- - On 'Call Her Daddy,' Michelle Obama empathizes with her online trolls

Anna Kaufman, USA TODAYJanuary 22, 2026 at 4:14 AM

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Michelle Obama is making her pivot to podcast-hood complete.

If the former first lady had not yet cemented her spot in the audio-sphere with the launch of her own podcast "IMO," alongside brother Craig Robinson, her appearance on "Call Her Daddy" should do the trick. Hosted by Alex Cooper, the show, once more focused on sex and now leaning into a fireside chat format, is high atop the streaming strata.

Obama's visit comes on the heels of the release of her third book, "The Look," which chronicles her fashion choices over the years – and the nation's endless appetite for critique of her appearance. Her discussion with Cooper was wide-ranging, touching on female friendship, objectification in the workplace and online trolls.

Michelle Obama speaks during Higher Ground's "IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson" podcast during 2025 Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival on Aug. 9, 2025.

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Wearing a Meredith Koop original design, based on an iconic look from her college years, Obama sported a crisp button-down, under a red knit vest. She paired the multi-layered top with true blue jeans in a '70s style cut.

An ever-sought-after public speaker, Obama did not hold her tongue, lamenting the pressure young girls face to look perfect and the way society socializes them to tear one another down.

"It would hurt more coming from a woman because it's like 'wow, you know what we're going through,'" Obama said of criticism she faced in the public eye. "But, here's what helps me ... in order to keep myself sane in the midst of this on all levels, I just try to wonder what's going on in the mind of the person who can go there.

"We're set up to feel badly about ourselves and then to turn against ourselves and then to turn on each other," she explained. "I try to humanize my victimizer."

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As for being the friend that girls would be jealous of, she insisted that she took her pack of close friends with her as she rose to success. She also wasn't ever closed off to making new connections, a lesson she told Cooper she hopes to impart to her two daughters.

"You've got to be smart and selective about who you let in," she said, then added: "Don't be afraid to make friends, be open, stay open … We're all going up this mountain together."

"The value of cultivating friendships is important – it's as important as the degree that you got in college, it's as important as the job title and the salary or the dude you're trying to catch or the length of your veil on your wedding dress," the former first lady said. "All that stuff comes and goes."

Obama went on to commiserate with Cooper on the devaluing of women as they grow older, insisting that while your "skinny waist" may be fabulous in your twenties and thirties, you spend lots of time confused. This decade is her best yet, she said.

"That is the power that we have as women," she told Cooper. "We know we have to keep evolving. So we do. A lot of men don't, they don't."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: On 'Call Her Daddy,' Michelle Obama rejects perfectionism

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