it up all the time. That that's really what makes you a man, is the broadness and depth of your character. And it's not just one note. And how will boys know that if they don't see it?

Michelle Norris

I want to go back to the portrait of the two of you. That image will be in this building for a very long time. 10 years from now, 25 years from now, 50 years from now into the next century, when people are looking back at the image of the two of

Michelle Obama

you,

Michelle Norris

what do you want them to see? What do you want them to remember?

Michelle Obama

I want them to see a loving representation of a black couple. And it is important that race is there because we have an ebb and flow of how we feel about people of different races. Some decades we are moving forward, and other decades it feels like, well, what happened? I think we need to be reminded that excellence comes in all shapes, sizes and colors, genders. That there are many people who are great leaders. And your race, your income, is the least of what makes you great. Your pedigree is the least of what makes you great. And the co equanimity of our relationship, I think, is important to remember at a time when gender roles are. They go up and down, too. What does it mean to be a woman? What does it mean to be a wife for a husband? That they see a couple that revel in the fact that we are both equals, that that's what gives us energy and that there's love there. Deep, deep love. And I like the notion that even that story is a creation of many smaller stories that we didn't get where we are alone. Like there are two people, but there are millions of people who make up that story. So I think the, you know, the structure of the photo of the portrait is just as important as the image. That it's the two of us. That the two of us are made up of millions and millions of stories and people and experiences outside of who we are. There are men like that all over the place. I happen to marry one of them and I am grateful for it.

Michelle Norris

We've got more coming up. Stay with us.

Commercial Narrator

This heat isn't letting up and if your windows and doors aren't performing, your home is feeling it. Now's the time to replace your home old, worn out windows and doors during the Renewal by Andersen Summer Sizzler event. For a limited time, enjoy. Buy one, get one 40% off plus $50 off each window and door with a minimum of four and buy now and pay later with our special financing. Stay cool with these summer Savings by visiting renewalbyandersonhome.com today and get your project started. Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start. Thumbtack knows homes, so you don't have to don't know the difference between matte paint, finish and satin or what that clunking sound from your dryer is. With thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro, you just have to hire one. You can hire top rated pros, see price estimates and read reviews all on the app. Download today.

Mathnasium Advertiser

Parents, have you heard your kids say I'm not a math kid? Well, with Mathnasium, every kid can be a math kid. They customize their math instruction so kids who are struggling are able to catch up and get ahead. And advanced kids are challenged to reach higher. Mathnasium makes math fun, so kids learn to love it. Parents say that Mathnasium has not only improved their kids grades, it's given them a new level of confidence in math and in school overall. Visit mathnasium.com to find a location near you.

Barack Obama

My fellow Mayor, United States.

Michelle Norris

I want to do a speed route. Okay, I want to pepper you with a few questions that will allow us to go inside the museum itself. Okay, I've heard that you've tested every chair in the building.

Barack Obama

I'm not sure I've tested every chair, but I've tested a lot of them.

Michelle Norris

I just have this image of you running around sitting in all the chairs.

Barack Obama

You know what? I'm a big believer in stuff being comfortable because so much of the stuff inside is beautifully designed and meticulous and all this my attitude was yeah, but if a young mom with three kids that she's been dragging around through this museum, and her feet hurt, and she now is sitting down. Is it comfortable? No matter how pretty it is? Is she getting a break?

Michelle Norris

Were any of the chairs replaced?

Barack Obama

Yes.

Michelle Norris

Oh, really? Okay.

Barack Obama

I'm not gonna say who, but there were a couple where I was all like, you know, this looks great until you sit in it.

Michelle Norris

Okay.

Barack Obama

Yeah.

Michelle Norris

Is there a hidden jewel in the museum, almost like an Easter egg that you worry people will miss? Something that you're really proud of, but you're afraid that people will miss?

Barack Obama

This is actually not a hidden jewel. It is, but people may miss it. There is an entire room, a display that we're calling Democracy 101, that is away from some of the flashier. Kind of in a corner office. It's in a corner, and it just gives people sort of a primer on the Constitution and the First Amendment, and I'm really proud of that. I'm hoping people go through that, because I think I worked pretty closely with the exhibit designers in creating a space where a layperson who's not studying this stuff all the time can just kind of go in and get a sense of.

