Things got a little ugly at SXSW London Michelle Obama’s session address.
The former first lady spoke with her brother, Craig Robinson, in a live recording of their podcast, IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson. The year-old podcast usually includes a guest, but Obama began the session by announcing that they would “flip the script” and interview each other without a guest.
The conversation was filled with sibling banter, of course, as Obama teased her older brother about being a “money brother” and getting married, drawing laughter from the audience. It also included moments of poignant honesty, such as when Robinson said his little sister “had been this person since she was three or four years old.” They discussed how their mother’s death made them think about the time they had left and what they wanted to do with it.
The conversation mostly centered on the Obama and Robinson’s professional journeys and the decisions that would shape their careers, from their parents to relationships and the crucial life lessons they learned along the way. Recently joining the podcasting business, Obama, the best-selling memoir author become“It’s that brave thing, isn’t it? The feeling of, ‘Well, I think we can do it, because we’ve done all these other things,'” he told the audience. Courage makes you try anything at any age. And I think, for me, I just got used to saying, “Okay, we’ll do this.” I live in the White House! First Lady, this wasn’t my plan! But I think it’s staying brave and curious and open and vulnerable and willing to share,” she declared, as the audience applauded.
“I’ve never met a white man,” she added about not being afraid of a career change after politics [who] “He talks about imposter syndrome.”
Robinson thanked their podcast team before praising his sister. “It’s a really great feeling, and every time we get together, it’s like a reunion. This has really been a hub that’s been a lot of fun, and it’s really nice to hang out with my little sister,” she said, with the audience “awesome.” “And the most amazing thing is that I know how you guys look at it… People get so emotional [around Obama]And I’m like, “She?”
Obama, who has been married to former US President Barack Obama for more than 30 years, continued: “This may be the last chapter of my professional life. I am 62 years old. We could be grandparents! But we are not.” She told a touching story about her mother, Marianne, who died in 2024, and her care at the end of her life. “Even with her laid-back, stoic way of doing things, I would sit with her on the couch watching TV and we’d just come back from a doctor’s appointment, [we] “I didn’t get great news,” Obama said, “and we were watching.” Judge Judy“Wow, that was fast,” she said. I said: What are you talking about, mom? She said: Life.
“We’ve been out of the White House for 10 years, and I swear it’s worked out that way,” she added. “girlie [Malia and Sasha Obama] He will be 28 and 25 this year. So in the next chapter I want to be aware of this, so it doesn’t slip away. I want to be clear about how I spend my time, and how much of it I give to others [and] What you choose to do. How it makes me feel. The choices I make now will be for me, not for my husband, not for my children, not for the country, not for the world, because that is what it is. And at some point, it’s important for our generation to get out of the way and be willing to get out of the way so that the next generation can really sit in these seats.
Robinson joked that he was recently told that he only had 19 summers left in his life. “That’s a lot of summer!” Obama said. “But if I could give you any advice,” her brother said, “it would be: ‘Don’t fall asleep at that third trimester. “Embrace the third act.”
Obama agreed, and said that her most important advice to young people is to enjoy the process. “Learn how to enjoy the process, whatever process you are doing, because that is where you develop skills… [Getting to] The White House, it takes time. It took a level of persistence. There was a lot of backlash. Were you ready for this? Was Barack ready for this? Well, all the other things we do, it leads to getting ready for the thing you don’t even know you’re going to do.
Early in the session, the siblings began reflecting on their childhood growing up in a working-class neighborhood in Chicago, and the experiences that led them down divergent career paths. When she joined a corporate law firm after her time at Harvard Law School, Obama admitted, she discovered: “Oh my God, I don’t like the law. Thanks to all the lawyers, no doubt, but this just wasn’t for me.”
Robinson, a former professional basketball player and coach, credited his parents – Fraser and Marian Robinson – for encouraging him to go to Manchester, England, to play for the Manchester Giants in the British Basketball League. “It wasn’t that scary for me, because as I got further into the sport and got better, the dream was, ‘Oh, well, maybe I can play professionally,’ so I wanted to try that,” he said. “It’s a tribute to my parents that they never held us back because of their fear. So, as scared as my mother was, they both said, ‘Okay, go do it, it’s time to do it.'”
Obama interjected, saying: “I have to take a moment, just a moment.” [to] I pay tribute to our parents. “They were uniquely gifted at getting us to do things they wouldn’t do themselves,” Obama added, “and we’re parents now, and you know the hardest thing in the world is letting your kids experience more things.”
Obama continued that their parents “didn’t feel like our lives were theirs to run,” and that the laissez-faire approach to parenting allowed their children to learn about life on their own terms, whether it was “situations with unfair teachers, or fights with friends. This is very different from the way people do things today. Everyone is trying to regulate their children’s experiences.” [these days]”.
Later in life, it would help Obama navigate her way through a major “deviation” in her career when she realized she no longer wanted to work in law. Her feelings were exacerbated by the death of her father in 1991, as well as the sudden death of one of her friends from cancer. “If I were to die tomorrow, is this where I would want to be?” I remembered thinking. “On the 47th floor of a company — I could see the neighborhood I came from from my fancy office, but I wasn’t connected to it… And I also met Barack Obama at that time, who was the master of deflection, because he did the opposite of everything he was supposed to do.”
It was then that she learned some of the living advice Obama used to give her daughters: “Get used to living smaller than you need to, so you can do the things you want to do when you have it. Living small, financially, allows you to stay free of the golden shackles.”
SXSW London 2026 takes place from June 1-6.
