The School of Greatness
Michelle Obama Opens Up: Her Struggle To Feel Like She's “Enough,” Mental Health in the White House & Lessons from Childhood w/ Craig Robinson
05 May 2025
Chapter 1: What childhood experiences shaped Michelle and Craig's values?
Chapter 2: How did Michelle navigate the pressures of the White House?
And I'm like, oh, come on, man. So I was able to go back and report that the Robinson basketball is... Well, we got married, so obviously... It worked out, yeah, yeah. Now, here's the thing.
If he wasn't... I'm just saying, if it hadn't worked out, I might not have kept dating. Really? You know, I don't know. If your brother would have said something about, you know, his character was really nasty, like he was really mean, he'd get in fights. They wouldn't have gotten married. Really?
I would have addressed it. I would have, I would have had the conversation. It's like, sorry, I hear you were kind of a jerk on the court. What's that about? Right. Why would you do that? Or, you know, I mean, I would have had a discussion and then I probably would have been looking for other signs. He didn't show it.
He, you know, he, his, the outcome of that pickup game was consistent with what I was seeing. That's good. Right. His behavior matches words. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.
Um, so it's, and, and it's continued to be that way. I mean, Barack is who he appears to be, you know, you know, and he shows up well, he's somebody you want on your team. And that was, that was important to know in a, as a, as a, as a woman who grew up in sports culture, right. That's important. You know, that's a value that I hold dear.
That's something that's something I respect, not just in my male friendships, but in all my friendships. Are you who you say you are? Do you show up well? Do you are you a team player? So, yeah, that's beautiful.
That's beautiful. Great story. I love that. But growing up, you know, you guys, I think I heard you say in your podcast, which is an amazing show. I want people to go download it and watch it. But you're talking about you grew up in a one bedroom apartment together, essentially with like a living room as your guys' bedroom up until you went to high school. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
So you shared a room for like 10, 12 years together. Oh, yeah.
We shared a room our whole time growing up. Wow. Until I went to high school. And then we turned the back porch into a bedroom. Yeah. You know, finished it off and enclosed it and insulated it. And that became my kitchen, my bed, my bedroom. But I would say our entire apartment was as big as this area right here. And that was the kitchen. And in the kitchen had a table. So it wasn't a dining room.
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Chapter 3: What lessons did their parents teach about confidence?
So he didn't start out as the coach, but we signed her up for rec basketball. And it's at some local YMCA in Chevy Chase. And of course, we're going to the games because... It's basketball. Of course, you have to go. And it's my baby.
He's got one, then maybe we'll do it, right? So we're all going to the games. And also on the team was Maisie Biden, Joe Biden, the then vice president's granddaughter. The Biden girls and our girls grew up together forever. Friends, so imagine that rec league on any given Sunday because we all went, right? President, the vice president, first, second lady. Two details.
No, like eight details because all the clubs had details. They got their own bodyguards also. ambulance, helicopters, SWAT people all over the gym, right? It's like a little middle school gym, like, yeah, two rafters, like nothing, yeah. And of course, they're all still yet in basketball, maybe. And I'm just like, Joe, you gotta lighten up, yo. You know, Barack, sit down, sit down.
But it was a parent coach league and the two parents of the Vipers weren't professional coaches and they really didn't know basketball. And it was very evident by game number two as Barack would just start sliding down to the coach's bench and just say, you know, have her block that one and get them to tie their shoes. So he was sort of side coaching. And at the time, his aide was Reggie Love.
Reggie Love was a division one guy. That was his body guy. So it's he and Reggie. And they come out of the games really critiquing what wasn't going right. They weren't running plays. There were no practices. So they started making these side giving side advice to these two parent coaches. Oh, my gosh. So how do you, you know, well, what do you do with that?
With the president, do some coaching advice. Eventually. Do a little whistle as a coach.
You know, he starts offering to run practice for the Vipers. So they come to like one of the downtown gyms in the Department of Agriculture or the interior or whatever. So they take over a gym. Every week, they're coaching the Vipers. They teach them two plays. One was box and one was something else. Not the triangle offense. Not the triangle offense.
These little girls weren't even tying their shoes.
Just tuck your shirt in.
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