Michelle Norris

All right.

Barack Obama

I have a pretty good idea about what all these arguments are about, and I'm hoping that especially kids, but adults as well, take that in, because I think it's done really well.

Michelle Norris

Now that you said it, I think people are actually going to look for it. There is a restaurant on site named for Tafari Campbell.

Barack Obama

Yes.

Michelle Norris

Wonderful.

Barack Obama

Who you knew?

Michelle Norris

Yes, I knew and miss him dearly. Wonderful person who was your personal chef for many years. Man, could he cook.

Barack Obama

He could.

Michelle Norris

I mean, he was the best. He was special. And there is a restaurant that serves wonderful food. What is your favorite dish at Tafari's kitchen?

Barack Obama

I have to say it's actually the chili. I can't give Tafari credit for this one because this is based on my own chili recipe, so I may be a little bit biased.

Michelle Norris

People like wa.

Barack Obama

Well, not anymore, but there was a time, and it's pretty good chili.

Michelle Norris

Really?

Barack Obama

With some cornbread with it.

Michelle Norris

Okay. All right.

Barack Obama

I give it two thumbs up.

Michelle Norris

Okay. What kind of beans do you use?

Barack Obama

You know what? You're gonna. I'm gonna let you go ahead.

Michelle Obama

Okay.

Michelle Norris

You have to try it.

Barack Obama

Traditionally, I'm a kidney bean guy, but check it out, see what you think.

Michelle Norris

I will do that. Critics have called the Affordable Care Act Obamacare, and it was meant to be a sort of derisive name. And you embrace it. Yeah, I did that. So they're calling this the main building, the Obamaless. Will you embrace that, too?

Barack Obama

That's fine. I think that what I'm interested in is seeing how people respond when they visit. I appreciate architecture enough to know that it'll be 20 years before we have a sense of how the architecture fits into people's imaginations and whether it lasts or not. But what you can know right away is that people enjoy being there, right? And if, as it seems so far, they do. If people feel excited by the space and inspired by the space and it's usable and it's fun and kids are in the playground and folks who are going through the museum are absorbing good energy and feel like, you know what, maybe I can go out there and do something too. And they get to the Sky Room and they look around and see a panorama of Chicago and their own neighborhood that they've never seen before. And community groups are having meetings there, and folks are using a recording studio to film their own podcasts or make their own videos. And kids are sitting in that public library and reading and excited about reading. If all that stuff's happening, then we will have achieved what we're trying to achieve.

Michelle Norris

We've got more coming up. Stay with us. After you make your way through the museum, after you've marinated in the story of our nation's founding contradiction, the struggle for an inclusive multiracial democracy, and the ongoing fight to keep it, the museum brings you here to this contemplative space. The graphics, the muted colors, it's a Zen like environment. I mean, it's so calming, where visitors are encouraged to take a breath, take a beat, maybe even take a seat, and then place their own name inside America's ongoing story.

Michelle Obama

We imagine that we are each a dot that can be added to this collective. And so you see how we are all dots coming together to make change.

Michelle Norris

The space is designed for participation. Visitors become part of this interactive artwork by Jules Julian, who creates floating landscapes made up of dots. Thousands of dots, all individually drawn. They float along the wall and then come together to form little vignettes of everyday American life. A group of runners, two women from different generations. Trees and clouds floating by hands, coming together into that same shape that inspired the very shape of this building. And some of these dots actually come from you as you imagine your impact and then make a commitment to turn ideas into action.

Michelle Obama

You can then make your own kind

Michelle Norris

of pledge by adding your name and

Michelle Obama

it transfers to the mural so you

Michelle Norris

can see your name, Wendy, we see here, and their Name. Make him appear, Channing. And you can add your own name

Michelle Obama

and then see it here appear. But the idea is you've become a part of this collective.

Michelle Norris

But again, you've taken in so much information throughout the museum, and this is a moment that's really ambient and engaging and inspiring and contemplative.

Michelle Obama

Very contemplative.

Michelle Norris

Type in your name and then watch it pop up on screen next to a brand new dot. You can then watch your very own dot float along and then join the rest. It's a symbolic representation of what it means to participate in a democracy, that progress is not promised, but must be won through collective action, pushing forward, rising together. In that sense, this part of the museum is a full circle moment, reaching back to the farewell address that President Obama delivered just up the road from here when he made a final request of the nation he led for eight years. I'm asking you to believe not in

Barack Obama

my ability to bring about change, but in yours.

