Michelle Obama will sit down with Alex Cooper on the Call Her Daddy podcast Wednesday, Jan. 21, and a newly released teaser shows the former first lady confronting decades of scrutiny over her appearance rather than her résumé.
At a Glance
- Obama, 62, says media coverage of her began with what she was wearing, not her Princeton and Harvard degrees
- She warns women in power: “Let’s not become female versions of the thing that was broken”
- Repeats 2025 quote that America is “not ready” for a woman president
- Why it matters: The episode drops as voters debate gender and electability ahead of the next presidential cycle
From Princeton to First Lady-Reduced to Shoes
Cooper, 31, opened the Jan. 20 teaser by quoting Obama’s own November 2025 podcast: “It is the habit of the culture of the world to put women in their place by attacking their physical being.”
Obama agreed, recalling that 2008 campaign coverage focused on her wardrobe.
“The top of the article would be she was wearing, not my education, not my professional career, but it started with appearance,” she told Cooper.
Key credentials ignored:
- Princeton University undergraduate degree
- Harvard Law School J.D.
- Assistant to the mayor of Chicago
- Nonprofit executive
“It was clear that, oh, my God, you don’t know anything about what I did before I came here,” Obama said.
Message to the Next Generation
Obama urged rising female leaders to reject mimicry of broken systems.
“When you get the power, when you’re the boss, when you’re running your own thing, let’s just not become female versions of the thing that was broken,” she said. “Are you building the world that you told your little girl existed?”
Directly addressing young women, she added: “We need you and know that you may come up short, but keep going.”
Presidential Run? “Don’t Even Look at Me”
Cooper then quoted Obama’s earlier dismissal of White House ambitions.
“You said, ‘Don’t even look at me about running because you all are lying. You’re not ready for a woman, you’re not,’ ” Cooper said.
Obama doubled down.
“There are men out there that were not gonna vote for a woman,” she said. “Let’s just be real about it, and let’s put that on the table and talk about, well, what’s that about? Let’s not be mad because I made the statement.”
The full interview streams Wednesday on Call Her Daddy.
