Barack and Michelle Obama. Instagram/@michelleobama
Barack and Michelle Obama’s company, Higher Ground Productions, will be producing a Spotify podcast that sheds light on diverse Muslim experiences. The podcast titled Higher Ground: Tell Them, I Am, was announced during the Spotify Stream On event, which also saw an appearance from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex speaking about Archewell Audio.
Tell Them, I Am is set to launch on April 12, with a new episode being released every weekday during the month of Ramadan, and will be hosted by Pakistani-American writer and producer Mischa Euceph. Listeners can expect a collection of interviews with American Muslim activists, artists, performers, athletes, and actors. Although the series first launched in May 2019, this renewed version by the Obamas is sure to provide the show with its biggest audience. Previous guests on Tell Them, I Am include actor Ramy Youssef, novelist G Willow Wilson, and comedian Maz Jobrani.
Misha Euceph. Photo: Courtesy of Spotify
“The stories are universal and the guests are all Muslim,” shared Euceph during the Stream On event. “The ultimate goal is for people to feel something for them and to fall in love with the people that they are listening to without ever thinking about who they are and what they look like.”
In addition to hosting the podcast, Euceph is an executive producer on Tell Them, I Am, as well as an executive producer on the former US president’s podcast with Bruce Springsteen titled Renegades: Born in the USA and the former first lady’s podcast titled The Michelle Obama Podcast. Obama’s and Springsteen’s podcast talks about masculinity, race, fatherhood, and their professional and personal journeys. The podcast is an eight-episode series, and the first two episodes are already available to stream on Spotify. In contrast, the latter features the former first lady diving into hard-hitting conversations with loved ones, colleagues, and friends.
In addition to these, Spotify also announced a string of other podcasts. American filmmaker Ava DuVernay will focus on George Floyd’s death at the hands of a US police officer in May 2020 in a yet-to-be-titled investigative series. Each episode will focus on different aspects of the case and its societal repercussions. Similarly, Spotify has also partnered with Warner Bros and DC comics on a podcast about superheroes and villains.
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