Michelle Norris

You've been through the campus many times. What's the exhibit that still gets you every single time?

Barack Obama

I've talked about this. Right outside the Oval Office, we have a display of a sampling of the 10 letters that I used to receive every. Every night. I think we got something like 40,000 pieces of correspondence every day, every day for eight years while I was in the White House. And we had an entire letter correspondence office just responding to the public's letters. And that Office would select 10 representative letters for me to read each day. They'd put in my folder at the top of my briefing book. And I'd usually save those for after I was finished with reading all the stuff I had to read. And I initiated that as a way of staying in touch with people, especially early on when we were going through so many difficulties, decisions. And so there's a display that has a sampling of those letters. But the exhibition team made this wonderful short video, this vignette of a few of those letters. And whenever I watch those, because it's mother talking about, you know, Mr. President, I'm struggling. And it's a vet, you know, who's still trying to find his path after he's no longer serving. And people are really raw on their emotions in some of these letters, partly because they don't expect the President's actually going to read it. It's almost like a meditation for them, a way of getting stuff off their chest. And so whenever I watch that, I get kind of.

Michelle Norris

Yeah, I can see that.

Barack Obama

Yeah, I get choked up.

Michelle Norris

You're getting a little.

Barack Obama

Yeah, so choked up. Now, if there's one exhibit that people should take the time right after the Oval Office, which everybody will go to, just so they can take a picture of the apples and everything else that might be in there.

Michelle Norris

Sit in your chair.

Barack Obama

Sit in the chair. Just come around on the side and there'll be those letters and there'll be a video that's looping. And take the time to watch that, because I think that as much as anything, captures what I always hoped the spirit of my presidency was, and the

Michelle Norris

spirit of your presidency was.

Barack Obama

A sense of generosity towards each other, a sense of that everybody counts and everybody matters. And that when we act on that basic presumption, when we extend grace to each other, when we're willing to fight for that idea without sacrificing. A recognition of the humanity of those that we're fighting against, if we can manage that, even if it's messy and not always perfect, then I think this country does well and the world does better.

Michelle Norris

More coming up after this break. Thank you all for joining us tonight for HOPE comes home inside the Obama Presidential Center.

Michelle Obama

And I want to leave you tonight

Michelle Norris

with one final thought. The speech that wraps around the building you see behind me is from President Obama's you are America speech, the one he delivered at the 50th anniversary of the march across the bridge in selma back in 2015. And in those remarks, he focused on one word, the word that in his view is the most important in the Constitution. He was talking about the word we, we, the people. We shall overcome. Yes, we can. A word that ideally should stand as an invitation to everyone. You are America, unconstrained by habit and

Barack Obama

convention, unencumbered by what is. Because you're ready to seize what ought to be. For everywhere in this country, there are first steps to be taken. There is a new ground to cover. There are more bridges to be crossed. And it is you, the young and fearless at heart, the most diverse and educated educated generation in our history, who the nation is waiting to follow. Because Selma shows us that America is

Michelle Norris

not the project of any one person.

Barack Obama

Because the single most powerful word in

Michelle Obama

our democracy is the word we.

Michelle Norris

We the people. We shall overcome.

Commercial Narrator

Yes, we can.

Michelle Obama

That word is owned by no one. It belongs to everyone.

Barack Obama

Oh, what a, what a glorious task

Michelle Norris

we are given to continually try to

Barack Obama

improve this great nation of ours.

Michelle Norris

This great nation of ours. This great nation of ours. This great nation of ours.

Zepbound Advertiser

Snoring, gasping during sleep, feeling fatigued. Ask your doctor about zepbound tirzepatide the first and only FDA approved prescription medicine for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea in adults with obesity. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea and obesity to improve their OSA. Zetbound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5 or 15mg injection. Zepbound contains Tirzepatide and should not be used with other Tirzepatide containing products or any GLP1 receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if Zepbound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pins or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia Syndrome Type 2. Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop Zepbound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia. If you're nursing pregnant, plan to be or taking birth control pills. Taking Zepbound with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor, call 1-800-545-5979 or visit zepbound.lilly.com.